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| Submitting bingeMy tentacle short story was rejected today. Not enough tentacles, I suppose. Or maybe not enough tentacles in people's orifices. I did try something different. I guess it wasn't what they were looking for.
I didn't do any writing today, but I prettied up my synopses and submitted my novels to various places. It took hours of work! *whew* This is why I need an agent.
I submitted Alchemy to two places. Avon Romance only accepts queries. Maybe they'll nibble. I also sent the manuscript to a lesser known press, Black Velvet Seductions. I'm finding that my paranormal romance novels ride a fine line between romance and erotica. Though there are books like L.K. Hamilton's out there, they aren't the norm. Either a publisher wants sensual romance or they want pure erotica. I'm in the middle in a land called Romantica. Yes, that is an actual term. All the publishers that might take that do not take unsolicited manuscripts. Another reason to get an agent.
I submitted Strider to Dorchester Publishing. That one has to go by snail mail and can take up to a year to get a response. Ouch.
I'm trying The Cursed Land with Tor again. Maybe I'll get a different assistant editor looking at it and their opinion will be different than the previous one. I haven't sent my fantasy novel anywhere for a long while and it's time I start to pimp it out again. Yet fantasy publishers are harder to get a manuscript to. Most of the big ones also require you to have an agent.
I looked over Lex and edited for a while. Wow. Lex doesn't fit anywhere. I thought it could go the paranormal romance way, but it doesn't fit there. It's a romance, yes, but it's science-fiction, satire, surrealism, dark fantasy. It jumps from one genre to another, one style to another. I suppose I could call it slipstream, but it isn't that avant garde. It can't be put into any category and that will make it near impossible to sell. I think Lex should be the novel I hold back until one day I'm famous and dead. Crazed fans can go through my stuff and discover this strange gem. It will be a cult classic! They'll make a movie out of it and shout perverted things at the screen. Yeah. I think that's the future of Lex.
Instead of Lex, I went with The Deep Dim. I submitted it to an ebook publisher, Mystic Moon Press. If it is rejected, I won't be terribly surprised. It isn't the happy ending people hope for with romance. It has a hopeful ending. The reader knows from the beginning how the story has to end even if they want to deny it.
I'm drained now. I'm going to take a book to bed and settle down early tonight. Good night!
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| Stick it where?I was sorting out my short stories list today. I hadn't heard from a few of them and so I looked up the sites. Two of them were done and closed, authors picked. I hadn't even received from them a rejection e-mail. It would be nice to get the e-mail so I can mark them off my list. Yet one was a contest and they just went onwards. The other was an anthology and they printed. A rejection is better than not knowing. I still have three short stories I'm waiting to hear about. All of them have a two month response time. Two were just sent in last week, but the third is my wee noir story. Hopefully I'll hear from them very soon as it has been five weeks now.
I have realized that with Keith home with me the whole weekend and yesterday, I'm not a writer who can sit and write while someone else is in the room. I can edit without a problem, but not write. I'm too conscious of the other person's presence. The problem is we live in a small one bedroom apartment. There's the living room area and the bedroom. Everything is in the living room area. It's not like either of us can go to another room. I do need my own office. A library with an L-shaped desk and the scent of coffee in the air. I don't drink coffee, but I love the smell of it. My own little space. *dreamy sigh* One day... one day.....
I had a dream that I was in a post-apocalyptic world and I was a salesperson. I sold body parts. Yes, how spectacular is that?! It wasn't a flashy or high paying job. I have no idea if the parts I sold came off of willing donors. I just remember the whole world being dark, chilly and grimy. I was trying to make a sale to this madman who wanted a severed forearm with the hand attached. He couldn't decide if he wanted the hand to be in a fist or have the fingers extended, one, two, three or all fingers, nails still on. All the details, you know. Now the bigger EWW is what he wanted it for. Let's just say, he was really, REALLY mad, and he wanted to stuff it somewhere on his own person.
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| Su.. Mon... Tuesday?Poor Keith is still sick. He stayed home from work today. My schedule is all screwed up. It feels like a Sunday instead of a Tuesday.
I was productive, though. I just spent four hours editing the novel I'm working on. My eyes are spinning from going through fifteen chapters. I cut out more than I thought I would. Though I'm sure a professional editor would look at it and have a field day with his/her red pen. My pencil was gray. Gray is the color of editing in my world.
I think I'm going with the title Immaculate for it. It's the name of Simone's crime and trauma scene cleaning business, but it also sounds cool as a title.
Just over a month until ARCHON! I hope to have this novel finished, or at least close to being finished, by then. I also want my site set up. I'll have to wait until Keith is feeling better for that. Yet I can spend my time thinking of what I want to say on it. How do I want to describe myself in my bio? I really should just make up something fun and exciting. Really, no one knows who I am out there. You guys get the real dull deal here on Xanga.
I haven't even decided on the color theme I want. It will either be red and black... But would that be too harsh and threatening? Too unprofessional? Or parchment color. Too boring?
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| Editing"No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes to not be published." - J. Russell Lynes
I got a rejection from Juno today for Strider. It was short and sweet. The editor said she loved my ideas, but the story needs more polish.
Simple translation: polish = editing.
*screams and runs in terror*
I always see interviews and quotes where authors say they're more editors than good writers. I'm much more of a writer than an editor. I do well at editing other people's writing, but I'm incredibly biased when it comes to my own. I want to be harsh and fair with myself, but I'm not very good at it. I can't afford to hire an editor to have at my stories, so I must do it myself.
When I write a story, it's out of my head and I immediately feel the irresistible pull to move on to the next one. I have far too many stories in my head to stop and edit stuff. The stories just will not be patient. I've heard authors claim that have edited their novels for years before they submitted them to publishers. I have heard 800 pages stories cut down to 200 or 300 pages. The general rule seems to be edit your novel ten times completely through before even thinking about submitting it somewhere. Geez. I'd never be able to submit anything if I had to stick to that rule.
I sound like a whiny child not wanting to edit my own stuff. I stomp my foot and pout. It's unfair! I just want to write. And poo to those people who say editing is part of being a writer!
"As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning." - Neil Gaiman
Okay, okay. Yes, I know editing is part of being a writer. I'm not naive. I'm merely stubborn.
Perhaps it will be good for me when I do get a job, it will give me less leisure time to write and leave me with bits of time not suitable for writing, but perfect for sections of editing. I think that's the only way I'll be able to do it: in sections.
In other news, Keith is still hacking up a lung. I haven't heard back from the agent. We didn't do a thing this long weekend except go to see Hamlet 2 this afternoon. It wasn't well acted or a tremendous story, but it made me laugh. It made me laugh hard in some parts. I can recommend the film for a good solid laugh and to get the song Rock Me Sexy Jesus stuck in your head.
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| Insomnia and writingI'm having a bit of trouble sleeping tonight. Keith is sick with a nasty cough. Some rotten student gave him a virus when he was helping them find text books. How ungrateful! He's slept half the day away. So I've been writing. I just finished my short vampire story and submitted it. It has an ethereal feeling, floating in the surreal, and an ambiguous ending. I don't know if it was what the editors were hoping for, but I can't help the way a story flows out of me.
The next two short stories on my list for next month are general fantasy and science-fiction ones. No themes. I can resubmit an old one if I can't think of something new. Better for me that way as I can then concentrate on finishing up my latest novel that has been put aside these past few weeks.
It's only a few months away from National Novel Writing Month! I know I want all the government stuff to be over with quickly, but I also kind of hope that I'll have November to do another year of NaNoWriMo. It would be very difficult to do if I'm working. I'll do the second story in the Magena Silver trilogy. I already have another idea for a new character and novel, but I want to finish Magena's tale before it sits too long and gets stale. I did write Alchemy last November, so it's been nearly a year already.
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