I’ve got a new store from which I intend to sell downloads of my fiction (and perhaps a few other goodies in the future). If you’re interested in an epub of my story, you can buy “Work, With Occasional Molemen” in the store.
If you run into any trouble, let me know. Consider the shop in “beta” for the moment.
If you prefer to shop on Amazon, the story’s going through their approval process and should be ready for purchase in a day or so.
Michael Brotherton and I had a bit of a conversation on the phone the other day—I don’t remember the exact subject, but we talked a bit about optimism for the economic and climatic future. I expressed the usual dour pessimism (“Paolo Bacigalupi is too upbeat for you,” I seem to recall him saying.) Mike has an interesting post up recently about this whole issue of optimism as it relates to writing science fiction and dystopias in particular.
Mike calls bullshit on Paolo’s statement that teenagers prefer dystopias because they sense the lie in optimism and “…our children will inherit a world significantly depleted and damaged in comparison to the one our parents handed down to us. And they know it…” He makes some statements which I don’t find entirely convincing regarding his own life—just because your life has improved doesn’t mean everyone has, necessarily. The lives of my family have declined considerably in the last decade due to the economy in particular, and I think there are a few people out there whose lives are starting to see serious effects from global warming. I can understand why some look at the future and they feel like we’re on a roller coaster about to make the big drop. But then there’s a fascinating link to a video in his comments that paints a very optimistic picture about the quality of life globally over time. So maybe ultimately things are consistently getting better for people, when taken as a whole (even if it does seem to suck pretty badly to be in Africa).
Personally, I think dystopias are popular with teens because they fit that world view that EVERYTHING SUCKS that seems to come with the brain chemistry of puberty. And today, with all the news about dire economic and environmental predictions, maybe they buy into it even more heavily. But I think teens just have a natural pessimism that comes along with being squeezed out of childhood and into adulthood, possibly not very willingly. I know becoming a teenager pissed me off anyway. I spent 4 years angry or depressed all the time for no good reason.
But to the matter of adult optimism for our real futures…
The reason I have a hard time being optimistic about the environment in particular is that I’ve watched our planet lose habitat after habitat and species after species for 20 years. The Amazon will likely be a fairy tale today’s conservation biologists tell their grand kids. Habitat destruction in search of resources so our species can grow and build and extend is something I can’t be optimistic about. There’s little evidence to me that this trend will reverse any time soon, if ever. Until developing nations climb up out of poverty entirely, they’re going to slash and burn their resources to do it. The planet becomes poorer for it in terms of biodiversity which is something I can’t explain the value of in the same way I can explain the value of a barrel of oil or hardwood lumber. So I won’t go into it here. Another post, perhaps.
Ultimately, it all comes down to the finiteness of resources in my mind. Constant growth as demanded by capitalism is a physical impossibility, as far as I can tell. The world will run out of any number of resources. Shit, helium may run out any day now. Any number of precious metals are becoming difficult to find, metals crucial in the manufacturing of high tech devices. Why is now any less likely than some time in the distant future for resource depletion? We hear news about peak oil, how we may have even already passed peak oil and begun our decline.
And if you’re a member of the middle or lower middle class in the United States? You have little to be optimistic about economically. I defy anyone to give me evidence that my generation will enjoy the same level of comfort and stability that our parents did (or grandparents in the case of my young parents who are hit very hard by this economy as well). Employer stability, this notion that you would have one excellent job for 35 years and then retire comfortably? Not for us. Look at unemployment rates among gen Y as well. There’s an entire generation growing up to reach for the American dream only to find it missing. Can you fault them for wondering if it were ever really there?
And yet, times have never been better for the megarich! I suppose for them, the future has never looked brighter. You’ll excuse me if I don’t share their optimism. I wasn’t born with a platinum spoon in my mouth.
Our entire political system seems rigged in favor of the wealthy and their corporations. Do you think I as a small business can get away with paying no or minimal taxes like many megacorporations? Of course not. Did the wealthy really need a tax cut that increased our deficit by something like 25%? Of course they didn’t; but they got it anyway. And it just makes the future for us lower in the economic strata look even bleaker. Our wages go down or stagnate in real terms, and their net wealth continues to skyrocket into the stratosphere. I loathe the Tea Party and what they stand for, but I know where those people are coming from. They see a world that increasingly is leaving them behind. For both good and bad reasons.
For a good chunk of the people I know back home, their only hope of not struggling their entire lives for just enough income to get by is to win the lottery. Or go on a game show run by the mega-rich which taunts them with the possibility of winning money and then records their anguish when they lose it, and then they sell that fucking anguish to you and I on network televisions.
Seriously, is there anything more fucking evil on television today than shows like “Money Drop”?
Hell, I used to believe in the power of science to make the world better. And I’ve spent my entire life watching people in power reduce the public’s opinion of science to the point where more people in the U.S. question evolution than believe in it, which to me is basically on par with disbelieving gravity. The wealthy have attacked the public’s faith in science because it would have cost them money for us to believe that the planet’s climate is being changed by their industries. An entire political arm of this country distrusts the notion of experts. The only science they care about is that which allows them to wring more money from the world.
And don’t fucking get me started on the travesty that is our health care system in the U.S.. We are ALL one serious illness away from complete financial obliteration. Anyone who doesn’t believe that is a deluded fool or wealthy enough that nothing I have said here applies to them anyway.
Where’s my optimism? Where’s my ability to write science fiction like “The Kansas Jayhawk vs. The Midwest Monster Squad?” Where did I leave it? And would it be delusional of me to even try and adopt it again? That’s the thing, isn’t it? If you’re a pessimist and your pessimism doesn’t come true, you get to be happy along with the optimists. But if you’re an optimist whose predictions prove false, then there’s little to be happy about. The pessimist at least gets the grim satisfaction of being right. Even if they’re no happier about the outcome than the optimist.
Now, by being a pessimist, did they somehow help ensure that the optimistic vision would never come true? Possibly. But as far as preserving one’s own sense of ego, the pessimistic belief system is a better bet. At least I can recognize that in addition to everything else.
I feel like Mulder on this subject. I want to believe that the world will only get better. But some part of my intellect rebels at the notion. Maybe when I’m not sending money back to Kansas to help my family out regularly, maybe then I will start to believe that things can improve. But right now, I feel like we’ve begun an unprecedented decline, and I’m not sure for my family this decline will reverse. And maybe we were spoiled in the first place, and it shouldn’t matter so much? People in Africa are starving, right?
Yes, most everything I say here is self-interested. No need to point that out. Life may be improving leaps and bounds for the Chinese, but when it comes down to it, I don’t really care except in a very general sense. And if their life’s improvements have to come at the cost of our quality of life, all that’s going to do is make folks even more angry and disillusioned with the future
I’m going to keep looking for my optimism. Things like that video give me a broader perspective and make me feel better about where we’ve come from. It’s hard to see the battlefield when you’re in the trenches. Maybe we really are winning the war. I’ll be as happy as any optimistic soul if it turns out to be the case.
Maybe even happier.
I’ve reached the point where I realize I’m not going to get appreciably smarter without outside intervention. Drugs might work a bit, but I think for true superhuman brain powers, I’m going to need to interface my brain with a coprocessor.
And I started to wonder how that will feel. Will it be seamless? Or will it be like the voice of a personal assistant in your head pointing things out. How would children turn out if they had a weak AI companion in their head aiding them in their thinking as they grow up? What if someone decided all they needed for company was their own co-processor?
The stuff writers think about in the shower, I guess.
The Globe and Mail recently ran an interesting article of predictions by Douglas Coupland. I both agree and disagree with what he has to say. Here are my thoughts on a selected number of his predictions.
1) It’s going to get worse
Well, okay. If you’re calling your article a pessimist’s guide, then you pretty much have to lead off with something like this, eh? I’m not convinced there’s any evidence that this economic cycle is any more likely to go downward than it is to trend upward. And I’m pretty pessimistic. It’s a broad statement, and thus difficult to really react to positively or negatively.
2) The future isn’t going to feel futuristic
The future never feels futuristic because it’s the present when you’re experiencing it. It takes disconnecting yourself from the daily grind and conciously thinking about the difference between today and yesterday to really evoke the sense of futuristic. If you mean it’s not a Gernsback future, well, we all figured that out some time around 1999. Your flying car is never going to happen. Time to accept that.
6) The middle class is over. It’s not coming back
This, I agree with, as things stand now. The middle class as we knew it was built on an industrial economy, one where stability was derived from repetitive, lightly skilled jobs producing products with a constant or rising demand. It’s a pre-globalist phenomenon, and as far as I can tell, one of the primary effects of globalism has been a return to global poverty. It seems through most of history, wealth has been consolidated in the hands of the few. Sometimes it seems like the middle class was just a blip that came along with the ride of various forms of democracy, and as democracy begins to falter as a result of transforming into de facto oligarchies, we’ll head back to the pre-Enlightenment systems of peasants, peons, an wealthy aristocrats. As soon as money==speech, the middle class was doomed.
Of course, none of that means we have to like it. When the former middle class finally catches on, things are going to get bloody, and I wouldn’t venture a guess. The Tea Party movement at that point will look like the voice of reason. Might be a couple of generations of declining standards of living before they’re finally shocked out of complacency.
Or one winter of food shortages—that would do the trick.
9) The suburbs are doomed, especially those E.T. , California-style suburbs
They’re not doomed. They’ll just adapt and transform. I expect that all those idiotic rules against suburban farming will get struck down out of necessity. The suburbs are the future small towns and rural areas. You may end up with wholesale abandonment in some places, but I have a feeling that they’re going to transform themselves into villages, not become pseudo-ghost towns.
17) You may well burn out on the effort of being an individual
I agree that we’re headed back to communities that are more interconnected. But my generation isn’t going to burn out on individuality. For much of us, “being our individual selves” is a fundamental cornerstone of our self-identity. maybe we’ll raise our kids to be more community-minded though. But in 10 years? Not remotely likely to me.
20) North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989
I go back and forth on this notion. I think it will very much depend, at least in the United States, on the executive branch at the time. We’ve kinda been through this already, and we fought the most bloody war in our nation’s history to keep fragmentation from happening. I’m going to have to say “no way” on this happening in 10 years in the U.S. In Mexico, though, that’s another story.
22) Your sense of time will continue to shred. Years will feel like hours
I’m just making a wild guess here, but is Douglas Copland going through a midlife crisis?
28) It will become harder to view your life as “a story”
Narrative structure didn’t invent itself, you know. We’ve been structuring our experiences as story since we could paint on cave walls, or even before. The idea that our life will instead be however many friends we have online, I just don’t buy it. It sounds like something Facebook would pitch to venture capitalists, not a real futurist prediction. Yes, your social network will be important. But we’ll define our sense of self by it? Is there going to be a fundamental alteration of our brain chemistry at the same time?
32) Musical appreciation will shed all age barriers
This may be the most interesting prediction I’ve read. I think it says something about the generation of new modes of music—what is the next rock n’ roll? Is it rap? Okay, then what’s coming after that? The death of a musical mainstream culture caused by a fragmentation of taste means generations to come will have a harder time self-identifying with a specific genre. They’ll like bands composed of individuals their own age, but as far as age being linked to types of music? I can buy this totally.
34) You’re going to miss the 1990s more than you ever thought
I don’t know, I already miss them pretty badly. Then again, I was in high school and college, and who doesn’t miss those years of their lives to some extent? A time of less responsibility always looks good from real adulthood.
37) People will stop caring how they appear to others
The number of tribal categories one can belong to will become infinite. To use a high-school analogy, 40 years ago you had jocks and nerds. Nowadays, there are Goths, emos, punks, metal-heads, geeks and so forth.
Two social group/tribes 40 years ago? It’s not quite 40 years ago, but let me quote to you from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:
Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.
Are you telling me in 1970, there weren’t hippies or greasers? Stoners or preps?
The number of tribal categories have always neigh-infinite. It seems that we just care more now than we used to. With other forms of identity, we put more weight on this one.
41) The future of politics is the careful and effective implanting into the minds of voters images that can never be removed
Yeah, we all saw Inception this summer too.
45) We will accept the obvious truth that we brought this upon ourselves
I thought this was supposed to be a pessimist’s guide? That’s the most optimistic prediction about a fundamental change in human nature I’ve read yet!
So what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with any of his 45 predictions?
I’m pretty slow in catching up with my reading for Lightspeed Magazine—sorry, John. But I recently took the time to sit down with “Arvies” by Adam Troy Castro. I’ve been struggling with what to cover on Inspiration Tuesday this week, but my indecision was settled half-way through this great, great story.
If you enjoy science fiction that challenges and satirizes culture, then “Arvies” will be right up your alley. Some might try to argue that it’s a pro-choice story attacking pro-lifers. Others might argue the exact opposite. Don’t let that stop you. It may take some of its inspiration from arguments on both side of that touchy issue, but it goes far beyond it into fascinating territory. Harlan Ellison himself called it:
Remarkable. And in the purest intensity of the word: powerful.
Delany’s lessons on structure and plot come to mind again when I read this one. It has a really clear structure, broken up into sections with headers such as “VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS” and “INSTALLATION.” The format almost mimics an academic paper with its Statement of Intent and Content summaries. However, it’s not written in the language of an academic paper, which would be dry at best.
Get ahead on next year’s “Year’s Best” reading and read it now. It’s a sure contender for all the collections.
…the Academy was founded to detail the story of how Fremont’s Children directed the outcome of the Making War. This is the incredible and unlikely story of how a brother and a sister, and other young heroes, created the balanced forces that drive us today. Although this is a tale of our past, it is still a story in the making. We uncover new bits of information regularly. We invite you to drop in from time to time to see it.
Brenda Cooper, co-author of Harlequin’s Moon with Larry Niven, contacted me a couple of months back, interested in how I might help publicize the release of the third book in her series, The Wings of Creation. I jumped at the chance to get involved.
The first thing I did was tackle the books. In this series, Brenda has built a strong cast of young characters and an interesting setting that is both recognizable and alien at the same time. They’re good “all ages” science fiction, and I really enjoyed them.
From reading the books, I suggested developing a website for the series as if the site was the digital presence of an actual institution in the world. The website would provide samples of the books for reading, and an encyclopedia of information–a kind of reader’s guide, if you will.
The Academy of New World Historians is the organization responsible for assembling the historical texts that make up Brenda’s series. Each book opens with excerpts of interviews conducted by these historians. The goal of the website is to share their publications with the rest of the Five Worlds.
The site is built on a WordPress framework, using a custom theme. It’s fairly straightforward in design and construction to reflect a culture that values simplicity and usability in interfaces. The design uses some jQuery effects here and there for some pizazz–I was really interested in trying out the “expanded navigation” method that I’ve implemented on the home page. You can hover over the section titles and see additional information for the section, such as links to specific topics.
Overall, Brenda has been a joy to work with. I hope you will all check out the site and her books. They’re good stuff, and I would recommend them even if Brenda were not a client.
I have often thought that the future of science fiction isn’t in tales of first world nations like the United States. The future stories we should be exploring and contemplating more are the ones involving (and told by residents of) life on the fringes, in the favelas and the border towns, in the developing world, where raw humanity bumps up against the shiny and antiseptic American capitalist way.
Most do not live the lives of relative luxury we do, but one of the promises of globalism has been said to be an elevation of those who are in poverty. Will those living in Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, or China one day know lives with better amenities,health care, and basic nutrition? Or will the same web of post-colonialism, transnational banking dealing from decks stacked against the poor, and corrupt government regimes keep third world countries rooted in poverty?
The Sleep Dealer is an examination of American globalization as it impacts our lives today, where resentment to illegal immigration in America is as high as it ever has been, but where there are still jobs to be had for those who brave the crossing (at least, prior to our economic woes). The world of the Sleep Dealer is not so different from our own, except in a few very important ways.
The United States of the sleep dealer is mostly seen indirectly, through the lenses of telepresence drones, or in the cramped confines of virtual operator stations where soldiers pilot drones to protect corporatized water in places like Mexico. America appears to be sealed off completely to immigration, at least from Mexico. A wall has been built, and it’s guarded by remote-controlled cameras with heavy machine guns. A future that seemed much less implausible 2 years ago when the anti-immigration sentiment seemed to reach its peak.
The U.S. of this future still requires cheap labor, even if it cannot abide the physical presence of immigrants, legal or otherwise. In this near future, virtual reality technology, portrayed in a way that would fit in with any cyberpunk novel (a series of plugs along the arms and shoulders that allow a kind of neural interface), allows the poor to work within the States. It’s best not to think too hard about the portrayal of the equipment here, which seems more tailored toward a particular visual aesthetic than making logical sense. What was with the gas masks piping in oxygen? Nevertheless–
The backdrop of the world in the Sleep Dealer feels lived in, well worn, and not implausible. Our protagonist is an intelligent young man with an interest in escaping his tiny, water-impoverished farmstead. He tinkers with hacking telecommunications satellites as a means of escape, but soon he overhears something that he should not, and the events of the story are set into motion.
In the aftermath of a tragedy, Memo (a very Gibsonian name, I thought) travels to Tijuana to receive the implants that will allow him to work in the virtual labor factories. He meets a woman, a writer who sells her memories uploaded to the network, who takes an interest in his painful past and whose stories about Memo are funded by a mysterious buyer.
I’ll say no more about the plot, except to say that while this is a science fiction film, it is also an independent film in that sense that it is not the tightly shot, leave-nothing-unanswered big studio style of storytelling. The cinematography is often dreamlike, and the story’s gentle narration reinforce this. The story in some ways feels like a character’s lucid dream.
It’s a contemplative film in its pacing as well. Those expecting a tightly plotted thriller or action film should look elsewhere. This is a film that is more interested in letting the audience come to its own conclusions than lecturing morally (or otherwise).
This was something different than what we are used to seeing. While some of its ideas may not seem so fresh to long-time readers of science fiction, I don’t think this is something we’ve ever seen portrayed this way on the silver screen. It’s worth picking up on DVD or renting at the very least.
Everyone knows a dozen author websites to read, and the industry blogs that tell you about the latest movies and TV shows. But what if you’re interested in hearing about outlandish ideas you might pilfer for a story? Or maybe you just want a quick kick of reality-based sensawunda. What websites to do you turn to for that? Try this list for starters.
Almost solely the hard work of Paul Graham Raven, Futurismic picks up on the near-future science news faster than anyone else I read at the moment. More importantly, Futurismic is not afraid to contemplate the ramifications and implications of new tech developments. Paul has the mind of a great science fiction writer in the making, I think. I sometimes wish he’d spend less time on Futurismic and more time writing short stories.
Futurismic also features regular guest columns–one of which is by Brenda Cooper on trends in futurism. Those are well worth a read as well.
For a lapsed world traveler such as myself, Curious Expeditions is a real treat. Written by Michelle Enemark and Dylan Thuras , the site documents weird and obscure locations around the globe. Their fixation on cabinets of curiosities have given me many ideas for the Dr. Roundbottom project.
Their photos are always visually rich and unlike anything else you will find elsewhere. It’s a source of historical sensawunda.
Post Secret is a project in which people mail anonymous post cards with secrets in to the project creator. Each week, he posts a new batch of cards.
This one has almost nothing to do with speculative fiction exactly, but for a writer, it’s an amazing insight into the inner lives of other human beings. I always come away from the Sunday posts of secrets feeling a little more wise and a little changed by the experience. I can’t say that I’ve used any of the secrets directly in my work, but reading the site is definitely furthering my understanding of how people work in a more general sense.
The project of Canadian futurist George Dvorsky, this site brings me buckets of news about robotics and research in artificial intelligence. It does take a bit of a credibility hit by paying lip-service to the discredited “aquatic ape” theory in my opinion, but I can understand the appeal of such wacky theories. Regardless, it’s a great source of science news.
Here’s another blog by an eclectic and interesting thinker. Douglas leans left politically, so you may not be interested in his current fixation about taking the world back from corporations, but he’s been a great source for me of off-the-beaten-path economic news. About everything else, Ruskoff is interested, it seems to me, in the future of humanity. This can be a little publicity heavy at times, as he is selling a book, but when he shares an article, it’s almost always worth a read.
There have been a lot of very, very strange maps drawn throughout history. This blog brings you scans of the some of the stranger ones. Not much else to it, and that’s why I love it.
This is another simple site. It documents with photographs the unusual inventions and modifications of off-the-shelf tech in 3rd world countries. They quote William Gibson in their explanation: “The street finds its own use for things.”
Possibly a great website if you’re writing post-apocalyptic SF.
Interested in space exploration? This blog by the Tau Zero Foundation is all about that, and tangentially often about the notion of alien life. I sometimes find it an odd read, but it’s definitely rich with SF material for the writer and afficionado.
So, what are some sites that you think are good brain fodder for the SF type?
TheLaunchPad Astronomy Workshop has been held three times now, each summer in Laramie, Wyoming. This project is the brainchild of Jim Verley and astronomer/SF writer Mike Brotherton. The goal of the workshop is to help expand the audience for science literate fiction and other popular endeavors. This year, we not only had science fiction writers in attendance, but also comedians and poets. Utlimately, I think it would be great to have some screenwriters for film and television attending as well. Especially considering how much we harp on Armageddon during the workshop.
The goal of the workshop is not to turn you into an Analog–style hard SF writer. The goal is to make sure you understand some of the basics of astronomy so that, even if you’re writing fantasy, you can get those details right. So that maybe you will *want* to write a story about the phases of the moon or about orbital mechanics in some way. Each year, several straight-fantasy authors attend and get just as much out of it as the nerds like me who already have a decent amount of astronomy science under our belts. I even had one major misconception of mine corrected. About the Earth’s axial tilt.
It’s a week of intense classwork, telescope viewing when the weather works, fun meals, a hike, and generally just getting to socialize with amazing people (many who happen to be writers). It will feel like, to quote Gord Sellar, a “pig has shit galaxies into your head.” Ultimately, it’s knowledge, and knowledge has a way of making you a better, richer writer.
When applications open up again next year, I will post about it here, and I expect all of you to flood Mike and Jim with applications. Heh heh.
Since I’ve taken on the gig of managing editor at Escape Pod, I’ve been relearning a lot of things about being an editor that I had forgotten in the time since closing th Fortean Bureau. I’ve been thinking a lot about rejection letters, and rejection in general, but not from my usual perspective as a writer, but now as an editor. It’s informing the way I think about rejections as a writer as well.
Rejection letters aren’t personal. I find it very hard not to take them personally because by god, I wrote the story, I poured my self onto the page, and so it hurts to see that rejection come in most of the time. My stories are like the mind-prosthesies I never really asked for. And they transmit pain like any real limb. Er, so to speak.
Doling out rejections, many to fine writers whose work I love in a general sense, it’s really hit home. The rejection is always for the story at hand, and it’s not about you. Great writers get rejected. You will too.
I walk a very fine line in trying to avoid offense with my rejection letters. How much detail does a Hugo-nominated writer need when you bounce his or her story? Do they need a reason other than, just didn’t sync up with my inventory needs at this time? I don’t want to be in the business of handing out writing advice in my rejection letters. I tend to err on the side of less, rather than more, information. Which brings me to my next point.
Most of the time, my rejection letter says the same simple line: “didn’t grab me.” I stole this one from F&SF, because it’s succinct and a polite way of putting the truth. When I write this, it means that I did not finish your story because I got bored with it. Sorry, but that’s the truth. And that’s why I don’t write what I literally mean in the rejection letter, because I am not a callous monster. When I do provide feedback as to why I am not buying a story, it’s just based on my personal experience of reading the story. Every editor brings their own peculiar biases and interests to the table. There are some ideas that always grab me more than others. Biological SF will win out over asteroid mining every time, until you write that asteroid mining story that proves me wrong.
New writers should most definitely not be looking for writing advice in their rejection letters. Other writers, and a critique group, are the best way to gain this insight. It’s not the (short fiction) editor’s job, especially not today, to cultivate the writer’s talent. We support your talent, but we don’t have the time to fertilize it. You need to turn to other sources for advice.
I can understand the impulse to seek feedback from editors. Writing is a solitary game, and it’s hard to find methods with which to measure your progress. How do you know if you’re getting close?
Again, time to be blunt. You’ll know you’re getting close because the editor will tell you. When your rejection letter asks for more of your work, that’s not just being polite. That’s because we think you have the chops and we’re just looking for the right story. When rejection letters turn from “didn’t grab” to “didn’t work for me, for the following reasons” that’s a step up.
Trust me, the pain is only beginning when you’ve made those first couple of sales. You’ll want more, and if lighting has struck a little early, it can be painful to go quite a while afterwards.
At the same time, if you go from encouraging rejections to a non-encouraging one, it doesn’t mean you’ve backslid. It probably just means the editor has gotten a bit too busy to give you special attention.
I get to buy 52-ish stories a year, and I probably select those from ten times that many at least. This means I am not only looking for good stories, but I’m looking for stories that leave an impact on me. I reject a decent number of good stories, because I can’t use up all my slots buying just good stories. They have to be good, plus some. That spark is the most elusive thing you’ll seek as you develop as a writer.
I personally haven’t broken past this phase. My rejections are very often in the “this is a good story, but I didn’t like it enough to buy it” variety. I sell ocasionally, but this is my career wall at the moment. I think I’m close to understanding why, but I may never know, and I may never take the step forward. Especially if I don’t write more than I have been these past few years.
This is very similiar to the “like it, didn’t love it” rejection letter. Under different circumstances, I might have, probably would have, bought this story. But maybe it’s a bit dark in tone, and I’ve been buying way too many of those lately. Maybe at the moment, I need more light-hearted pieces. Maybe I bought an asteroid mining story shortly before you submitted yours, and they’re too similar in subject matter.
This is the “shit happens” rejection letter. I find they’re the hardest and easiest to take at the same time. They’re frustrating, but at least you can put these to the capriciousness of fate, rather than your own personal skills. It helps.
So that’s a little bit of the thinking I’ve been exploring regarding rejection as I work to select stories for Escape Pod. It’s definitely given me a better perspective on my own rejections. If it were possible, I would recommend every serious writer find a way to read slush some day. Not only do you learn to spot the most common mistakes, you start to get a little empathy for that poor soul on the other side of the transom.
My story “Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” a story of a goblin’s hopes for his idiot children, is available in Black Gate 15.
I recently finished the first draft of a YA novel called Takedown Notice set in the net-mage universe of my stories “Captain Blood’s B00ty” and “One Click Banishment.” What happens when the Magical Association of Atlantis finally gets the upper hand against the net mages in the spell program copyfight?