Reading: Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Music: The Clash
TV/Movie: Family Guy
Link o' the Day: Night shade Books Discussion Area: Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

I'm amazed by some of the perception new writers have when it comes to slushpiles. I've heard of these people, but now they're given a forum to vent. Today's link comes early in the entry, Night shade Books Discussion Area: Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (the official discussion forum).

One fellow pretty much attacked John Joseph Adams of F&SF for responding too quickly to submissions. Just about every writer I know trying to break into the market loves F&SF's quick turnaround time. We're realistic enough to know that yes, the odds are not in our favor being new kids on the block, but at the same time, F&SF, like most of the other big magazines, make a point of publishing new writers when they find a story worthy of publication. All this complaining that "they only buy from Big Names" is a cop-out. Sure, Big Names sell magazines so it makes sense to publish stories by them. They're also Big Names because they know how to write a good story. Anything else is sour grapes in my opinion. (Okay, not every Big Name story is going to be to your taste--Lord knows they aren't always to mine--but we're a pretty diverse reading group.)

Now some folks may not like GVG's editorial style. I like some issues. I don't like others. The magazine hasn't really been consistently good since the days of Ed Ferman, but I have a tendency to prefer older-style stories anyway.

Regarding John Joseph Adams as a pre-reader... my only complaint is that I miss seeing the word "alas" in my rejection slips.

The site is definitely worthy of your time--just try not to have too much else to do that day. For writers in the throes of breaking into the market, check out the "They tell me I belong here" and "Editorial Assistant John Joseph Adams and Fast Rejections" topics.

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In the spirit of the above, I've decided I'm going to send the just-completed-edited draft of "Interworld Truck Kings Artists Collective" to F&SF to see what all happens. It's one of my favorite stories, but, sadly, I suspect that it's going to be another hard sell. Why? It's about a frustrated artist with a crumby dayjob (actually, it's the crumbiest dayjob I could invent). It's about how he gets his inspiration back. I think it's a wonderful story and something that a lot of folks can relate to.

So why do I think it's going to be another one of my infamous hard-sells?

I was perusing StrangeHorizon's guidelines the other day and saw their list of "story themes we get way too often. " What appears on the list? Frustrated artists and people with awful office jobs.

sigh

Okay, so SH isn't going on the submission list for this story, but I will preservere and shell out the stamps to send this around to anyone I think it might have a chance with. I believe I once pointed out that my eternal optimism will lead me to a bad end. The evidence continues to grow.

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Regarding the whole WotF submission thing. I read Michael Japser's webjournal about his experiences, as well as a few other folks' and feel pretty good about the contest overall. I try to keep the idea of Scientology separate from the WotF thing. Hubbard started out as a pulp writer, and I actually enjoyed Battlefield Earth as a novel well enough to go through several copies. (For the record, I hated the movie version, and after about the second book of the Mission Earth "dekology, I threw my hands up in disgust. You can't win them all.) I won't even get into the argument as to whether Scientology is a religion or a cult. I'm not a fan of any organized religions and see them all as cults of one form or another.

I asked Bob Eggleton what he thought overall of the contest (he's been a judge for the Illustrator contest several times) and he had nothing but good things to say.

Hokay. Back to work.

Cheers!