I’m especially pleased that this story has been published, because it’s set in a forest world I’ve been developing for a while. As I think I mentioned here before, my poem “Boat-husk” in Through the Gate is also set in that world. As is my (terrible zero draft of a) 2014 Nanowrimo novel.
“The Ruin” was one of the pieces inspired by the abandoned places pictures that I wrote a post about. In particular, this picture (i.e. the picture above). Sometimes writing exercises become something more!
First sale of 2015 – my poem “Betweening” will appear in issue 8 of the lovely magazine inkscrawl. Yay!
I’ve loved the concept and content of inkscrawl for ages, so it’s fantastic to be a contributer too.
Tonight I’m feeling inspired by Rose Lemberg’s great essay (originally published as tweets) on perseverance and the editorial process.
Rose talks about the importance of not self-rejecting your work, and of daring to submit, and re-submit to a publication that’s rejected your work before. The whole essay is very much worth a read for any (aspiring or published) writer! Especially if you (like me) suffer from some form of perfectionism and self-doubt.
It was such a huge leap for me to start submitting my poems in 2012. I’ve been writing (both prose and poetry) since forever, and my poetic voice has been getting stronger since 2009, but it took me so long to dare to submit my work. I was really afraid of rejection, of not being “good enough”. And those first rejections really hurt. I hadn’t developed a tougher skin yet; I felt like the magazines I submitted to were rejecting my whole self, all of my writing forever, &c. &c.
As time’s gone by, it’s got easier. I still feel a sting when I get a rejection, especially if it’s been a long time since an acceptance. But I understand better now that rejections a) are just one person’s (editor’s) opinion, b) can happen for any number of reasons, c) do not mean I’m a terrible writer. I’ve learnt to feel happy about personalised rejections, and the ones that actually give a snippet of feedback on my work make me feel good. I try to believe the editors when they say “please submit to us again”.
It’s been harder with stories. Quantity-wise, I produce far less of them than poems, which flow out at a much quicker pace. Story rejections still sting more, and make me doubt my skills (“oh noes I am the WORST AT PLOTTING FOREVER”). But how will those skills develop if I don’t keep writing and submitting? They won’t. So I have to keep trying.
Because after all, my perseverance so far has got me a long way from where I was three years ago. I’ve been published in a lot of amazing magazines – and I still feel giddy when I think that my story is going to be in An Alphabet of Embers. I just have to keep on daring, even when I feel afraid.
It’s technically not Sunday any more here, but I haven’t gone to bed yet, so this totally counts.
Three poems I’ve loved lately:
Entwined ‘Neath Stars and Empty Suns by Merc Rustad (in Liminality): A romantic, visionary space opera. Great stuff. I want more space opera poetry!
Red Daughter by Alena Sullivan (in Goblin Fruit): Lovely word-magic, excellent rhyming, delicious!
The Law of Germinating Seeds by Rose Lemberg (also in Goblin Fruit): Such beautiful treesong, it gave me the shivers.
Just wrote a ~3,000-word story in two hours, yay! With some editing, I think this will be fine for submitting to Lightspeed’s Queers Destroy Science Fiction! special issue. It’s been so long since I came up with a story idea and actually wrote it in this short a time – I got the idea last night just before bed, and started writing today after breakfast. New story yay!
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And now for some stories I’ve enjoyed from others this past week:
The Truth About Owls by Amal El-Mohtar (in Strange Horizons, originally published in the Kaleidoscope anthology): This story is utterly wonderful. It contains many of my favourite things, such as multilingualism (Welsh, Arabic, yay!), Welsh mythology, and a solid emotional punch. Also, owls!
Pockets, also by Amal El-Mohtar (in Uncanny Magazine): A charming story with subtle strangeness.
archival testimony fragments / minersong by Rose Lemberg (in Uncanny Magazine): This is a poem, but it has a subtly developing plot that is just awesome. I highly recommend listening to C.S.E. Cooney’s reading of this poem in the Uncanny Magazine podcast – it gives the poem a whole new level of brilliance. I got shivers from the reading.
January went by in a bit of a rush – I’ve completely neglected to post even any Sunday recs. Turned out that the start of the year included tons of PhD work and other busyness, so I’ve been off the writing radar a bit. I’m getting the itch again, though: even though I’m currently still a bit sick (spent last night sleeping off a fever), I feel like I’d like to write something today.
Anyway, here’s some lovely poems I’ve read recently(ish):
To the Creature by Gillian Daniels (in the issue of Stone Telling that I have a poem in too): this is so good! A beautiful story and I love that it’s done in an epistolary format.
The Alchemy by Neile Graham (in the “Winter Is Sown” issue of Goblin Fruit): this is so amazing! Obviously I love alchemy-related fiction (because of my PhD topic), but otherwise too, this is just so magical. It inspires me to write more alchemy-related poems myself!
Earth Map by Rose Lemberg (in Mythic Delirium): a lovely prose poem, with the words flowing like water – I do so love Rose’s writing.
Around the end of December 2013, I came upon a post with pretty pictures of the 33 most beautiful abandoned places in the world. One of those clickbaity list posts, but this one struck a chord. I love the desolate beauty of abandoned things.
And so I decided to write something about all 33, inspired by the pictures but not necessarily relating to the real-world location or function of the place. I had thought I’d finish it all by the end of January 2014, but I didn’t keep at it diligently enough. I had a months-long pause and forgot all about it, but in mid-December I finally kickstarted my project again. And now, I have just finished writing a poem about the 33rd picture.
I didn’t manage to finish this project in the time frame I’d initially set myself, but I did finish in the end! And now I have 33 pieces of flash fiction and poems based on the pictures. Some of them will never make it past the initial draft phase; some of them I’ve already edited and sent off; some of them are rough now but contain interesting kernels of plot and character that might grow into proper stories one day; one of them will be published this year (as “The Ruin” in Luna Station Quarterly). Most excellent.
I’ve discovered that writing prompted by a picture is a good way for me to get my brain jogged into action. Will have to keep finding interesting pictures to leap into and write about. I should keep doing writing exercises of other sorts as often as I can, too – they’re a great way of building up writing muscle.
Firstly: this feels so weird. Award eligibility is for real writers, right? Not me? No, shut up, evil!brain. (This post by Amal El-Mohtar is very relevant…)
Anyway, I have done my research and to the best of my knowledge, it appears that the following works are eligible for awards (for 2014):
Poetry (eligible for the Rhysling award short poem category)
Short stories (<7,500 words)
Rose Lemberg, the editor of the forthcoming anthology An Alphabet of Embers (which includes my story “The City Beneath the Sea”), has posted the full ToC on her website: check it out!
I can’t overstate how excited I am by this project! I’m really looking forward to reading the other contributions when the anthology comes out. And, of course, it’s totally awesome that this was my first pro fiction sale.
Hi, this is me procrastinating! Soon, soon I will go and finish the zero draft of a story that’s been unreasonably hard to write considering that I know how it ends and all…
Anyway, here’s three stories I read sometime late last year and enjoyed:
Collector’s Item by Daniel McPherson (in Daily Science Fiction): a robot servant.
Sardines in a Tin Can by Wendy Nikel (also in DSF): robot slaves.
Dream Cakes by Kelly Jennings (in Strange Horizons): an awesome meld of SF and magicky things. No robots, though.
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Bonus novel rec: Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred is utterly amazing. It’s been on my to-read list for ages, and I finally started it yesterday morning. Well, I ended up reading it in two breathless, long sittings. It’s been a while since I read a novel in a single day! So worth it. Most other time travel novels suddenly pale in comparison…