(I didn't post my blog yesterdayday because there wasn't any time to get on line after Anime Club. We watched my DVD, 'Summer Wars'. It was a hit 8-)
I've had a couple more rejections from Asimov's SF; in fact, all half-dozen stories and two poems were rejected. I know I'm being unrealistic, but still, these are good stories. I don't understand what the magazines are looking for.
'Stranger' is an alternate universe tale about meeting your other, darker, self. The two before that were with the same POV character, same setting, a human working for an alien, selling cross-dimensional goods out of Quan's Curious Goods and Found Treasures. It's a little bit like Callahan's, a little bit like that one Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits, episode with the guy wandering into the job he needs to do.
'Rumble' I'm still bummed about. It's a damn fine piece of space opera, which is where I thought Asimov's was; Analog is more hard SF... sigh.
I wrote a nasty little revenge tale and a fantasy story over the weekend, so I've been getting stuff done, just not getting the SF story, 'Captain Cee's Last Stand', finished. 'Pigheaded' is flash fiction and I'll probably put it up here (I've got a link to my Scribd stuff, which reminds me, I need to put 'Father-Daughter Breakfast Bit' up over there with the rest of my TotC), but as for 'Webfoot the Dragon', I'm going to see if I can find a market to try it on. Fantasy and SF maybe, or Strange Horizons.
But I really don't know. What do I even want to do next? I may finish 'Captain' or maybe I'll quit. I am really bummed today and quitting seems appropriate. I mean, why bother? Why write? I thought that I could tell good stories about interesting people who just don't happen to be real, they just share my head- in a good way, dongma? 8-P
But if I'm going to do this, I should at least try to make a consistent, honest effort, and also be honest with myself if I can't bring it off like I should. By way of example, the only thing I've ever had rejected from Tales of World War Z is a short, underdone, bit. I tend to write 'hit and run' bits, but this wasn't ready and I'm glad the editor turned it back... they liked 'Exit Interview' and I really hope they like 'Lifeboat Captains'!
Good people, over there, and I'm not just saying that because they read my stuff; I'm saying this coz they read my stuff and critique it, especially some good writers who's stuff I like, who've taken the time to encourage me. About ninety percent of the responses I've gotten about my stories have been on fb, friends reading notes I've posted privately, and people on ToWWZ, most of whom I don't know. To repeat, good people!
***
D is also for dinosaur; I folded an origami dinosaur to hold the gift card I'm giving my niece as her belated birthday gift. I didn't have an envelope, so I folded one out of a piece of printer paper, same as the paper dinosaur.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52452153/Father-Daughter-Breakfast-Bit-March-20th-2011
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52452153/Father-Daughter-Breakfast-Bit-March-20th-2011
I know this letter, very intimately. The days when you just want to chuck it all, delete everything you've ever done, relegate it to the dustbin of obscurity for good. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteWhat I appreciate most is the uplifting end, which to me is a testament to your ultimate character. You want to give in, give up, go home, and then you talk about the positive, the friends and people you don't know who lift you up and keep you going. I needed that, myself.