Publishing update

Well, it’s funny. I’ve gotten used to seeing emails from publishers that begin with, “Thank you for your submission…” and end with some version of “but it’s not what we’re looking for.”  In fact, last week I got one of those for a story that had been with a higher profile publisher for 3 months. It was a fair let-down.

Today, for another story, I got this:

“Thank you for your submission to the Quarterly. We would like to include the story in the April 2018 issue.”

It started with the same “Thank you for your submission,” but ended without the “but!” Good times.

I’ll post a link to it once it publishes. In 6 months or so, heh.

 

Story Published

The Sand Gnome is now available online at:

http://empyreome.com/read.aspx?id=59

That is all :)

 

September?

Uh, heh. Well. A post once every 6 months is a blistering pace! One which I’ve managed to almost keep.

Some small updates. I did get another story accepted for publication, should be out in October. I’ll link to it when it’s out. I’ve got several more finished, in fact, also looking for homes. I spent most of the year not writing, but then got back to it the last month or two.

A friend and aspiring writer, Julie Reeser, interviewed me on her blog this week. It was fun. Stop by and take a look at her site, she’s much more interesting than I am!

https://persephoneknits.com/2017/09/19/jeff-sullins-writer-beta-reader/

(edit: this time with the right link!)

January 2017, or something

Happy new year to the handful of you who may or may not notice when I post something :)

Couple of small updates:

I’m shopping three new short stories at publishers at the moment, which is better than last year, and better than “none,” but nowhere near as many as it should be. I will update if any get picked up for publishing.

I have a guest post up on the Fictorians. It’s brief, but provides a short glimpse of… something or other. Read here

Squeezed out another draft

Haven’t written in 6 months. Terrible. But, another draft is in front of the critique group now!

Hopefully I’ll turn out a couple more stories before the year concludes.

That is all :p

Actually, I forgot! I have a little news:

My first story, “The Heart of Irelda” is now part of an audiobook:

The Great Tome of Forgotten Relics and Artifacts

It’s number…. 14 or so down the list. The narration is good, but hearing it really caused me to notice a few mistakes I’d made in the writing :O

 

 

Lynn’s Escape wins a little prize

I should have posted this a week or so ago, but, <insert excuse here> and didn’t.

I wanted to quickly thank everyone who read and commented on this short story. It won in the  “PROSE – FANTASY AND S.F.”  category, which doubled the money I received for it. Which sounds neat but we’re talking rather small figures ;)

Here’s where the winners are posted, if curious:

http://www.scarletleafreview.com/home/february-19-2016

As for other stories, I’ve been slacking pretty hard. I do have another short story sitting around 6k words (which is too long) that I hope to wrap a draft on soon. Be awhile before there is any news on that one, I’d say.

Story #2 published

Odd, that story #2 gets published before story #1, even though I signed the contract for story #1 months ago.

Anyway.

The market for story #2 is brand new, and I would say its presentation has some rough edges. Perhaps more than a few. Story #1 is (heh) a different story and will be out in print.  Perhaps that is why the process there is slower.  Story #2 is (I think) online only.

It is not that easy to find. Rough edges, as I said. I will paste a link. I will also say that apparently there may be a “best of” at some point at this market. It is therefore important to leave a comment on the story after reading it. I guess there is a comment button or something.

Story can be read HERE. Please leave a comment if you read it (at the magazine, not here on the blog). Even if you hate it, which many people did ;)

For what it’s worth, this story contains real people and events (as in, people I’ve seen, events I’ve witnessed). With some embellishments. The other story, story #1, due out in March, is about magic and wizards. So, totally different.

I suppose I’ve rambled enough now. Stop me before I kill again.

First news of the year

After six soul-crushing rejections, I’ve sold another short story. It is due to be published (ironically) much sooner than the last story I sold, which is still not out (that one’s due in March).

More details when it comes out.

As an aside, I seem to tend toward parenthetical phrases far too often.

Filtering

A few thoughts to jot down. Maybe I can turn some of these into an editing checklist for myself some day…

I mentioned that the last editor to reject my second story (it’s about a homeless guy) left me some helpful comments. She said the writing was “generally strong” (yay!) and had good characterization. She also said I was “filtering” and gave several examples.

As it turns out, I’ve been told in numerous critiques that I need to “show, don’t tell.” I’ve been painfully aware that telling too much is a tendency of mine, but it is hard for me to detect in my own writing. I am sort of getting the hang of detecting passive voice, but that is not quite the same thing.

I had never heard of “filtering,” but between the editor’s examples and some googling, I see now exactly what is going on and how it contributes to my tell vs. show problem.

I seriously doubt anyone is interested, but it came as a revelation to me, at least :D

Now I have a clearer picture on a specific writing pattern I can scan my work for when editing. I’m hoping that will help! And… just for my own reference if nothing else:

Filtering discussed

List of filter words

Now this is more like it!

Rejection, that is.

My second story, which was quite a departure from what I usually write, has racked up three rejections already. I may spend a little more time editing it–the last rejection came with a nice set of comments from the editor.

It’s just as well. If my second story had been accepted on the heels of the first one being accepted I might have let it go to my head!

I’ve been  a little  very slow producing stories #3 and #4. I actually started one, then got stuck, and decided to “let it lie” for a while and start on another one… which is now also stuck. :p

Wait, there’s a blog?

It’s only been a few dozen months since I posted. Hardly any time at all!

So why post now? I do NOT have exciting news that I am developing games again. Instead, I have the modest news that I have been writing. Not really “again.”

What does that mean? It means I’ve been turning out short stories. The first one has been accepted by The Great Tomes Series and is due to be published in early 2016. That’s especially noteworthy because it is the first story I’ve submitted anywhere for publication, and I found it encouraging to get a little taste of success on my first attempt. All downhill from here, right?

I’ve got several more stories running around, I’ll be sure to post if something noteworthy happens on that front. I think I’ll try posting some book reviews, too, at some point.

There it is.

Forge of Legends: Post Mortem

It has been quite some time since the last update was posted on the Forge of Legends project.   I am finally able to share some information.

In the time since I last posted, the single largest factor in delaying work on the game is that I have moved my family twice.   Selling and buying a home turned out to be a bit more than I bargained for.  Moving twice even more so.  I totally stopped coding work during this period.

However, even while I was still coding the game, I noticed a few troubling trends.  Foremost was that when I began coding on FOL years ago, there were precious few examples of the kind of game it is intended to be.  That is, a party-based, turn-based dungeon crawler, old school in every way.  At the time, I wanted a game like that so badly that I decided to make my own!  After years of coding, the market has shifted.  There are more and more games like this out there.  I feel the moment has passed, in essence.

Even when the game was making steady progress, I had outlined such a large feature scope that I was probably doomed never to complete the game.  This in spite of lots of good advice out there about keeping your scope limited!  I knew it was too much, but every feature was just too precious to cut, it seemed to me.  I was designing the game I always wanted to play…

This is one of the lessons I have learned: if your gut tells you there is too much to do, there is.  Start by completing a core, then you can add more and more neat stuff if you finish that.  Don’t start out to build an aircraft carrier — start with a fishing boat.  Tack on the AI-controlled pneumatic arresting gear later.

Speaking of lessons, there are several I have taken away from this effort.  To list a few more:

— I tended to agonize over resources, like images, spending days on these alone.  That in itself is not such a bad thing, but I think it would have been better to get “something” in place, then come back later and plug in the ideal art or image.  Too often I allowed myself to bog down working on pieces of the project whose time had not yet come.

— A development soundboard is exceedingly useful.  What I mean is someone who understands your project, and even may have projects of his own.  A fellow coder or game designer who you can bounce ideas off of, or just help you stay interested.  You know who you are, and thanks :)

— Marketing too early.  One of the things I most regret about this project is that I reached out and set expectations which I have not met.  Take for example the fine folks at RPGWatch, who posted game updates from a nobody.  In the future, I think I will postpone this phase until I am practically ready for beta testing.

— Reduce scope.  Did I mention reducing scope?

What happens next?  I haven’t explicitly stated what I now intend for Forge of Legends.  Partly that is because I am not sure.  I will say that I am putting the code down for now, and moving to another project.  There is still a largely complete 2D/3D game engine, however, and a usable level editor.  I think I would be open to making the code for both of these available, given the right kind of person was interested in it.  I have also given some thought to releasing a free, scope-reduced version of the game.

There is also a chance that I could return to the project in the future when the winds have changed.  Who knows?  Never say never, right?

As for me, I do have another project underway.  One of my first and primary efforts is now to design what is minimally viable (see reduce scope above).  I intend to bring it almost to completion before I bug anyone about it.

If you have interest in past or future projects, you can contact me via my website!