Over the past couple of days, I've found some great articles about writing.

Jennifer Stevenson has a terrific article on Broad Universe about the "Book in a Week" miracle. While I found the entire post interesting, I especially liked what she had to say about the importance of preparation. I've been learning in my own writing how important that is, and I can't stress it enough.

Also on Broad Universe, Elizabeth Bear has some enchanting things to say about the precarious balance involved in writing science fiction:

Science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction is a chimera — onto the body of a pulp dragon, as it were, is grafted the lion's head of literary technique and the claws and scorpion sting of social commentary. It is a mixed-up monster, and sometimes — if I may elaborate on what's becoming a somewhat chimerical metaphor in turn — the stitches on the Frankensteinian construct show.

Finally, April Kihlstrom has posted a wonderful blog article entitled "The Most Important Part of Writing." Her answer? "It’s the emotional and/or intellectual pay-off that we offer readers [sic]."

For me personally, the emotional side is a must--I have to care about the characters or I lose interest very quickly--but I also have to agree that we "hit the jackpot" when both are present. I found the article inspiring, and then I laughed out loud at her post on "Exercise." I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I subscribed to her blog. Let me know what you think.

The last quiz went over so well, I'll have to keep an eye out for more good ones. This one is along the same lines as the last, but a bit longer and based more on your actual personality. According to this "real life" quiz (smirking), I would be a:

Red Mage

"You sort of have a split personality. Sometimes you can be calm and friendly, other times you can be vicious and active. You enjoy playing sports. You are into the elements of Fire, Water, Ice, Wind, Earth, Light, and Darkness. You do a little bit of everything. You probably have many friends. You're very outgoing and daring. You seek danger and adventure. Anything just to have some fun. You love taunting your enemies and showing off in front of them, just to prove you are better than them. You need to take a chill pill."

Take the quiz here.

Apparently if I were a fantasy character, I would be a...

Swordmaster

"You are usually quiet, pretty much only talking to your close friends. You enjoy beauty and peace, but sometimes it just feels good to run somebody through on your blade. In battle, you carefully pick out your targets, then artfully eliminate them. Your favorite weapons are katanas, scimitars, and longswords."

Take the quiz here.

The Andromeda Spaceways story has officially moved on to round three. Woohoo! That means it's being held among the finalists for the editors to sort through.

Of course, actual publication is still far from guaranteed. The magazine is currently publishing only about one third of the stories that make it through the slush process. I should hear one way or the other within two to three months, but even sales can take up to 18 months to be published, so don't hold your breath...

Still, you know you're doing something right when editors start holding your stories for final review. Eventually it becomes a numbers game: get enough stories in one "hold" pile or another, and eventually one of them will show up in print. Let's hope!

So... My submission is still in round two at Andromeda Spaceways, and I don't think the (brilliant, marvelous, would never dream of saying an ill word about him) slushmaster at Realms of Fantasy has even picked up the slush pile yet. Yeah, okay, so he had the Nebula awards to deal with last weekend. (Lousy, stinking... I mean, stupendous, enviable... writing... award... things...)

Bummer. Waiting on submissions is the pits.

But this Jim C. Hines contest is absoultely smashing. I'm dying to win the anthology. This derives from a combination of two factors: I love Jim's work, and I happen to be fresh out of short-term goals. So if you're NOT interested in winning the anthology, then do me a HUGE favor and enter the contest for me, will you? If you win the contest and send me the signed anthology, I'll send you a llama.

(No, of course not a live llama. Think more along the lines of a greeting card with a picture of a llama on it. If it means that much to you, I'll sculpt you a ceramic llama and send it your way. But keep in mind that I don't know how to sculpt...)

So, okay. Enter the contest already. And if you happen to know the RoF slushmaster, put in a good word for me. (Don't bother with Andromeda--their slush pile doesn't include any author information, which is probably all for the best...)

Oh, one more thing... if you happen to know any of the writers over at Stargate Atlantis, tell them they're one teetering step away from burying a potentially terrific show in the graveyard of writing disasters. It's just so... disjointed. Find a plot line and stick to it, for heaven's sake. Sheesh. Tell them if they need some pointers to try watching BBC's Robin Hood. Now that's some good writing!

Fantasy author extraordinaire Jim C. Hines is holding a special contest through the end of May to promote the release of his new book! Just put in a book request for Goblin Hero with your local library (and remember Goblin Quest too if they don't already have it!), then e-mail the contest with the name of the library and you'll be entered to win! (See the contest page for book request and prize details.)

The first fifty entries will receive a free temporary goblin tattoo, with an extra one if you also mention the contest on your blog or website. (I'll be getting that extra one, thank you!) And one random lucky winner will also receive a free autographed copy of an anthology containing a short story by Jim C. Hines! (Ooooh, me! Me! Oh I hope it's me!)

I filled out my request form at the Peachtree City library today for both books, and I talked them up too just for good measure. Good librarians love it when the public gets involved in the local library, so make your friendly neighborhood librarian smile by requesting these terrific books, and then maybe win something for yourself by checking in with the contest!

I really have this blog thing down now--reading them I mean! After upgrading my own blog with links to some of the major feed compilers, I spent some time perusing them and discovered the marvels of PageFlakes. I've consolidated all the blogs I follow into three pages--pages I can scan in mere moments--so now I start every morning by checking in with all my blogging buddies.

I have my girlfriend blogs so I can chat over coffee in virtual time, at my own leisure. I have my author blogs so I can keep up with who's writing--and publishing! Now I can check in with a whole host of creative bloggers every single day without taking any significant time away from my work. No more lurking for me! Keeping up with--and commenting on!--all the blogs I like to follow is a piece of cake.

After my morning-coffee-aka-blog-fest, I got back to writing again. Feels good to be in the flow. Now that I know where the character's going, I know where the story's going. I think this one might go to the Writers of the Future Contest while I still qualify, but I'll have to see where it ends up.

A brilliantly talented composer friend of mine (currently working on a website of her own) helped me get unstuck today on several projects all at once. The sticking point she discovered? Characters I don't care enough about.

It's not a matter of liking or disliking the characters, per se. But I have to like writing them. When I don't connect well enough with a character--and I mean any character with more than two or three lines--the entire story grinds to a halt. But as long as I enjoy writing the characters, the stories write themselves.

This has always been true about my writing, but I have never been so starkly conscious of the fact until today.

Good guys or bad guys, or too complex to call, I still have to like them. Sometimes the villains have redeeming qualities, so I like them for their potential. Sometimes they don't, and I enjoy giving them what for--not to mention making fun of them as I go. Either way, the writing is a breeze.

It's like spending an afternoon with good friends, hearing about their day. If it happens to be a day spent trapped in a dungeon or lost at sea or settling a frontier planet, all the better. But when push comes to shove, it's not the action that keeps me writing. It's the characters.

So getting unstuck becomes a simple matter of rewriting any character I'm not connecting to. Sometimes this requires a tangible change--maybe lightening up an angry streak or giving an insensitive lout just a little more compassion. And sometimes it's a matter of exploring motivations--explaining why they're so angry or insensitive in a way that makes their faults forgivable.

Whoever they are, I have to get caught up in them. I have to care what happens to them. And that's a very good thing, because in my opinion, it's also the one thing that makes a story worth reading.

The Andromeda Spaceways story has made it to round two in the slush pile. Should be at least a couple more weeks before I hear anything new. Patience... paaaaatience...

Sigh.

Still working on another short. New scene finished today, so that's something. Maybe this evening I'll be able to get at least one more scene done. Can't wait until my tutoring job is out for the summer, although that will be even better news when I start bringing in some writing dough.

Dough, dough, dough, do di dee dough dough...

In a silly mood today. Tried wearing this hat this morning to inspire writing. Didn't help much, but it was fun while it lasted. Been wondering lately whether the writing would flow better if I were capable of consuming even moderate quantities of alcohol without feeling ill. I'm not capable of it, so it's a moot question. But I can't help wondering.

I've been tinkering with the blog a bit. Check out the new subscription options in the left column! (If you're reading the Blogger version of this blog on Georgia Front Page, you'll have to visit the main blog to see them.)

I've also added links in the left column to both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as promised. They are listed as "sponsors" because I get a small commission for purchases made through those links, thereby partially funding the free blog and newsletter.

First off, I have to say a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother. Hope you're loving every minute of it, Jonathan... and every minute of the year to come!

I'm glad I've managed to come up for air long enough to remember Jonathan's birthday because I've spent the whole week obsessively checking the Andromeda Spaceways website. The magazine posts submissions by tracking number, allowing the writers to watch as each story progresses through the three-tier slush pile. Every day I check the page. Did I make it to round two? Did I make it to round two now? How about now?

I have to give Andromeda two thumbs up for sharing their slush system with authors in such an open forum. But it's terrible for me personally. Here's the thing: I sent a story by mail to Realms of Fantasy about a week and a half ago, and I've hardly thought about it since. With no way to track how it's doing, there's no reason to keep it in mind. But this Andromeda story has me up until 3:30 AM every night so I can check the page as soon as it refreshes at the end of the Australian work day. Thank God it's finally the weekend down under. Hopefully by Monday the novelty will have worn off...

Finished rewriting "Four"--an ultra-campy sci-fi short I'm sending to Andromeda Spaceways. I went ahead and submitted it even though it's 1:30 AM because they encourage e-mail submissions, God bless them. The rewrite was a bear, but worth it. The first "final" verion was 11,000 words, but Andromeda has a preferred limit of 10,000. Spent hours upon hours cutting one word here and two words there. The scenes were all necessary so the only good way to trim was by making every paragraph just a tad "tighter." An excellent exercise, but tedious work. Glad to be finished.

I also heard from the Barnes and Noble affiliate program. They've reinstated my account, so I'll be posting one BN link on each book page on the website, as promised. I'll try to get to that tomorrow. Will spend the rest of this week working on another short, this one probably for Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. Nice!

Suzanne Sanders of Barnes and Noble was kind enough to respond publicly to my post on Barnes and Noble vs. Amazon. She left her note in the comments, but I thought it deserved a higher billing so I'm reproducing it here, along with my reply:

Hi,

I am the assistant manager for Barnes&Noble.com's affiliate program and I wanted to personally apologize for your recent customer experience. Here at Barnes&Noble.com, we pride ourselves in being rated the Number 1 retailer in customer satisfaction for the third year in a row by the American Customer Satisfaction index. So we are unhappy when any of our customers have a bad experience with us. Most of our packages are sent UPS, which is a traceable service. Occasionally, a package is sent by USPS, which is not. Currently, our system automatically looks for a tracking code which it can put into the order information. This code is automatically generated for all orders, which is the cause for your confusion. We are currently revamping our order system and I've alerted our customer service to this bug. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I hope that you will give us another chance in the future.

Sincerely,
Suzanne Sanders
Assistant Manager
Online Partnerships
Barnes&Noble.com

Hi, Suzanne. Thanks for your note. I appreciate your responsiveness, and I certainly recognize that anyone can have one less-than-wonderful experience even in a generally brilliant system. A sample size of one hardly represents a robust experiment.

As an aspiring author, I would prefer to remain on good terms with Barnes & Noble, and I meant what I said about loving the stores. I often drive half an hour farther than I need to in order to visit my "local" Barnes & Noble booksellers rather than visiting the competitor down the street.

Furthermore, I believe in the fundamental principle of choice that drives our current economic system. This is, after all, a free country, and we have long chosen as a nation to embrace free market enterprise. And although a staggering percentage of the world's population still suffers in terrible poverty and hopelessness, I have to admit--sadly--that to this day no other economic system has proven itself better able to provide for the financial, social or emotional needs of the "civilized" world.

So I'll tell you what: if you reinstate the affiliate account I closed--perhaps too hastily--I will gladly post at least one Barnes & Noble link back up on each book page so that my readers have easy access to your system. Far be it from me to deny anyone this small and simple choice when the soul-crushing decisions of war and vengeance have been so recently and so eloquently wrested from our strong yet silent hands.

Sincerely,
EM Sky

I just finished transferring all my book links from Barnes and Noble over to Amazon. It took two days to get them all--on both the blog and the website--but it was worth it. I do all my own web design and development work, by the way, partly because of the instant response time but also because of the cost. At times like this it can be a bear, but at the moment it's a lot better than paying someone else to do it.

Now I'm off to do some tutoring this evening, and then tomorrow it's rewrite time. Hopefully I can get this first rewrite finished and out the door by this weekend. Then next week I can work on a new short I've had my mind on...

Feel free to pop by and mention how great the new book links look, by the way. I love positive affirmation. (If you let me know what you've been up to, I'll give you some of that terrific encouragement right back!)

I love Barnes & Noble bookstores. I love the selections. I love the atmosphere. I love the coffee.

But their online ordering system leaves something to be desired.

I signed up with the Barnes & Noble advertising system because they pay decently (if people buy their books, that is), and the advertising setup is lovely. Links you build get stored in their system, the statistics tracker is beautiful...

But the customer experience isn't what it should be, in my humble opinion.

I had never ordered online with Barnes & Noble before I signed up for their advertising program, and caring about my readers as I do, I thought I should give the setup a test drive. So I got online and found a few books I wanted, and I decided to buy them.

Oops.

First, my order had to surpass a certain dollar amount to qualify for "fast, free shipping." That annoyed me, but it's not a fair comparison with Amazon. I get free two-day shipping from Amazon on all my orders because I pay for a "prime membership." So okay, we'll ignore that one. I wanted more than $25 worth of books anyway.

But then I couldn't enter my membership number--the number that qualifies me for price discounts. I called tech support, and they admitted they'd been having some trouble with that part of the system on that particular day. So I logged out and logged back in, and that worked. Problem solved. Fine. Anyone can run into a simple computer glitch, and tech support was very friendly. Moving right along...

So I bought the books. I got an e-mail confirming the order--so far, so good--and letting me know when to expect shipment--the following day. Terrific! But then I received another e-mail apologizing for the delay and admitting that the order wouldn't be shipped for another three to five days. Ouch.

Well, anyone can run into an ordering backlog... right?

The books actually went out within another day or two, so Barnes & Noble was back in my good graces--or at least decent graces. I checked online, and there indeed was my order, with a note that all items had been shipped. Great! When can I expect delivery? There's a tracking number on the order, but no way to click on it and no indication as to how the items were shipped or how to use the tracking number to track my package.

Okay, I'm resourceful. I can figure this out. I enter the number on the UPS website. No dice. The number doesn't work either with or without the leading letters. I try the US Postal Service website. Again no luck. FedEx? Nope. So now I have no idea what the point of the tracking number is. Shouldn't a tracking number actually track something?

I call customer service. I get a computer automated system that tells me what the website already told me, with no way to interrupt the playback. Finally, the system runs out of its spiel and asks whether I would like to speak to a representative. Yes, indeed I would. I press the appropriate number, and I am then informed that customer service closed at 11:00 PM.

I'm all about people going home at night to their loved ones, so the 11:00 close time didn't bother me. But I'd already been through the wringer, and I was in no mood to be blown off by a machine.

Here's the thing. I've been ordering books online from Amazon.com for years, and I've never had a single problem with their system, from beginning to end. The computer system works. The order processing system works. For a reasonable "prime membership" fee, I get free two-day shipping on every single order, no matter how large or small, and almost everything goes out within 24 hours.

If the order will be delayed, I'm informed up front so I can make my decisions accordingly. The order ships when they say it will, arrives when they say it will, and is trackable in between through a UPS tracking number that is, believe it or not, a genuine UPS tracking number.

So the long and short of it is that I'm switching all my Barnes & Noble links over to Amazon links. Look for these changes over the next day or two as I switch the system over page by page and entry by entry.

I'd apologize to my readers for the inconvenience, but over the past three weeks, no one has bought a single thing through any of my Barnes & Noble dot com links. Apparently, that's just as well.

I've declared May the "Month of Short Fiction" here in the world of EM. (You'll notice that this month's highlighted new release is an anthology. Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy is released today, an auspicious start to an illustrious month.)

But the Month of Short Fiction isn't just about reading. It's also about writing! (Isn't everything?) So I'll be working throughout the month of May on making some real headway into the short fiction market. I've started by sending the short I wrote for Sword & Sorceress back out again. I'll also be polishing two pieces I wrote over the last few months and embarking on some new projects. My goal is to have a minimum of four stories out at once, editorial response times being what they are. (Enough said...)

Today being the first of the month, it's also time for Rapid Fire Learning, hosted by JJL. So continuing in our Month of Short Fiction theme, I have the following to report:

• A little research goes a long way. In writing for short fiction markets, I've discovered the value of researching the prospective buyer and writing specifically for the market at hand. You can't sell a piece to an editor if you don't know what he or she wants. In the case of magazines or annual anthologies, read prior issues. And always, always, always take a look at the market's website. A good editor will tell you what he or she is looking for. (And following the submission guidelines precisely doesn't hurt either.)
  


• Suspense sells. The quickest way to draw a reader--or an editor--into your story is to make them care about your character right from the beginning. Which means you need a likeable hero with a real problem. The problem can be either internal or external, but it has to be believable, serious, and captivating. (I'll have a hard time caring whether or not Sally Do-right has enough cheese dip for her Christmas party, but I'll care whether or not she can save her marriage--at least I will if I like her.)
  


• The ending is the best beginning. I can't even begin to write a story unless I know at least three things: 1) who my main character is; 2) what his or her problem is; and 3) how it's going to be resolved. As a reader, I hate knowing the ending before I get there, but as a writer, the situation is reversed. I can't write a good story unless I know how it ends. Otherwise I end up with too much drivel in the middle. So figure out your ending, and then make sure your whole story builds in that direction. You'll keep the reader on his or her toes until the very end. And if the ending leaves them satisfied, you have a winner!

And to round it all out, here are a couple of links to short fiction markets that I've found to be useful:

• SFWA's magazine list. It's far from exhaustive--Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, for example, isn't even on there--but it does include some interesting entries. The list includes a short blurb about each market and a link to each magazine.
  


• Duotrope. This one's terrific. It includes a searchable database of all kinds of short fiction markets. Look them up by genre, length of stories published, pay scale, publication medium (print vs. electronic) and even submission type (i.e. being able to submit electronically). Whatever you're looking for, Duotrope will find it.