Writing thoughts & stuff

[osprey_archer]

1. My payment came through for my story in the Moonlight werewolf anthology! I am RICH BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS OF AVARICE and filled with the desire to submit stories to more anthologies in hopes of multiplying my riches.

2. I've actually collected a couple of recent calls for anthology submissions, and I thought I would share them here in case you, too, want to hop on the anthology gravy train.

sovay mentioned the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Fiction Series, which is accepting short stories of up to 5000 words in the lesbian historic fiction genre, set before 1900, settings outside of 19th century America and England preferred. (Although, uh, probably mine will be set in 19th century America or England, given my areas of expertise.) Submissions must be sent in January.

Somewhere on Twitter I heard about Silk & Steel: An Adventure Anthology of Queer Ladies, "stories of high adventure that feature one weapon-wielding woman and one woman whose strengths lie in softer skills." They've already got a stellar author list (Ellen Kushner! Yoon Ha Lee!) so it's, um, optimistic for me to send in a story for this one, but you never know if you don't try! Suggested length 3,000-7,000 words, with 10,000 words as an upper limit. Deadline February 22, 2020.

3. If you know of other anthologies with open calls for submissions, this is the place to share them!

4. It has occurred to me that if I submitted a story to an anthology each month for all of 2020, at the end of the year I would have a nice pile of stories and if none of the anthologies wanted them I could release them myself, which is kind of a win-win situation.

Comments

[asakiyume]

4. You would indeed--go go go!

[osprey_archer]

There are a couple of stories that have been sitting on my computer for... in at least one case literally a decade... which could finally see the light of day!

Although sadly I think my ninth grade magnum opus, "The Frog Prince," will not be one of them, because Julia's reasons for turning her totally inoffensive boyfriend Devon into a frog are in retrospect kind of hilariously unsympathetic. He wanted to spend time at the park with her and also drives a car instead of flying a broomstick, that jerk.

[asakiyume]

Devon, you loser! Get with the program!! Or get hopping!

[osprey_archer]

The story ends with Julia abandoning frog!Devon in the park. "Maybe he can get one of the silly basketball girls to kiss him," she scoffs, because my ninth-grade self had quaffed deeply of the goblet of cultural misogyny (there is also a point where Devon literally describes Julia as "not like the other girls"). As if frog!Devon is going to leave that park alive, Julia! He's probably going to get eaten by a cat or something.

[asakiyume]

Speaking of "not like other girls," I saw this really sweet thing on Tumblr: I'm not like other girls

[osprey_archer]

Aw, that is cute! (And actually, at the time that I wrote the story I had a lot of female friends; I just somehow hadn't extrapolated beyond "my friends are unique and interesting individuals!" to "maybe ALL the girls... are unique and interesting individuals???")

[evelyn_b]

aw man, poor lil frog Devon! I feel somebody should write fix-it fic about this very obscure canon. </3

[osprey_archer]

I'm sure Devon will find his way to a helpful basketball girl somehow! I never established whether he's a talking frog or not, though, and if he can't talk, he's going to have some trouble getting kissed.

[evelyn_b]

He is going to have to prove his intelligence by scratching sequences of prime numbers in the dust with his lil froglegs :(((

or words i guess if he still has the ability to write

Did you ever establish whether he retains human consciousness within his tiny frog brain?

[osprey_archer]

Nope! Julia just abandons him in the pathway with the autumn leaves falling down all around him.

It occurs to me that maybe I SHOULD include the story after all, and instead of trying to revise it to make Julia slightly more sympathetic, I should lean into her unrepentant villainy. "The witch academy made me go to normal high school to get "socialized," so I turned this guy into a frog! Who cares if he ends up getting eaten by a cat if it gets me back into which school??"

[evelyn_b]

I love it! And from Julia's perspective, it'll probably work, if only because witch school is (hopefully) much better equipped to handle witch problems. I mean, normal school counsellors can barely handle reglar kids; they are not going to make any headway with a poorly socialized witch in the throes of puberty and resentment.

[osprey_archer]

The whole story is already Julia's sorry-not-sorry confession! ("I understand, I really do, that I should not have done it. It was a complete and utter misuse of my powers, and I am doing my best to be fully contrite over the horror of my actions.") I just need to lean into that angle a little more and... maybe tone down Julia's disdain for the giggly flirtatious basketball girls slightly?

Or focus it more on how basketball girls are not nearly as cool as WITCH girls, so it's more about Julia's feelings of alienation than misogyny per se.

[evelyn_b]

Go for it!

[kore]

It's like a really twisted version of that Golden Ball story, I love it!

[kore]

He is going to have to prove his intelligence by scratching sequences of prime numbers in the dust with his lil froglegs :(((

OMFG, stop making me want this

[evelyn_b]

s h a n ' t

[evelyn_b]

Congratulations! I hope you keep the gravy train rolling, and take up this win-win challenge to write more stories! (though I'm already in awe of your productivity)

[osprey_archer]

I feel super unproductive this month (all of my writing is terrible all of a sudden! *cries quietly*) but hopefully my mojo will come back eventually.

[minutia_r]

This one doesn't pay much--only royalties--but it's got a great theme:

http://www.camdenparkpress.com/cats/

Also, if you're looking for places (anthologies or otherwise) to submit stories, may I suggest giving the submission grinder a try:

https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/

[osprey_archer]

CAT LADIES OF THE APOCALYPSE. I love it!

I will poke around submission grinder later. It looks somewhat terrifyingly thorough.

[kore]

(Not to nag but when do we get Wolf and Girl?)

[osprey_archer]

It's entirely in the hands of my cover designer now. As soon as the cover is done, it's ready to go up.

[skygiants]

Do it!!! I haven't written anything short in ages but sovay linked me the Lesbian Historic Motif call and I'm extremely tempted ....

[osprey_archer]

We can brainstorm together! I've come up with a number of possible settings (Vassar girls! Lowell Mill girls!), but still struggling to come up with a story to go with it.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, congratulations! And also good luck.

[osprey_archer]

Thank you!

[oracne]

Hooray for Money Day!!!

Submit! If you don't submit, you can't be accepted. Don't make their decision for them.

[osprey_archer]

Well, first I have to write the story... or no, first I have to get a good idea for a story. But if/when there is a story, in it goes!

[littlerhymes]

Congratulations! MONEY FOR STORIES IS GOOD!

4 is a brilliant idea omg.

[osprey_archer]

I KNOW, RIGHT? I've been looking at some old stories that have been lying around on USB drives etc, and I've rounded up four or five that I still think are good enough for inclusion in this hypothetical short story collection, which I think is a good start.

[brigdh]

Congrats on the money!

The "Silk & Steel" anthology sounds amazing! I'm going to try and send in a story too, and even if neither of us makes it, I will totally be buying a copy for my personal reading pleasure.

[osprey_archer]

Doesn't it look great? I'm having some trouble coming up with a story idea (I keep getting stuck on the swashbuckling. Action is not my forte), but I'll keep it in the hopper and see if something comes up.