annietupek.com blog

This has been an unprecedented week in writing.  I had a highly productive long weekend during which I finished a new short story.  I received an acceptance email for Polar Explorations from EveryDayFiction.com on Monday morning.  Then, this morning, as I was brushing my teeth and checking my email on my phone, I got another acceptance email.  Also from EveryDayFiction.com.

This confused me at first.  It was five o’clock in the morning and as I read the email, I was thinking: Hey, they’ve sent me a duplicate email.  It took me a couple of seconds to realize that it was for the other short story I submitted to them, Eve of Destruction.

So here’s the lowdown:  Polar Explorations will be posted on EveryDayFiction.com on June 2nd.  Read it and Rate it!  (Five stars, please!)  Eve of Destruction should be posted on the site sometime in July.  It’s flash fiction, nice and short, you can read it in a matter of minutes.  Give yourself a little break and check ‘em out!

My critters submission, Dreamsinger, came up for critique last Wednesday and for seven days now, my inbox has been full of critiques on it.  Dreamsinger is a short fantasy story of just under 4,000 words about a woman name Asha who can sing into a dreamland and manipulate the dreams of others.  Her main challenge of the story is to defeat a chieftain who has stolen his people’s ability to dream.

I received a bunch of critiques (29, actually) and the vast majority of them were helpful.  There were a couple of definite themes to the critiques.  Readers wanted more information and more description about everything, from the characters to the magic involved, and the settings.  They also said (kindly) that all the backstory near the beginning of the story bogged down its pace and that the time jump transitions were a little abrupt.  So I’ve got plenty of stuff to think about for the rewrite.

I cannot more highly recommend critters.  I think the process of reading and critiquing others’ stories has strengthened my own writing.

I do have some issues with the diplomacy requirements.  I make an effort to follow them and word my critiques as politely as possible.  I do not think that a generic disclaimer at the beginning and end of a critique that says “This is all my opinion…” and then goes on to quote “rules” of writing as gospel (which goes against the diplomacy requirements) really follows the spirit of diplomacy.

That’s just my one little complaint.  I have a thick skin, I can take rude critiques.  I just think people should make an effort to be polite, or that there should be some kind of a feedback scale where critiques can be rated and people with higher diplomacy are rewarded.  Hey, I just want something for my efforts here.  Seriously, though, if you’re looking for a decent, free writers workshop for sf/f/h, you should definitely check out critters.

I have discovered that editors have perfect timing. For my first published short story, Noah’s Ark, the publisher notified me that they wanted the short story with a few changes while I was visiting my parents in Chicago. Yesterday, just before my mom’s surprise party, I got an email from another group of editors regarding a short story I submitted to them back in January. They’d like to publish the it, but would like a few changes made before they decide for sure. I’m sensing a bit of a pattern. Perhaps it means I need to come visit my parents more often. So, now, in the midst of hanging with Mom & Dad & Karyn and running around making forts and spoiling my two year old nephew, I’ve got some story revisions to work on. I suppose this week just wasn’t busy enough. I’ll post an update later as to when & where you can read this story.

I submitted my fourth new short story of the year today.  One of my writing goals for 2011 is to write and submit one short story every two weeks.  And that’s in addition to the novel I’ve been working on.  It’s been, for lack of a better word, intense.

What’s gone out:

January 15th-Polar Explorations to Everyday Fiction

February 1st- Amikuk’s Gift to Weird Tales

February 15th- Feast of Gold to Beneath Ceaseless Skies

March 2nd- Dreamsinger to Strange Horizons

I haven’t heard back from any of them, but I’ve been so focused on writing the next story each and every time I’ve submitted one, that I hadn’t noticed until now.  I have no idea what I’ll write next, for my personal March 15 deadline.  Probably some flash fiction.

I think I need a short project, especially since I have an out-of-town guest coming up for a week (Yay, Jenn!  We’re gonna have a blast playing with chainsaws & riding dogsleds!  Hopefully the aurora will be out.).

It’s been a busy year, but so far I’ve only sent out one story past my personal deadline.  Now if only the publishers would respond…

I submitted a short story to Abyss & Apex back in August of 2010 and heard nothing back from them.  I figured my story was lost in the ether somewhere.  Then, a couple of days ago, I got an email back from Wendy Delmater, the editor, apologizing for a new staffer who had misfiled my story and it hadn’t been looked at.

She then took the time to give me a very good critique in which she pointed out things that had never occurred to me.  She didn’t have to do that.  She could have just sent a flat-out rejection without explanation and without critique.

I’ve been a long-time reader of Abyss & Apex and will continue to support them.  I’ll also continue to send them my short stories.  An editor who makes an effort like that for someone she’s not currently publishing must be a pleasure to work with as an actual paid writer.

So, thanks to that new assistant who misfiled my story.  It wouldn’t have gotten the personal attention that it did without you.  And who knows, maybe Ms. Delmater will remember my name the next time I send a story her way.