2024 Accountability Post

It's time for my annual accountability post where I discuss how many submissions vs. how many works I had published in the preceding year. I've been posting about my productivity of submissions since 2021 (and it can be read here), but really I have been keeping track of my submissions as far back as 1999. I started putting them into an Excel file since 2010, and I have been submitting larger numbers of works pretty consistently since 2017. You can see my 2022 accountability here, and my 2023 accountability here, if interested.

At some point, I realized that the publishing game is at least partially a numbers game. You have to make large numbers of submissions to see any positive results, unless you want to self-publish. And there is nothing wrong with self-publishing. As you will see later in this blog post, I actually self-published my first short story and poetry collection earlier this year and blogged about it last month. It started a few years ago when I read a blog from an author who said they try to reach 100 submissions per year. It inspired me to see how many submissions I could make each year. While I found I could not reach 100, I did find that 50 was an attainable number. Unfortunately, I no longer remember who wrote that original blog.

So this year, I did not quite make my 50 submissions goal. However, this was because I chose to work on longer works this year. I finally completed my second novel-length manuscript, Blood of the Werewolf, and began submitting it to agents. Additionally, I started working on my next novel, a mussy story titled Osiris. Because I spent a good portion of my writing year working on longer works instead of shorter works, I give myself a pass at not quite making the 50 submissions goal.

So, here are the numbers. I had a total of 41 submissions for publications, which is not too shy of my 50 submissions total. This includes seven book submissions to agents and small presses total, including my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, the aforementioned Blood of the Werewolf, and my first completed short story and poetry collection, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium, which I submitted to myself for self-publication. Yes, I am counting that one. This exercise is supposed to be motivational after all. It is available on Amazon here, in case anyone is interested.

The rest of the list includes 22 short story submissions, which was the largest number as usual. I had 11 poetry submissions, and one essay or non-fiction submissions. I had only two successes, and it was a tough year for me for fiction and poetry, especially considering one of the successes was my self-published collection. My other success this year was my article on Fay Wray, which was published at Ravenous Monster.

There you have it. Fee free to see how you measure up. I have a relatively low bar this year for anyone to compare, but that is what I have been up to. I am still out there writing and submitting, but like last year, so far I am concentrating most of my time and energy on longer works. Hopefully, it starts bear fruit soon.

How I Self-Published on KDP

I recently collected a bunch of my previously published short stories and poetry and bound them together in a self-published collection titled Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium. It is available now on Amazon here. After doing so, several people asked me how I published through Kindle Direct Publishing, and I kind of stammered through the answer. Not trying to be rude, but it was just one of those things that I figured out as I went along. So, I thought a blog post about how I self-published my first short story and poetry collection would be fitting since I have not blogged in a while.

First go to Amazon.com and sign in. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Kindle Digital Publishing. I actually Googled KDP and found this shortcut later, but it brought me to the same page.  Click the big yellow button that reads + Create at the top. The next page asks what you would like to create, a Kindle e-book, paperback, hardcover, or a series. So far, I have only created a paperback and a Kindle e-book, but it appears the hardcover is pretty much the same as the paperback. I am not sure about how to create a series, yet.

So for the sake of this blog, I clicked paperback. It then asks you type in your book title and subtitle (the subtitle is optional). It is also optional to enter the edition number. You can then add up to nine other contributors, which is important if you ever want to create an anthology instead of a collection (an anthology being a collection of short stories and poetry from different authors and a collection being works from only one author).

Scrolling down the same page a little further, it then asks for a description of the book. For this, I used the forward from my collection. Next, you choose if you own this work or if it is a public domain work. I checked off that I own the work. After that, it asks if there are any sexually explicit images or language, and I checked off no for my work. Then it asks for the minimum and maximum ages for the work, and I chose 12 to 18+ because these works do not contain any real explicit language. They are pretty much PG-13.

Next, it asks for the primary marketplace, and I chose Amazon.com because all of the other choices are international markets. Choose your categories, such as "mystery, thriller, and suspense," or "fiction & literature" from a dropdown menu. This is so Amazon can categorize the work. There are also subcategories and placement to choose from. It asks for some keywords so your book can come up when related words are searched. I chose words like short stories, collection, nature poetry, gothic, etc. You can choose up to seven of them. Then choose if your publication date is the release date or if it was previously published, and finally choose if you want today to be your release date or if you want to schedule it for a future date. I chose the same day, but in the future, I may try to build some anticipation and choose a future date. Click save and continue.

Here you can let Amazon give you an ISBN number or enter your own if you have one. I just let Amazon give me one. Next, choose if your book is in black and white or color and if you want white or cream paper. Then choose the trim size. This is the size of paper your book will be and determines how you will need to format your file to upload. Choose bleed or no bleed depending on if the book has images. This is all laid out in the KDP instructions. Choose if the book cover should be matte or glossy. I like glossy book covers, personally.

Now you finally get to upload the manuscript, and this is where things grew a little hairy. I write everything in Microsoft Word, and through trial and error, I have learned that single space in Times New Roman works well for books, but you can choose whichever font you like. I do suggest single space, however, because it looks more professional. Then click the previewer to see how it lines up. Likely you will need to adjust the margins of the Word document until they align into the margins of the trim size you chose earlier. If you want page numbers, this can also be accomplished by clicking insert, and then going to page numbers and choosing the placement of those page numbers. To adjust margins in Word, go to view and check the box next to ruler, then click and drag the tiny box on the left to where it you want to margins. Click and drag the tiny triangle on the left because the pages have to be centered. Then click the part of the ruler on the left at the top of the page where the shaded portion meets the dark part of the ruler and drag it where you want the top and bottom margins. However, to get the page numbers into the trim margins on Kindle, double click in the top margin to open up the header and hit enter as many times as needed until the page numbers appear within the trim margin. I wound up readjusting my manuscript several times and reuploading it and previewing it over and over until I got everything to line up correctly. I believe there is a way for KDP to do this automatically, but I kind of liked doing this part manually so I know it was done right.

Next, choose the cover photo. Kindle has an option of uploading cover you have already created, or you can choose among the many covers they have created. I chose one of Kindle's previously made covers because I'm on a slow track of learning about this stuff on my own. You can also choose where the book title appears in various styles and fonts. I chose a different style for the title across the same cover image for my paperback and e-book versions, just to have some differentiation.

Amazon also asks you to indicate whether or not generative AI was used in the creation of the book. I obviously chose no.

Finally, choose the pricing for the book. I chose to have my book available in all territories. Pricing, royalties, and distribution gets a little confusing. My first self-published book, a short story titled, "House of Vergosi," which is also included in this new collection, I did not include in expanded distribution because it keeps the price down. This one I did choose expanded distribution because I believe it is available to more people in more areas around the world. I'm still not fully sure what the difference is, honestly, but I do know the book has to have a higher price if you choose expanded distribution. It will tell you what the whole sale price of the book will be and you can figure out how much you want to charge for it to earn a profit.

Finally, click publish your book. It is pretty much the same for the e-book version. Choose the price at the end again, and the break-even price is far lower for e-books. That's how I did it. Every author should try to self-publish at least once just to see what goes into the process. There are other platforms that will allow people to self-publish, but from what I've heard, Kindle is still the easiest and the best way to make any money. Speaking of which, getting the money earned from book sales is another process, which I may blog about at another time. I hope everyone found this process helpful.

I'm About to Become a Full-Time Writer (For 3 Months [Again])

 I hold three jobs that actually pay the bills. Like most writers, I like to consider my writing a job, a fourth job in my case. Sometimes I consider my membership to the HWA still a fifth job, since I attend meetings, and am the Virginia chapter's events coordinator, but it does not pay me any money. In fact, it costs me a little in membership fees, but I enjoy it nonetheless, and it does provide me connections and opportunities to the publishing world. My main gig that pays the pills is teaching as adjunct faculty at two higher education institutions, which means my summers are (mostly) off. I have a third job that pays a few bills, and I continue working there during the summers, but I still work far fewer hours during the summer months than I do during the school year.

So one of the main things I do during the summer is write, and write a lot more than I do at any other time of the year. It is my most productive season. Most of the short stories, poetry, and non-fiction projects I've published in the past were written during the summer months. That does not mean I do not write at all during other times of the year, but I do have months where I can devote more time to writing and publishing than other moths. My annual writing schedule is something like this:

January: I'm off the the few weeks, but recovering from the holidays. I still find quite a bit of time for writing.

February and March: Early in the semester, I have some time for writing, but once essays start coming in that need grading, my writing time starts to dwindle.

April: Essays pile up to nearly unmanageable levels. Very little writing gets done.

May: First half of the month is finishing up finals and grading, but once final grades are posted I write nearly a full time schedule.

June, July, and August: The nearly full time schedule continues and I can usually be pretty productive during the summer month. Even when classes first start up in late August, not much needs grading yet, so I still find quite a bit of time for writing.

September and October: Since I write primarily horror, these can also be particularly busy months, attending cons as well as classwork starting to pile up. Still, because I primarily write horror, it is also a particularly inspiring time of the year, so I can usually continue to work in at least some writing time.

November: Essays and other classwork piles up again, so not as much writing gets done, with the exception of Thanksgiving break.

December: Not much gets done in the beginning of the month, and after classes end, I usually plan a trip to see family for the holidays, but I still usually work in a decent amount writing time after the fall semester ends.

And if you don't think there's that much grading to do when teaching college English, here is a photo of a stack of items needing grading I took in days before everything was turned in digitally:

I read about 1000 pages of student writing per semester. I could be reading War and Peace twice annually.

But then the summer comes and I get to pretend to be a full-time writer for three months out of the year (albeit a very poor one, since I also do not get paid over the summer). Still, I always feel as though I could have and perhaps should have been more productive during those summer months. I do create an annual summer writing to-do list (along with a summer honey-do list I make up with the wife, where I work around the house and complete some household chores that need attention). So that end, (um, the writing one, not the honey-do list), I thought perhaps if I published my summer writing to-do list here, I will hold myself accountable and be more productive this summer than in years past, so to that end here it is:

1. Make a Word file of all my class notes, (One school I teach at is changing over from Blackboard regular to Blackboard Ultra, so my files may not be good any longer. Besides, I have been meaning to do this for a while now. I even applied for a stipend to have my notes published as an Open Educational Resource)
2. Finish putting together the short story and poetry collection for self-publication. This is a project I started during the spring semester, and it is pretty close to being finished already. It will feature most (but not all) of my previously published short stories and poems, and a few new short stories I have been shopping around for a while, and have decided to add to the collection.
3. Finish editing Blood of the Werewolf. It is so close to being ready to send to an agent or publisher. It only needs about 50 more pages of editing, and maybe one last quick passthrough for continuity. This is a top priority this summer.
4. Work on a rough draft of Osiris, the next in my series of historical horror tragedies. I'm thinking about joining Camp Nano to punch out a good portion of a rough draft in July.
5. Edit the short story "The Vampire's Coffin" which I did for a writing group recently. It's pretty short, so this should not take very long.
6. Finish that next section of Franksploitation non-fiction book and write the proposal on Frankenstein in film. I'm embarrassed at how many years this appears on the list and does not get done. Especially, since the sample chapters are actually pretty close to finished.
7. Edit and resubmit a non-fiction article on Ed Wood to a literary magazine. I have done this a few times, but still have not found the right market for it.

Aside from all that, I will continue to do my usual submitting more poetry and short stories to various publications. Chances are I will still not get all of this done even this summer, but it never hurts to shoot high. My hope is that publishing it here will help make me more accountable and hopefully more productive this summer.

How Long Have I been Editing My Current Novel? (It's Complicated)

 

Not long ago, I was in a monthly meeting with the HWA - Virginia Chapter when I was asked how long I had been editing my current work in progress (WIP), and I was not ready with an answer. I am sure whatever I said sounded evasive, but honestly, I had to think about that question for a while, and was not quite sure what the answer was. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it may make for an interesting blog post about my process and since this is apparently going to be my second completed manuscript ready for submission to agents and / or publishers very soon, it may also make for great promotion for this labor of love.

The current project is titled Blood of the Werewolf, and as the title suggests, it is a werewolf tale. The setting is the early 1800s Great Britain (with a few key scenes in Tibet), which places it in the same universe as my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, which is still under consideration at a small press publisher at the time of this writing. I will one day blog about why I have chosen that location and timeframe, but the short version of that answer is, it is the era of literature I studied in college.

Anyway, I began my college career in the mid-1990s and it was around this same timeframe that I started thinking about becoming a author. It turns out to be a very long, hard, and slow process. One thing I did for fun and practice was to write novelizations of some of my favorite horror movies, such as those from Universal Studios. I had no intention of getting these published, but it was a way to try my chops at writing something of some length.

It made me start to think about writing my own stories about vampires, werewolves, and mummies, so I started writing a few longer pieces, more so for my own amusement once again than with any intension of trying to get it published. Once I had a few of these under my belt, I started thinking more seriously about writing a full length novel and hopefully one day getting it published. I decided that with some major revisions, these projects could be made into full length novels.

Those who say writing for yourself is very different from writing for publication are certainly correct. These stories needed a lot of work. In their original form they were only the length of novellas and novelettes as they ranged from 12,000 to 17,00 words. Most publishers like novels to be around 80,000 words. They needed extra scenes, backstories, more thoughts and emotions from characters and other elements to flush them out into full-length novels and make them much better stories in the process. At their heart, they were already novels, really, they just needed to be flushed out to reach their true potential. The first of these stories I did this with was what is now titled The Sorcerer, and in its final form it reached the industry standard for a finished novel at 80,000 words. The second is the one I am working on now, Blood of the Werewolf.

So to finally return to the question above (You do remember the question above, don't you, "How long have I been editing my current novel?") The original 17,000 word version was completed sometime in the late 1990s. Then it was placed in a drawer for a very looooong time. I completed The Sorcerer, and edited it I don't even know how many times, until I decided I could no longer edit it. I finally put what at the time were the finishing touches on The Sorcerer around 2017. And I finally started a major revision of Blood of the Werewolf. But the question now is, does revision count as editing? I would say that since this revision was so massive, it is probably does not count as true editing. It became practically a new story.

But then in 2019 I received a mentorship from Tim Waggoner through the Horror Writers Association. He gave me some good feedback on that novel and insight as to why it was not attracting agents or publishers yet. In order to make Blood of the Werewolf come out right, I had to put it down once again and edit The Sorcerer one last time. This took about another year, which brings us to 2020, the year of Covid. I did work on it some during the pandemic, but like many other authors and publishers, no one was as productive as we wanted to be during those odd two years.

The editing process for Blood of the Werewolf I believe started around 2020 or 2021 (not counting the major revision years). I am now very close to getting this one finished and should have it done very soon. I'm editing page 306 out of 363 and it now totals almost 79,000 words. I will make sure it reaches at least 80,000 words by the time I am finished. It may need one more pass through before I am comfortable sending it out to publishers and agents, but that should only be a light edit to clean up a few things and ensure continuity throughout the novel.

I feel as though I am getting faster and better at this, and I've never missed a deadline when I've been given one. I am also getting excited to write more follow-ups to these stories, as I have one more, Osiris, that is in a very rough draft at about 13,000 words, and I have notes on numerous others in the series. The fact that I have been able to publish more short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in recent years also shows I am improving. And keep in mind that I also wrote many of those short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in between revising and editing these novels. Wish me luck with these and other projects in the future, so that I can post this self-made meme once again:

Recent Cons & Photos

 I thought I would do another one of those blog posts where I present some recent photos. I have been making a few appearances at various cons to sell books and sign people up the Horror Writers Association. I thought I'd throw in a few photos from last Halloween for good measure, so here goes.

Here is the table I set up at Monster Fest at the Chesapeake Central Library in Chesapeake, Virginia in October of last year.

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my friend Paul Knight, who was sometimes known as Pauzilla. He always remembered me and my family on Halloween.

Here is another attendee from Monster Fest, who was working a puppet on that day.

I entered the costume contest at Monster Fest as a famous movie murderer from a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and a book penned by Robert Bloch. I also moderated a panel on how to write scary scenes in horror which featured Red Lagoe, Pam Kinney, and Justin Cristelli.

Here are last year's yard decorations for Halloween.

The wife and I went out dressed as Jason Voorhees and Ahsoka Tano.

Here was the band for that night, Everafter, at Big Woody's in Chesapeake. I loved their costumes.

There's Laurie Camp as Ahsoka again at Big Woody's.

My daughter, Delaney, also got into the spirit of Halloween and dressed as Pearl from the movie of the same name.

Delaney always challenges me to do a difficult jack-o-lantern. This year, she challenged me to make a Frankenstein Monster. Of course that's Laurie dressed as a ghost in our driveway where we handed out candy.

An now we're up to January where I ran a table at Mars Con in Virginia Beach. This was a rather elaborate costume that I felt was photo-worthy.

A few other authors at Mars Con included, from back to front, Pam Kinney, Sidney Williams, yours truly, and Bryn Grover. It was fun meeting up with the other HWA members and talking with them.

And finally, Laurie entered the costume contest at Mars Con, again as Ahsoka, but don't call her a jedi.

2023 Recap

 It's time for another annual recap of my writing successes. I did a little a better this year over previous years, which I am very proud of, and would like to share here, not necessarily to brag, but to show where my work can be found and to maintain some sort of accountability. This is my third year running doing a blog of this sort at the beginning of a new year (the previous ones can be found here and here, so here goes.

Looking at the numbers, I made slightly fewer submissions this year, but had more successes. I submitted a total of 42 items this year compared with 48 the previous year. I usually shoot for 50, but will settle for as few as 35, so I was well over my minimum. Of those 42 submissions, 1 was a novel (a submission in answer to a request for a full manuscript in 2022, so I am counting it here). The largest bulk of those submission were, as usual, short stories, 24 of them in 2023. That is slightly lower than 2022 when I had 29 submissions. I also submitted 10 poems, down one from the previous year.

One area that helped grow my numbers and acceptances this year was a return to non-fiction submissions. I had 7 of them this year. I had zero  the previous two years. 

Now onto the successes, where I broke a new record this year with six total items being published in one way or another, seven if you count my self-published short story, which I still need to blog about. My previous highest number of published works was in 2018 when I had five works published, so that new record is something. Two of those published works from this year were those non-fiction articles. I also did very well with poetry this year with three poems getting published in two different publications this year. Of those short stories, only one was published, but it was at higher rate than many of my previously published short stories, at a semi-pro rate.

Speaking of money, while it may seem shameful to discuss how much money I made at writing, this is also a sign of prestige. More money means more success or more prestigious publications, so I will bring up the subject without giving away exact numbers. Let's just say I made more money with my writing this year than other previous years (excluding full time jobs I've had in the past and regular correspondence work I've done with major newspapers). For the first time, the majority of this money was made selling copies of anthologies at cons, although it was only a slight majority.

Now for the disclaimers. Some of the publications I made this year were not exactly very competitive. But there's a conundrum there. There are a few publications that love when I submit to them, and I enjoy doing it, but they don't pay, so they often do go to the backburner. I write to them when I am inspired by something that could lead to an article that fits that publication. I see no reason to snub them, especially when I consider the people running them my friends. While I grow as a writer, I will continue to strive toward publishing in larger and more prestigious publications, but I do want to remember everyone who helped me get there.

'Tis the Season for Literary and Academic Festivals

Lately, I have been making the rounds to a number of literary and academic festivals and conferences. On March 16, I attended the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival in downtown Suffolk, Virginia, which is the city where I currently live. It was nice to talk writing and books with several fellow writers. I was also scoping this event out for a possible table for either the Horror Writers Association Virginia Chapter to get a table at the event next year, or for me to get a table by myself. I think the Edgar Allen Poe anthology I appear in would be a good fit for this event, and I know some of my fellow Virginia chapter authors also write and have published some mysteries.

While there, I attended a presentation on short story writing, because that was something that I do and wanted to hear more about what these authors had to say about it.

After the festival, I was notified by mail that I won a raffle for a bundle of books by one of the authors, Karen McCullough. I have not dug into these just yet, but some of them do look tempting, and I can wait to cut into them soon.

I also work in higher education, and spring is a popular time for many academic festivals and conferences, which we sometimes call "academic development." It helps for teachers to get together once in a while and confer with each other about what we are doing and share ideas. One such festival I attended was the Old Dominion University Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing. Being an ODU alumnus, I always enjoy getting back on campus. Interestingly, while I was there, I ran into Kole Matheson, who did a presentation with me at the 2018 conference. Not only did he recognize me, he even remembered my Frankenstein project that I presented that year (hoping to work on that again this summer).

After that, I attended the Norfolk State University William Carroll Writers' Festival. I enjoy teaching English composition at NSU, which is a traditionally Black university. During this festival I was asked to do a public reading, so I read my latest short story, "Beheaded" which appears in Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri of Terror, and is available here (plug, plug). The reaction was a mixed bag of those who seemed to love it, and those were more than a little shocked (in a good way [I think]).

Later in the festival, I participated in a creative writing activity where we were given cards from the kids' board game Apples to Apples and asked to come up with something within a few minutes. I ended up with the card "Knock, Knock" and thought to myself, "What the hell am I going to do with this?" But then I just used a little stream-of-consciousness to see what followed, and I think I actually came with something pretty damn good. I might even try to sell it as a poem after a little editing to clean it up. That could be a good activity for others to try at home. This may have also led to me finding a new summer writing group🤞.

Lastly, just this week, I attended a professional development presentation at the other higher education institution where I teach, Paul D. Camp Community College. It was about latest practices on diversity and distance learning. Again, it's a good way to compare what I do in the classroom with some of my colleagues and provide ideas on how to improve.

And speaking of PDCCC, I was asked to add another literature class in the second eight weeks of the semester, which I was allowed to gear toward Romantic elements in literature, both during the Romantic movements in the United States and England and unto today. I do feel that teaching writing and literature improves my own writing, and would encourage anyone who is qualified to teach to do so. I may have to post a little bit more about this at another time as it lends itself to another topic.

That's about it, and looking at it now, boy have I been busy. Even if I have not had that much time to write lately, I have been immersing myself in the writing, education, and publishing field. This immersion, in my opinion is the best way to find success (I hope).

2022 By the Numbers

Every year I do this post to publicly state how much I am submitting and how many of those submissions result in successfully publishing one of my works.  Perhaps it will help any readers to gage themselves against what I have done each year. Perhaps many writers submit far more works than I do. Perhaps many submit far fewer. The idea of doing this began when I read a writer's blog (sorry, I cannot remember who) and they said they submit around 100 works per year. I decided I would see how many works I could submit each year. I found that I could submit between 35 and 50 works per year. I now try to work toward that 50 mark as much as possible. I have also found that the more works I submit each year the more of those works end up getting published, on average anyway.

So anyway, here are this year's numbers. I submitted a total of 8 books, although it was actually the same book submitted 8 times, which brings up another point. This is the total number of submissions, which means if the same book is submitted many times (8 in this case) it still counts as 8 submissions. The same holds true of short stories, poems, etc. I am working very hard to finish the follow-up to that first book, and I think I am getting close to deciding to self-publish that first book if I receive a few more rejections. Which brings up yet another point, some of these works I am still waiting to hear back on, including a few submissions of this novel.

I also had 29 short story submissions. Unfortunately, only one of those were successful this year, but again, a few of those submissions are still waiting on replies. That makes this year an anomaly in that I submitted more items than most other years, 48 total submissions, my second highest number of all time, but I had only one sale (again, so far). That success was "Beheaded" which appears in Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri, pictured above, and available on Amazon here. I also blogged about that particular sale here.

I had 11 poetry submissions, without any sales, and no non-fiction submissions this year. Just for comparison, 29 short story submissions is tied for my second highest, and 11 poetry submissions is tied for fourth highest. Eight novel submissions comes in second highest.

The most submissions I ever made in a year was 2018 where I hit 53, and it got me the most published works in a year as well with five total. This year saw my second most total at 48 as noted earlier. Third was in 2019 when I reached 47 total submissions, followed by 2021 with 44 total submissions, fourth was 2010 with 42 total, and 2020 with 35 total.

My goal for the coming year may be a little lower as I would like to start working on my longer works once again, namely my follow-up novel, and that Frankenstein project and hopefully get them both sent out to potential publishers or even agents.

I keep track of these on an Excel spreadsheet, and only recently started keeping track of total submissions each year. I find it helps me compete with myself to keep getting my works out there. If you see fit, feel free to tell me how many submissions you made last year, and how that looks compared to your other years. If it makes you feel better, I've had a lot of years with only a handful of submissions and even a few years with goose eggs.🥚😊

 

My Latest Short Story Sale

I am particularly excited about my latest short story sale for several reasons. For one thing, it is always exciting to make a short story sale, obviously, but this sale is particularly exciting. My latest short story sale is "Beheaded" (I love that title, by the way, but again, that's not why I am particularly excited about this sale). It will appear in the anthology Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri (cover pictured above) with the publisher, HellBound Books.

I have submitted to other anthologies with HellBound Book, but this was the first one they have actually accepted so far. All these are great reasons to be proud of this short story sale, and they are all reasons that I am proud of this short story sale. But there is one reason that makes me particularly proud of this specific short story sale.

The thing that makes me particularly proud of this short story sale is the fact that I consider this story, "Beheaded," to be part of the same universe as my first completed novel-length manuscript, The Sorcerer and my current work in progress, Blood of the Werewolf. That proves to me, and hopefully one day to a publisher, that stories in this universe can and will sell.

That universe is Romantic England (note the capital R in Romantic). It is similar enough to Victorian England that fans will be able to identify with both eras. It is the era just before the Victorian Era, usually noted as 1800 to 1835 in England. It is also my favorite literary era, with its love of nature and "spontaneous overflow of emotions." And it is the literary era I studied in college.

For more information on these works, you can see my previous blog-post on Shameless Self-Promotion. And for more information on this anthology, here is the link to HellBound Books. 

Shameless Self-Promotion

 

I was sending out my old manuscript for The Sorcerer to another small press recently, and their submission guidelines said their authors should be prepared to promote their work nearly every day. Most small presses, and even many large presses, want their authors to do quite a bit of their own promotion. Perhaps it has always been this way, but I think most people in the writing and publishing industry would say authors are expected to do more of their own promotion that at any time in the past. And most of that promotion at this stage should be about my current projects.

Then just today, I was in my Horror Writers Association-Virginia chapter meeting when we got to the end of the meeting, the point where we all discuss our current projects, and I spouted off a few items I have out for consideration. When they moved on to another member, it occurred to me that I had an intriguing story about my current manuscript project, Blood of the Werewolf but forgot to mention it.

With that in mind, here is that (hopefully) intriguing story:

I am currently in the editing process of Blood of the Werewolf, when I reached a scene that needed a total revision. Why? Because one of the characters was supposed to leave town by train, but the story takes place in 1815 England. When I researched the history of train travel, I discovered this was about 15 years too early for regular train travel. While many of my horror writing cohorts are researching far more interesting things like types of poisons and how much bloodloss a human can endure, I spent my writing session researching the history of train travel and the history of slippers. Anyway, it is a pivotal scene that cannot be totally deleted, so I must revise it in a way that the character uses a different mode of transportation. The most obvious mode of transportation would be ship.

This opened up an interesting possibility for the story. I want both The Sorcerer and Blood of the Werewolf to take place within the same universe, and it would be even better if they had another direct connection. But up until now they did not have any connections other than parts of both stories take place in England in the 1810s. The Sorcerer actually concerns a man who owns a shipping company. So this character in Blood of the Werewolf will now travel via the Nichols Shipping Company because it is the name of the shipping company the character in The Sorcerer owns, giving the two novels the type of direct connection I was hoping to create for them.

Oh yes, the photo above is me promoting a public presentation at Monster Fest.

Fiction Friday

 

The biggest question from people who want to write but often don't is how to find the time, and while I have posted about finding time before, this will be another post about how to carve out that time. In fact, that previous blog post about how to find time to write was my most popular blog post to date with almost twice as many hits as the next most popular post.

But that's not why I'm posting about how to find the time again. I posting about it because it is important to schedule yourself a time to write, and it should be as frequent as possible. Some writers say it is important, some might even say crucial, to write every day. There are times of the year when I am able to write every day, but that's just not possible all year round for me. And I sometimes get frustrated with myself if I cannot write every day when I set out with that sort of an aggressive schedule. This makes me feel like it is likely other writers who set out with that sort of aggressive writing schedule might also get frustrated with themselves if they don't end up following their own schedule and write every day.

Don't get me wrong, if you are able to write every day, more power to you. I wish I could write every day, and as stated earlier, there are times when I can and do. But there are other times when that is just not possible because life catches up to me in one way or another.

It kind of reminds me of the scene in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's (an adaptation of a Truman Capote novel of the same name, which I own and still have not read [I need to get on that]). Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) asks Paul Varjak (George Peppard), a writer, if he writes every day and he claims that he does. Then Hepburn asks why there is no ribbon in his typewriter. Hepburn's character later gifts Peppard's character a typewriter ribbon so he can in fact write every day.

The important thing is to make sure you schedule out some sort of time and make sure you write at least that much. For me, I carve out, at minimum, a few hours on Friday nights to write. I often write more than just that once a week, and I certainly try to, but I tell all family and friends that this block of time on Friday nights is my "Fiction Fridays" (not coincidentally the title of this blogpost).

So get out there and carve out your time to write, or join me in writing on my Fiction Fridays, or go watch the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, or go read the book (like I need to do). Or go do something, because it is Friday, and I'm still writing this blog instead of writing my fiction. 😁

2021 by the Numbers

 

The most important thing for any writer to do is to, not only keep writing, but to also keep submitting, keep putting his or her work out there. For those looking to be traditionally published, this means submitting to publications such as literary magazines and anthologies. And if you are submitting your work, it is important to keep track of where you are sending it to, how many works are accepted for publication, how many are rejected, and how many are left as dead letters. I keep track of this with a Microsoft Spreadsheet.

I try to keep as many items out there under consideration as possible at all times. When an item comes back with a rejection, I immediately start looking for the next publication to send it out to. Sometimes I consider giving it a revision before doing so, but sometimes I send it out again as is. It depends on if I received a form rejection, or a more personalized one with suggestions on how to make the piece better. It also depends on how many rejections the particular piece has already received.

I once read from one published author (I cannot remember who) that they try to submit up to 100 pieces for publication per year. I have found this does not seem to be possible for me, but I do try to send out as many as possible, and am able to submit between 35 and 50 pieces per year.

I often read from writers with less experience than me that they feel hurt when they receive rejections, particularly if they receive too many of them. The best advice I ever received was that writers should not count their rejections. Instead, they should only count how many pieces they send out in a given time, such as a given year. Therefore, I try to compete with myself, to send out as many as possible each year.

So without any further ado, here are my numbers for the past year, 2021: I sent out 29 short stories, 11 poems, and 4 novels for a total of 44 pieces sent out for consideration. This is the third most submissions I've made in any given year. Of those submitted this year, I sold three items, two poems, and one short story, for publication. The last item I sold was to the anthology, Alternative Deathiness (pictured above). It includes some notable authors, placing me in some good company, so I am honored to be a part of it. It contains my poem "Old Forgotten Grave" and can be found on Amazon here. 

So when writing and submitting, be sure to keep track of your works, even if for no other reason than to make sure you don't accidentally send the same work to the same publication twice. I certainly would have accidentally done this numerous times if I didn't have a Spreadsheet to keep track of these things. If you like, tell me about how many works you submit per year, or in the last year.

Collaborative writing

 

(My dog, Ahsoka, and cat, Serenity, collaboratively sleeping together)

There is something to be said in favor of collaboration when writing. On some level all writing needs to be collaborative. Now I'm not talking about so much collaboration that the story is no longer your own, but on the other end, there can be great advantages to letting others read your story and provide feedback.

Recently, I've managed to find a few beta readers for some of my short stories, and I received incredibly useful feedback. With the internet age, finding beta readers has become easier. Instead of going out and finding people in the real, live, three-dimensional world, one can post on a Facebook group, or other social media platform, that you have a short story you would like feedback on.

In many circles, you may have to pay an editor to do this, but there is a way around this. If you do not have the money to pay an editor, you can offer to read someone else's short story in exchange. The point is, it will cost you something. If you cannot afford to pay money, you will have to pay with time.

I also don't want to take anything away from paying a good editor. If you do have the money, chances are they may provide better feedback. But offering to read someone else's story can certainly be another viable option. Also, it allows you to read what other writers are working on and see how your own work matches up.

I recently had the opportunity to exchange short stories with a few other writers, and the feedback I received was excellent. It is certainly an experience I will try to replicate in the future. It was spot on in almost every case. Keep in mind, your stories are always your own, and you do not have to make changes that you feel will weaken your story. But in my case, the vast majority of suggestions were viable, and helped the stories overall. There were only a few suggestions I chose not to follow because I did not feel comfortable with them.

If you take any creative writing course that is worth anything, you will be asked to change stories and provide and receive feedback. This is almost always the most important part of the course. So if you cannot afford a creative writing course, this can also be an alternative to that as well. So go out and give and get feedback on your current works. It is invariably a key part of the writing process.

After One Year of Covid

 

It's been one year since Covid 19 shut down the entire world, and it seems there is finally land on the horizon. It had been about hundred years since the world saw a good fashioned pandemic (the Spanish flu in 1918 was the last), so we were long overdue.

But now we have a vaccine out for this virus, so we should be seeing its final throes soon. I finally received my first shot today, and will be returning in about four weeks for the follow-up. Additionally, one of the colleges where I teach just announced we are returning to in-person classes in the fall. While there are new variants of the virus emerging, getting the vaccine is supposed to keep us from getting so sick we need hospitalization, or even face death, even from those variants. Factor in that most people are just plain tired of being cooped up, and all indicators show that we this is ending one way or the other.

So what did you accomplish as a writer? And for that matter, what did I accomplish as a writer? Honestly, things were a bit distracting, with not only the pandemic, but also a TON of misinformation about it, and a very contentious presidential election. Factor in the summer of protests from the Black Lives Matter movement, and there was a lot to keep track of. I don't think I'm alone when I say I could have been more productive than I was. But there were areas where I was productive.

I did manage to finish editing my first novel. . . again, after a mentor looked it over. I wrote a query letter for it and sent that out. I also finished my other novel, and began editing it. I sent out a lot of works, and many of them fell to dead letters, but I noticed I'm starting to receive the rejection letters again (which is a very good thing), another sign this pandemic and quarantine are in their final throes. And don't be afraid of those rejection letters. I've started reading those books for my Frankenstein research project again. And yesterday, I finally wrote another short story.

Could I have been more productive than that? Probably, but it also goes to a point I've always suspected was true: the more you do, the more you want to do, and the less you do, the less you want to do. Writing kind of works like that, perhaps more than other aspects of life. So keep plugging away, and I will do the same.

Every Writer's Favorite Topic: Coffee

 

Today I thought I would blog about a very important topic for writers: coffee. The way your take your coffee and how your make it can provide very important information about a writer, and for the writer to be able to describe their characters. I am inspired to write about this for a very important reason: it seems my newest percolator has died. 😞

Before I get too far, that photo above is not my newest percolator. That is the percolator my grandfather used going all the back to when I was a little kid. But I chose to use that photo because not only is that percolator coffee maker still working, but it also makes better tasting coffee than my new percolator system! I don't know what its secret is (magic?), but that damn thing makes the best freaking coffee I've ever tasted (screw you, Starbucks!).

There's a meme that goes around with various coffee makers and what it says about you. Under the percolator system it says you're either pretentious or an old Italian. Well, that percolator pictured is from my Italian side of the family (mom's maiden name was Notarione). Both my parents were big coffee drinkers, my non-Italian dad even moreso than my mother. I can't say my parents knew everything, or that they did everything perfectly, but I can say they were correct about the percolator system being superior to the new drip systems.

So how do I take my coffee? I'm not so traditional that I take it black, but I do need a little cream and sugar. I'm also not a big fan of those longer coffee drink names you can find at Starbucks and other similar places. I have a hard time getting myself to spend as much as those modern coffee shops are asking for a cup of joe. I can't even imagine drinking iced coffee. I don't want to insult anyone who does like these types of coffees, but they are just not me.

Isn't it interesting how much you can learn about a person just by knowing what kind of coffee they drink and how they take it? So how do you like your coffee? And if you are writing, how do your characters take their coffee? Or do they drink coffee? And if they don't drink coffee, what do they drink, and how do they drink it? This can be important information for your readers.

Editing . . . Again.

 

 In a recent blog post, I wrote about editing a novel. Since I recently finished editing that novel, I would like to post an update.

It was the first manuscript I ever finished and edited to the point where I felt it was ready for prime time. By that I mean I felt comfortable enough to send it to agents and publishers, but to get it to that point, I had to edited it over and over again, to the point where it felt like the movie Groundhog Day, I keep living the same novel over and over again. It actually got the point where I promised myself I would never edit it again, so I could concentrate on completing other projects. Or at least I would never edit it again unless a professional like an agent or publisher asked for edits. Of course that would warrant another edit.

Then I applied to the Horror Writers Association to have a mentor, and was assigned one some time later. Since this was my only completed work, I sent him this manuscript. He provided me with some important feedback to the manuscript and pointers about my writing in general, which you can read about in the link above.

Since then, I set out to edit that novel one more time. It had been looked at by a professional author, so that warranted it one last edit. But the process at this point really did feel like Groundhog Day, working on the same thing over and over, reliving the same novel over and over. Well, that process is mercifully over once again. Don't get me wrong, I love that story I created, and feel it has great potential, and even after this many edits, there was some joy in revisiting it one more time.

But once a project like this over, there's nothing left to do but submit it. So I reviewed, once again, how to write a query letter, researched a number of small presses to submit it to, and geared my query toward one particular small press that seemed appropriate for my work. I also sent this query to my mentor, since he mentioned he often looks at former mentees' works from time to time, and I asked for his advice. I was very pleased he did not have any edits to the query. I have sent queries to professional writers before and have always had some edits in the past, so it was nice that for once, I seem to have mastered at least one part of the process. And I do think I wrote a pretty good query this time.

So the next step in the process is to continue editing one of my other novels and get it ready to send off to agents and publishers. This novel is starting from a different place than that previous one was. I think I have learned a lot since that first completed and polished manuscript, so I don't think this one will require nearly as much editing. I will likely also research more agents and small presses to send out that first manuscript, so several places can have a look at it at one time.

Such is the life of a writer: write, edit, submit, repeat.

Lately

 

I confess that lately I have not had as much time as I would like to write fiction, or my Frankenstein project. However, that does not mean I have not been writing. As everywhere else in the world, schools have gone online, and I teach college writing for the majority of my income. I therefore had to convert my classes to an online format. Even though I worked on that throughout the summer, and even took a few training classes to accomplish this, I still had a LOT to do.

This past semester, I taught a total of seven classes as three higher education institutions, and I taught a total of three different classes, a developmental writing class, a beginning composition class, and a research writing class. What it really came down to was essentially the equivalent of writing a college composition textbook that could accommodate all three of those levels of writing. Luckily, I have been teaching for a little over ten years now, off and on, and I had a lot of materials to pick from. I wound up choosing a portion of this old textbook, and a different portion from that one, along with my "all star hall of fame" collection of sample essays to use for the students to pattern their writings after.

This did give me some experience with research writing, and may be some experiences I can use when returning to the Frankenstein project. It also granted me some experience with what works and what does not when teaching online.

The semester has now ended, and after doing some housecleaning, and celebrating the holidays, I am trying to return to fiction writing. A lot of markets seem to be slowing down at accepting and deciding on submissions, however, and the entire publishing world is slowing, partially due to the pandemic, and partially due to the economic impact from the pandemic. It looks like the end of this pandemic is finally on the horizon, but it seems it will also leave us with a world that is far different from what it was before the catastrophe began, just like a good horror story.

Three Tips to Writing Dialogue

Look at this cat and tell me what you think she is saying. (It's one of my four cats, Patch, sitting at the bar in my house, by the way.) I imagine her saying, "What'll you have?" or something similar."What'll" because it is colloquial, improper English, for "What will." People rarely speak in proper English, unless they are giving a speech or something similar. The quote also gives the cat a motive. She has a job to do, tending bar, and to accomplish that motive she first has to find out what drink you desire so she can properly make it. Additionally, it implies that there is someone on the other side of the bar, listening, or not listening, or most accurately, half listening, because that is what people do most of the time, even in conversation. That person may answer right away, or they may hesitate, think, or finish a conversation with someone else before answering. We each have our own motivation and half listen to each other to achieve our own motivations while we deal with the other person's problems are to see how much we have to help them to achieve our own goals.

Is that a pessimistic view of the world? Perhaps, but one that I think is still pretty accurate. As human beings we must negotiate with each other to gain what we want and need. Ideally, there should be give and take. So now the question is, how do we capture that plurality of motives in conversation on the page in a work of fiction?

One aspect of fiction where I seem to excel is writing dialogue. Some of the short stories I've managed to get published were virtually all dialogue. Furthermore, when I receive a personalized rejection, more often than not, they mention that the dialogue was good and seemed natural. While there may be other areas I still need to work on, I do seem to write good dialogue. Therefore, I thought this may be a good time to share what I know about creating good dialogue.

There are three things to remember with writing good dialogue.

1. People rarely, if ever, speak proper English. I assume this is probably true of speakers of other languages as well. We use figures of speech, idioms, slang and often try to appear witty to others. When someone does speak proper English in a normal conversation, we would think of that person as stuffy, uppity, pedantic, arrogant, or other unflattering adjectives. In fact, most people don't even speak in complete sentences. We get distracted, have other thoughts to convey, or just don't have the time.

2. Each character should have their own motivations, and their dialogue should reflect that. Yes, all the time. This is a work of fiction after all. This moves the plot and creates the type of conflict and tension people like to read about. Dialogue can move the plot in this way just as well as the actions, perhaps even better than the actions in many cases.

3. People don't really listen to each other. Have you ever just listened to two people having a conversation. Try it some time. People half listen, but again, are distracted by what was said earlier, or what we want to say, or by, wait, was that a squirrel? We don't have time to listen, so we end up half listening. Watch a Neil Simon play, or a film adaptation, or read one of his plays. He's really good at this aspect, in my opinion.

For another example (okay, one that's not as good Neil Simon, but still . . .), consider the opening conversation to one of my published short stories, "Paranormal Experiment," which was published in parAbnormal Digest some time ago. Rights have reverted back to me at this point.

“What’s wrong, Linda?” Eric asked his translucent girlfriend as she sat on a large wooden box in the college physics laboratory. He placed an opaque hand on her see-through shoulder in a comforting gesture.

     “I’m just not sure I want to go through with this. I mean what if something happens to me?”

     “Awe, come on babe, don’t you trust me? I mean what can happen? You’re already dead, right?”

     “Don’t call me babe! You know I hate that.” She stood up, threw her arms down, and turned away, her faded white dress flowing in the motion, the long belled sleeves trailing behind her. “And how can I forget I’m a ghost and you’re not when you keep reminding me.”

The very opening line asks what is wrong, implying conflict from the very first line. We learn Linda is a ghost by her description. Her motivation is that she is in love with Eric, who wants to experiment on her, and is unsure how far she wants to go to show her love for Eric. Eric's motivation is that he wants to be a famous scientist by conducting the first experiments on a ghost, one which he just happens to be dating. It also seems that Eric is rather a jerk, calling her "babe," a slang term, which she doesn't like. It even seems he may be using her to accomplish success in his career. The final lines add the underlying wedge to their relationship, that she's a ghost and he isn't. (Don't worry, Linda gets her revenge in the end by killing Eric, so he has to give up science, and they live happily ever after . . .  as ghosts.)

So I hope I have helped you come up with great believable dialogue. Please feel free to use these tips to your advantage. Just remember, people don't speak proper English, everyone has motives, and nobody really listens to one another. Now get out there and write great dialogue!