News and Views

We went to Faro, Portugal, for a four day break. It was truly lovely. We wandered around, had lots of good food (mostly fish, not to mention the delicious pastel de nata) and wine (porto!), listen to music (Fado!),  and generally just chilled. It was a good break. I actually managed to relax, which is rare. And I've started on a new short story for a Codex contest. I don't quite know where it's going, or even if I'll finish it, but I like the opening, and it's a nice feeling to be working on new words.

Well, I've jinxed it. The story is back with a personal rejection--very friendly, but still a rejection. Weirdly, this time the editor said the ending didn't work for them, while the previous personals loved the end in particular… Another proof that it's all a matter of taste. And so the story goes off to the next market. Of all my stories (and there aren't many as I"m not really a short-form writer), this one I'm really stubborn about. Maybe because it's so much "me" in the way it plays with the theme of choices that I come back to again and again in all of my writing. Well, I keep sending it out till it finds a home. And if it doesn't, then I'll keep it to one day give away as a Patreon bonus or something. You know, when I'm famous enough to have a Patreon which anybody other than my mother will support... ;) Current mood: philosophical

Trying to cut a 7,300-word story to submit to a publication with an upper limit of 6,000. After much sweating and culling, I've cut over a thousand words, but it's still not enough. I'm worried though that more cuts will erode the character's voice and the extra stuff that turns a plot into a story . It's now in that very delicate territory where some sentences are not strictly necessary, but each of them ads to the mood and the experience you want the reader to have. Because that's what stories are--experiences, rather than just lists of events or character traits. Not even lists of emotions. It's the whole package, carefully structured, with the "redundancies" as necessary as windows in a cathedral. Still, another 250 words need to be cut. I hope I still have a story when that's done.

My flash Ships Made of Guns  was published in Daily Science Fiction on Tuesday. Love this story, so typical of my writing and the questions I find myself asking again and again. Mood: a bit proud, to be honest