Taking stock

I must admit, I'm not doing too shabby with the fiction writing. I just realized that, for the first time in my life, I have signed contracts and two stories pending at pro rates - "Great White Ship" with Daily Science Fiction and "The Centurion and the Rainman" with Buzzymag. "Ship" also counts as a pro sale; although Buzzy pays a pro rate, as a new mag they're not an SFWA qualifying publication yet. And Chris Garcia has "The Quantum Gunman" - the story I banged out in the foyer on my portable typewriter while at FenCon - which he plans to publish in Drink Tank 300.

I've also had eight stories published this year, to wit:

* "Black Hats and Blackberrys" - Bewildering Stories, March 2011
* "Irredenta" - World SF Blog, March 15, 2011
* "Meet Me at the Grassy Knoll" - 4 Star Stories, Spring 2011
* "Hopscotch and Hottentots" - Shadowgate, April 2011
* "Ghost Writer" - Flashes in the Dark, June 16, 2011
* "Mak Siccar" - 4 Star Stories, Summer 2011
* "The Goddess of Bleecker Street" - Kalkion, July 2011
* "Re-opening Night" - 4 Star Stories - Sept. 2011

I have seven stories in various slush piles, so there's possibilities there, also.

Renovation

I think I'm going to take the promotional blog I originally created up after I sold my collection "Fantastic Texas" - which has lain dormant for two and a half years - and renovate it into a blog on the subject of my fiction in general. "Fantastic Texas" is still just as good a title as any for a blog about my fiction. It will be a good place to also tout my upcoming publications.

Nanowrimo?

I'm wondering whether I should try Nanowrimo this year and spend November trying to write that great novel. And wouldn't it be cool to do it on a typewriter? Did I even get that right? Nanowrimo? Ah, heck...

OCR solution

Although I love using my Smith Corona typewriter, there is a practical problem in using it to write a story, since there are so few fiction venues that still take hard copy submissions. But I recently stumbled across a simple fix - OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. I am going to try it. I recently ordered and got in the mail a new ribbon, so my pages should clean and readable.

False starts and fragments

I took a little time over the weekend and went through a folder in keep on my computer called "Works in Progress". This is where I have stashed stories or fragments over the years when I can't keep going or I am unhappy with the outcome.

I thought it might be helpful if I cut and pasted all these false starts and fragments into one file where I could more easily read and compare them. For example, I have two separate false starts for two stories, called "Desarrollo Separado" and "Sympathy for Salieri". In the case of "Desarollo", seeing them together gave me an idea how I might cobble together a story from the two parts. There's at least one complete story in there, called "Osteopithicus" that I finished but wasn' t happy with and never subbed.

These stories or fragments are in addition to stories which I did finish and DID sub which I have laid aside for further work after getting feedback from editors by way of rejections.

Anyway, the new file, which I labeled "False Starts", come to 44,000 words, so I definitely think there is some material to be mined there.

Beware the spam filter!

I think we've all heard cautionary tales about how careful spam filter monitoring is important to authors, with all the submissions and correspondence that we do through email, but I received another reminder Wednesday.

I always check my spam email box, and I'm glad I did, because my acceptance from Daily Science Fiction landed there.

This doesn't happen very often, but back in 2004 I had the same thing happen when Andromeda Spaceways accepted "The Cast Iron Dybbuk". The acceptance sailed all the way through the ether from Australia to drop smack dab in my spam.

I think I have pretty good spam filter settings, but in both cases, the acceptances came from an email address that I had never received an email from before, and I had never sent an email to before. That makes sense - you send submissions to one email address, and you get rejects from the slush pile reader. The acceptance come from a different direction.

I suppose the spam filter regards an email address where there has hasn't been any communication before - either coming or going - as suspect.

This certainly highlights the fact you should NEVER set your email to delete spam unread!

Fast and professional

I read and approved and returned the contract from Daily Science Fiction tonight for "Great White Ship". I must admit, they seem to be very professional, I only received the acceptance yesterday. Also, the contract was one of the most clearly-written and concise I have ever seen. I have a good feeling about this, I'm glad they like the story.

They also asked for a short (250 words or less) bio and some author's comments, at the same length. I attached all that.

I also logged onto the SFWA web site tonight and uploaded a copy of the contract to show I made the sale. As my third sale at the pro rate, this should get me upgraded from Associate to Active status.

I wonder if I am the first person to get active status on the basis of a sale to Daily Science Fiction? They were just approved as a qualifying market a few weeks ago.