Story Sale – Unpicking the Stitches

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Acceptances, ChiZine, Critique, Fiction markets, Horror, Online Writing Workshop, Short Stories, Story Sales, Unpicking the Stitches, Writing

This appears to be the last place I’m mentioning this, where it should really be the first, but I wanted to use it as a platform for thanking folk as well and I wasn’t at home when I posted on Facebook earlier in the day, so couldn’t remember every name.

The news is that ‘Unpicking the Stitches’ will feature in the July 2011 issue of Chiaroscuro, or as it’s more commonly known, ChiZine. Quite a fast turnaround from writing that story, redrafting it and then having it accepted. If only they all sold like that.

This marks my first full professional sale (by SFWA standards at least), and ChiZine is an awesome online zine backed up by an independent book publishing arm. They publish the kind of dark, weird, horror-ish stuff that I like and it’s the perfect home for this story.

I must then thank some people for their input on this story – Erin Stocks and Neil Williamson gave me some hugely detailed and insightful critique in particular, and also Henry Szabranski, Gio Clairval, Steve Chapman, Jack Westlake, Boz Flamagin, Michael Keyton, Crash Froelich, Camille Picott and Kyle Aisteach all contributed comments and critique and it wouldn’t be the same story without them. And last but not least, my partner, Alexis who championed this story from the start.

Spring update

Tags

Black Static, Books, Gary McMahon, Horror, Kaaron Warren, Novellas, Online Writing Workshop, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

Logging on to the hive brain for a general update writing-wise, and reading-wise. After all, the two are connected, so I hear.

Still in redraft mode – scything through short stories with the garden shears and hopefully not chopping them down into a state of inertia. It’s been successful enough to create a couple of submissions – I have five out there at the moment and am finally adopting the full, targeted top-down approach, so I’m expecting the acceptances to dry up for quite some time until I can reach the pro standard. The writing is improving, I think – I hope. General critical reaction from the workshop and elsewhere is assisting my belief in that area.

The chess-based horror novella is taking shape. Some actual planning going into this one. I’ve heard differing opinions about approaches to planning a story, or not. I know a lot of writers who approach it as an organic entity and do next to no planning, and some of them are published in high places. I have used that approach for some of my stories – ‘Disconnection’ and ‘Divination’ come to mind. But for a longer piece, I know from grim experience that, without some planning, I have a tendency to write myself into a corner. Not that I intend to plan this down to the last syllable. Just enough to get to know my characters well before I introduce them to the world of the story, and enough to have an idea where I’m taking it and what I want out of it. It may all change as I ‘m writing it, but at least I’m preparing for the journey, rather than heading up Ben Nevis in a T-shirt and flip-flops with nothing more than a can of Fanta and a Crunchie for sustenance.

Reading is crammed into lunch breaks and pre-sleep. Currently eating my fill of modern horror wherever possible –  ‘Slights‘ by Kaaron Warren; ‘The Harm‘ by Gary McMahon; Black Static issue 16 are all on the go at the moment.

New story up at AlienSkin Magazine

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Alienskin Magazine, Fiction markets, Flash Fiction, Horror, Karen Meisner, Online Writing Workshop, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

‘Queuing Instinct‘ is now available to read online at Flash/Micro fiction site AlienSkin Magazine.

Flash fiction is still an experiment for me, as I am a long suffering patient of the deadly illness of verbosity. This is my first published bit of flash, and it is accompanied by a wonderfully silly little bit of artwork.

In other news – my fledgling short story about an epidemic of rage, current title ‘A Rude and Undeveloped Mass‘ (working title, and very likely to change) was nominated as  an Editor’s Choice on the Online Writing Workshop. Received an inspiring review from Strange Horizons fiction editor, Karen Meisner who, most importantly, seemed to enjoy it and even commented on my use of dialect as being successful, which made me very happy.

Story Sale – Queuing Instinct

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Alienskin Magazine, Horror, Online Writing Workshop, Queuing, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

A good month for the writing! My flash fiction story, ‘Queuing Instinct’ has sold to Alienskin Magazine. It will appear in the April/May issue.

I’d better get some new stories submitted – only 2 left out there at the moment and news is imminent for both of them. I must have at least 7 stories lazing around my hard drive in a variety of states of undress. Time to get them looking respectable!

Story Sale – Saint Stephen Street

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Apocalyptic Fiction, Edinburgh, Elizabeth Bear, Fiction markets, Ideomancer, Leah Bobet, Online Writing Workshop, Saint Stephen Street, Short Stories, speculative fiction, The Edinburgh Street Stories, Writing

Just received word that Saint Stephen Street, will be published in a future issue of the wonderful online zine Ideomancer. With some award-winning writers involved in the running of it – e.g. Leah Bobet, Elizabeth Bear – I am thrilled to bits to sell this story there.

I’ve worked hard to get this story right, and learned a lot about editing a short story down into a fully-functioning engine. And, Saint Stephen Street was the story that made me a lot of good friends on the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

And… that’s my first sale for this year, and the first of the Edinburgh Street Stories to find a home.

Progress report #2

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Anthony O'Neill, Fiction markets, Horror, Novels, Online Writing Workshop, Sci-fi, Short Stories, speculative fiction, The Lamplighter, Victorian Fiction, Writing

Total Word Count: 2005

Word Count today: 764

A half decent evening’s writing. The opening is always slow, and it was the first day back at work, so had that particular brand of mental fatigue to contend with as well. Once I get deep into the novel, the daily word count should grow back to the days of 2 and 3000 that I used to achieve when I first wrote this.

Thoroughly enjoying ‘The Lamplighter’ by Anthony O’Neill at the moment. The fact that it is set in Edinburgh is a bonus, but the writing is quite beautiful – capturing those Victorian cadences so well. Showing me a thing or two after my late Victorian effort, ‘The Last Will & Testament of George Archibald Moffat’, which I hope to mould into a submittable format soon. It is in a middle draft stage, awaiting one major alteration to the ending and some cleaning up.

First progress report

Tags

Catastrophia, Novels, Online Writing Workshop, Sci-fi, speculative fiction, Writing

Word count: 1241

Today marks the day of the big push. I’ve been flirting with the opening for a day or two, a couple of hundred words here and there, but today, not only did I pass my driving test (woo hoo!), I felt a rhythm kicking off to the writing. The opening is a tough one, and I have made it that way on purpose – it needs to really set the scene in a much more captivating way than the first draft – which started life as a short story, so the opening was never going to be right for the rest of it.

At least I can announce a word count and get down to the regular beat of doing this every day again. At least this time I will be able to get plenty of feedback on the workshop.

October

Tags

Fiction markets, Online Writing Workshop, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

October gales blowing drafts under the doors and down the chimney. I’m sitting at my PC trying to find a way back into writing after a couple of weeks of non-activity.

Reasons for non-activity – mainly down to an exam I had to sit and study for and a week’s worth of the cold. Blocked ears, mucus and fever don’t add up to much creativity.

Now, with a week off work opening up in front of me, I have the perfect opportunity to rev up and get going on the novel. First, there are several reviews to attend to on the workshop – must keep up with my fellow writers and their work. Then, I have a story to re-submit (‘Whisper’ after rejection#5) – one to do a small further rewrite on (St Stephen Street) – and then I can get down to it.

Procrastination always comes along more readily when a period of inactivity crops up. Easy to find excuses and piss away an evening in front of the TV or arseing about on websites. But, as far as I am concerned, I will start the novel redraft before the end of the holiday, which is Nov 2nd – The Mexican Dia de los Muertos – and the day of my practical driving test.

Publication news

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Critique, Edinburgh, Fiction markets, Online Writing Workshop, Rejection, Sci-fi, Short Stories, speculative fiction, The Ranfurly Review, Writing

Some good news this evening. The Ranfurly Review, a Scottish literary journal, will be publishing my story ‘Woe is Me’ in their March 2010 issue.  It’s the first story that I’ve used crits from the Online Writing Workshop to improve that I’ve had published.

I’m quite happy to get this one out there after seven rejections. I was considering a huge rewrite if it was rejected again.

Holiday week two

Tags

Critique, Fiction markets, Novels, Online Writing Workshop, Rejection, Sci-fi, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

Back from the serenity of the Western Highlands, but still on holiday and trying to get a load of writing work done before the return to the dayjob. I’ve re-subbed three stories that were rejected in the last two weeks, so I have four out there under consideration. One of them has been out there quite a while with a notable SF zine – far longer than a previous sub to them. Fingers crossed as always.

Still to do: – many critiques to catch up on at the Online Writing Workshop. Four stories to redraft and make ready for submission a.s.a.p. The (dare I mention it) novel to get cracking on the second draft. And a new story in the pipeline which is taking shape nicely.