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.

[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.

[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.)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

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