Writing in These Times // Creative Processes // Free Stories

Nov 01, 2020 1:33 am

Hello from London,

Hi also to new subscribers who arrived during the past seven days. Thanks for joining and I hope you find wordy things that you enjoy here. I encourage you to reach out and let me know what you think of the various stories you've seen.

I don't know whether it's the same for you, but the past few days (and the next couple of days) are going to be creatively difficult.

It's the elections. I'm not even American and yet this year seems to be such a pivotal year, in which one of two very stark directions is chosen, and it's consuming so many clock cycles in my brain that there's very little left for anything else. When I turn to my keyboard and try to write something, my creative engine sputters and dies because the fuel was spent on the news cycle.

In truth, the US elections, the Brexit referendum, terrorism in France and the coronavirus are all examples of things that have this effect on me, and this year seems particularly good at sucking all the creative oxygen out of the room.

Coronavirus-driven confinement is looming once again in the UK, and has already been announced on much of the continent, so I guess we'll all have lots of time to reflect on the outcome in the coming weeks, and perhaps not enough opportunity to go outdoors and burn off some of this nervous energy.

I hope you're all well and the pandemic/election/terrorism isn't impacting you directly.

Onwards...

Creative Processes

I submitted a short story to a magazine about 70 days ago. This particular magazine typically takes 30 days to reply.

If you're an author, you'll know the sense of expectation this creates. The obsessive checking over at the submission grinder, even though the information there isn't going to change.

Science fiction and fantasy magazines pay very little for short stories, and are impossibly hard to sell to, so it's the worst, and most ego-destroying market of all to aim for. On the other hand, there are advantages: It provides a strong showcase for your talents, there's a certain prestige to being published, publication is an eligibility criteria for the SFWA, and from a personal standpoint, it's very exciting to see your story in print, especially when the decision to print belonged to someone else.

An overdue turnaround time implies that the story has not been dismissed out-of-hand. It had enough going for it that the editorial team decided more than one person ought to read it before it was dropped in the trash. That's pretty positive, and in truth, if it was rejected today, I'd still feel like I was getting close to the kind of material they are looking for. Still, the waiting has a cost.

I have a small (maybe not that small) collection of rejection messages from various publications that I've gathered over the last couple of years. I know, given the submissions statistics, that the odds of having this story accepted, even now, are pretty slim. I'm still excited enough at the possibility of having it published that it's preying on my mind...

... and, unfortunately, getting in the way of my concentration on other creative endeavors.

Cross your fingers for me...

A Couple of Freebies

I have two authors to spotlight for you this week.

The Paradox Journals Prequel by K.D.Mack

Blaine - A CEO searching for an elusive dream, bringing in a talented team, sets the wheels in motion for an impossible, far-reaching adventure.

Amy - An MI6 agent assigned to a mission wrapped in so much secrecy she doesn't even know what or who the target is, but is confronted with a life-changing decision.

Elliot - A brainiac researcher, who once believed that his PhD would lay the world at his feet, is learning about the reality of the frustratingly slow-moving wheels of university grant approvals and funding. Hungry to prove his controversial theories, he stumbles into an incredibly unreal opportunity that might give him exactly what he needs.

Find out how their fates become intertwined in this prequel to ‘The Paradox Journals,’ A Best Selling Time Travel Series.

Download 'The Paradox Journals Prequel'

Heinous Crimes by Claudius Contuer

Before his fight with the Everard brothers, before the time of Bartholomew Wrath's crimes and the coming of the river Acheron, Lynden Starstrider was a man at his peak. A bounty hunter of quite some repute, he was gaining more and more fame as he solved cases from all around Talmoria. This is one of those cases.

Download 'Heinous Crimes' for Free

That's all for this week - as always, don't hesitate to reach out by replying to this email.