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dr_pretentiousBlack Gate just accepted the novella I spun off from the opening of the Stisele novel. And it's kind of funny how that happened.
"The War of the Wheat Berry Year," a very short story that was the first thing I wrote from Stisele's point of view, was my first-ever professional fiction sale. Once I revised it to John O'Neill's specifications (a long process I enjoyed and learned a great deal from), he asked if I had anything else he might look at. I sent him two pieces, the shorter of which wasn't a good fit for Black Gate. I thought he was turning down both of them, so I started shopping them both around to other markets while I picked over the massive trunk manuscript of the Big Book, looking for chapters I might tailor for Black Gate without too much tweaking.
But then Drollerie Press picked up the Rugosa Coven series, so I put the epic fantasy stuff aside, and only poked at any of it from time to time to keep the finished pieces circulating.
A year later, "The Imlen Bastard" had accumulated something like half a dozen rejection letters, all of the same type: We really liked this, but it's a problematic length for us right now. If you write something short, we'd love to see it. Yeah, I get that a lot. I get that so often, people tend to tell me it'll be impossible to sell things. Closing Arguments was supposed to be impossible, at 37,000 words, and Atlantis Cranks was supposed to be impossible at 25,000. Various people had looked at "The Imlen Bastard" and told me it would never sell at 17,000 words, but by then I'd already sold longer novellas than that, so I didn't give up.
Yet this isn't a story of heroic perseverance, because the magazine that bought "The Imlen Bastard" turns out to be the first one I ever sent it to. Apparently John O'Neill had never intended to reject both of those pieces, just the shorter one. "The Imlen Bastard" sat in his to-be-read-real-soon pile of novel excerpts for a year, and the moment he got a chance to look at it, he accepted it with only a few line-edits. The acceptance arrived while I was watching the calendar, waiting for the next open reading period at another magazine to start so I could send the manuscript out again.
So hooray for all those rejections, because the whole time, I thought Black Gate was the right home for the piece. It won't be the largest check I've ever received for a story, and the issue the story's slated to appear in is sometime in 2011, but that's okay. Stisele will be following up her debut with the right audience.
"The War of the Wheat Berry Year," a very short story that was the first thing I wrote from Stisele's point of view, was my first-ever professional fiction sale. Once I revised it to John O'Neill's specifications (a long process I enjoyed and learned a great deal from), he asked if I had anything else he might look at. I sent him two pieces, the shorter of which wasn't a good fit for Black Gate. I thought he was turning down both of them, so I started shopping them both around to other markets while I picked over the massive trunk manuscript of the Big Book, looking for chapters I might tailor for Black Gate without too much tweaking.
But then Drollerie Press picked up the Rugosa Coven series, so I put the epic fantasy stuff aside, and only poked at any of it from time to time to keep the finished pieces circulating.
A year later, "The Imlen Bastard" had accumulated something like half a dozen rejection letters, all of the same type: We really liked this, but it's a problematic length for us right now. If you write something short, we'd love to see it. Yeah, I get that a lot. I get that so often, people tend to tell me it'll be impossible to sell things. Closing Arguments was supposed to be impossible, at 37,000 words, and Atlantis Cranks was supposed to be impossible at 25,000. Various people had looked at "The Imlen Bastard" and told me it would never sell at 17,000 words, but by then I'd already sold longer novellas than that, so I didn't give up.
Yet this isn't a story of heroic perseverance, because the magazine that bought "The Imlen Bastard" turns out to be the first one I ever sent it to. Apparently John O'Neill had never intended to reject both of those pieces, just the shorter one. "The Imlen Bastard" sat in his to-be-read-real-soon pile of novel excerpts for a year, and the moment he got a chance to look at it, he accepted it with only a few line-edits. The acceptance arrived while I was watching the calendar, waiting for the next open reading period at another magazine to start so I could send the manuscript out again.
So hooray for all those rejections, because the whole time, I thought Black Gate was the right home for the piece. It won't be the largest check I've ever received for a story, and the issue the story's slated to appear in is sometime in 2011, but that's okay. Stisele will be following up her debut with the right audience.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 08:50 am (UTC)But man, a year waiting for them to get around to reading something -- that'd drive me nuts. At least you de facto didn't have to operate under a "no simultaneous submissions" policy.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 01:38 pm (UTC)1. A list of what's out there already, electronic or otherwise, that I can purchase to read. (I have Closing Arguments, but that's all.)
2. A list of anything not "out there" yet that you're letting friends read. Happy to provide feedback, etc. (Also happy to proofread if you want that, I spot nearly everything.)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 03:18 pm (UTC)So Stisele is a person? Where can I find War of the Wheat Berry Year to read? 2011 is a long time to wait for a piece of Avery fiction, but worth it if I have to!
Yay!!!!
Yawhoo!
Date: 2009-03-31 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-31 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 04:05 am (UTC)All my accumulated years of slushpile waiting have, in fact, driven me nuts. Here I am, nuttier than the average chocolate bar at this very moment. Inasmuch as there's any remedy, I think it's to have as many different pieces as possible under consideration at different markets. That makes the nuttiness manageable. Even so, I think I'm a walking allergy hazard for children under age 3.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 04:09 am (UTC)Whenever it comes out, I'll be releasing a free podcast of the story at the same time. Depending on how that goes, I may propose to the editor that I do a serialized podcast of the novella, too.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 04:49 am (UTC)A.
Closing Arguments (which you have), e-book, various formats, various online booksellers
B.
Atlantis Cranks Need Not Apply (just became available today! finally!), e-book, at Drollerie Press's website (Fictionwise, Mobipocket, and Amazon have received it from DP, but it will take them a few days to a few weeks to put it up for sale on their sites)
C.
"How the Grail Came to the Fisher King" (which you've read), free podcast, available from e-zine Membra Disjecta
D.
Persephone in Washington (http://www.gregglory.com/books/index.html?pg=Persephone%20in%20Washington_list.html#main_content-top), a sonnet sequence, readable free at Blast Press's website. I still have a bunch of chapbooks of this sonnet sequence lying around in my study, if you want it in a paper edition. The cover art is...Gregg meant well, and he's a good guy. Anyhow, the typesetting's okay.
2.
A.
Spires of Beltresa
The trunk manuscript that takes up the whole steamer trunk all by itself. Sprawling epic fantasy/family saga. Several years ago, I gave you hard copy of the first draft of the first section, but it is much improved since then. This ms will keep you busy for a week, at least.
B.
The untitled second volume in the series that begins with Spires of Beltresa, about 2/3 completed reasonably readable 1st working draft, no major gaps in story until precipitous ending-that's-not-an-ending. This one would keep you busy for most of a week. Longer if you savor it with the knowledge that I can't turn my attention to finishing this manuscript until the first volume sells, which may not be for a Very Long Time.
C.
"The Enemy in Snowmelt Season"
A short story spun off from the Stisele novel. Same universe as Spires of Beltresa, but 200 years earlier. This piece has been getting some very complimentary rejection letters. I have some ideas about where to send it next.
D.
A Reflection Folded Around That Shape
The volume of poetry I once imagined would help me land a tenured professorial gig. Got splendid rejection letters, including one from Wesleyan University Press that called it "excellent and certainly worthy of publication." Yeah, thanks, I'm really psyched about that, except for the part about your six-year backlog of accepted manuscripts. I got sick of the fact that the only way first volumes of poetry get published is through university presses' first book competitions, which they finance by charging reading fees. The competitions are legit, but one gets tired of writing all those checks, and then one realizes academia is a cult and leaves it to get a life. The poems are good, though. They were, as that Wesleyan editor observed, excellent and certainly worthy of publication. Includes the Persephone sonnets.
Then there are things still in process and not yet ready for beta readers, and things finished and sold and in pipeline with magazines.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-01 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-02 04:17 am (UTC)http://www.gregglory.com/books/index.html?pg=Persephone%20in%20Washington_list.html#main_content-top
Anything immediately-obviously-wrong with that?
no subject
Date: 2009-04-02 05:15 am (UTC)The good news is, if you look at the list to the right on that screen, you can find a link to the Persephone sonnets that does work.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-02 05:38 am (UTC)