Watcha Writin'?

[Zkribbler]

What writing project is everyone working on?

I'm in the process of changing direction from short stories to back to novels, and so for me, this is a good time to takes stock

In my near-future/Xmas/crime story, I just finished going over my editor's suggested changes yesterday. It's too late to submit a Xmas story to a magazine, and so I'll be sending it to the Writers of the Future Contest.

My editor is just starting on my updated Oz story. She should be finished by the end of the week. It's destined for the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

I've been looking over my The Tourist parody. My Wisconsin math teacher solves the mystery using imaginary numbers. I understood them in high school, but no more. (Yes, I know they're based on the square root of negative one, but that's all.) However, what I've set out is sufficient for lay people, and so this story is going off to the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Now, back to my novels.

I've been planning for the second part of my high-fantasy trilogy, but I'm uninspired right now. so Instead...

I'm about 1/4 of the way of a cross-over parody between a high-fantasy Count of Monte Cristo and the economic crash of 2008. I'd stopped when Trump's antics eclipsed recent history, but there's enough distance now, so a story about the crash again works.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

After my computer woes, I'm going to concentrate on making sure I get all my writing onto a computer I can actually use, and make sure everything is saved in a safe place.

After that... I may need to redo some of the notes for some of the NaNoWriMo projects (can't find the originals after moving and hopefully my "helpers" didn't throw them out).

I've got enough plans for novelizing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks to keep me busy for years, if I only write for 3 months of the year when NaNoWriMo is going.

As for the rest of it... I've got Hulzein Saga fanfic that's been nagging to be worked on (it's also on the XP computer and needs retrieval) and there are other projects... the Handmaid's Tale/Sliders crossover, the Fuzzy Knights fanfic, and numerous others.

However, the most recent thing I wrote other than a few forum posts has been my latest grocery list. It doesn't have much of a plot.

 

[Zkribbler]

Wow, I just finished submitting my near-future/Xmas/crime story to Writers of the Future. It only took about an hour and a pluthera of profanity.

Time for lunch, then I'll submit my Tourist parody.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=

I've sent it and sent it and sent it but it won't go.

Meanwhile, my Oz story is back from my editor.

 

[Zkribbler]

I e-mailed my Oz story to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How long does it usually take to hear back?

 

[Zkribbler]

The auto response estimates four days.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Allegedly I'm trying to tie up the last chapter in a novelette before the year's out, which is somewhat ironic as what's basically a mid-plot bridge has taken two years whereas I cranked the original draft out in two-and-a-half months. Part of it's due to juggling other projects, but mostly it's lack of inspiration.

Which is a constant frustration, because this is the first real gauge of whether I can write something approaching print-publishable quality. The story is based on an unfinished epilogue to a forum game on this site, but ended up expanding into a fairly from-the-heart apologia of the democratic spirit versus conniving dictatorship. Throw in some supernatural forces, Eastern mysticism, and passing reference to Russians, and it's basically everything my inner cabal would expect from me—albeit to a much higher calibre than usual.

 

[Zkribbler]

Allegedly I'm trying to tie up the last chapter in a novelette before the year's out...l.

If and when you're ready, I have a wonderful editor in Texas. I'll be happy to send her contact information to you.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

I was about to say 'you flatter me too much', but that might actually be the only way I get a proper review of the thing: everyone I've asked has either fallen through or disappeared off the face of the Earth, and while the first draft won a friend's writing contest, he plum forgot to critique it.

 

[Zkribbler]

I e-mailed my Oz story to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Shot down. In their opinion, it started too slow. This is ironic because I was worried that it started too fast.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Shot down. In there opinion, it started too slow. This is ironic because I was worried that it started too fast.

Well, at least they gave you a reason, rather than just a form letter.

Can you rework the story and submit it again?

 

[Zkribbler]

Well, at least they gave you a reason, rather than just a form letter.

I m very impressed bt that. It happens rarely.

Can you rework the story and submit it again?

That's probably pushing it too far. They wished me good luck in placing it elsewhere & suggested I submit something else.
Right now, I have nothing else ready.

 

[Zkribbler]

My Oz story went off to The Atlantic today.

 

[Zkribbler]

For my novels, my target has always been to publish as a mass-market paperback. For that, I need a major publisher, and for that, I need a big-time literary agent. However, the chances that a query letter to an agent will result in representation is 0.5%. After a couple of years of trying, I'm giving up.

Instead, I'm thinking of self-publishing as an e-book. Kindle Scout looks interesting. I've sent an email to my editor to get her opinion, but have yet to hear back. Undoubted;y she's tied up with Christmas.
I expect to have a presentation ready for Kindle by Christmas.
I've chosen to start with my first novel: a high-fantasy, low-brow comedy.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yeah, it's much harder to find an agent nowadays - particularly one who's honest and will work hard to represent you and not just take your money or sell your information to vanity presses (a really scummy thing to do).

A friend of mine was relentless in his search for an agent. Of course his situation was a bit different at the time - he was living in London (UK) at the time, so finding an agent there who could get him into the North American market was a challenge. He's since moved back home to British Columbia and had a couple of books published, so hopefully things are working out better. I can attest to how hard he worked at this, as I was part of the team of people he put together to help out - I was the one who checked his spelling, grammar, and punctuation. We'd have chats at 3 am (my time; it was the middle of the day for him), discussing things like where to put the semicolons.

 

[Zkribbler]

I expect to have a presentation ready for Kindle by Christmas.

I've done 99.9%f he submission, but the publication agreement requires me to transfer the rights to the cover art to them. The cover art is in the public domain. I've sent them an email.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I keep getting distracted and making plot changes because of cool ideas I've had. My SF novel I've been "writing" for the past couple of years is now a tilogy of incomplete books and half-written chapters. First it had too many barely connected plot threads and I split in two with a ten years time skip in between, then I decided to expand on the backstory and started a prequel a couple of years before the original beginning.
The good news is that, if I ever finish the first part and get it published, the sequels will already be half-finished.

Then there's also this fantasy thing based in a region inspired by the Seleucid Empire with magic. It's low on fantasy stuff, similar to ASoIaF, and has no dragons or elves (those have all been done to death) but the way magic works and is inherited has a big impact on the society.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am at around 10K words of a 25K or more novella.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've written a few sentences of a Voyager fanfic. It's a crossover between Voyager and Bonanza (which Cartwright brother will win the hand of Seven of Nine? What of the other Cartwrights who never seem to find wives because they either die, go to prison, or leave town?).

Naturally it isn't meant to be serious. I can't seem to be able to write a serious Star Trek story to save my life.

 

[Zkribbler]

I'm still having trouble settling on what novel to write next. Now I'm looking at a modern-day private-eye story set here in the Philippines or a high-fantasy, R-rated thriller.