My story, "So Glad We Had This TIme Together," is up on Apex in an issue that includes a lot of really good stuff from Gregory Frost, Sarah Dalton, and Jim C. Hines. I hope you'll check it out!
The story itself was my week six Clarion West story – with "Zeppelin Follies" getting published last year, that means I've only got one story, "I Come From The Dark Universe," left from that batch that hasn't seen the light of publication yet.
JB: I’m submitting my resignation, effective immediately.
*
I can hear the distant hum of the building’s heart, the slow steps of a janitor cleaning its chambers with wafts of…
What a fun story. Read it this afternoon thanks to the apex subscription. I loved it. It’s interesting that you’ve had this one around since Clarion. Just out of curiosity, did it sit in a drawer since then, or have you been submitting around in the meantime?
I’d stuck it aside, meaning to rewrite it, but then one day looked at it and thought, “Well, you know, actually, that doesn’t need much reworking.” It had been to a couple of markets before Apex, but then Lynne asked to see something when she took on the editorship, so I sent it along to her. 🙂
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"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
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So I Wrote This Novella
Cover for Tales From The Fathomless Abyss, stories by Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Jay Lake, Mel Odom, J.M. McDermott, Cat Rambo, and Philip Athans.I’m turning in something today that I’ve never tried before: a novella.
Back when I was first approached about the Fathomless Abyss, it involved an initial story and a later novella. Sure, I said, and whacked out a story for the first Fathomless Abyss book, TALES FROM THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS. It was “A Querulous Flute of Bone”, which I based on an O.Henry story, and which I think is one of my best stories to date. If you don’t believe me, spring for the 99 cent download and tell me if I’m wrong.
Then I started on the novella. The first thing I did was look up the length requirements. Wikipedia told me the official SFWA definition was 17500 to 40000 words. So just a long short story, right?
The problem with that was that…I write short. I excel at under 4000 words. So I turned again to a model. I’d been thinking about issues of addiction and so I decided I was going to write about that, and use William S. Burroughs’ JUNKY as my starting point. And I was going to throw in a touch of Lovecraft for spookiness and make the drug of my protagonist’s choice something a bit weird. And I wanted to reference some of the cool stuff the other Fathomless Abyss writers had added to the world.
I was telling a life story, from early days in an Abyssal village, through journeys to all sorts of points, culminating in some sort of…well, you know…climax. There was a chase for one thing, then another chase for what it turned into. I wanted to include something about the philosopher-king Nackle, whose teachings figured in “A Flute of Querulous Bone.” I wanted mushrooms and hallucinogenic wasp stings and pack llamas. I sketched out an outline and started writing. And I kept folding in stuff I wanted to include as I ran across it and then I reread Joe Lansdale’s THE COMPLETE DRIVE-IN and decided to not worry about being too weird and things all fell together…
And I became aware it was too long. Too, too, too long to finish on deadline. But I had the first half written and there was a good place midway to split the narrative, and so I said to Phil, “What if I do a pair of novellas, this first half, and then give you the second half for later release?”
So that’s what we have. I’m turning in A SEED ON THE WIND this time and A CAVERN RIPE WITH DREAMS will follow on its heels.
The novella is generally not as formally experimental as the long story and the novel can be, and it usually lacks the subplots, the multiple points of view, and the generic adaptability that are common in the novel. It is most often concerned with personal and emotional development rather than with the larger social sphere. The novella generally retains something of the unity of impression that is a hallmark of the short story, but it also contains more highly developed characterization and more luxuriant description.[7]
I know mine is focused on the development of a protagonist who I fear is somewhat unlovable. I’ve tried for interesting characterization and today I’m finishing up adding a layer of luxuriant description.
If you’ve come looking for advice on writing novellas, I’m not sure I have any. Perhaps you, the readers, can tell me what you think of them and what you’ve done when trying that form. I know Rachel Swirsky is a champ at writing them. What do you think – do you like novellas? What do or don’t you enjoy seeing in them? Can you think of anyone you think does them exceedingly well?
In that spirit, here’s a breakdown of some of my stories that are both short enough to be read with a minimum of trimming and available online for any forensics students, speech class students, or other performers looking for something to read. Because I’ve got a lot of stories, I’m still working through the list and I’ll continue adding stuff as I go. For the complete list, see my publications page.
Prose Pieces for Forensics Students
In each category, I’ve listed the story, where it originally appeared, its length, type, and voice considerations.
Prose pieces eligible by National Forensics League Rules Note: If you need the proof of print publication, please e-mail me at catrambo AT gmail.com, and I can send you a scan. I will be adding links to those when I get the chance, because I only recently realized they are proving an issue for performers.
Bigfoot. Originally appeared in 13th Moon, 1992. 6 minutes, humorous fantasy, third person, voices include a female Bigfoot and a woman.
The Coffee Cup Song. Originally appeared in The Cornfield Review in 1992. 12 minutes, humorous, first person, young girl.
Falling. Originally appeared in Cream City Review in 1991. 3 minutes, dramatic, first person, gender unspecified.
Hands. Originally appeared in Dreams and Nightmares in 1991. 1 minute, surreal fantasy, 3rd person, gender unspecified.
Planet Crabby. Originally appeared in Asylum Magazine in 1990. 3 minutes, humorous science fiction, first person, gender unspecified.
Seven Clockwork Angels. Originally appeared in Altered America in 2016. 15 minutes, steampunk fairytale, 3rd person, voices include Sleeping Beauty, her parents, and two scientists.
Additional Prose pieces eligible by National Catholic Forensics League Rules
(Anything under NFL should also be eligible for this, if I am reading the rules correctly.)
Aardvark Says Moo, electronically published for Patreon campaign. 3 minutes, humorous fantasy, first person, voices include adult woman, small girl, male clown, female Valkyrie.
Grandmother’s Road Trip. Originally appeared in Chiaroscuro in 2005, reprinted (electronic version only) in EYES LIKE SKY AND COAL AND MOONLIGHT. 12 minutes, dramatic horror, first person, voices are a young woman, her mother, and her grandmother.
Magnificent Pigs. Originally appeared in Strange Horizons in 2006, reprinted in EYES LIKE SKY AND COAL AND MOONLIGHT. 15 minutes, dramatic fantasy, first person, voices are an adult male, a young girl, and an elderly Jewish woman.
Swallowing Ghosts. Originally appeared in Daily Science Fiction. 3 minutes, dramatic fantasy, first person, voices are a young man, his grandfather, and the ghost of James Joyce.
Wickedness. Originally appeared in Flash Fantastic. 1 minute, humorous horror, 3rd person.
Many more prose pieces available here. If you use one of my pieces in a forensics competition, please let me know and consider leaving a review on Amazon, GoodReads, or any other reading site you frequent! 😻
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By Cat Rambo
2 Responses
What a fun story. Read it this afternoon thanks to the apex subscription. I loved it. It’s interesting that you’ve had this one around since Clarion. Just out of curiosity, did it sit in a drawer since then, or have you been submitting around in the meantime?
I’d stuck it aside, meaning to rewrite it, but then one day looked at it and thought, “Well, you know, actually, that doesn’t need much reworking.” It had been to a couple of markets before Apex, but then Lynne asked to see something when she took on the editorship, so I sent it along to her. 🙂