There’s been a rash of mischief, or discussion of mischief, around short fiction submissions lately, and I find myself repeatedly saying the same things in different venues. For the sake of convenience, addressed to you, new writer, here is all my blather in one place. The first thing to understand is the role a short […]
So, there are a number of readers who object to profanity or obscenity or other “bad words”. Can’t say I’m one of them. And while I do sometimes think that popular culture has gotten a bit coarse, I don’t hold the position that I ought to have a personally-sanitized version of it. I do have […]
A friend of mine in college used to refer to the Discovery Channel as the “What’s Eating the Gazelle Today” station. If you paid attention to the proud majestic carnivores, you got a wonderful and varied show. If you paid attention to what they ate, you saw the same thing over and over. New writers […]
I’ve noticed that the “My Fiction” page has gotten some attention lately, and I felt I ought to clarify how I handle sales announcements. Basically, I’ve decided that it’s most prudent not to announce a sale until I’ve signed a contract. Most short fiction contracts are straight-forward, but there are occasionally things I would balk […]
I’ve mentioned here before that when I was in high school and college I wrote pretty prolifically. Not great fiction, but plenty of short stories and most of a novel. I submitted one story in high school, got a half-page rejection (Asimov’s, I think? I can’t find it) and more or less kept my stories […]
As someone who is still trying to get published, I see a lot of outfits trying very hard to milk people like me for money. They play to our egos and our vanity. I’ll be honest, I sometimes get rejections back and think bad thoughts to myself about editorial taste — but I shake it […]
I’m very glad I allowed myself to be talked into attending Boskone — I had a real blast. I got to see a number of people I knew (though I’m sorry that I had so little time to talk to most of them) got to meet a number of people I knew only from conversations […]
I had a fascinating conversation with a friend of mine the other day about the preferred term for someone who writes. I had always had a vague impression that the term “author” was the more pretentious term for writing (particularly fiction) but my friend (who is free to identify herself in comments; I just can’t […]
… and my 3,000 word short fantasy story is out the door! I’m a big fan of the market I submitted it to, so I’d be thrilled if they take it. Pride is useful, since at 5 cents a word I’m looking at like $150 for the story. Considering that I’ve sworn not to buy […]
Just got back a rejection for A Stab in the Dark. I wonder at what point F&SF’s form rejections started using the word “story” instead of “tale”. Ah well, into the filing cabinet it goes. Haven’t decided yet about its next stop. Its 7,000 word length is a little bit of a handicap for some […]
John P. Murphy 