Tag: magazines

Realms of Fantasy snatched from the jaws of extinction

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Can it be true?  Realms of Fantasy, recently announced as deceased, has apparently been purchased by another company, Tir Na Nog Press, this according to SFScope.com and this announcement.  According to the article, editors should be kept in place and rates for stories should also remain consistent.

Rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated.
Rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated.

Whenever I see news this good miraculously appear online, I fear it is a hoax.  This seems legit.  The deal apparently went down today and the news is already everywhere.  This means we will NOT be losing one of the classic professional speculative magazines.  Hoorah.

Now a confession.  I have never read a copy of Realms of Fantasy.  I had a subscription to F&SF and before that, Analog, but I don’t think I have so much as been in the same room with an issue of Realms.  A single consumer can only do so much.  I will look for this new May issue (expected next issue, missing only one) in bookstores near me so I can show my support.  I have also never submitted there as their guidelines always made it clear that they weren’t looking for new writers.

So is the resurrection of Realms a coup for the genre?  Absolutely.  Will it affect me personally?  Sure.  There will be more markets buying stories, increasing my chances (infinitessimally) of professional publication.  I don’t have to print in Realms to reap this benefit.  Every time Realms buys a great story, it’s one I don’t have to compete against in another mag.  A selfish view?  Absolutely.  Nevertheless, I’m glad it’s back.

-Oso

What I Discovered in My Own Bookcase

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 6 Comments

Once my Clarion applications were submitted (maybe a little before), I started hunting books and stories by the instructors for both workshops.  Some of that is covered in my earlier post, Treasures from the Book Cellar.  I bought a collection of John Kessel’s early stuff, Meetings at Infinity, Rudy Rucker’s Software, Kim Stanley Robinson’s first two Mars books, an audiobook of Robert Crais’s The Forgotten Man…  Most of it was used (sorry for not supplying a royalty) so I could still afford to eat those weeks.  Only later did I start sifting through the few short story collections I already own.

John Kessel is everywhere.  I am embarrassed to say I had never paid much attention to his name before writing my application.  He’s in the Year’s Best book I have, he’s in Paragons, he’s in my Best Time Travel Science Fiction of the 20th Century (I think…I don’t remember; I’ll double check when I get home and edit here if I blew it).  I had four or five of his stories just lying around the house.  Still, I’m glad I got his collection.

UPDATE: Yes, Kessel has a story in the time travel book, “The Pure Product”.

I’ve had trouble finding a few authors.  I’m trying to find them on my own instead of hunting them through their websites or Wikipedia entries (though I cheated with Kessel).  I finally stumbled across an Elizabeth Bear story in Strange Horizons’ fiction archives.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll get to it this week.  I haven’t found Nalo Hopkinson yet.  I’ll hunt her work more aggressively if I get accepted to CW.

The Clarion (east) crowd has been tougher to find.  I saw the movie based on Holly Black’s and Robert Crais’ work (The Spiderwick Chronicles and Hostage) respectively.  I have verified that my school library has some of Black’s books and I’ll read some if I end up going to San Diego.  (My reading time is getting stretched thin trying to keep up with both!)  Park, Hand, and Lai just don’t seem to cross paths where I am looking.  Again, acceptance to east will get me hunting more aggressively.

I am also trying to keep up with other writers often associated with Clarion.  Knight and Wilhelm are the most obvious pair.  I read Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed a couple years ago, mostly from its recommendation in Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.

So my reading is keeping me busy.  I am also working on my females-as-warriors story (tentatively titled “Kree” until I get a better feel for its theme) and checking the web fifty times a day for evidence of Clarion acceptances.  I think it may be time to switch to decaf.

-Oso

New look, same old Oso

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just updated my look, adding a small but pleasant list of SF markets including links to home pages and to submission guidelines.  I’ve started with some zines I know and love; some have printed my stuff, others have wasted trees on the rejections they send me.  I plan to add to this list periodically.  Use these links as much as you like.  For a more thorough listing of markets, try the Duotrope link.

The Tough Part

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I always find it difficult to move on once I finish a story.  I get a big “now what” hanging over me.  Do I go back to an old, incomplete project or press on to a new story.  I refuse to start any new novels until I get one or more finished.  But short stories can be started on a whim.

So what to do?  I have a story, “Thinking Out Loud”, that never sold despite being a very good story.  Looking back, I find that I didn’t really build a protagonist the reader would care about.  It occurred to me to rewrite the story from a different point of view.  It’s a completely different story that way.  I may try toggling back and forth between the old POV and the new one, which turns out to be jumping between an army general and an inmate/test subject.  I think it will be a massive rewrite and am a little overwhelmed by the thought of it.  I keep putting it off.  It might be a good project for Clarion (cross fingers).

As for new projects, I have a few things I’ve brainstormed.  One story about a future society where the females are the warriors.  Lots of ideas as to why the women must fight, who they fight against, and what internal struggles the protag goes through.  I need to develop the characters a bit more, but it’s got steam behind it.  I have another that is basically a superhero-working-for-the-government story that lost all momentum.  I’m not sure I’m ready to pick that one back up.  And of course there’s my young adult SF novel (set on a sub-light colony ship), my military clone novel (probably my strongest idea), my SF comedy novel (hung up on the first major event), my YA fantasy novel (first thing I ever wrote; complete but needs a major rewrite), and my Fultus stories that need to be expanded to novella or novel length.  Whew.  

I may look through my unfinished works and see what grabs me, be it something here or something else.  We’ll see.  I think I agonize more over what to work on than over what to type.  I’ve been in a short story mood with my focus on Clarion, but who knows.  I’ll be sure to post when I make up my mind.  

I think part of my problem with moving on is the pain of waiting to hear the fate of stories in market slush piles.  “Brother Goo” is still in the mail to Cricket.  “Glow Baby” is working its way through editors at Strange Horizons.  “Leech Run” is in the slush at Baen’s Bar, fighting for an opportunity to slip into the Jim Baen’s Universe that way (past critical eyes of readers and editors alike).  I can’t remember ever having three stories in the wind at once.  Chilling.  But I have to keep working.  That’s what a real writer would do.

-Oso

Sent out two

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I went ahead and sent “Brother Goo” to Cricket today.  Duotrope suggests it will be 3-6 months before I hear back.  I’ll miss that story while it’s gone.  If it gets rejected, I’ll have to strongly consider a rewrite.  I haven’t posted my full version (submitted slimmed down version) to Critters for review, but I will.  There seems to be no rush.

I also posted “Leech Run” to the slush mesage board at Jim Baen’s Universe.  It’s a neat idea, posting stories to a password protected page (so there is no technical publication…same as Critters does) to get comments from readers.  Editors also peek at the stories, requesting rtf files from stories they find particularly promising.  I’m running it through the “Introducing” bracket, basically contending with other writers that haven’t breached pro level markets.  If you are a Baen’s Bar member, you can give it a read and post some comments, especially if they are helpful comments.

At any rate, I’m keeping my top-end stuff out there.  Even a blind fisherman gets a nibble or two, right?

-Oso

Story for Young Readers

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

In a response to an open plea from a youth-oriented SF magazine’s editor, I wrote a story about a boy and the alien that possessed his brother.  Not the most original of ideas, but it was for kids.  As I wrote, new twists on old ideas came to me and found their way to the page.  Now I have two problems.

First, the story is too long for the market that inspired it.  The market caps at 2000 words and this story is just over 2300.  I could probably cut a few hundred words if I wanted to, but I’m pretty sure it would weaken the story.  After all, it’s not the plot that’s special, it’s the relationship between the brothers (even though one of them is not technically there).

Then there’s the other problem: I think this story is too good to start with this particular market.  This market offers only token payment and will have minimal exposure value.  I like the market and the people who run it, but I am trying to establish myself as a professional.

I may try the story in some non-genre youth-oriented publications, maybe Boys’ Life or Cricket.  I need to look up their guidelines first.  I may also try Black Gate (though I think they may be closed to submissions right now) or some other zines that insist their demographic begins with preteens.  It might prove a futile endeavor, but it would be a shame to sell a story for pennies when it might have been worth something.

I’ll probably drop it in the Critters queue while I wait for responses.  I’m having some trouble with the title: “Brother Goo or Why I Threw My Brother in the Ocean” is what I have right now.  Old school “or” format.  Unfortunately I feel like the first sounds like mucus and the second gives away too much.  I may just try “Brother Goo” and see how it is received.  Look at that, I made a decision right here in the middle of my blog and you were here to witness it.  Momentous.

-Oso

UPDATE: I checked out some of those guidelines.  Boys’ Life has a 1500-word limit.  Cricket‘s is 2000.  I went back through the story and trimmed it down to 1990 (the last cut I made was a full paragraph).  I probably could have left a little more in there.  I’ll reread the cut version in a few days, after it’s filtered out of my memory some, then maybe send it to Cricket.  It could still make the rounds of the standard genre magazines, but Analog won’t be likely to touch it.  I’ll probably stick to semi-pro markets outside the youth-oriented zines.  Time will tell how it all works out.

Treasures from the Book Cellar

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I had a noon dentist appointment last week, so I took the whole day off from school. It left me with a lot of spare time that morning, something my two-year-old strives to eliminate from my days. But she was at the sitter this morning and I went out for some breakfast and to visit the local used bookstore.

The used bookstore is the only bookstore in the “city” I work in. There is a Books-A-Million in the next little city, about half an hour away and just as close to my house. I am a bibliophile (mild case, not life threatening) and can’t resist wondering among the orderly shelves and tables of a proper bookstore, doing much more looking than buying.

Then there’s the used bookstore. Tens of thousands of books on mish-mashed shelves, crammed together in only the vaguest resemblance of alphabetical order, sectioned wherever there was space for the category. It’s beautiful. This trip I wound up purchasing five books and four magazines, spending under fifteen bucks. No too shabby.

Primarily I was looking for books and stories from the instructors at this year’s Clarion and Clarion West, also keeping an eye out for other names of note. I stumbled across (the only way to find anything there) Kim Stanley Robinson’s Green Mars in trade paperback for two dollars. That’s right, two. It was in very good shape, after all, I was looking for stuff to read, not display. Alas, I had not yet read Red Mars and didn’t want to try to absorb things out of order. But Robinson is teaching in San Diego (Clarion west’s new home — no more Michigan) so I held on to it. I’m glad I did since I found Red mars in standard paperback in another group of shelves, $3.50.

Among the hardcover SF books I found an old library copy of Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Not renowned as his finest work, but I have heard the title pop up on occasion. Three quarters was all they asked for it. I just hope I can read it, the pages are brittle and falling out. If not, well I’m out the cost of a really bad cup of coffee. Heinlein is obviously not teaching any workshops this year, but he’s still Heinlein.

The most intriguing find was a book entitled Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision, copyrighted the year of my birth. It starts with a brief history of the genre in literature and a little from other mediums. Then it’s an overview of 1977 science, starting with the scientific method and touching on biology, astrophysics, etc. Next it looks into various areas sci-fi likes to visit that might not be quite so scientific: utopias, imaginary worlds, and the like. Finally it comments on ten representative novels. I have not read any more than the table of contents, but I am very curious about what the Oxford University Press had to say about these things over thirty years ago. I nothing else, there are story ideas hiding in these pages begging to be discovered.

The last book was one I actually sought out. My space opera story, “Leech Run,” just received honorable mention from Writers of the Future. A nice enough showing, but I wondered what winning stories looked like. So I sought out some WotF collections and found the book from 2005. I am currently reading one of the stories that won a quarter; I’m not terribly impressed yet. Maybe it has a strong ending.

My magazine purchases weren’t all that exciting. I sifted through a pile to find some recent issues of Analog, Asimov’s, and F&SF. It didn’t even occur to me to seek Clarion authors, but I still wound up with a story co-written by Rudy Rucker in an Asimov’s. I also lucked into a copy of Isaac Asimov’s classic story, “Nightfall” in an anniversary edition of the magazine he founded. It was a good haul on magazines I would love to be in but haven’t read in several years.

It is worth noting the overwhelming dominance of Star Trek novels at this store. Two full bookcases. I know some of them are well written, but I have no clue which ones. I am a fan of most of the different series, especially TNG, but I have never read a Trek novel. I may grab one next time if I can get an idea of a good one, but I’m a little weary at the thought of reading a book in such a thoroughly explored universe. I already know the characters for seven seasons and several movies. I just can’t get excited about reading stuff I am already full of.

This has not been a review of any of these books, really no more than an announcement of my purchase and the processes that led me to them. It was a good haul. I’ll need to wait another few months to let the store’s inventory change before returning. Fortunately, I think I have enough to read while I wait.