Tag Archives: update

Corvidae, Scarecrow

Corvidae & Scarecrow Update

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pcardYou know what the last couple months have taught me? Editing two anthologies which are meant to be companions for one another is not twice as much work as editing one anthology. It is exponentially more work.

Truly.

That’s not meant to imply that it’s been a chore, not even close. But it has been more difficult and time-consuming than I had anticipated. And that, right there, is the only excuse you’ll hear from me about why it’s taking me longer than usual to respond to submissions.

It is taking me longer than usual, and I apologize for that but I am working on it, I promise.

Acceptances for CORVIDAE have begun to trickle out. Only a few so far, but there are more to come so if you haven’t heard from me one way or the other, please don’t panic**. Also, if you’ve submitted to both CORVIDAE and SCARECROW, you may have to wait a little longer than those who only submitted to one or the other because I often prefer to respond to both submissions at the same time. I know that doesn’t really seem fair, but try not to hold it against me too much.

Acceptances have not yet begun to go out for SCARECROW submissions, but they will soon. We’re just finalizing a couple of things in the background and then the mail will begin to flow.

In the meantime, I have some fun stats… for people who find this sort of thing fun LOL I may blog about these in a bit more detail in the future, but for now, just some numbers. Let’s call them ‘approximate’ numbers because there’s no reason to believe I didn’t make a mistake at some point.

Corvidae Submission Stats:

Submissions: 135
Rejected: 108
Shortlisted: 26
Withdrawn: 1
Rewrite requests made: 2
Number of stories with no corvids*: 9
Number of stories submitted to me more than once: 3

Scarecrow Submission Stats:

Submissions: 100
Rejected: 77
Shortlisted: 21
Withdrawn: 2
Rewrite requests made: 1
Number of stories with no scarecrows*: 2
Re-tellings of Feathertop: 2

 

And lastly, an exciting announcement:

 

The incomparable Magnus E. Magpie (also known as YEGMagpie) has agreed to read both SCARECROW and CORVIDAE and offer a corvid’s perspective as a tweet-sized commentary to every story. I can’t wait to see what Magnus (who has even run for mayor) will have to say about these stories! 🙂

 

 

*literal or otherwise, as best as I could tell
**though, if you’re worried about your submission, by all means, query.

Goals, Hollow, NaNoWriMo, NovPad

NaNoWriMo 2013 – Take Nine

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2013-Participant-Facebook-Cover

This month I am participating in my ninth NaNoWriMo challenge (Username: Midnyte If you’re participating feel free to add me. Drop me a line & I’ll return the favour). I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo yearly since 2003 (though I skipped one year because I just wasn’t feeling it). This year I’m going to write a new first draft of a story you’ve been listening to me talk about writing since July of 2011 — Hollow Children. For November I’ve taken all my previous abortive drafts, scenes and papers and stuck them in a drawer and I’m going to leave them there until this draft is done. I’ll peek at them again when it comes time to revise but I don’t want to get hung up on comparing drafts and such until I’ve got all the words on the page.

My biggest obstacle as a writer is myself, getting out of my own way and putting words on the page. That’s where NaNoWriMo comes in handy because for me the most difficult part of writing (even 1,667 words a day) is sitting my ass down and doing it. During November and NaNoWriMo I feel extra accountable and that helps me get my butt in the chair. So I’ll be doing 50,000 words on this draft in November and then hopefully continuing on until the entire draft is done. I’m hoping for somewhere around 80-90k altogether.

In addition, because sanity is overrated, I’m also going to be doing the November Poem A Day Challenge. The PAD challenges at Writer’s Digest (in November and April) have also become sort of a tradition for me and are the source of most of the poetry I write in a year. One of my favourite parts is that I know my friend Beth will be doing them too, and even though we don’t compare notes every day or whatever, as the month goes on we do check in with each other to see how it’s going, and it’s nice to feel like you’re not alone. This year I’m working on a sekkrit collaborative project with someone (not Beth) and I’ll be using the theme of that as my theme for NovPAD. It should be super efficient (which my vulture brain loves) and fun. Win/win.

Oh, and did I mention the renovations? We’re having our yard dug up and weeping tile installed starting the middle of the month… so that’ll be… fun.

I’ve also decided to drop out of the ‘Not the Whittakers‘ challenge I was participating in. Historically speaking the Whittakers have provided me with the incentive and momentum to write some great short story first drafts but this year I’m not really feeling it and am seriously time-challenged. Still, I should be kept plenty busy and challenged even in their absence 😉

Between NaNoWriMo, NovPad 2013, reading for Fae, promoting Metastasis, readying the December issue of Niteblade and just, ya know, having a life, I think I’ll be kept pretty busy, but not quite as crazy as last month.

Fae, Niteblade, Poetry, Sale

So Many Things!

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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.

Books, Editing, Metastasis

Update #1: We have a title

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The response to the upcoming cancer anthology has been overwhelmingly positive and wonderful. Thank you all so very much.

I have news. Big news. Exciting news. We have a name! Yay!

The anthology is going to be titled Metastasis

Because we chose a name that was not one of the ones suggested on the Wolfsinger Publications facebook page, Carol is going to hold a draw and award a free copy of the book to a random person who suggested a title for us to chose from. We really do appreciate your suggestions and efforts to help us name this anthology. Good luck to everyone whose name is going in that draw 🙂

Right after we put out the call for submissions emails began arriving in my inbox. Some were submissions but many were from people who just wanted to share their story. To connect. I received emails from cancer survivors and from friends and family members of cancer survivors. I also heard stories about those who had lost the battle, people and pets, who were now gone. Cancer has touched almost everyone in one way or another and it seems to help in the healing process, in understanding and accepting, to share our stories.

I’ve edited Niteblade for a few years now, and this feels quite different from that. Each submission feels like it is coming from a very personal place and most are based on a loss or struggle that is very real and painful for the writer. As the editor of this anthology it’s going to be my job to say no to a lot of submissions, but I promise to give them all the respect and attention they deserve. Also? I will never use a single form letter in responding to you.

It is my intention to read and respond to submissions in small batches as they come in rather than waiting until the submission deadline has passed. It is more efficient for me and it means that if you send us something early on that isn’t quite right you still have time to re-submit if inspiration strikes again. I responded to the first batch yesterday, so if you submitted prior to January 21, 2013 you ought to have heard back from me. If you didn’t, please re-submit.

One thing I noticed while reading through the first batch of submissions is that while the quality of the writing was generally quite high, the majority of the stories and poems submitted were not speculative in nature. Not even a little. Some of those pieces were fantastic and if this were simply a cancer-themed anthology I would have taken them without question, but it’s not. Please make sure that your submissions are speculative in nature. Science fiction / fantasy. I define both genres very widely and welcome all their sub-genres. The important thing is if your story could take place in the world we live in today, and no one would blink an eye or think it odd, it’s not right for this anthology.*

If you have questions, please ask. I won’t bite. Honest.

*With the possible exception of a specifically solicited story or two.