The February Report

February was busy. You've all read, I'm sure, of my 2677 edits for The Saints are Dead. Yes, most of them made the book better....but whoa. Just whoa. I wrote several new stories in February ("What Julie's Dad Doesn't Know" and "The North Lantern" being my favorites) and managed my Write 1 / Sub 1 goal of a story submitted a week.

Three stories "sold" in February: "Poe's Blender" to Death Rattle, "Upon Leaving the Candy Factory" to Bourbon Penn, and "The Ballad of Arkady and Nadia" to 100 Stories for Queensland. The latter was a "sale" sale, meaning no money flowed to the writer because it is a charity antho.

On to the Big Experiment...

Because I believe in full disclosure, I present:

Well...I won't be retiring any time soon, but a few things of note:

1. One of those Bottom Feeders sales was a gift. So I sold eleven legit copies for Kindle, plus one through Smashwords.
2. February's numbers represent the most copies of The Bottom Feeders I've sold since releasing the book last April. The trend is rising from seven last month. Short story collections don't traditionally do as well as novels (in any format), but I'm not complaining.
3. The Bottom Feeders had a crazy little bounce this weekend, selling five copies between Friday and Monday. Not big numbers for some of the Kindle people, but I can't explain the bump. I'll be watching this closely. After all, it is an experiment.
   

I hope to have We are the Monsters ready by the end of March. It's a novella (35K), and they are traditionally hard to place, after all. Jekyll and Hyde are welcome to live in one skin as long as they want, because I've decided I want one thing out of writing: to tell stories.* To do this, you have to have an audience who wants to listen. Anything which puts a barricade between me and an audience is bad form (did you hear that, Hyde?). In addition, I want my "craft" to be top form so the audience keeps listening (keep subbing to those fine markets, Jekyll).

*wait...I've sort of known that all along.

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update

Always a bridesmaid...

We had two forensics (speech and drama) meets this week, and my squad scored second at both.

2nd!

I'm happy, of course, but we could have won both. We lost by a mere 5 points on Saturday (163-158). Granted, there were 14 teams so 2nd is pretty good.

What does this have to do with writing? Not much, only to explain I didn't spend much time writing. I did manage to finish edits on "Lullaby" a 2,500 word fantasy piece which I sent, appropriately, to Fantasy for quick rejection. It has since joined the ranks of slush piles everywhere.

Maybe I can get something done tonight...maybe.

Happy writing, folks.

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update #write1sub1

A week of flash fiction. Whew.

I subbed "A Long Walk to Never" (a riff on Kurt Vonnegut's "A Long Walk to Forever") to Abyss & Apex. Yes, it's a piece of flash fiction.

My first acceptance for a Write 1 / Sub 1 piece came last week: "The Ballad of Arkady and Nadia" will appear in 100 Stories for Queensland. I don't generally sub to non-paying markets anymore*, but I always will for a good cause. I did land two more acceptances this week (funny how these things come in clumps and then nothing for a month or more). "Poe's Blender" (an extension of a Friday Flash I wrote long ago) sold to Death Rattle and "Upon Leaving the Candy Factory" (a weird little thing with candy-making zombies) sold to Bourbon Penn. Both stories were nearing the end of their "lives", so whew.

One final piece of flash news, and then I'm off...three stories of mine have made the cut for The Best of Every Day Fiction 3: "Billy Boy", "How to Burn a House", and "Faith". I'm quite honored to find a place in the volume (TOC mates include Gay Degani, Robert Swartwood, Milo James Fowler, and many more excellent writers). A big thanks to Jordan Lapp and Camille Gooderham Campbell and the rest of the team at EDF for their hard work and finding something in my little stories.

All right...(rolls up sleeves)...I have some editing to do. Happy writing.

*In genre fiction (horror, fantasy, science fiction), there is a quality gap between most non-paying venues and those which pay at least token or semi-pro rates. The markets become more competitive, too, and competition makes us all better (even though it is frustrating at times).

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update #write1sub1

Well, I managed to get a piece of flash out into the ether this week, a short little thing titled "Why Susie McTavish Believes in Angels". I'm not sure it works, but it gave me shivers when I wrote it. We shall see...

I'm doing okay on the writing side of things but falling behind on editing and revising. I will not send a story out before it's ready. So, I have three longish tales (3K or more) written and waiting for editing/revision and another flash story in the queue. I suppose I should hammer them into shape before writing another word.

Speaking of hammers, one features as an important prop in The House Eaters, my YA horror book (which adults should dig, too) which was released this week. How's that for a segue?

If you're interested in a signed copy, drop me a line (aaron.polson@gmail.com). I'm selling them at cover price + shipping, so no gouging here. Maybe I should offer a discount...(haha)

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update

If you're counting, this is number three. I'm going to stop counting because, well, I just am.

I've managed my fourth story in four weeks, this one an anti-war sci-fi number called "What to Pack When You're Bound for [a really big number I can't even remember.3]" to Clarkesworld. I'm currently 17 in the queue, so when I get my rejection tomorrow, it will head back into sub land post haste.

The really big number, if you'd like to know, corresponds with a planet astronomers think might have liquid water (a necessity for life as we know it). "They" are the enemy, however, and my dear protagonist is a "trigger".

My current WIP is "vexing" me greatly, and I'm about to "raise the stakes". (i.e., punch it in the mouth)

That is all.

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update #2

I know, it's the third weekend and this is update #2. So I'm a slacker.

Anyway, I managed to ship off my third Write 1 / Sub 1 entry this week, a flash story titled "The Fisherman's Son" to Cezanne's Carrot. I subbed another story, a rewritten flash piece, to 100 Stories for Queensland, but I'd written it last year, so no "working ahead" here.

I also received my first rejection for a Write 1 / Sub 1 story (one other piece is still "out there"). But, as the wheel turns, I did place a pseudo-Lovecraftian tale, "The Wings of Çatalhöyük" with the Gloaming Magazine. I guess that's one of those give/take sort of things.

Here's a little inspiration for "Wings" (you can click the link for the rest of the article):

The vulture frescos at Çatalhöyük may show excarnation practices. Bodies were exposed, as in Tibet or among the Jains, in open funeral houses, to the tearing beak of the griffin vulture which stripped the skeletons of soft tissue.

Now if that doesn't get you thinking about something weird...

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update

I subbed my second new story of 2011 earlier this week. "Delbert Kibbey's Mail Order Bride" seeks a good home. Will work for pennies a word.

And now...now I'm up to my proverbial eyeballs in half-finished manuscripts. Most started with characters and no real plot. I might have to declare a "mash up" and steal the characters, lock them in a room, and see who's left standing after a few thousand words.

I have learned something about myself: I need the plot before I can insert the characters. I know other writers work differently, but for me, no clear route to "the end"=half finished story.

WIP Wednesday Digs Itself Out

I'm "enjoying" my third consecutive snow day. I know, silly to complain--who wouldn't like a little time off, right?

Right.

One day is great. Two days can be fun. On the third day, especially when the temps are well below freezing and it hasn't snowed since Monday, I begin to ask: "When does my life return to normal?" I teach in a rural district, and snow tends to drift. Sure, county maintenance plows roads where possible, but then the wind comes through overnight, and...you get the idea.

To my gift horse: I'm trying not to look you in the mouth, 'kay?

I'm just about ready to send my second submission for Write 1/Sub 1. Just about. I'm working on my fourth story (allowing a little time for editing lag). I call this one, "Through the Tunnel":

“Can you tell me what happened before the spell?”

Dr. Ellingham always called trips into the Tunnel spells. Spell sounded like something from a children’s movie. Something a cartoon witch might do, or Harry Potter, or Merlin in Camelot. Joel frowned at the word. “I was just walking. I was walking and then I was in the tunnel.”

“Mmm-humm.” Dr. Ellingham scribbled on his yellow legal pad
.
“I’d just dumped my tray. I was walking. Then…then I was on the ground.” Joel’s eyes shifted down, away from the yellow legal pad. Dr. Ellingham was always scribbling, scribbling. Pages filled with doodles, probably. Doodles of crazy me, Joel, with witches casting spells as they fly around mounted on cartoon broomsticks and conjuring black things from their cauldrons. Black things from the tunnel.

“Joel? What are you thinking about?”

“What?”

“You shuddered just now. Shivered, like you were cold.”

How's the writing going in your world?

Attack of the Killer Blahs

I deleted the bitchy post. Sorry if you hunted for it...

I subbed my first write 1 / sub 1 entry: "The Good Daughter" (which, technically, is a piece of sci fi). Only 51 more to go...

I've received several rejections in the past few days and am growing tired of them.

A reader on Goodreads called The Bottom Feeders "mediocre horror stories" and gave it two stars. I wish the slam was more interesting.

How is your day?

2011: A Writing Odyssey

Don't forget the review contest...entries aren't due until the end of the month, but plan ahead, 'kay? Right now, the entrants have a 1 in 3 chance of winning. Make it harder for them.

Okay...on to my goals for 2011...

What I can do:

1. Always have at least one story in front of a pro paying market. Right now, I have two. I plan on adding another by the end of the week.

2. Sub one new story each week (Write 1/Sub 1). I plan to submit "The Good Daughter" this week.

3. Finish Borrowed Saints. I aborted the weekly updates last fall because I needed more time to edit. Will this happen? I don't know. But it is a goal.

4. Finish How We Die in a Hungry Town. I need to edit, edit, edit. I have a self-imposed deadline for this.

5. Write one review each month for Skull Salad. Minimum.



What I'd like to happen in 2011:

1. Sell at least one more story to a pro paying market. I need one more sale of 1,800 words or more to make "active" level for the HWA. I'd like that.

2. I'd like to sell a book. Right now, I have How We Die in a Hungry Town...hmmm...

Reading for the Bradbury Year #write1sub1

I'm calling my Write 1/Sub 1 year the Bradbury Year. It helps as a motivator to feel the great one's presence.

In addition to writing and submitting 52 stories next year (crazy much?), I want to read a collection of short fiction each month. Santa's helpers have suggested I might receive Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King for Christmas. That will be first in the queue. But then what?

I'm looking for single author collections but anthologies will do, too. I find I'm most motivated to write when I'm reading great work. Any horror, fantasy, or science fiction book is welcome.

What should I feed my brain?

Plot Wrangling & The Bradbury Year

I've struggled with my WIP. Some lines have jumped, fully formed, from my brain like Athena from the head of Zeus. Beautiful lines. Someone else's lines.

And then I sat back this weekend and wonder what the hell it was all about.

My plot needed a unifying theme, something to bring all the bits into line. I think I found it, but I'm not showing my hand. Yet. Let's just say there's something worse in town than the dead coming back to life. (Should I mention the dead are afraid of the "something worse"?)

I really want to finish this novella/novel/whatever-the-hell-it-is before the end of the year because...

I'm participating in Write 1/Sub 1 next year. (Thanks to Milo James Fowler and co.)

Here's the rationale:

1. I love short stories. I love writing them and I love reading them.

2. I love Ray Bradbury.

3. It's an opportunity to spend a year doing something I love and following in the "footsteps" of an author I respect.

How can I lose?

People preach that writers need to have a platform, a message, a central "thing". If I do, mine is the sheer love of storytelling. I believe in short fiction. I think it can save the world.