The ToC and cover for Subterranean 6:

- "The Long Dead Day" by Joe R. Lansdale
- "Chartreuse Mansions: a Lucifer Jones Story" by Mike Resnick
- "Zero Summer" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- "Take Your Daughter to Work" by Livia Llewellyn
- "Finding Piper" by Cherie Priest
- "Limerent" by Elizabeth Bear
- "The Tenth Muse" by William Browning Spencer

That's one gorgeous cover, I have to say. Although I have to admit that while the line-up is fantastic (some of my favorite authors), it also makes me feel a little like a pretender. I'm the weakest link in the chain here. I still have a long ways to go before I'll be able to look at a list like this and think I'm in any way at the same level as everyone else. One good story does not a writer make.

I've been struggling with my annual ear and throat infection, the one I always get in that mysterious interim between summer and fall, when no one knows what to wear or if they should cover up or not. I've always called it "the fifth season", because it's not quite summer and not quite fall, yet this "non-season" seems to have a mind and purpose of its own. Ok, well, there's another story idea right there... At any rate, I'm heavily medicated and quite mellow, thank you very much. I'll get better in a couple of days.

Work on the revised version of the Brokeback erotica story is coming along very well - I'm starting to fall in love with it, which is a good thing. If I don't fully love my stories, then I know I'm doing something wrong. This version is right. I'm also in the thick of research of Tacoma in the late 1800's, in anticipation of writing Tacoma Steampunk novella #1 in a couple of weeks. Every now and then I panic that I don't know enough of the history of my own hometown, and then I have to remind myself that I'm writing fiction, and science fiction at that, and steampunk science fiction with a bit of Lovecraft thrown in to boot, and therefore it's OK to not get the facts perfect. That's kind of the whole point, isn't it? Although, I still have visions of people like my mother and father - both lifelong residents of Tacoma - picking over my various historical inaccuracies with horrified disgust. To say nothing of Seattlites: because in my version of events, Seattle will become Tacoma's bitch. But I say that with looooove. Honestly. ;D

Back to bed.

Labels: erotica, tacoma steampunk

I've been having a bit of a problem with the "brokeback erotica" story. I finished it, but it sucked. I'd done all the research, I poured over the vocabulary and the rodeo sites, I read up on my history of the American West. But when I wrote the story, it was crap. I could tell when I picked it up yesterday to read - crappity crap crap, the whole damn thing. All the research is just slapped on over the story, and anyone who read it would be able to tell that the author knew nothing about cowboys. Nevermind that it's erotica, and the purpose of erotica is - well, you know. You still have to have some air of authenticity in the world and the characters, no matter how hot and heavy the sex scenes are.

So last night I decided to tear it apart and do something a bit different. First, I threw away all the research. I mean, if I were to walk into some little Western town, I'd be able to figure out who was and wasn't a cowboy without an encyclopedia, right? And if I wanted to screw a cowboy, I wouldn't need to do "research", right? (ye gods, I hope not....) So I put my character in the exact same position that I would be in, because for this story that's the only place of "authority" I can speak from - that of an outsider looking into a foreign culture. Then I changed the POV and tense to something a bit more radical: it's now present tense and second person. I did this primarily to shake myself into thinking differently about the story - I might not keep it, as I know how many readers loathe present tense and go apeshit over second person. But it's forcing me to write the story differently. I can't use the same old tricks when I'm writing in a POV that removes me a bit from the character and situation.

And then, I did something very strange: instead of rewriting the story in chronological order, I decided to chop it up and present it in a series of scenes that are in reverse chronological order. In other words, the "first" scene of the story is actually the ending, the second scene is the second-to-last moment in the "real time" life of the characters, etc. - all the way to the very last scene presented, which is the "first" scene for the protagonist. It's exactly how Harold Pinter wrote "Betrayal", if you're at all familiar with the play. There are eight scenes in the story, parallel to the eight seconds a rider must stay on the bucking horse (or bull) in order to score in rodeo competition. That I'm using this specific event time to frame the story should give you a clue as to what the story is about (I'm talking about the emotional journey of the protagonist, though - not the sex). I think the reverse chronology is a nice way of letting the reader see the events that the protagonist goes through in a different light - they'll already know the ending of her journey, so the things she says and does without the knowledge that we the readers already have of her will take on an extra dimension of meaning. Hindsight is 20/20, but it's also bittersweet.

All of this playing with style is helping me to write a better story - however, it may ultimately make it unmarketable for the anthology. That's the drawback. I don't know if my style will fit the style of the other stories, and if it doesn't, mine is out. But I think I've done the right thing with all the radical changes. My story may not make the cut for this market, but at least it won't be like anyone else's. I'm sure it'll find a place, someday.

Labels: erotica

I've finished the "Brokeback erotica" cowboy story. God knows if I've done what the editor's looking for. I'm not sending it out right away - I want to hold onto it for a while and polish. It's not due till November 15th, so there's still time to obsess over it.

Next up, through the end of the year:

* the outline for the first novel I'll be writing next year, tentatively titled "The Cemetery Queen"
* the outline for the steampunk novella trilogy, for which there is no series title yet
* novella #1 of the steampunk trilogy (20,000 words max.) - again, no title
* a very short dark fantasy story for another anthology (3,500 max.)
* a 4,000 word max. erotica story for an online market (probably fishnetmag.com)

I guarantee it will take me longer to write the short stories than the novella. But I want to keep pushing myself to write stories, at least one a month. I think it's good to keep writing in a form that I'm not entirely comfortable with, because it forces me to pay more attention to language and grammar. It's like going to the gym: I wouldn't call it fun, but it's probably good for me. :)

Labels: erotica, tacoma steampunk, upcoming

It seems that my distress over working on potentially unmarketable novellas might have been a bit premature. I won't go into the specific details - I can't - but suffice to say, all may not be lost.

Once I finish the cowboy story and send it off, I'll start working on the detailed outline of the steampunk novel, as I'd intended. However, I'll also start working on the outlines for three stand-alone steampunk novellas, set in my old hometown of Tacoma a couple of years before the start of the Klondike gold rush (which started in 1897). I plan on writing the first novella by sometime in mid-January 07. What happens after that is... I can't say. I'm not holding my breath. Then again, that's almost beside the point. I'm very excited about all of these projects - for the first time since starting Clarion, I'm excited about writing again. That's pretty important, to say the least.

And, if for some reason all of this is for naught, then I think what I'll do is post the first novella on this website. Posting on a personal blog or website, contrary to popular belief, does not constitute publishing, so it won't jeopardize the future of the novella or the trilogy as a whole. And if reading the first novella piques someone's (as in publisher or agent) interest enough to want to see more, then that's good. At least people will be able to read something I've written - besides a bunch of angsty writing posts, that is. :)

Labels: tacoma steampunk

Last night I ripped apart my steampunk novelette, and worked a few of the characters and story elements into a synopsis for a novel. And the verdict is: I'm pleased with the result, enough that I've decided that this project, not my novellas, will be the next thing I work on. It's going to be set in the sprawling cemetery district of my Lovecraftian mining metropolis known as "New Y'ha-nthlei", aka the more pronounceable "Obsidia". Main characters will be a newly-orphaned (or so she believes!) young girl sold into slavery, a fiesty Cthulhuian cephalopod who learns how to pilot the abandoned steam engine robot body of the girl's mother (!), and a twisted, centuries-old caretaker/witch who is feared by both the living and the dead, and who often goes by the title "The Cemetery Queen". That's also the title of the novel.

I know, I know: there's an appalling lack of males in this storyline. Well, that will be rectified in the next stand-alone novel in this series, which will all take place in various districts of Obsidia. Or so I've very tentatively decided. All I know for sure is the above plot, that this will be a stand-alone novel of no more than 100,000, and will probably not be YA. I'd love for it to be YA, but my character's potty mouths always seem to do me in. ::sigh:: They're just like me. :)

Labels: lovecraftian, steampunk

I'm finally sending out "The Four Hundred Thousand" today. I've been hanging onto it for close to two weeks now, obsessing over single words and punctuation marks. It's ridiculous, but I always seem to do this. The thing with the submission process is that you have to accept a complete lack of control over your manuscript once it goes into the mail box: you can't control if it gets there, you can't control whether it's read or not, you can't control how your words are interpreted, you can't control whether or not you're accepted or rejected. So I think my over-obsessing over the comma in sentence five on page 27 is my last-ditch effort to exert control over something that's pretty much out of my hands once I stuff it in the envelope. Well, it's time to let go.

I've been a bit depressed over my upcoming projects. All these novellas, I've come to realize, are going to be completely unmarketable. I still want to write them, but it's frustrating to know that there's really no place for me to submit them to. There are, from what research I've done, no professional-paying markets for novellas, and very few non-pro markets. Most novella markets that are open are for erotica, by e-publishers who don't pay advances and only pay minimal royalties. No. Not going to do that. So I have to decide in the next couple of weeks if it really is worth my time to work on projects that won't have any value to me in the near future, or if I should start working on another novel. It's just, I don't feel quite ready to start a novel again - the thought of working on a 120,000 word project that no one might want is even more depressing than the thought of working on a 30,000 word project that no one wants.

I think I'm entering the "suck" stage of my "Joe Blow Neopro" status... go me!

::headdesk::

Good news from the submission front. That's all I can say for now. That, and: YAY!

EDIT: Got the go-ahead to post: "Jetsam", the surreal story about taking out the trash - also known as "The Little Story That Got Trunked a Bajillion Times" - has been sold to Issue 4 of Sybil's Garage, a speculative magazine that's been garnering some good reviews for its fiction. I thought "Jetsam" would be a good fit for this market, as they often publish more idiosyncratic and "experimental" genre fiction than many of the mainstream markets, and I was right. So: YAY!

First BSG Season Three starting tonight, and now this? It's a Damn Good Friday. :D

In the past couple of days, a number of people at various online places (livejournal, myspace, flickr) have asked to read my work - or told me they "look forward to reading my work". While on the one hand it's flattering, on the other hand it's frustrating. Clearly I can't just point to the Blue Moon anthology and say "buy it and read my novella", as most people assume that, like many other writers in this day and age, I'll also have something online that they can read for free (besides, many people aren't interested in erotica). So, whether one is a professional writer, a neopro, or a wannabe, it seems to be expected that one will have at least something online, so they can figure out if they like your writing or not - and so they can see for themselves if you really know how to write, or are just full of shit.

So I have a problem. I don't have anything online, and I'm very hesitant to start posting stories or "snippets" of work here. I know all the stories about how people were "discovered" online by posting chapters (Cherie Priest) or entire novels (John Scalzi) or even fan fiction (Cassie Claire). However, I've posted chapters and stories before (on livejournal), and the reaction has always been less than enthusiastic. I tend not to get "I love this!" but lengthy critiques about how my first paragraph utterly failed to prove that I can write, or that I've plagiarized some other writer, or that only wannabes post their own work online. Clearly, I'm not writing at the level of the authors I listed, so I guess the answer then would be to not post anything at all. Anything less than brilliance simply doesn't cut it when it comes to posting free fiction on your own blog.

But then I'm back to the first problem - that no one knows what my writing style is like, or if I can even write. If anyone read "Brimstone Orange" when it was on ChiZine, or if they read the erotic novella, I don't know about it. I've never come across any post or comment online saying "Oh, I read her story and I loved/hated it". I don't have that much writing out there to begin with, and what's out there might as well not exist. It's very frustrating, because I'm beginning to think that I come across online not as a neopro, but as a wannabe, and an invisible one at that. In my opinion, the implication behind all these requests is, "if you're a real writer, then I should easily be able to read your work - but I can't, so I can't take your claims of professionalism very seriously".

Then again, I supposed people could be telling me they want to read my work only to be polite, and they really don't give a shit at all. In which case, I guess I'm off the hook....