Still Alive

I'm still around the place and I'm still reading your blogs - lurking can be habit forming :c)

I received notification that I had a comment requiring moderation, which surprised me as I don't moderate my posts and I haven't posted anything in ages, so why would anyone comment anyway?

To my surprise, a very old post (Feb 20, 2009) titled Idolatry And An Acceptance received a comment from a TOC collaborator, Dempsey from NVF #5. He has nicely offered to give me some info on new markets, but as I'm not currently writing, I'll have to say thanks but no thanks.

It sent me back a little though as I reread the post in question. To save you having to go back to it, I started the post by saying:

I've come to the conclusion much of my earlier work contains either clichéd characters or a clichéd plot, or worse - both.


In particular:

Too Late the Rain - has cliché characters

Dark Rose - Plot and characters

System Failure - characters

Wamphyri - tropes

Mobile - Not so much

Idolatry - characters

My more recent work (Swirls in Obsidian, Dreaming, Digging Up the Past, Newland) not so much.


I then went on to say:

Now clichéd characters aren't such a big deal, I think, if they're placed in a unique situation - a different way of using them, and it seems that may be the case because:


NVF Magazine has accepted Idolatry for the April Issue!

In the end, I never got my contributor's copy of NVF :c(

I emailed the 'editor' a number of times and eventually attempted to just buy a copy, and ended up just doing my money. I emailed requesting that be refunded but these calls have also gone unanswered.

But that's not what this post is about. Since the original listing of the stories above and their bad points I've sold Dark Rose, Wamphyri, and Dreaming. Swirls was renamed and shortlisted twice. I've retired System Failure and Newland but the others are sitting in my work folder waiting a burst of energy to be resent to new markets.

I've said it lots of times in the past but this is a post to show how true it is:

There is a market for every story.

You just need to be persistent enough to find it

(regardless of the bad points).

Good luck with your submissions.