More Writing Success

I Submitted a short children's story to the 81st Annual Writer's Digest Competition back in May. So long ago that I'd almost forgot about it. I certainly was sure I didn't do any good.

But I was wrong!

Early Thursday morning I received an email from Writer's Digest that my story, 'Leprechaun Tours Australia' has been awarded seventh place in the Young Adult/Children's Fiction category. I said 'Wow'.

I will get a prize money cheque  in the mail some time in the next 60 days. I don't know much it will be, but it will be my first ever cheque for writing something. 'Wow'

I also get a whole bunch of free stuff and discounts from Writer's Digest, and I can display the really cool 'Award Winner' thing that is up in the corner. My story will also be published in a book next year containing all the winning stories. 'Wow'

I have sold my first story

This is amazing, someone is actually paying me to publish one of my stories. Who is this incredibly clever, insightful someone? Nicole Murphy, publisher of In fabular-divino (The Tale-Tellers).

Let me explain. In fabular-divino is a webzine that publishes one story a month of a specfic nature. Nicole selects one story a month, from that months submissions, to be published on the site after she has worked through a full editorial process with the author. Nicole is a very experienced writer and editor, so the story gets a real good polish. She than pays the author $100 for the right to publish the story on In fabular-divino for a month and to put it in an anthology at the end of the year. The author also gets two free copies of the anthology and royalties after costs have been covered so that the next year is financial.   The full submission/selection process is found here. 

I feel very privileged to have such a great breakthrough so early in my writing career. Nicole has already said some wonderful things about my story on the site blog and I looking forward to what I'll learn from all this. I'd actually almost convince myself that my story going to be accepted. This was because it's so different from the two other stories I had read on the site. I like both stories at lot, especially the latest one 'Regret', but neither of them are the type of story I would ever write. However, Nicole has proved me wrong.

Oh, and the story is called 'Crossroads' I will appear on the site for the whole month of November.

Submissions

I've never been quite sure if I should post about my story submission, say when I've submitted a story and where I've submitted it. I'll always post about successes, when I've had a story accepted, but I seem to be worried about letting people know about possible failures. I see some ego issues here.

Anyway, because I think ego is a dirty word, here are my current submissions. ( The song is great.)

I submitted my short story, 'Bounty' to Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine on the 16th of August. Seeing that it is the No. 1 SF Magazine in the world I will be very surprised if get a story accepted my first go. They gave me a tracking number and told me it would be about 5 weeks before I'll hear anything. I've checked my tracking number at least twenty times. :)

My only other submission is my short story, 'Crossroads' to In fabula-divinos (http://thetaletellers.wordpress.com/). Which is a webzine, I think, that publishes one short story a month, of an up and coming writer, and then puts all the stories into an anthology at the end of the year. You have to submit your story between the 1st and 7th of each month. You then find out on the 8th of the month if your story has been accepted.

So, even though I submitted my story to Asimov's two weeks before the story I submitted to In fabula-divinos, I'll find out if In fabula-divinos has accept my story at least two weeks be fore I find out Asimov's response.

Interestingly, to me, is that one of the requirements for In fabula-divinos is that you've not had any professional sales. Acceptance by Asimov's would be a professional sale. If, amazingly, Asimov's accepted 'Bounty' within the next two days, I would become ineligible for In fabula-divinos. However, if In fabula-divinos accepts 'Crossroad', and then Asimov's accepts 'Bounty' after that what happens?

I don't know.

More On Reading

When it comes to writing, a common recommendation is to read what you want to write. Thinking that I wanted to start my writing with short stories I decided I needed to read short stories. It seemed to me that the best way to do this was to find some magazines that specialize in printing the type of stories I wanted to write. I knew of a few such magazines, but I didn't no how many there were out there.

I first tried to subscribe to Asimov's Science Fiction (http://www.asimovs.com) as I had read a few copies over the years (The rare times I'd seen one in a newsagents), but I accidently subscribed to Analog Science Fiction & Fact (http://www.analogsf.com) instead. The Asimov's online subscription page was down and I got the Analog one through random pressing of anything that said subscribe. I managed to subscribe to Asimov's some months later. 

I discovered a number of online magazines, but at this point I was only interested in printed stuff. I also wanted something Australian. I found Aurealis (http://www.aurealis.com.au) and promptly subscribed. It was interesting timing that I subscribed, hoping for a printed magazine, just as Aurealis decided to go digital. They did send me two hard copies for my troubles.

Anyway, this opened my up to the possibility digital reading. I've since subscribed to two other digitally formatted SF magazines; the webzine AntipodeanSF (http://www.antisf.com.au) and SQ Mag (http://www.sqmag.com) both of these are free subscription. Lastly I subscribed to the online version of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine ASIM (http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/).

There are many more magazine and ezines I could subscribe to, but the truth is I cannot keep up with what I'm getting now. At one point I had three unread Aurealis' on my computer, I've got one now, the latest. I'm trying to get through my first ASIM. I've got two unopened Analogs and one Asimov's unopened.

I guess I'm just a slow reader. I am also trying to read books at the same time.

Perhaps I'll tell you about that next time.

On Reading

When I decided to have a serious go at writing about 12 months ago one thing I did was start looking around at what advice was out there about writing. One of the messages that was repeated many times was, "A good writer must also be a reader." At first I went, "Great, I'm a reader.", but then I realized that it was no longer true. I'd actually stopped being a reader.

I came to reading late. I could not read until I was 10 years old, but I then tried to make up for lost time. I also had a desire to write from the very beginning. The first book I read was The Hobbit and I wanted to write stories just like it. I also discovered comics and ended up creating a whole pantheon of Super Hero's in my head. As I grew, I read great Science Fiction writers like Asimov Heilein, Herbert and Dick, and great fantasy writers like Tolkien, Moorcock, Leiber and Le Guin.  (There many other writers I could name these are just a sample.)They all inspired me to want to write, but I never did.

In time, the tasks of life gradually took over and I read less and less. At first I began to just re-read my old books, never finding the time to discover new ones. However, over time I mostly stopped even doing that. I never stopped completely.

The passion for reading has returned with my quest to be a writer. In some ways it is almost over whelming, but I might keep that for another post.

I'm Surprised

I'm surprised that I'm blogging again.
I'm surprised that after only 12 months of writing I've written three short stories and two flash stories.
I'm surprised that I have a story published. Check it out: http://www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/leprechaun-in-the-backyard
I'm surprised that I once thought that Kenny Roger's 'The Gambler' was really deep and meaningful.
I'll be surprised if more than 2 or 3 people read this blog.

Back with more Writing Journal

Last time I posted an aim to complete two flash fiction and two short stories by the end of April. It did not all happen. There were a number of reasons, but let us not dwell on the past.

I did, however, get the two flash stories done. 

I am submitting them both. One, 'Leprechaun in the Backyard', to AntipodeanSF. The other, 'Mouse' to 100 Words or Fewer Writing contest. I'll report here how I went in both, when I know, in a future blog.

Meanwhile, even though I intended otherwise when starting it, this blog will just be about writing from now on. My quest to become a successful writer, my thoughts on writing (if I have any) and, hopefully some reviews of writing by others.

Only time will tell.