Sending my child off into the unknown

[hrj]

It's been a long time since I sent a short story out for submission. I've tended to write shorts "to order" for specific markets, so I don't tend to have them lying around waiting for the right market to show up. But it's occurred to me that, because my short fiction leans more towards the sff side of the gulf-between-the-genres that I balance over, I should make more of an effort to get some current publications that will help me build bridges for my novels.

For the rest of the year, I've decided to shift my writing over toward Hidebound the skin-singer novella that I'd like to use as an anchor for putting out a collection of the whole set of skin-singer stories. It'll be a useful challenge to write it as a completely stand-alone story. The theory is that I'll sell it by itself (most likely to some sort of on-line market, since that seems to be where the short-fiction market is these days) and then probably self-publish the collection, also most likely in electronic form. (Which means that I'll have to dive into the learning curve of e-book formatting.)

But I've also had this Mabinogi-inspired short story Hoywverch languishing ever since it was bought, then killed by Lesbian Short Fiction when they folded before it could appear. Lately I've been poking at my outlines and notes for additional related stories (I have a vision of doing "four branches" just like the original, although the themes won't be closely parallel), but a few days ago I saw a market announcement that just sort of clicked in my mind as a likely venue. And this morning I formatted it up and sent it off. I won't say more because I'm shy about that sort of thing.

The general inspiration behind Hoywverch and its future sequels is a queering of medieval Welsh literature. Not a strictly historic take--I'm taking advantage of the fantasy setting itself to gloss over issues of the reception of alternative sexuality. Although, I would like to point out that the Fourth Branch includes magical gender (and species) transformations that lead to two men alternately impregnating each other. So give me a little slack on my liberties! Originally I was thinking purely in terms of lesbian relationships and messing with gender roles and expectations, but as the fourth branch developed in my mind, I realized that the only natural and satisfactory conclusion goes in an entirely different direction. (No more on that until I have the thing actually written.) So I'm stretching my own comfort zone a bit on this one.

I have no illusions about the chances of being taken up by any particular market. Even if they like it, they may easily be inundated by things they like, and Hoywverch is decidedly an odd duck of a tale. But then, what among my fiction isn't?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Odd Ducks would be a wonderful anthology title. (No, autocorrect, I did not mean anthill instead of anthology!)
Wishing your stories luck in finding homes, for my sake as well as yours.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

And perhaps I should try harder to read the Mabinogion. I've never made it very far in.

Mary Anne in Kentucky.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Assuming that you're reading in translation (given the people I hang out with, this is NOT a safe assumption), there are so many options, depending on what sort of flavor you want. I'm enough of a literalist that I very much prefer the Gwyn Jones & Thomas Jones version because they stick so close to the original syntax and vocabulary that you can use it as a translation crib. But a lot of my colleagues prefer Patrick Ford's version for more readability. (The Lady Charlotte Guest translation has a definite place in history, but she does bowdlerize the sex scenes.) Pretty much every translation includes a slightly different set of texts, beyond the basic Four Branches.

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recommendations. Welsh is not a language I have even thought about learning. I will try the Jones/Jones translation if I can find it. The one I bounced off of twice was in my college library and I have no idea what it was. I am very sensitive to translation weirdness even in languages I know nothing of. Like Polish. I've read very little Stanislas Lem because some of the translations make my brain itch. (And when I do know the language, I come to a crashing halt, trying to reverse translate what I'm reading.)

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[ursula]

Are you internet-acquainted with rachelmanija? She's had some success with self-publishing ebooks, and might be interested in talking about the details.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I know who she is, but have no existing connection that would make me feel comfortable about contacting her directly.

[ursula]

But asking for advice is an excellent opening, because it makes the other person feel smart & accomplished! Thus speaks the Machiavellian wisdom of my old Latin professor.

(Yeah, somehow the grownup version of me is kind of obnoxiously network-y. Not sure how this happened.)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

You're just going to have to cope with the fact that cold-contacting someone with whom I have no previous connection to ask for a favor is so far outside my comfort zone that my throat closes up just thinking about it. I can do it. I have done it. But only when I have no other options.

For me, successful networking is not "Hey I know you and I know this other person, therefore magic happens." I know you mean well, but the fact that you know this other person doesn't magically change my (non)relationship to her.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I am curious if you would also be uncomfortable with someone you know contacting someone you don't know on your behalf and asking them to contact you with advice. Asking only because I am curious about the boundaries on the discomfort, not because I know anyone who could be helpful on this topic.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

What I'm comfortable with is people I know making mutual introductions and saying basically, "Hey, I know both of you and I know you're both good/interesting people and I think you have enough in common that I think you should know each other."

It's the whole bit about "Hey, I know so-and-so, so I'm going to assume they're already one of your best buddies." that really, really doesn't work. (Jaelle was always doing this. She knew everyone and she blithely assumed that either everyone she knew also knew everyone she knew, or she assumed that the fact that she knew both of you meant you'd automatically be comfortable barging into that person's life.)

Also not working? Inviting me along to a gathering of a whole bunch of people you know and then not doing introductions or making any effort to include me in conversations.

I will note that I make enormous efforts not to do those things to other people. I can overcome a lot of anxiety by "having a job", including the job of making other people comfortable.

[ursula]

My apologies for stressing you out!

For me, an lj comment is a much smaller risk than, say, an email, but it sounds like your lines are drawn differently.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Shortly after reading this post this morning I read Pat Rothfus' blog talking about the donations various authors and others in the publishing industry have been making to his World Builder's charity campaign. Today's post is about people offering to critique manuscripts for aspiring writers, so it isn't only about donating books, though that is certainly an easy way to go. It occurs to me that if you were inclined to do some sort of donation to that charity it would get your name seen by more readers of fantasy books, since he clearly has a pretty large fan base based on how much cash that charity campaign generates. (Of course, you could be way ahead of me on that one--I haven't had time or inclination to see who all is contributing to the project.)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The thing about the social economy of charity projects like this is that, for the most part, it relies on the donors being interested in buying "celebrity by contagion". People don't raise money by offering the books and services of people nobody has heard of yet. And donations by unknown people just tend to clog up the process (sort of like rummage sale donations that would have been better just tossed in the trash) because they take more work to administrate than they bring in. If donating books to something like that were a successful way of generating publicity for the books, they'd be inundated by every self-published volume in existence.

On my own blog, to my own fans, when I ran a book give-away that only required people to submit interview questions, I got two (2) responses. I have no juice.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Those sound like great stories. Good luck with placing them.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thanks!