Done!

I've finally finish 99% of the major project at work I've been stuck under for the past couple of months - and, shock horror, it all went as I expected and planned it to go! If only my muse would behave that way...

It was Australia Day here on the Tuesday just gone so apparently over 500,000 Australians took a sick day (known as a sickie in these parts) on the Monday to turn it into a four day weekend. Due to the project work and an already shortened week, I was not one of them.

But weep not for my loss as my wife and I thought our youngest was returning to school next week, so I booked off this Friday (tomorrow) and next Monday. Low and behold, she went back to school this week so I now have a child free Monday and Friday - my own four day long weekend!

I've got work to do around the house but I also intend to make a huge dent in some editing. My copy editor has a few stories backed up for me to go over and the publisher has sent me a load of round 2 edits to look at - things are piling up from both ends. Time to clear the decks.

If we can square away Dark Pages in the next few weeks (maybe even two weeks), then it's over to the publisher to put the thing together. We'll sort out cover art and I'll be able to seriously get back into my own revisions which have been badly left hanging on the sidelines. I'm definitely a one-project-at-time-type-of-guy.

It's way past time I got 2010 started!

Nearly There

Still not really writing. Still working through ToC stories for Dark Pages. The muse is still on holidays.

I've come to the conclusion that summer is not 'My time to write!'

I wrote my very first manuscript during the summer of 2006/7 but I was new to the whole writing thing, I had time up my sleeve, and I was working through some not very pleasant stuff at the time. Writing was an escape. Once the manuscript was done, I wrote 14 short stories in the space of three months. I sold the first three of them to the first place I submitted them to - I figured this writing lark was easy. I've sold another four or five of those stories and retired all the rest but one. I will find a home for Too Late the Rain one day.

I've written maybe 20 stories since then and had published around a third of them. I don't even count the first three publications in my bio anymore. They gave me wonderful warm and fuzzy feelings inside at the time and I'll be forever thankful to those editors, but when I read them now, I cringe.

But, I was talking about writing at different times throughout the year. My first 14 short stories were written in winter. The best stories I've written to date were all written during late autumn early winter last year. Inner Voice was written during last winter.

I'm currently working with some brilliant people editing Dark Pages Volume 1 during the summer and feeling a little down on myself for not getting any of my own writing done. Well - no more!

I'm a cold weather writer.

But I hate the cold with a passion. I turn purple if the temp drops below 20C. I don't wear shorts unless I'm swimming or at home, and then only rarely (nobody should be subjected to my chicken legs). And yet, here I am longing for this summer to over and the cooler months to begin so I can get back to it. My wife will begin searching for our new home in the southern parts of Tasmania once she's read this, or maybe we'll be heading over to the UK (we both love the EPL as well. We can watch the 'football', cricket, and have cold weather all year round!**).

So when do you find it best to write? At night, during the day? Summer? Winter? Snuggled by the fire, naked by the pool? Inside, outside? Tell me, I'm interested.

**A summer of four weeks where it rarely gets above 35C is not something to get excited about.

WIP Wednesday - That's Funny

Yesterday, Wednesday, was one of the worst days I've had in some time.

My car is in at the mechanics. I dropped it off there Wednesday morning (yesterday, Australian time) and it stayed there overnight due to them having to fly a part in from interstate. There is a strong possibility it could be there until Friday morning as I wait for the part to arrive and then be installed. And it's costing me a fair little packet for all this inconvenience - nice!

On top of that, I was informed of my need to move office spaces. I've sat in the same space for the past five or six years. It's like a home away from home (if I had to live in Hades part time). It is semi-secluded and has a nice enough view out a large window, which provides me with ample natural light to work by. Now I have to move to a slightly smaller, not secluded, windowless office space adjacent to a door that is always open and leads onto the main thoroughfare in my building - wonderful. I have two weeks to accomplish the non-negotiable move. I also have two weeks left remaining on my major project work - super nice!

I have staff members away who I need to help complete project tasks, I'm continually waiting on others to finish what they promised to finish a week or more ago, and the pay office has neglected to pay me for overtime worked last year!

Needless to say my mind was not on anything vaguely resembling writing.

And then we received an email back from one of the authors selected to be in the Dark Pages anthology who has already received their first round edits (we're working through them - everyone should have their first round edits over the next few weeks. Things will only get quicker from there). It was full of praise for my editorial team, in particular, my first pass copy editor - you all know this person as Pharo, my language and critique guru. This allowed me to smile and brightened up my day just enough to stop me from slashing my wrists.

Today is a new day. I have an opportunity to work through one or two more of the Dark Pages stories and get them back to the authors for comment. Things are slowly getting better.

Two lessons to be learned here:

1) If you find someone who's advice is excellent, has knowledge in areas of writing that is either stronger than yours or compliments your own, and who is willing to work with you over a long period of time in a combined effort to improve both yours and their ability in the craft - never let them go. Pay them if you have to.

2) The sun will always rise in the morning, and a new day is a new opportunity to write something wonderful. (I may change this way of thinking come 2012, but until proven otherwise, I'll stick with it for now).

May you write lots of wonderful words today.

Falling Way Behind

I've been a little preoccupied with life outside of writing for the past four or five days, hence my lack of blogging and any real progress in any of my areas of writing.

My car is about to cost me a packet to keep it on the road and we lost our second straight game of cricket on the weekend. Life is going well.

I have finally started working on the tiles in the bathroom though.

This week - lots more editing of Dark Pages antho stories. One is done and is ready to send. I have two others to go over before they go to the publisher and then get sent on to the authors. The way we're doing things, it passes through a nunber of different levels so hopefully it requires less passing back and forth to come up with an acceptably more brilliant piece. And, on that note, for those of you who may have missed it, the ToC (Table of Contents) for the anthology has been officially announced over at Blade Red. It took me a long time to narrow the field and then I had some great input from my copy editors to finalise the ToC. It then took me a few attempts to come up with the ToC order - which is:

The Stain of the Psychopomp King by Lucien E G Spelman
Heart Of Ice by Martin Livings
Neptune’s Garden by Lisa A Koosis
Dust by Naomi Bell
To Die For by S D Matley
The Franchise by Joe L Murr
Clip Notes by Marty Young
Blood on Green by Victoria Anisman-Reiner
Cargo by Aaron Polson
Nepenthe by Felicity Dowker
Yellow Water Pike by Derek Rutherford
Surveying The Land by B D Wilson
Nightwork by Robert Neilson
Hand And Cradle by Trent Roman

Expect cover art in the not too distant future.


I've also got a short story I want to do more work on, a book to read and, of course, the tiles to finish.

Oh, and at the end of this week, my big project at work is rolled out so that has to all be good to go.

Glad the kids go back to school next week - things might go back to some form of normality and I'll manage to get into a routine. 2010 has been pretty much a write-off so far.

AHWA NEWS DIGEST [02.01.10-17.01.10]

The following digest of recent horror news is compiled from pieces published to HorrorScope and the Australian Horror Writers' Association website.

Popcorn Taxi presents The Wolfman
Popcorn Taxi is proud to present a very special screening of The Wolfman, an exciting resurrection of a cinematic horror icon. Featuring the talents of Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and our own Hugo Weaving – The Wolfman is an exciting and gothic horror/thriller that takes state-of-the-art special effects and make-up techniques from legendary effects guru Rick Baker alongside our very own Oscar nominated creature and make-up effects maestro David Elsey – who will also be taking part in a live Q&A after the film.

Theatre Of Blood Season One Finale!
If you were thinking of catching Season I of The Theatre of Blood, better clear the night of Friday the 22nd, and get along to the Newtown Theatre. Better yet, book your tickets now!

Terra Incognita Podcast 015
Terra Incognita SF podcast #015 is now available for streaming and download at http://www.tisf.com.au/, or on itunes! This episode features Marianne De Pierres reading In The Bookshadow and  Keith Stevenson reviewing Greig Beck's Beneath The Dark Ice.

Australian Studies in Weird Fiction seek review material
Australian Studies in Weird Fiction (Equilibrium Books) is now publishing reviews. The bi-annual critical journal devoted to Australian horror, Gothic and dark fantasy writing, are seeking review copies of locally-published or written works; horror short story collections, and novels by Australian writers. Review copies may be sent in book form, or as PDF. Click through for contact details.

Tasmaniac Publications to publish Tom Piccirilli's The Last Deep Breath
Set for an August release and now up for pre-order is Tom Piccirilli's THE LAST DEEP BREATH, his second 'noirella' with Tasmaniac Publications that will blow you away! Click through for the thrilling blurb and cover sneak-peak!

The 2009 Genre Bookselling Year in Review
From the blog of Horrorscope reviewer Chuck McKenzie, offering an Australian bookseller's perspective on the year that was; includes lists of bestselling genre series, individual titles, media tie-ins, and Australian authors. Venture yonder to ponder those market trends! 

Submitting News

If you have news about Australian and New Zealand Horror publishing and film, or news of professional development opportunities in the field, feel free to submit news to Talie Helene, AHWA News Editor. Just visit HorrorScope, and click on the convenient email link. (International news is not unwelcome, although relevance to Antipodean literary arts practitioners is strongly preferred.)

For information on the Australian Horror Writers' Association, visit australianhorror.com.

This AHWA NEWS DIGEST has been compiled, written, and republished in select Australian horror haunts by Talie Helene. Currently archived at the AHWA MySpace page, and Southern Horror; hosted at the social networking sites Darklands and A Writer Goes On A Journey; and hosted by AHWA members Felicity Dowker, Brenton Tomlinson, Scott Wilson, and Jeff Ritchie (Scary Minds: Horror's Last Colonial Outpost).

If you would like to support the AHWA News effort by hosting a copy of the AHWA News Digest on your blog or website, contact Talie to receive a fully formatted HTML edition of the digest by email.

WIP Wednesday

...it's still Wednesday somewhere in the world!

We're still waiting on confirmation from one author included in the ToC but everyone has now been notified, and all ToC authors (except the one noted above) have replied. Phase three is a go. The editing process has begun in earnest.

Once more I'm in a very lucky position. I'm working with writers who are exceptional with the English language. In particular, I have the good fortune to be working with my own Guru of all things language so there is also trust pre-built-in to the whole thing. It may be my name on the cover, but the copy editors will be listed inside and they are doing the majority of the leg work. I go over their edits, make final decisions and pass it on to the publisher who interacts with the authors on our behalf - it's a pretty sweet deal I've got.

In other news, I've placed a book on my nightstand to actually read! I've read one novella in the last couple of months. Yes, I've read hundreds of submissions for Dark Pages but that left very little time for reading anything else. I am going to get back into it in a big way very soon.

With my reading, so went my writing. I've not written very much since I started this whole editor gig. I've done bits and pieces, started a couple of stories which have ended up going nowhere, jotted down an idea or two, but I've done nothing that has that over-riding passion, that spark of inspiration which drives a story through to completion. I'm hoping this is changing as well. Yesterday I wrote a little over 1800 words on something new (and currently unnamed). It's a dark fantasy set in modern times with magic, zombies, lost love, and possibly sex - it's not finished yet but it definitely could be headed that way - we'll see. I'm guessing another 1000 words or so and she should be done. Fingers crossed I get this one finished and off to the critique group. It's been a while since I submitted anything for them to rip apart ;c)

Ah...an excerpt. Let me see. Let's set the scene to begin with (paragraph two)

In the centre of the yard, just in front of the marble-look bird bath made of hardened plastic, a mound of freshly turned earth marred the manicured lawn. With the full moon hidden behind heavy clouds, and no hint of wind to help reveal its comforting light, the mound took on the countenance of a small hillock of coal waiting to feed an invisible engine. The shovel speared into the ground beside it helped complete the setting

Do Not Do This

I have said on numerous occasions how blessed I feel with the number of excellent submissions we received for the Dark Pages anthology. I have been doubly blessed because the final ToC winners have all been extremely professional people to deal with.

We have done our best to correlate comments from all the readers of the shortlist and provide feedback to the unfortunate few who made the shortlist but didn't make the final cut.

We have done our best to keep everyone informed and up-to-date with the process and where we are at within it.

We specifically said in our submission guidelines that we didn't want any simultaneous submissions.

So why do we get all the way through to deciding the final ToC to then be informed that one of the stories has been accepted elsewhere. The other market in question accepts sim subs, pays in copies only, and takes only FNASR - so the market is not what I would call more prestigious. We pay money and a copy, and have a publisher with a proven sales track record. Yes, we take worldwide rights, but most anthologies do. It may just be me but I don't see the reasoning behind it.

Worse, on checking it out, I find an excerpt of the story online posted on December 18 2009! So over a month ago this person agreed to let this other market publish the story - about a week after we'd emailed to say we'd like to shortlist it!

This is just downright unprofessional.

If two markets both have it listed in their guidelines that they accept sim subs, then go for your life and submit it to both of them. If one market specifically states no sim subs - don't sim sub.

But writers have to wait for ages for a response and more often than not it's a rejection so why shouldn't we be allowed to sim sub our work to multiple publications to increase our chances? I'm glad you asked.

At the moment there is 56 anthologies listed on Duotrope. The vast majority (32) are horror accepting markets. Out of these there are probably a dozen which will be targeted by writers who regularly gain publication in semi-pro payment anthologies. These few will be targeted by a large number of writers and will most likely gain similar submission numbers to Dark Pages.

Your blowing your own horn, I hear you say. Not really. I've had submissions from editors of other fiction magazines, other anthologies, HWA members and associates, SFWA members and associates, AHWA members, Ditmar and Shadow Award winners and nominees, WOTF winners and finalists, professional writers and many others from all over the world. I kid you not.

The point is, the best editors in the industry receive work regularly from most of these writers. The next tier of editors/publications receive a slightly wider circle of regular submitters (which is where I see this publication) - and so on down the submissions track. Editors get to know and recognise writers. We also talk to each other.

Writers who don't follow guidelines, or worse, sim sub and then withdraw, get known. If done more than once, work is automatically rejected because we don't know if the work will still be there when we come to a final decision. Writers who don't act professionally get known.

The writer who didn't act professionally in this instance will never be accepted into anything I'm editor of ever again. There really isn't enough doors out there for you to be slamming any of them shut. Follow the guidelines to the letter. Only sim sub or multi sub to markets that allow it.

And don't piss me off!

Phase 2 Complete

Phase One - read 267 stories and narrow the choice down to the best and most appropriate 30.

Phase Two - send shortlisted 30 to copy editors so we have a panel of three to reduce subjective variances and come up with the best 12-16 (preferably under 70K total).

Over the weekend just gone, my brilliant minions have returned their lists and comments on the shortlisted stories. I then carefully went through everyone's choices, added my own thoughts and finalised the ToC for Dark Pages Volume One. I then went through and wrote up comments for the unlucky stories that didn't make the final hurdle. Everyone should know where they stand within the next few days.

I'll take this opportunity to make an observation on the writing of comments for stories that didn't make the final cut. I wasn't kidding when I said before that I've been somewhat spoilt by the quality of the submissions. When I came up with the shortlist, I really could have created volume one and two and been happy with both. Instead, we took only the absolute cream and, I believe, will be turning out one kick-ass anthology. So how do I then write comments to stories I thought were extremely good but didn't get in? Not an easy task.

So if you are one of the unlucky few waiting on a response and it turns out to be a rejection, please know that you were very close, and your story was well liked and passed on with extreme reluctance.

Sometime this week, we will announce the table of contents. Behind the scenes we will be moving onto Phase Three - editing!

Onwards - and once more I thank everyone who submitted to us.

Final Choices

Today is forecast to be 36C here in little old Adelaide. The next three days are all forecast to be 41C!

That's the bad news (although I much prefer the heat to the cold so I'm not complaining too much).

The good news is I have tomorrow off to look after my little girl. We were going to go fishing with the new rod Santa got her for Xmas but this has been put on hold till next Friday due to the heat and her wish to stay home and rearrange her bedroom what is it with females and moving furniture?).

Cricket will also be called off this coming weekend due to the hot weather policy.

All these cancellations leave me with three days to finalise my ToC for Dark Pages Volume One. I expect to be letting the publisher know Sunday night (or early Monday-ish) what I want. I will also be putting down my final comments in regards to those unlucky few who made the short list but don't make the ToC exactly why they didn't proceed any further. These will go out with the dreaded rejection letters sometime next week.

Then we can move onto edits! My copy editors will come into their own and, in consultation with the authors, we will wrangle the remaining stories into one of the best dark fiction anthologies to come out this year (not that I'm biased or anything...).

I imagine by the end of January, I'll actually be able to start working on my own writing once more! Woot!

Thank you to all the shortlisted authors for your patience and wish you nothing but the best this coming weekend.