Success!

[JRTomlin]

Historical. I have to say I've loved the change in genre.

I noticed that a historical novel won the Booker Award this year so I'm saving a place on my mantel.

(No, not really. I'm not literary, but it's an amusing thought)

Ah great to hear! I love historical!

Have you ever read Sharon Kay Penman? Here Be Dragons was an amazing novel IMO. Great strong female characters that do a lot of things that really break out of the "medieval" stereotype in a believable way.

Yes, I've read Penman. She's covered some interesting territory. I enjoyed her Sunne in Splendour a lot.

[JRTomlin]

Thanks guys.

It's a flash fiction story, will be up at Alienskin magazine in for their Feb/March issue.

I'm pretty stoked

That's great! Congrats!

[steffenwolf]

Thanks guys.

It's a flash fiction story, will be up at Alienskin magazine in for their Feb/March issue.

I'm pretty stoked

Congrats! Be sure to post a reminder here when the issue's published.

[steffenwolf]

I got my first pro-paying sale!

The story: Turning Back the Clock, a time travel tale about a man trying to prevent his wife's death.
The venue: Bull Spec, a new speculative fiction magazine, the first issue's due out some time this month. My story won't be in ish #1, but may be in #2 or #3.

It's not SFWA listed yet, because it hasn't been around long enough. But if they're added to the SFWA list later my story will retroactively count towards membership.

[Brad R. Torgersen]

(confetti, confetti, confetti)

Dave, that is super-awesome news. I know you were hoping, about the Bull Spec story. Way to go!

[Alastair]

Congrats on the sale!

There's some flexibility in the SFWA rules if you approach them right. A friend of mine sold a "magical realism" story (reads like early Bradbury, actually) to a Denver scene magazine (303) for a very good word rate. It may well be the only spec fic piece they ever run, but SFWA okay'd the story as a pro sale credit.

[steffenwolf]

Congrats on the sale!

There's some flexibility in the SFWA rules if you approach them right. A friend of mine sold a "magical realism" story (reads like early Bradbury, actually) to a Denver scene magazine (303) for a very good word rate. It may well be the only spec fic piece they ever run, but SFWA okay'd the story as a pro sale credit.

Even in those cases, I think that the market has to have shown a consistent publication history of 1 year, and this one's brand new. They're a speculative market, so as long as they eventually meet the duration and circulation requirements they'll get listed.

It's no big deal though, if they get SFWA-listed later it'll be retroactive to the beginning. And, until it IS SFWA-listed, it doesn't count against my WotF eligibility. So I"m content.

[Alastair]

Good points, both.

[osomuerte]

To my knowledge, SFWA status is not directly applicable to WotF eligibility. There was a big discussion about this on one of the boards a while back. I think, technically, WotF lists circulation and/or views of a story as the deciding factor of whether it affects eligibility or not. However a site that gets thousands of views but pays a dollar for your story was never intended to disqualify applicants.

It would be a simple matter to not ask SFWA to approve non-list sales so you could remain eligible, one reason SFWA is not tied to the contest rules. There are, I'm told, other reasons more complex (think legalese).

I've been led to believe SFWA status is a decent guideline for deciding if you're eligible. As far as I'm concerned, anyone that has to split hairs over their eligibility probably don't need WotF to break out. In other words, if you have to ask "Does my sale of a mind-reading tabby story to Cat Fancy count as my third pro SF sale?", you probably shouldn't be entering.

(Hmmm...I haven't sent anything to Cat Fancy yet...)

[steffenwolf]

To my knowledge, SFWA status is not directly applicable to WotF eligibility. There was a big discussion about this on one of the boards a while back. I think, technically, WotF lists circulation and/or views of a story as the deciding factor of whether it affects eligibility or not. However a site that gets thousands of views but pays a dollar for your story was never intended to disqualify applicants.

It would be a simple matter to not ask SFWA to approve non-list sales so you could remain eligible, one reason SFWA is not tied to the contest rules. There are, I'm told, other reasons more complex (think legalese).

I've been led to believe SFWA status is a decent guideline for deciding if you're eligible. As far as I'm concerned, anyone that has to split hairs over their eligibility probably don't need WotF to break out. In other words, if you have to ask "Does my sale of a mind-reading tabby story to Cat Fancy count as my third pro SF sale?", you probably shouldn't be entering.

(Hmmm...I haven't sent anything to Cat Fancy yet...)

Actually, KD (or Joni, I forget) said specifically to use SFWA list to decide if the market counts. It's not on the official rule page, but that rule page isn't particularly accurate. I'll see if I can dig up that quote.

[steffenwolf]

Tambra, check the qualifying markets to join SFWA on the SFWA.org site to see if you're still eligible for the Contest. We use the same standard as to whether a publication is considered professional that they do.

This was a quote from KD. It's not listed in the contest rules, but if KD says so I believe her. If you take the contest rules to the letter, it doesn't even require pro payment, so my 3 less-than-pro and 1 pro sale would already have DQ'ed me. But thankfully, I"m still in the running.

[M. Wimmer]

Congrats, David and izanobu. I've been submitting to Alienskin for a couple of years with no bites. That's a good market, especially for flash.

It's cool to see people from the forums making such strides in their writing careers, what with Brad and Alastair selling to Analog. Gives me some hope for myself.

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Congrats, David and izanobu. I've been submitting to Alienskin for a couple of years with no bites. That's a good market, especially for flash.

It's cool to see people from the forums making such strides in their writing careers, what with Brad and Alastair selling to Analog. Gives me some hope for myself.

It can never be said enough. Succeeding in this biz is 10% inspiration and/or talent, and 90% stubborn persistence.

Oh, and it helps to have a spouse who won't ever let you quit on your dreams. That has proven to be very important IMHO.

[izanobu]

yeah, the spouse thing Brad mentions is nice

just do the same thing over and over and hope for different results

[Alastair]

just do the same thing over and over and hope for different results

"If at first you don't succeed, try again -- then try something different. No sense being a damn fool about it." *

The "something different" in our case being improving our writing. Or trying a different editor. Or genre.

* Don't remember where I first heard that, so maybe it's time for me to claim it ("as I've always said...")

[izanobu]

well, yes. improve your writing, goes almost without saying.

i meant more for each story. send it to y, rejected. send to x, rejected. plan c through z? send to somewhere else, hope for different results

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Just do the same thing over and over and hope for different results.

You know, it's interesting. This is basically how we learn to do a lot of things. Like roller skating. I remember how terrifying it was -- as a child -- trying to stay up on skates. I am not a terribly agile, balanced, nor coordinated person, and I am pretty sure I fell about 843 times that first day in the roller rink. Lots and lots of bruises in places I don't even want to mention. But then, suddenly, I wasn't falling down anymore. I was zipping around the rink with everyone else, and even though I was hurting pretty bad from all the falls, I was having a blast because I'd finally "got it" and was having fun.

Same thing happened when I first went skiing. I remember my first time down the mountain, it took me like three hours. Mega-wedge the whole time, fell over and over and over and over.... Next trip up, not so bad. After half a dozen trips, I was able to easily keep up with my Dad, the lifetime ski bum. I couldn't parallel ski with his precision, but I was getting there. And had forgotten all about how much it sucked falling on my face four hundred times the first day.

[Alastair]

Hah, I remember the first time I went skiing. It was with a group from work (all youngish software developers at a start-up). Did a bit of practise on the bunny slope, figured I had the hang of it, and started down an more-or-less easy run with the rest of the gang. Halfway down there was a flattish area where they paused to regroup. They did. I couldn't stop, and sailed past them. I heard an "I didn't know Alastair knew how to ski!" as I zoomed past and into the mogul field. Kept on my feet all the way through the moguls, amazingly enough. I was so amazed myself that I let my attention wander for an instant. Big mistake. Hat, goggles, poles, me, skis scattered for the next hundred yards downslope...

Lot of fun. I went back night skiing after work for quite a bit after that.

[Alastair]

Another sale! I just got word that my (invited) submission for the Space Horrors anthology (fourth volume in the Full-Throttle Space Tales series from Flying Pen Press) has been accepted. (Not a pro-level sale, mostly its a share-of-the-royalties deal.)

My story is a riff on Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado", set on a sleeper ship, entitled "Poetic Justice". And yes, that's a horrible pun.

edit to add: The book should be out in time for Halloween this year.

[Brad R. Torgersen]

(confetti, confetti, horns, confetti)



Way to go, Al!

[izanobu]

Go Alastair!

my story is up at AlienSkin btw, link is here: http://www.alienskinmag.com/flash11.htm (yeah yeah, uncontrolled pimpage, sorry )

[Jeff]

Congratulations Alastair, Congratulations Annie. Woo hoo! Good news all around.

(Btw, I'm jealous of anyone who can write Flash. That would have been a 10,000 word piece if I wrote it. Good story.).

[izanobu]

thanks, Jeff. It's the only flash piece I've ever written either (in my adult life anyway). I tried to write another one, it ended up being 2,000 words. Fail!

[Alastair]

Thanks, all!

[kcball]

Annie:

Good story.

Perhaps you might consider a flash submission to my e-zine, 10Flash. It's genre fiction, published quarterly with an issue theme, and it's a paying market. I'm buying stories for the July issue now.

K.C.

[JoeyJordan]

I am the Featured artist for the U district, Seattle WA art walk =)

http://udistrictartwalk.org/ Live music too =) yay

[Jeff]

Hey Joey,

That's totally awesome.

Jeff

[AMcCarter]

Congrats, Joey!

[Brad R. Torgersen]

Let me guess, they want you to paint giant pictures of marijuana plants?

It is the U district, after all.

I don't even want to think about what they'd want you to paint up on Capitol Hill by Seattle Central Community College.

[JoeyJordan]

Silly Brad =)

It's an area where around 13 or so stores in a walking area have artists set up their art on display. On average there is about 33 artists total. I am displaying in a statuary with gothic statues and fantasy sculptures.

Kick arse update!!! =) I was approached by Eric Cagle of Privateer Press he wants me for "No Quater" gaming magazine, working pirate/steampunkish/futuristic weapon-y mixed art with characters and cityscapes...

I'll have to get a set of entries in for one last try before I start working with them and they start paying me.