Unbelievable Success

I've been subbing Duty and Devotion the last few months without the request for partials and fulls I'd like. It's been a little disappointing, so early last week I was reading through the new queries on Query Shark and came across QueryTest.com in one of the comments.

I knew that my query was not as good as it could be, but I couldn't pinpoint the issue. Hmmm...maybe QueryTest might be helpful. I looked through the site and decided to upload mine and see what happened. The site was very helpful with a good response volume (13 in total).

The summary...my query sucked. And not only did QueryTest help me out with that realization, readers gave the reason why.

I went back to the drawing board and after a major revision and resubmission through the site, I sent out a new batch of agent queries and a couple publisher submissions.

Eureka!

Within the first hour (not kidding you) I got a request for full. This morning I woke up with an email from another letting me know my submission was going from the slush pile to editorial review.

If you're looking to diagnose your query, try out this great new site. Totally worth the ego deflation...at least you'll understand where you're going wrong with it.

Good writing all!

365 Days of Fantastic Fiction Cover

Yay! Pill Hill Press just posted their cover for the anthology, Daily Flash: 365 Days of Fantastic Fiction. I must say it is very awesome and I'm excited to be included. (I know, total duh statement)

Isn't it beautiful, wonderful, creative...okay, okay, no more descriptors. Promise.

Night Visitor , my contributed story, is about Nora, who wakes to a very unwelcome guest. As you've probably guessed - if you haven't read my previous acceptance post - 365 Days of Fantastic Fiction will have 365 flash fiction stories. They ranges from creepy to scary to just plain weird. All the wonderful colors of that Speculative Fiction rainbow.

If you want to look into some of the other authors and stories to be contributed, check out Pill Hill Press' forum here: Call for Submissions. I'll let you all know when it's available at Amazon, which should be around November/December.

Good writing all!

Why Space?

"Why space?" my teenage daughter asked as we sat on the couch and I talked about my latest story. "It's always space, rockets, other planets, and the search for aliens that - by the way - your characters never find."

I answered my normal spiel about H.G. Wells, possibilities, unknowns, new frontier and all the other jazz. Later in bed, though, the question really hit me on a more internal note...

Why space?

Yeah, H.G. Wells was a really groovy guy with awesome cool stories. The man certainly triggered my writing and fueled my love of reading. I was a book addict who read all kinds of genres. Thrillers, horrors, spy books, newspapers, magazines, historical, and non-fiction. Hell, why not my second favorite genre, murder mystery?

Of course, being who I am (anal-over-internalizing-nut) I fretted over the darn thing. I fell asleep thinking - or over thinking to be more accurate - about the why of it.

Then, I dreamed.

Space travelling expedition, being caught by roving pirates, fighting our way out, stealing a smaller shuttle, landing on a planet and finding a reclusive colony of hybrid humans...

When I woke up, excited about my recent space travels, I knew why it's space. Because that's where my soul is waiting to be...I'm just a few life cycles short of my true reality.

Good writing (and dreaming) all!

Quickie: Devoured Planet!

A sci-fi lover's dream!

A planet being eaten in distant space. I have this childlike, face-scrunching desire to see the real images but an artist's recreation will suffice for now.

Check out the article here Devoured Planet

And just because it's sooo cool...I've put in the NASA artist's rendering of the "situation".

Good writing all!

Diamonds into Suns

I love the building of a story and not just the initial pouring of ideas onto paper. That's all good and great, but anyone can get a brainstormed idea and write it on paper. The real mastery and love of a writer's work comes after.

The ability to look at the initial draft and instead of seeing a great story...can only spot the flaws and bad bits. Then, in true writer's fashion takes the story and molds it like clay: moving, tweaking, and reshaping until the flaws sparkle and the bad bits are gone.

Even then, it's not enough. They look at the revised work and see the implausible and unforeseen gaps in these character's story. At this point, only the most dedicated of writers will roll up their already wrinkled sleeves, wipe their brow of sweat, and dive back in.

They'll remove whole sections of unbelievability (even if some is of the most loved word usage) , delve further into the intricate of needed research to get the details just right, and turn that shiny diamond into a burning sun of perfection.

They'll know the manuscript is complete and that a part of them is in the story so completely they'll never get it back, even if it never gets published or seen by anyone but them and their beta readers.

Good writing all!

The Benefits of Short Flights

I'm off to my business trip and headed to the airport in a few minutes. The plan:

To keep my laptop closed and manually edit, edit, edit.

The benefit of flying only a short distance is that you don't really have the time or inclination to turn the laptop on (unless you're a putz who wants to look really important...). So, I've printed several chapters and am prepared with a blood pen to scratch, claw, and rip my way through the flight. Hopefully what's left in this carnage will be great revisions for the evening in my hotel room.

Wish me luck and good writing to all!

The Many Faces of Editing

Well, I'm at home with a hiking injury so I'm devoting today to editing. (What the heck else am I going to do?) I'm not talking the first phase, where I just hit the Spellcheck button. No, I'm way beyond that phase...oh, wait. Have I talked to you all about my loosely defined phases of editing?

Muawahahahahaha! Okay, here we go. Come join the crazy world that is AR.

Phase 1: Denial Editing. "I just finished this wonderful masterpiece. All it needs is a quick spell check and it's off to the races of submission wars." (After this phase I put it away for a couple weeks to fight off the early-submission urge.)

Phase 2: Awareness Editing. "I know this is perfect, but just let me check to make sure...Uh, that didn't come out quite how I'd hoped...that either. What the Wisconsin?" (After this phase I am usually ego deflated and put the manuscript away in shame for a couple weeks.)

Phase 3: Revelation Editing. "Let's pull this work of crap out and see what I can make of it...oh, those changes did make this better. If I just change these little things...it'll be perfect again." (After this phase, I'm heading towards the happy part of writing again.)

Phase 4: Final Touches. "It's finished...but why can't I tell the difference between you're and your or there and their when I'm in full writing mode?"

So, there are my 4 loosely defined phases of editing. Usually phase 2 and 3 are rinsed and repeated several times before reaching phase 4.

Good writing all!