IWSG - In the Throes of NaNo

 It's time for the November Insecure Writer's Support Group!

The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and exists to help writers support each other through their insecurities. Anyone can join. Simply, click on Alex's name above and sign up on the linky list.

The co-hosts this month are:

Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!

The optional question for this month is: 

What's harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?

Honestly, both are harder than writing the actual content for me, but I'd say the blurb is harder than the title. I'm not great at either.

My insecurity this month has to do with the business plan I'd made for the next year. I had intended to take the year to completely get off a medication I'm slow tapering off from (it will take me until July of 2022) in order to avoid the more brutal aspects of withdrawal, but also to put the business degree to full use and fulfill a hefty one year business plan I'd put together. But life happens, and with medical bills racking up, plus unexpected expenses of home and vehicle ownership, I'm having to search for a job and rethink everything I'd planned for the year. It sucks, but it's life. And most of the medical bills are mine, and completely uncovered by insurance. It also means the time I was hoping to also recover from my last fibromyalgia flareup is null and void. And round and round we go. 

I haven't sat down to redo my business plan yet, because I need to have the job first and to know what type of hours I'll be working. And the fibro's still not great, which means I'll have some heavy fatigue after I start the new job. So I'm giving myself about a month after I get the job to sit down and redo the business plan.

I'm a little down in the dumps, but I was already lucky my husband could support us while I returned to school over the last year. I'll suck it up, and I'll still make things happen. Just probably not all the things.

Speaking of which, I passed 30,000 words on my craft book, and I'm feeling good about where it's going. Of course, at around 27,000 words, I suddenly had the "this book sucks and nobody will be interested" calamity. Still working through that.

Okay, time to go over my submission stats for the last month. In October, my stats were:

12 submissions

9 rejections

1 acceptance

1 story assumed rejected or lost (no response, and no response to query)

23 stories currently on submission

Also, I was interviewed on a podcast, Living the Dream with Curveball. His show's about people who inspire, and there are all kinds of great episodes to check out. They're pretty short.

Are you NaNoing? Have you been submitting? Any news to share? What are your insecurities? How are you dealing with them?

May you find your Muse.

ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo 2021

I wasn't able to post last week, because our internet was down. To get the podcast up, I drove around until I found free wi-fi at a Carl's, Jr., then stayed in the parking lot long enough to get the podcast up. It was 2:30 in the morning, and I learned that McDonald's is surprisingly busy at 2:30 in the morning, at least when it's right off the freeway. I also learned that Starbucks shuts off their wi-fi at night, and when you try to sign in, they tell you to come back during business hours. The below picture is a tired me waiting through the drearily slow upload.

So this week you get what would have been last week's updates before I get to my ShaNo plans. (And for those who aren't familiar with my annual twist on NaNoWriMo, an explanation.)

First, I had a short story come out in a mystery anthology with a sense of humor. 

Available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle

I also did a reading for Stories Live! which can be found on YouTube. This was the Halloween episode, so most of the stories are dark and twisty. It's always fun to do this!

Okay, ShaNo time. For those who don't know, because my main focus has long been short stories, I've always set my own relevant goals for the month of November, which has allowed me to hijack the energy for the month while getting things done that will matter to me in the long wrong.

ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo stands for Shannon's Novel and Short Story Writing, Editing, and Submitting Month. 

Funnily enough, this year my primary project happens to be a book, though it's non-fiction. I'm over halfway done with it, so that will be reflected in my goals.

25,000 words on current non-fiction WIP

Write 2 new short stories (we'll approximate 10,000 words for this, though the actual word count will vary)

Finish 2 in-progress short stories (approximately 5,000 words)

Turn around any short stories that get rejected

Edit 2 stories waiting for edits

Submit at least 2 additional short stories

Do you participate in NaNo? Do you do your own version? What are your writing goals for November?

May you find your Muse.

Submission Roundup Oct/Nov

Time for the roundup of places accepting submissions with deadlines between now and mid-November! Bear in mind that I'm not endorsing any of these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence before submitting.

Hellbound Books is seeking short stories for the anthology The Toilet Zone: The Royal Flush. These are NOT meant to be stories about the bathroom. Instead, they're short enough to be read while on the toilet. 2500 to 4000 words. Pays $5. Deadline October 31.

Untreed Reads is seeking short stories for the anthology I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight. This is a mystery/crime anthology where each story must be based on a one-hit wonder. 3000 to 5000 words. Royalty split. Deadline October 31.

Lostboys Press is seeking submissions for their anthology Heroes. These should be retellings of known characters in a different setting. 3000 to 9000 words. Pays $50. Deadline October 31.

Ghost Orchid Press is seeking stories for Beyond the Veil: Queer Tales of Supernatural Love. Must have dark and/or supernatural elements. 1000 to 6000 words. Pays $.01/word. Deadline October 31.

Madhouse Books is seeking stories for the anthology Dark Secrets. These should be short stories about "sinister secrets and hidden evil." 3500 to 7000 words. Pays $10. Deadline October 31.

Eerie River Publishing is seeking horror stories for It Calls From the Veil. Supernatural elements. 2000 to 6000 words. Pays $.01/word. Deadline October 31.

Other Worlds Ink is seeking stories for Save the World. Must be cli-fi (climate science fiction) about hopeful futures involving solutions to help climate change. 2500 to 15,000 words. Pays a flat fee between $50 and $100, depending upon word count. Deadline October 31.

Table/FEAST Lit Mag is seeking stories between 1000 to 4000 words. Pays $30. Deadline October 31.

Death in the Mouth is an anthology seeking horror stories by people of color. 1000 to 6000 words. Pays $.08/word. Deadline November 1.

The Future Fire is seeking speculative stories with a noir flavor. Up to 17,500 words. Pays up to $50. Deadline November 1.

Queer Toronto Literary Magazine is seeking stories by queer individuals. Up to 2000 words. Pays $15. Deadline November 1.

JANK is seeking submissions for Solarpunk Sunscapes: Optimistic Visions of the Future. 500 to 7500 words. Pays $.02/word. Deadline November 1.

Chicken Soup for the Soul is seeking stories with the themes Kindness, Humorous Stories. Up to 1200 words. Pays $200. Deadlines are for between October 31 and November 20.

Dragon Soul Press is seeking stories for Rogue Tales (dark, sexy fairy tales) and Everlast (couples who meet due to time travel). 7000 to 15,000 words. Pays royalties for the first year. Deadline November 30.

The Gravity of the Thing is seeking stories for Stranged Writing: A Literary Taxonomy. Written pieces must showcase defamiliarization. 6 to 3000 words. Pays $5 to $25. Deadline November 30. 

Anything to add? Any of these sound interesting? Are you submitting?

May you find your Muse.

IWSG-October Thrills

 It's the first Wednesday in October, so it's time again for the Insecure Writer's Support Group.

Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, this group serves to seek and provide reassurance for our insecurities. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the sign-up list.

This month's co-hosts are: Jemima Pett, J Lenni Dorner, Cathrina Constantine, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Mary Aalgaard!

This week's optional question is: In your writing, where do you draw the line, with either topics or language?

I don't have many hard and fast lines. In writing horror, there are lines I'll cross that others might not, but there are also places I don't want to tread, such as pedophilia. In terms of language, I won't say words I wouldn't say in real life, such as racist terms, and I don't aim to put in a bunch of profanity, but I do cuss in real life, so it will show up in my writing some. I tend to keep it mostly clean except for the lesser cuss words, though. Short version: I try not to set too many hard limits in advance. If I write something that makes me too uncomfortable or that won't sell, I'll remove it.

As far as insecurities, October tends to be my busy month for appearances (horror and all...), and this year is no different. But I've found that being home for a year without really going anywhere or seeing anyone undid all the progress I'd made with being around other people. It doesn't come naturally for me to be outgoing and be able to talk to people. I'm very introverted, though I enjoy presenting, which makes no sense. So my insecurities are about whether or not I can still pull off the appearances and make them look natural, rather than being stressed. I think I did well at my first appearance of the month this past weekend at MileHiCon, so that's good.

Speaking of which, I had three panels and one reading. The reading was in a genre I don't write (utopian), so I wrote a flash piece that was utopian, but still had a touch of horror (utopia gone wrong). I was nervous all weekend until I read it, but got positive feedback, so shew. The panels all went well. I was moderator on two of them, and we had some good conversations about overused tropes, short stories, and revisiting childhood favorites.

I've got two more online appearances this month, so if you're interested you can attend from anywhere. I'll be doing a reading (story TBD) online via Stories Live Wednesday, October 20, at 7:00 PM, along with several other people. This is FREE on YouTube! You can access the page on my appearances tab, and I'll post about it on my Facebook that day. It does stay online, so I'll add the video to my appearances tab once it airs, too. Also, I'm doing a horror panel Saturday, October 16, from 12:30 to 3:30 PM with some awesome horror writers, but this one is $20 and will be via Zoom. The link for this is also on my appearances tab, if you're interested. It's put on by Pikes Peak Writers.

Time for stats! I post my submission stats each month to keep on top of things. In September, my stats were:

10 submissions

10 rejections

Sent 2 queries on stories that had been out for a long time

Pulled 1 story after not hearing back on the query (the other one was a rejection)

Currently have 24 submissions out

Not a ton to report, but it feels good to be back in the groove. Work is progressing on my NF WIP and I finished one short story and one piece of flash fiction. I'd like to get a short story done each week on top of the non-fiction book work, but there's been a lot going on, so I'm not going to beat myself up.

How about you? Are you getting work done? Any submissions? How about acceptances? What are your insecurities?

May you find your Muse.

Horror List Book Review: Slaughterhouse Five

Remember this? I'm slowly, but surely, getting back to my old routines. Now that I'm done with school, I can get back to the best horror list!

I'm reading through three lists of best horror with two friends (DeAnna Knippling andM.B. Partlow), posting reviews as we go. (For more information, including a list of the books, see this post.) To see the books I've reviewed so far, you can view the list at the end of this post where I rank them.

This week I'm reviewing Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.

This is my first time reading a book by Vonnegut, and I may be hooked. His prose is quick and almost rhythmic sometimes. Fluid. There are quotable bits ("How nice--to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.") and other impactful parts that aren't as quotable. 

In this book, we follow a character named Billy Pilgrim, a soldier in WWII who was present at the bombing of Dresden. The memories/scenes shared show the uselessness, hopelessness, and ineffectualness of war. There are no great battle scenes in this one. Instead, there are lost soldiers and quick captures.

The narrative jumps back and forth in time, ostensibly because Billy has become disconnected from himself and jumps to different time periods. At some point, he was kidnaped by aliens, or so he relates, much to his daughter's chagrin. The reader never knows where they'll be next, or what might cause the leap. 

A satire on war, there are comic moments, but also deeply horrifying moments that are intentionally thrown out in a lackluster way. The words "so it goes" punctuate many of these moments.

The horror in this lies in the psychological aspects of war and what humans do to each other. Understated and almost comical at times, the horror is still there.

I'm glad I finally read this one after decades of hearing about it. It's definitely a lesson in writing horror that doesn't look like horror on the outside.

Have you read Vonnegut? What's your favorite book by him? Have you read this one? What did you think?

May you find your Muse.

Recent Books Read & Recommendations

 This week I figured I'd share some books I've read recently that I'd recommend:

Wonderful, calming, inspirational book of a woman's post-cancer journey to climb 100 summits in Japan within one year. Includes tidbits about foods enjoyed in the region, too.

A murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie and Mary Roberts Rinehart. A group of co-workers from a tech company get stuck in a ski lodge after a massive avalanche must figure out who's murdering them one by one.

A beautiful, lyrical, but dark literary piece about the damaging cycles shared by the women in a family. Murder, abuse, and loss. Some sensitive themes.

A book written in the 90s about what we're doing to teenage girls that kills their strength, their bravery, and their individualism in their teen years, and what to do to get that back. Deals significantly with media, society, and culture. 

I posted asking people to recommend anything they've read lately that they'd recommend to others, and these were the answers I got:

The Ladies of the Secret Circus, by Constance Sayers

When the Stars Go Dark, by Paula McClain

The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave

Haunted Castles: The Complete Gothic Stories, by Ray Russell

The Last Final Girl, by Stephen Graham Jones

Severance, by Ling Ma

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

Know My Name, by Chanel Miller

Sinner, Priest, and American Queen, by Sierra Simone

Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee

Tell Me, by Anne Frasier

My Best Friend's Exorcism, by Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Vampire Slaying, by Grady Hendrix

The Codebreakers, by David Khan

Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown

The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown

The Gift of Fear: Surviving Signals That Protect Us From Violence, by Gavin de Becker

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, by Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD

A Master of Djinn, by P. Djeli Clark

All the Murmuring Bones, by AG Slater

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD

Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens

My Name is Memory, by Ann Brasheres

Still Life, by Louise Penny

Dragon Weather, by Lawrence Watt-Evans

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab

Monarchs of the Sea: the 500 Million Year History of Cephalopods, by Dana Staaf

Sweet Silver Blues, by Glen Cook

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

The Searcher, by Tana French

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

The Wonder, by Emma Donoghue

Sorrowland, by Rivers Solomon

We Were Never Here, by Andrea Bartz

The Lost Apothecary, by Sarah Penner

Torchship Trilogy, by Karl Gallagher

Love, Lies, & Hocus Pocus, by Lydia Sherrer

Level Six, by William Ledbetter

We Are Satellites, by Sarah Pinsker

Wanderers, by Chuck Wendig

Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller

These Toxic Things, by Rachel Howzell Hall

Getaway, by Zoje Stage

Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie

About Grace, by Anthony Doerr

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

A Thousand Brains, by Jeff Hawkins

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

Live Girls, by Ray Garton

Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

I also asked for recommendations of nonfiction books on the following: McCarthyism, the black plague and other pandemics, and the World's Fair, due to my own curiosity. These were the recommendations (some were clearly fiction, but I included them anyway):

World's Fair, by E.L. Doctorow

All the World's a Fair, by Robert Rydell

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid

Of Plagues and Peoples, by William H. McNeil

Guns, Germs, & Steel, by Jared Diamond

The Speckled Monster: A Tale of Battling Smallpox, by Jennifer Lee Carrel

The Doomsday Book/Fire Watch, by Connie Willis

The Stand, by Stephen King

Flu, by Gina Kolata

The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston

1939: The Lost World of the Fair, by David Gelernter

I hope you find a good new read from this list!

Have you read anything lately that you'd recommend? Or do you know of a book you'd recommend on the topics I asked about (McCarthyism, pandemics, the World's Fair)? Have you read any of these, and would you agree with the recommendation?

May you find your Muse.

Blue Swoosh, by OCAL, clker.com

Short Story Tips: Choosing Where to Submit

I was asked some questions about submitting to short story markets recently, and I thought it would be a good topic for a blog post. There are a lot of markets out there, which means countless options for your stories. So how do you choose where to submit?

First, we'll get the obvious stuff out of the way. 

The number one item to look for is that the genre requested by the publication matches the genre of your story. Submitting a mystery to a speculative fiction market isn't going to fly, no matter how good that story might be. Publications will list this information on their submission guidelines pages, but it will likely also be obvious from other aspects of the web page.

Some other things to consider:

Magazine or anthology? 

This may not matter to everyone, but it's something to consider. With an anthology, your story is in an actual book. They're usually put out by small presses in an attempt to bring in more readers for the single author books they put out. Their readership may be lower than a magazine, but that certainly isn't a hard and fast rule, and it completely depends upon the publisher.

Hard copy, e-copy, or audio?

Some magazines are put out in a paper version, some as online/email only, and others are put out as podcasts. There are, of course, also publications that come out in all three or some variation of them. If this is an important detail for you, make sure you check out what format the publication will be in, and don't submit if you don't like the format.

Pay

Pay can vary widely, with the offering being anything from zero pay to pro pay. With zero pay, you may get a contributor copy or a discount on copies. Pay could be royalties or a profit share, with no guarantee of a minimum amount of payment. It's important to consider whether you're okay with the payment offered before submitting. It's completely up to you, but I have two specific recommendations here. First, start at the top. You'll never know if your story is good enough for pro pay if you don't submit to a pro pay market. As you get rejections, you can trickle down to semi-pro, then token. Just don't start by selling yourself short. Second, if you're going for a royalty-type payment, understand that you may never see a dime. For me, this isn't an automatic no. I make the decision based upon the publication itself, and whether I'd like to work with them, what their reputation is, etc. Some of my favorite publishers to work with have been those that paid royalty split or a token amount. I'd work with them over and over, even if I never saw a dime. A category I didn't mention previously is charity pay. In this case, you don't get paid, but any profits get donated to a specific charity. Make sure they list the charity in advance. If they don't, they may be trying to pull one over on you. Plus, you want to be sure you support where they're donating it.

Pay to Play

There are markets that charge for you to submit a story. My personal rule is to not submit to anyone I have to pay for the privilege. However, my personal opinion on it is by no means the be all and end all on the subject. Plenty of people choose to pay to submit. One thing you might consider is what reason they give for asking you to pay. For some, it's to support their ability to pay those they publish. For others there might be a different reason, such as the ability to pay their staff (most magazine staff is unpaid, and are doing it for the love.) make sure you're okay with their reason for asking you for money to submit. (Side note: some give the option to pay for a critique or a quicker response. I also don't opt for these, but you may want to, especially if you're just starting. You have to decide what's best for you. I personally believe you shouldn't pay to be published--your goal should be to GET paid.)

In addition to those things mentioned above, there are plenty of other things to consider. Look into the market you're submitting to and make sure you're okay with everything you see/hear/read. For example, as shallow as it sounds, I look at the covers of their other publications (and the one they're taking submissions for if it's posted in advance, which often happens with anthologies). If I don't like the quality of the covers, I may not submit. I want to be able to be proud of what I'm in, and that includes the exterior. Reputation is even more important. If you've seen authors complaining about working with them, you should consider whether you want to do so. At least if it seems like the author is giving valid reasons. Are they hard to work with? Did they cheat the author out of pay? Do they provide trustworthy contracts?

If there's anything that makes you doubt wanting to submit, maybe consider why that is. Even if it's just a bad feeling that you can't quite put a finger on. That means you've seen something that put you off, whether you realize what it was or not. This is something you'll be attached to as long as it's in print. Make sure you're okay with that.

Places to look for submissions:

Duotrope (paid service)

Submission Grinder

Ralan

Horror Tree

Published to Death

Authors Publish (sign up for the newsletter)

Search for Facebook groups with "open call" in the name.

Did I forget anything? Do you have any questions on this topic or have another you'd like to see answered? What are some reasons you've decided not to submit (or that you overlooked and wish you'd seen)? Do you know of any resources for finding publications that I haven't mentioned?

May you find your Muse.

Microphone Clipart, OCAL, clker.com

Nosmoke Clipart, OCAL, clker.com