Tag: writing

Publication News

I’ve been slack of late, so to make up for it, here’s a list of my recent publications. As a full-time publisher and also having other important roles in life, I’m pretty proud of being able to get some creative output going of late. I don’t plan to stop.

  • Guardian of the Sky Realms (IFWG Publishing International – reprint). This book has seen several publishers and has settled nicely with IFWG which has a track record with middle grade (and up) fiction. While not a teen writer specialist, this was a genuine pleasure to write, and I’m very glad to see it out there in the publishing world.
  • Champion of the Sky Realms (IFWG Publishing International). The sequel, and logically concluding an important thread that had begun in Guardian of the Sky Realms. Again, a pleasure to write.
  • ‘Finding Utopia’ in the anthology The Time Machine: Australia Bound (PS Publishing, eds Steve Proposch and Christopher Sequeira). One of my favourite short stories that flowed quickly and seamlessly. An historical science fiction, which, while obviously about time travel, is really about love.
  • ‘Hill-Runner and the Enemy From Behind the Curtain Of Stars’ in the anthology Into the Cthulhu-Universe: Lovecraftian Horrors in Other Literary Realities (IFWG Publishing International, eds Steven Paulsen and Christopher Sequeira). Another story easy to write, that explores the concept that a proto-North American tribe has existed for thousands of years in what we now call the Americas, whose task is to protect all people from Mythos-based enemies.

All of these books have been globally released over recent months and are available from all good bookstores, online and bricks and mortar, in print and ebook formats.

Author copies received: Bullet Points 2

Had the pleasure of receiving author copies of Bullet Points 2, a military sci fi anthology edited by Nathan W. Toronto. My story, ‘Fred Has a Productive Day’ is in it, a tiny piece exploring AI in a post-apocalyptic future (it was first published in Battlespace: A Military Science Fiction Anthology by The SciFi Show some years ago. This is a quality anthology, not glorifying war but using literature to bring veterans and non-veterans together. A worthy cause. It is also pretty cool to share my story in a volume with so many great authors, most notably Joe Haldeman.

Continuum 14

While I wasn’t able to attend the entire Continuum 14 convention in Melbourne, I had a whale of a time.

As a resident of Melbourne for a good number of years now, I have always wanted to attend my local speculative fiction convention, and for most of the years I have been here, I’ve managed to make it. Early years saw me in the vendors space, selling IFWG books, but now that I have distributors to do that for me, it was a double bonus to turn up as a writer, and lightly as a publisher.

I have to admit the publishing hat was most pleased – IFWG Publishing Australia managed to nab two 2017 Australian Shadows Awards (Best Edited Work, Best Collected Work) – the details can be found here. And, as usual, a bit of schmoozing – that is, a lot of the publishing business seems to generate in the corridors and lunch/dinner tables. All very good.

I attended a few panels in my interest areas, and spent a lot of time catching up with old friends, and making new. As usual, there’s an opportunity to meet some friends who I have up to that point only interacted through social media – a bonus!

While the convention is still carrying on into Monday, I can say that it was an enjoyable, and professionally fulfilling experience.

My Year In Review: 2014

2014 has been a mixed bag for me, but on balance, good. In some areas of activity, very good. Let’s get into the reporting.

Writing
Until August 2014 I sold, on average, a story a month for about three years. I was proud of that statistic, and more importantly, the more recent the sale, the higher the market payment. The average has fallen below one month per sale, because I have been less aggressive in submitting and writing stories; instead, I have been focussing on quality. And it worked. 2014 has seen 8 sales, where there has been a tangible increase in semi-pro and professional publications. Also of note, is the higher percentage of sales per submissions – I have logged in 2014 a 1 in 10 success rate, which is significantly higher than previous years. I should add that I have also sold a collection of science fiction stories to Cohesion Press which includes, potentially, 9 original short pieces (one a novelette). If that was added to my short story sale statistics, I would be doing very well indeed (I am counting this as a single work).

Highlights of the year:

– 8 sales, a mix of speculative fiction genres
– 1 of these sales was the revised, Australian edition of my all-ages fantasy novel, Guardian of the Sky Realms. I am very pleased with the end product, thanks to Cohesion Press
– Another sale is a collection of science fiction short fiction to be published in 2015 by Cohesion Press. Potentially up to 19 stories, including a novelette, and more than half of the content will be original. A mix of literary scifi, and character/plot driven.
– Another sale is the horror short story, ‘The Crab Woman’, a professional sale to the Our World of Horror anthology by Eldritch Press
– A professional sale in 2013 was published in December 2014, ‘Of The Color Turmeric, Climbing On Fingertips’, in Night Terrors III anthology, by Blood Bound Books
– Another 2013 sale, ‘The Deluge’ was published in Black Beacon’s Subtropical Suspense anthology. While not pro, I’m proud of this, as it is in many ways quite original, and dovetails rather well into the Brisbane speculative fiction scene.

Publishing
2014 was a very big year for the two publishing imprints I co-own, IFWG Publishing and IFWG Publishing Australia.

– I was appointed Managing Director, on top of Editor In Chief
– The two imprints were clearly differentiated, their specific areas of jurisdiction solidified, including the transfer of several title from the US/International imprint to the UK/Australia/NZ imprint (it was a very big job)
– Rationalisation of covers for older titles, improved royalty reporting and payments to existing authors, and many other ‘back office’ improvements
– Both imprints signed on new titles for 2015, both from existing authors and new talent, with a notable signing of Robert Hood for his complete collection of Ghost Stories – a significant achievement and one I am proud to be involved with
– The appointment of Stephen McCracken as dedicated Marketing Director, a critical step up as a publisher
– The setting up of strong alliances with other small speculative fiction publishers, as well as third party services
– Ramp up of SQ Mag, our international speculative fiction zine, to a token paying market, a higher humber of solicited original work by established authors, and commissioning of artwork. Sophie Yorkston has done a sterling job on this project, and without her, this would be a failure.

2015 is looking very good, mainly because the groundwork has occurred in 2014.

Personal
I don't comment much on my personal life, as it is, well, personal. What I can say is that I moved from one day job to another, and it was a highly disruptive process. It took a lot of work to move into the new job, and it did put a strain on my family’s lives. In April 2014 I lost my mother. It was a relatively sudden decline and it had a powerful effect on me, and my state of mind, for many months, and will no doubt have echoing effects for the remainder of my life. All’s good now, but that is more of a statement for 2015.

Market News: Submerged in Blood and Lullabies

My Evyntyde YA fantasy story, set in the world of Evyntyde, Submerged, is now available. It is published by Blood and Lullabies, which sends PDF editions to subscribers. They have kindly allowed me to make it available through this, and other pages of mine.

Submerged (Blood and Lullabies, Edition 3, 20 September 2012)
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Market News: “Legacy” & “Dom and Gio’s Barber Shop”

Double play this morning. My heroic fantasy short story, "Legacy" was accepted by Aurora Wolf Magazine, and my Cthulhu Mythos story (second I have written and published) was accepted by Lovecraft eZine.

Both are satisfying sales.

"Legacy" was one that had some trouble finding a home, and yet I always believed in it – it is unique on a number of levels. I believe this story will be published on 1st October 2012.

"Dom and Gio's Barber Shop" is one of my more recent creations, I am a noticeably better writer than a few years ago, and it was a pleasure to have my story accepted by a very discerning market, who specializes in, and are authorities of, Lovecraftian stories. Publication date is still to be determined.

All in all, a good day.

Patience in the Career of a Writer

Patience is a tough concept in this day and age. I'm 51 years old and I observed the 'I want it now' cultural underflow hitting my world in the Eighties, I think. I'm even a victim of it – there are times when I stupidly buy the dvd I really wanted on release, knowing I might not watch it for six months – and hey, the dvd is going to invariably be cheaper in six months. I really wanted to finish a particular home improvement project and even though I don't have to complete it today, I take the extra expense and time of going to the relevant shops to buy that component. etc etc.

I can't afford to take that mentality with writing. I can't, not at every level. I will give in to that extra push to write whats bubbling in me, at heavy cost to health and sleeplessness – but that's more the creative urge than any other serious root cause. What I'm talking about is the need to climb the vocational ladder of authorship. I'm talking about getting recognized by one's peers. Being a member of the SFWA. Making a semi-pro living, leading to pro living from the craft. Aside from ridding oneself of impatience so that one doesn't go round the twist, the critical reason to learn patience is to avoid the mental and physical pitfalls of being in a state of impatience.

Self-publishing is a good example. While I acknowledge and have respect for some self-publishers making a go of it, and those very few who actually succeed (by any reasonable definition), I can't help but feel that many of the self-published authors are simply impatient. They want the success that they have so eagerly and unhealthily (in relative terms) wanted. And they settle for less to gain that rung on the ladder. Perhaps for some this is the right way to go, as this is their peak or they are satisfied with the rung, but for others, I am sure it isn't.

Short fiction is a more measurable environment to analyze the topic. There are elite publications/epublications, there are medium level, and there are lots of low. How long does it take to make one's first 'pro sale'? I read a number of prominent/established short fiction writers' blogs and almost all of them talk about the usual apprenticeship taking ten years. Yes. TEN YEARS. This is presumably from the point in time when a conscious, mature decision was made to actively achieve a pro sale. That requires patience. I believe Jay and others will tell you that this isn't a situation of wasting one's time – it is a situation of learning, growing, and achieving narrative that at each step-point in one's growth was not imagined in previous iterations. I'm not saying it will take, say, you, ten years to get there. What I'm saying, however, is that if it takes ten, or fifteen, or whatever, years, then you will grow from the experience, and you must, aside from the eagerness and love of the craft, have patience.

A subtlety of this topic, which in fact contributed to the motivation to write it, was a link by Jay Lake to a most interesting blog by Jim van Pelt, on the relationship between 'hard work' and 'achievement'. He says that there are important synergies, but they are not proportional. He makes the wise observation that it is the experience of the process that ultimately will be the reward.

I have witnessed many incidents where friends and acquaintances in their early writing careers, make some poor decisions. In hindsight, I believe that many of them were caused by impatience – not the classic human frailty kind, but resultant from a lot of frustration with rejection, and exacerbated by the very thing that makes them writers – their creative urge. I have even lost friends because of their impatience.

All I can say is be patient (and smart).
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Writing: Latest Work

In a fairly concentrated period I wrote a 5k short story yesterday and, like God resting on the seventh day, found it was good. Well, ultimately readers will decide that bit, but I felt good that I got it out of my system. This seems to be the way with my short fiction writing lately – with all my day job, family and publishing commitments, I need to be productive with the eyes of the storms that come my way, and yesterday was one of them.

This story, titled The Girl Who Floated To Heaven, is a dark and tragic piece, which isn't always my style, but I do tend toward the dark these days. The best 'dark' stories are ones that show a glimmer of hope, or at worst, provides some insightful comment. I think this story is more the latter.

I always post my stories into my writers' group wiki for comments, so soon after that cycle of review, I will find a market for this precious little gem.
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