Teaching and Burnout: Taking a Break

I posted earlier that I’d had nineteen stories published in 2011, and John asked for some particulars. Here they are, in a post that tries to sum up what I -did- in 2011. 🙂

I finished two large fiction projects. The first was a collaboration where the other participant dropped out, and I ended up finishing the book. I would estimate that I wrote between 50-60 thousand words on this, and it went through two sets of revisions. It’s currently being shopped around.

The second was a reworking of an earlier novel into a trilogy. I mapped this out and divvied up the existing content, and finished the first volume, which involved about 70 thousand words of new content. A goal for 2012 is to finish the second volume. It’s currently being looked at by a publisher, and I think it’s the best thing I ever wrote, so I hope to sell it this year.

I did some editing work as well, which I’ll talk about at another time.

Statistics:
Number of submissions: 32 in 2011, which is actually much lower than (imo) it should be, and which I hope to double in 2012
Number of acceptances: 18
Most rejections garnered by an accepted piece: 10 for Flicka, which is a very odd story and ended up appearing in SUBVERSION. Also notable is Whose Face This Is, I Do Not Know, which appeared in Clarkesworld after eight other rejections (clearly I should have sent it to them much earlier, but I was thinking of it as a horror piece)

New stories written (not counting flash, which I did a bad job of tracking):

• A Querulous Flute of Bone ““ written to spec
• Do The Right Thing ““ written at an editor’s request, who then turned it down, just rewrote and sent out for the first time
• Five Ways To Fall In Love on Planet Porcelain ““ currently in circulation
• Logic and Magic in the Time of the Boat Lifts (collaboration with Ben Burgis) ““ currently in circulation
• Pumpkin Knight ““ Codex contest story, reworking before it goes anywhere
• Talking in the Night ““ needs polishing before it goes out

Last year was actually a little unproductive in terms of stories. This year I’ve already finished: 1) a 1000 word piece for a children’s market, 2) “Space Elevator Music” (flash), 3) “Love’s Footsteps,” a S&S piece that I’m reading at Confusion this week and then sending to BCS. I’ve got a slew of half-finished stuff that I’m taking to the con as well, because sometimes I get very productive during my solo time at cons.

In 2011, I pulled one story from a market who had had it way too long and got a nice note from the editor about how the wait would make the pro sale that much sweeter when I got it and letting me know that the more professional the market, the longer I should expect to wait. I moved said market to the top of my “do not submit to these people” list.

Stories that appeared in 2011:

• Aquila’s Ring (Shadows & Light II, 4 previous rejections)
• Bots D’Amor (Abyss & Apex, 3 previous rejections)
• Close Your Eyes (Apex, 2 previous rejections)
• The Coffeemaker’s Passion (Bull Spec, 1 previous rejection)
• Flicka (Subversion, 10 previous rejections)
• The Forbidden Stitch (10 Flash, sold first time submitted)
• A Frame of Mother of Pearl (OSC IGMS, 2 previous rejections)
• Futures (Dream People, 1 previous rejection)
• The Immortality Game (Lightspeed, sold first time submitted)
• Karaluvian Fale (Giganotasaurs, 4 previous rejections)
• *Long Enough and Just So Long (Lightspeed, sold first time submitted)
• Lost in Drowsy Dreams (10 Flash, sold first time submitted)
• Love, Resurrected (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 1 previous rejection)
• Pippa’s Smiles (DSF, 7 previous rejections)
• Long Enough And Just So Long (Lightspeed, 1 previous rejection)
• A Querulous Flute of Bone (Tales from the Fathomless Abyss)
• Swallowing Ghosts (DSF, 3 previous rejections)
• TimeSnip (Basement Stories, 3 previous rejections)
• Whose Face This Is I Do Not Know (Clarkesworld, 8 previous rejections)
• Zeppelin Follies (Crossed Genres, 4 previous rejections)

*This is the story I am pushing for award notice, but other notables are “Whose Face This Is I Do Not Know” and “Love, Resurrected.”

Some notes on my submission process:

I have four criteria for market that help determine whether or not I submit to them, which are pay rate, reply time, whether they take e-subs, and how much notice they get. Something that’s high in one category may compensate for something in another category ““ Tor.com’s pay rate versus the slow reply time, for example, or the amount of notice F&SF gets versus the pain in the rear nature of printing out a paper submission (it has become the only magazine I’m willing to do this for, though).

Sometimes I send things to a specific market because I wrote it with them in mind. This is what happened with “Clockwork Fairies,” which appeared in Tor.com because the first market turned it down. Occurrences like this are not uncommon. I mention this only to increase my own mystique and make editors more eager to grab my stories when they appear, but I am afraid my prolific nature works against me in this regard.

I just posted the first story from the Patreon campaign over there as well as mailing it out. It’s a story set in Altered America, a steampunk version of 19th century America that I’ve been working in recently. If you read Raapacini’s Crow, which appeared on Beneath Ceaseless Skies this month, it’s the same world.

19th century America is one of my favorite historical periods, and I’m looking forward to bringing in some of my favorite figures as characters, such as Lucy Stone, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Victoria Woodhull. You’ll find a somewhat altered Abraham Lincoln as well, who has made a terrifying choice in order to win the Civil War, one that will affect the country for decades, possibly centuries, to come.

The story is inspired by the television show, Wild Wild West, which was steampunk back before anyone knew the term. The pair of Pinkerton agents in the story have already appeared in one other story, and I suspect there’s plenty more of their adventures lurking in the wings.

Here’s the first few paragraphs:

Frenzies of gingerbread adorned the house’s facade, but it was splintery, paint peeling in long shaggy spirals that fuzzed the fretwork’s outlines. The left side of the house drooped like the face of a stroke victim, windows staring blindly out, cataracted with the dusty remnants of curtains.

Agent Artemus West thought that it would have given a human man the chills. He glanced back at Elspeth to see how she was taking it, but her face was chiseled and resolute as a fireman’s axe.

“You all right?”

She swabbed at her forehead with a bare forearm, leaving streaks of dark wet dirt. “Thank your lucky stars you’re mechanical and don’t feel the heat,” she rasped.

Hot indeed if enough to irritate her into mentioning that. He chose to ignore it.

The house sagged amid slumping cottonwoods, clusters of low-lying trees, their leaves ovals of green and pale brown. Three stories, and above that, two cupolas thrust upward into the sky, imploring, the left one tilted at an angle. The wind whistled through the fretwork, a shifting, hollow sound, like a jug’s mouth being blown across. There had once been a flower garden towards the back. Weeds had claimed most of it, but the papery red heads of poppies blazed among the tangle. The sky stretched high and blue and hollow overhead.

If you’d like to read the rest, you can! Make a pledge as small as $1 per story, and you’ll get two original, unpublished stories each month from me, along with commentary. The next story, appearing in two weeks, will be contemporary horror.