Other Ideas
No Ballad today, folks. Sorry. I got caught up working on the 2nd draft of The Crumbler and ended up doubling my quota doing that. This isn’t something I can actually complain about, since The Crumbler is actually what I’m supposed to be concentrating on. It’s the only project I’m working on that might actually make some money. The Ballad (despite its personal significance) isn’t. It’s not really a commercial prospect. Some people don’t understand why not. It’s a science fiction story after all. They figure I should be able to sell it to science fiction magazines.
It doesn’t exactly work that way, unfortunately. For several reasons.
The first is simply that my style, subject matter and political viewpoint are at odds with most of the top magazines and their editorial agendas. I’m not saying that the editors of those magazines are ideological hard cases. In fact, if a story is good enough and to their stylistic taste, I’m pretty sure they’d ignore even the most blatant disagreements with their personal philosophy.
I’m basically only saying that editors are human: they have their stylistic preferences (though many of them probably choose along a broad canvas) and they are not going to recognize a piece as ‘good’ that doesn’t adhere to that preference.
I have, in many ways, an old fashioned style. There are places for it. Like, say, Analog. I don’t write Analog type stories, unfortunately. You see the predicament?
I generally write what is termed modern fantasy — a catchall term for fantasy that isn’t Tolkien-esque. My best story is probably Roberta (which is an Analog style story in most respects) and that involves so many in-jokes and references to an overall little known philosophical movement that no mainstream mag would buy it. I can’t blame them. For the mainstream audience, it would be a real head scratcher.
I do plan on shopping Hitch Hike around to a few of the online outlets that accept previously published work. The trouble there is that they don’t pay much more than token. Some of them, though, are quite well regarded and will help in the effort of building a ‘name’.
What I really need to do (other than finish this damn novel) is focus on writing stories and not immediately sticking them online for the whole world to read. That’s a hard thing for me, though. I write so I can show people. Every story or essay is, in a sense, an attempt by me to explain something of how I see the world or think the world should be. To illustrate some aspect of human nature I think is important. To finish a story and not show people feels like not finishing.
Anyway, I’ll try to have something for you folks soon.
