Tag Archives: Fae

Fae Submitted

Lanterns and MoonlightTen minutes ago I emailed the completed manuscript for Fae to Eileen at World Weaver Press!

 

It’s fantastic and I can not wait to share it with you.

What’s more, working with WWP has been incredible. We’re far from done yet, of course. Sending in the manuscript is only about the middle point of the project, but still… It feels like a great match, you know?

Now, I need to go start writing the proposal for the next anthology I want to do with with WWP. Because that is how I roll. Cross your fingers for me.

Goals for 2014

Each year, like so many other people, I see the changing of the calendar as the perfect time to look back over the past twelve months and set goals for the next ones. It’s super helpful to me and I look back at my goals over and over during the year, whenever I feel myself going off course… They help keep me focused on the things I want to do, motivated when depression decides to rear its ugly head, and give me things to celebrate when I achieve them. Also? Posting them publicly helps make me feel accountable to someone (that would be you lol) and serves as motivation for the thing that is my motivation. Whee!

Because these goals are so integral to my life, I set them in a lot of categories, not just writing. It seems like a lot, but it works for me.

Health

  • No drinking pop. Period.
  • Lose 20 lbs
  • Lower blood pressure (bonus points if I get to reduce my medication)
  • Run 5k

School

  • This degree is taking a ridonkulously long time. I need to finish another course toward completing it this year. Bonus points if I manage two, but it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that this is honestly more of a hobby than anything and it must not negatively effect my work.

Editing / Publishing

  • Complete Fae and promote the hell out of it.
  • Pursue other anthology ideas
    • I am really, really, really enjoying editing anthologies right now and I’d like to have at least one more under contract with a publisher by the end of 2014.
  • Increase promotion efforts for Metastasis
    • I need to come up with a way to set actual concrete goals for promotion. Not only for Fae and Metastasis, but everything I edit and/or publish. Oh hey!
  • Figure out a way to set concrete goals for promotion. Set concrete goals for promotion.
  • Hold a successful fundraiser for Niteblade
  • Produce a NaNoLJers anthology if interest exists
  • Publish and promote A is for Apocalypse
  • Solicit writers for B is for (haha not telling yet!) and begin that process
  • Continue to edit and publish Niteblade, keeping it something I can be very proud of.
  • Complete the edits on Grammy’s book

Writing

2014 is the year of the novel. It is because I say it is, damn it!

  • Complete the novel currently known as ‘Hollow’
    • By ‘complete’ I mean have that sucker ready to start querying agents about
  • Complete the first draft of at least two other novels
    • One of these may be one of my pen name projects
  • Self-publish the zombie poetry book and complete my other plans for it
  • Write 350 words a day, five days a week. So 1,750 words a week.
    • Yes. A week. It’s not huge, but I’ve got a lot of other stuff on this list, damn it! :-p
  • Bundle up and self-publish more of my reprints
  • Complete sekkrit collaborative project
  • Participate in NovPAD and/or April PAD
  • Anything with the word ‘NaNo’ in the title is optional
    • …except NaNoLJers. Set up prompts for odd-numbered Mondays

Reading

  • Read at least 50 books.
    • Have 25% be non-fiction

Misc

  • Create a publishing website (company name, etc. but only to publish my own projects.)
  • Participate in A Month of Letters
  • Do the Blogging from A to Z Challenge
  • Blog at least once a week
  • Shoot at least one roll of analog film per month
  • Finish the ship cross stitch I started *mumble* years ago
  • Complete the top of the quilt I’m doing in memory of my mother and post it on JoFigure
  • Attend at least two writing conventions

Looking forward, with these goals to help me define the trail, I am really looking forward to 2014. I hope it builds on the momentum that developed in 2013 and just keeps getting better.

ETA: Some goals under Misc.

So Many Things!

Lanterns and MoonlightI have so many things to talk about today. Some of them probably deserve a blog post of their own but I don’t want the people who subscribe to my blog (and if you don’t, you should, she says pointing to the little subscriber box to the right) to be totally inundated with stuff so ‘all the things’ are going to have to share one blog post. I’m sure they’ll manage it somehow.

Firstly, I have a new poem out today. My poem, Mary-Lee, was published this morning at Every Day Poets. It’s a short piece with a horror-y flavour which may be why EDP is using it to kick off October.

I also have news on the Fae front (as you may have guessed from the fairy picture dominating this blog post). We’ve been open to submissions for a month now, so it seemed a good time to give a quick update from the slush pile. My blog entry about what I’m seeing so far and what I’d like to see more of is up over at World Weaver Press’s blog –> Update from the Slush Pile: Fae Anthology. The short version is that I’m mostly looking for things I haven’t seen before, but really if you’re thinking about submitting to Fae pop over and read the whole blog post. It’s short and I think you’ll find it very helpful in making it onto my short list.

But wait! There’s more!CreepyFreebies - badge

This month I will be participating in Milo James Fowler‘s ‘Creepy Freebies’ event. Every Friday in October Milo and some of his friends will be giving away fun and freaky freebies. I’m not particularly sure how ‘creepy’ my freebies are, but they are free and they are awesome (even if I do say so myself LoL). This Friday it will be Milo, Erin Cole, Stoney M. Setzer and myself who will be giving away freebies.

I don’t want to totally give away what I’m giving away (heh!) but I will say that I’m hosting two giveaways. One is on behalf of Niteblade and the other is from me personally. I think they are both pretty awesome, so pop by again on Friday to learn all about them and pick up your freebies.

All The Things

Silver Pixie There are so many things going on around here right now. So. Many. It’s really an exciting time for me, but also stressful and anxiety-producing (isn’t that always the way?). Some of the things I get to share are these:

Submissions are open for Fae! After working on Metastasis I really needed a project that was a wee bit on the lighter side and I feel like this is it — plus it gave me the excuse to license lots of fairy pictures to use on my blog posts, and that is always a good thing. If you have an awesome modern fairy story I would very much like to read it. The details and submission guidelines are right here. Some subs are already trickling in and I’m going to start actually reading them tomorrow.

In other editor-y news, the latest issue of Niteblade is out, and it is fabulous. What’s more, because I love the cover so very much, this is going to be a blog entry with not one, but two pictures in it. So, yay!

Niteblade #25 (25! OMG!) is entitled Alice Underground after a fantastic poem by Brittany Warman. The cover and table of contents are here:

Niteblade #25 cover - Original art by Marge Simon, cover design by Jonathan ParrishLady Mary Speaks of Dreams by Sandi Leibowitz
With The Band by Carl Barker
Bitter Mnemosyne by Sara Norja
Jonesy by Evan Purcell
Alice Underground by Brittany Warman
Starry Night by David Luntz
Le Cirque by Jess Simms
the moon, so low by Dan Campbell
The Kiss of Legend by T.H. Lee
This man by Erik Amundsen
Empire of Ash by Cameron Johnston
Not Too Bold by Shira Lipkin

You can purchase your copy of our latest issue directly from the Niteblade Store, or Amazon (coming soon to Kobo). Each time you support Niteblade with a purchase or donation you make it a little more likely we’ll release our web version of the current issue to the general public to read for free so not only do you get to read a fantastic magazine (if I do say so myself) but you are also making it so other people can too. Win-win, right?

But wait, there’s more!

Quite a while ago Sein und Werden organized an experience with some exquisite corpses and I was pleased to participate. My specific contribution was:

The only blades were lush, verdant. She plunged her fingers down, through them, down like roots into the loam and brought up great handfuls of pungent-smelling darkness. Spread it over her breasts, like oil, while she undulated above, around. Particles spilled from between her fingers and pattered down around her.

Which is a group of sentences I’m ridiculously proud of. But, as much as I adore them all by themselves, they are so much more, well, exquisite, when you read them in context. Check out the “corpse” in its entirety here –> Come The Spring. It’s a  surreal and beautiful thing (I think perhaps, especially the fragment that comes directly before mine). Then, if you liked that you can also read Beetle and The Point of No Return which are two more exquisite corpses which were organized at the same time.

Fae

Autumn fairy sitting on a mushroomI adore fairy tales, but it occurred to me not so long ago, that a remarkably large number of fairy tales don’t actually have fairies in them. I want to bring more fairy stories, modern fairy stories, to the world and that goal is the heart of my latest anthology project: Fae.

Historically speaking fairies have been mischievous or malignant. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. In Fae, we want stories that honor that rich history but explore new and interesting takes on fairies as well. We want urban fairies and arctic fairies, steampunk fairies, time-traveling and digital fairies. We want stories that bridge traditional and modern styles and while we’re at it, we want stories about fairy-like creatures too. Bring us your sprites, your pixies, your seelies and unseelies, silkies, goblins or gnomes, brownies and imps. We want them all. We’re looking for lush settings, beautiful prose and complex characters.

This anthology will be published by World Weaver Press.

Rights and compensation: Payment: $10 and paperback copy of the anthology from World Weaver Press. We are looking for previously unpublished works in English. Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive right to publish in print and electronic format for six months after publication date, after which publisher retains nonexclusive right to continue to publish for life of the anthology.

About the anthologist: Rhonda Parrish is a master procrastinator and nap connoisseur but despite that she somehow manages a full professional life. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the forthcoming benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at http://rhondaparrish.com/archive

Open submission period: September 1 – November 30, 2013

Length: Under 7,500 words.

Submission method: Email story to fae [at] worldweaverpress[dot] com.

Simultaneous submissions = okay. Multiple submissions = no.

Please note, for this anthology I am looking for stories aimed at an adult audience. Not adult as in erotic, but adult as in not children.

Also, I prefer to receive stories as a .doc or .rtf attachment rather than in the body of your email, but I won’t turn away the latter so if you’ve already submitted, don’t panic. 🙂

Updates:

September 3, 2013 – Submissions are Open!
September 4, 2013 – Edited to add note requesting submissions be aimed at adults & specifying that I prefer stories as attachments rather than in the body of the email.
October 1, 2013 – Blog post “Update from the Slush Pile: Fae Anthology
November 12, 2013 – Blog post “Editor’s Update from the Slush Pile
December 1, 2013: Submissions are currently closed. I am reading through all the stories I received. I hope to have passed on or shortlisted all the stories submitted by December 14th and have a final table of contents to send to my publisher by December 21st. If you don’t hear from me before Christmas, please query.
January 2, 2014 – I have responded to all submissions. If you submitted and have not heard back from me, please query.
January 9, 2014 – Blog post “Fae Anthology Submission Stats
February 3, 2014 – Blog post “Fae Submitted
February 12, 2014 – Blog post “Fae Table of Contents