July 2023 in Review

Hello Funny People.

The first month of the second half of the year has definitely been one of, shall we say, mixed blessings. On the whole though, I have to admit, most of the blessings have been positive.

Report on the Short Fiction Front

Alright, let's get this one out of the way...

Sadly, my R&R requested story did not get picked up by the magazine in question. (No names, no names.) Needless to say, after putting six months of careful work, thought, and effort into reworking the story to fit the editor's feedback from January, the second rejection hit harder than the first. In fact, it damn near made me want to give up writing short fiction permanently—that's how hurt (and frankly, pissed off) I was.

Then, once the tantrum passed, I remembered my reflections from last year. No matter how good an editor thinks a story is on a craft level (and they did admit my changes greatly improved the story), if it doesn't fit the vibe of their magazine, they won't take it. Did it hurt? Yes. Did I survive it? For the most part. All I can do now is move forward. As mi hermano, Bram Stoker-award winning novelist Gabino Iglesias says, "Rejection is just an invitation to submit elsewhere."

In that spirit, around the same time that shit news came, I got some good news. 

My story "Boltstone and the Water Fey," is set to appear in Fall Into Fantasy 2023 from the nice folks at Cloaked Press. I wrote this story last February (i.e. February 2022. It was the last piece of fiction I finished before needing to replace my old laptop, RIP). This story had been rejected 18 times before I finally found it a home in the capable hands of Andrew Ferrell. Given he and his outfit had already published "Madien of Torben," I knew he'd be more predisposed to like the story.

Believe it or not, it's also not the first time I sent it to him. Ferrell actually rejected this story once before for their 2022 Winter of Wonders anthology last year, mainly because it only skirted the theme and wasn't wintery enough (I assume). And fair enough. That he was willing to have another look at it, let alone accept it for publication was gratifying, considering the recent disappointment. It's nice to know you have allies out there when you're struggling to make a name for yourself in this crowded field. The book is already up for pre-order, so if you're interested, by all means, click away.

Another project that's been gestating in the background comes from the fine folks at Wyngraf. 

You might recall that back in March of this year, my second cozy flash story "Tata Duende’s Soothing Song" appeared on the Wyngraf website leading up to the release of volume III. Well, Nat Webb kindly paid me for it twice by first buying it to appear on the website and then again to appear in The Little Cozy Book. This volume too is available to order, so if you've read any the cozy flashes that appeared on the site, again, click away.

Final note. My colleagues and I under Nikki Mitchell's guiding hand are in the midst of completing our stories for Nature Fights Back, so that book too will be coming along it's it's good time too sometime in the near future. After struggling dor weeks to get something off the ground for it, my story is rolling along and I'm happy with it. Turns out, the only thing I needed to do to write a vindictive character was to make it a non-human bent on revenge.

#AmDrafting 

If you read my last post then you'll know I finally finished the first draft of my second novel, Boltstone. For now, I'm letting it rest before I begin the slow process of revisions. I've already begun making a notes document in the file where I'm compiling all my thoughts on things I might wish to change in the coming 2nd draft. I have a lot of decisions to make and several ideas of things I might wish to implement. New prose. New interludes. New ideas for tightening things up so the whole book snaps together.  Maybe adding epigraphs at the start of chapters. We'll see. 

In the meantime, once I complete a draft of my story for Nature Fights Back, I plan on beginning another novel in earnest. In this case, I'll be taking a science fiction idea I've had for quite some time that began life as a piece of short fiction and expand it into a novel. I'm aiming for it to be roughly 80k-100k, since that seems to be a nice length for such books (an insight I've gained from all the SF I've read recently), probably 40 chapters in total (give or take four or five), with most being about 2000 words. I also plan on making it first-person, which again is something brand new for me (both other novels have been 3rd limited), but it'll be a first-person voice telling two different stories. One in the present, one in the past. You'll learn how my narrator came to be where he is and why at the time when you first meet him and how he changes over the course of the plot.

Wish me luck. This could be an utter omnishambles, as I've never written a story quite like this, but I plan to see it through to the end.

Miscellaneous

It sadly appears that my science fiction reading binge has come to an end. I tried reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and bounced off it like a super ball hitting a sidewalk. However, I'm stubborn. I'll come back to it eventually. After all, it took my three attempts to start and get through Scalzi's Redshirts, which is a far more straightforward novel, so I'll work my way back around to it.

So with that at an end, I've taken to diving back into Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber with book two, Guns of Avalon. I have all the rest of the first sequence, so I may end up reading my way through them start to finish. 

Speaking of reading and to return to the subject of Scalzi, I also went ahead and read the first three chapters that are now available of his upcoming novel Starter Villain. While the book so far reads almost like a contemporary drama, with little in the way of speculative shenanigans (so far), I have to say, I'm hooked. The voice of the main character is, typical of Scalzi, funny and engaging. He's at his lowest ebb try to get back on his feet after a series of personal tragedies when an opportunity shows up on his doorstep in the guise of a woman close to his age. 

This beginning of this book resonates with me quite well given the request, as it's something I only recently had to do myself. So, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

Finally, and I'll close with this, despite my reservations about going back to short fiction after the blow up I had this month, my unconscious brain didn’t agree with me. Several ideas for short stories have come bubbling up, so I might have some fresh stuff to work on come next year. One thing is for sure, I won't be without stuff to do.

— IMC 🙃