speculative fiction — science fiction — horror — fantasy
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Stone Dragon Press speculative fiction — science fiction — horror — fantasy |
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News: August 16, 2008 We have decided to focus on reprinting notable out-of-print works in Paganism and speculative fiction, so we are no longer accepting new MSS (except as noted below). If you requested a submit code before August 13, 2008 we will accept and read your MS. If we like it, we'll publish it. If you are the copyright holder of an out-of-print Pagan or speculative work, please contact us. We're probably interested in your property. We are also interested in:
March 23, 2007 Attention Artists We are switching to a standard plain cover like the one for Journey to Fusang. We will no longer be accepting cover or illustration submissions. As for the graphic novel writers and artists out there, submissions are still being accepted. Please do not send us a link to your website; we are only interested in actual submissions for a comic or graphic novel. December 23, 2006 Offices Closed As the Yule-tide ebbs, we're being born away with the rest of the holiday flotsam and jetsam. Which is to say, during the seasonal celebrations there will be no one at our offices until after January 8. Well, maybe the webrats will still be there, but it's proven virtually impossible to wipeout an infestation once you get them.You can still send us a request for submission code; just don't expect an answer before then. Attention Submitters We really hate having to do this, but in order to keep the spammers from wasting our time, we're running with our spam filters set on deep-fat fry. For those of you with a legitimate reason for contacting us, here's some advice on getting your e-mail thru our spam filters. First, make sure you include a subject line – e-mails without a subject line are automatically trashed. And make that subject relevant to the content – something like: "An Inquiry About Book Submissions"; just an RE, or Hi, or Hey, or Hello is also automatically trashed. Second, spelling counts – e-mails with mispelled words in the subject line or body are automatically trashed. Third, grammar also counts – e-mails with egregious grammar errors in the subject line or body are automatically trashed. And finally, leave the CC and BCC fields blank – e-mails with anything in those fields are automatically trashed. If you need to send a copy to someone other than us, just forward the original e-mail. And now, for something entirely different… Rants:
My Big, Fat Secret I have been trying to figure out for rather a while now what it is that I know about writing that writers don't, the thing I do that makes my writing "good" and theirs "bad"; or what it is I do that makes folks' writing go from "bad" to "good". This is important: if I can figure it out and tell it to others, then they can learn to write "good", too. Now I know what it is: I can cut words out. I was talking to Ci Benson on the phone the other day about an MS I looked at. The first scene of the novel shows a doctor about to commit suicide by slitting his wrists with a scalpel. If you omit the flashbacks that explain why he would want to do any such thing, you are left with some moments in which he tries, tries, cuts a little, tries, and finally cuts a lot (but not enough). Ci said to me, "That's crap. My wife the veterinarian, I've seen her do surgery. They are taught – all doctors are taught – to cut once: visualize, practice, and cut. Look, you are already doing damage to heal. If you diddle or waver or bobble, you're only doing more damage and making healing more difficult. If he's a doctor, he visualized the cut, and he made it, and he died." I realized this was right. When my son was born, I happened to be looking in exactly the right place when the doctor did an episiotomy. (I will not explain what that is.) He took the scalpel, he paused, he cut. I learned three things in that moment: the perineum is largely muscle; humans are made of meat; a scalpel is damn sharp. Nurses were talking, my wife was screaming, our baby was suffocating in-utero, and the doctor was all scalpel, visualize, cut. End of story. As an editor, I am a word surgeon. No matter what your hopes are, no matter what voices are talking to you about your writing, no matter the story is your perfect genius perfectly expressed… I visualize what you have written, and I cut. I don't make unnecessary cuts – that's only extra damage – and I don't cut until I see what I want. Pencil, visualize, cut. Until the end of your story. Listen carefully, writers: you have been told all your life that writing is putting words on paper, making words and words and more words – dribbling, drabbling, spitting, splattering, drooling, blorking words onto the paper until there's story piled on story piled on story. Everything in writery culture is about words coming out and making more words. (Continued in the next column) |
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Now I tell you: that is only half the story. If you would be a strong writer, if you would get into the 2% who actually get published, learn to cut. You can cut a printed draft; you can cut on the screen; you can cut before you write and screen the bad words out before they hit the paper; you can cut wherever you like, just cut. Grab your pencil, read, visualize what you have written, and cut. My baby! you cry. Yes, your baby: your rejected baby, your unpublished baby, your "my writing group liked it" baby, all crawly with extra words, extra scenes, extra paragraphs, extra flashbacks, extra spear-carrying: CUT. And that's my big, fat secret, my power, over your writing and mine: I can cut. The Power of the Hidden Not everything in your book needs to be spelled out. In fact, letting the reader wonder about the details of some things is better. There's a rich tapestry of reality just out of sight, around the corner, over the next hill, in the next confession, driving the next confrontation. "The Tao hides in the unnamed, Yet it alone nourishes and completes all things." I found a story about Hemingway the other day, and if it ain't true, it oughta be. The story says he claimed he could write an entire novel in just six words. Challenged to prove it, he wrote on a napkin, "For sale: baby shoes, never used." Now you have seen the power of the hidden. Revealing the Hidden Thanks for the opportunity to edit some of your chapters. Your reply to my edits has helped me clarify my message to folks who submit and students in my classes: you are writing your story for your reasons. I don't know what those reasons are. You have probably written the story so it makes perfect sense to you, that is, you have left yourself clues about which things mean what. I don't know what those clues are. You can read between the lines and get it all. I don't know which lines to read between, so I don't get it all. A regular reader off the street who is looking at your story has the same problem. Unless that person came from a family, town, etc., like yours, they can't get the clues, can't see what the clues mean, can't read between the lines. For your writing to reach the most people, you must strive to see your personal hidden clues and reveal them for the reader. Maybe this is not so easy to do. You must understand yourself well enough to know how you communicate and to know how that is different from the way the world-at-large communicates. I suppose I could go on here in a pop-psych way about looking inside yourself or something, but I'll spare you. Glad the editing helped, and I hope to see something from you again soon. A Mean Rant This is actually how I feel about most fantasy submissions we receive. It's like they are looking over my shoulder when I work the slushpile. Old Rants:
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