Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
DECEMBER MICROSTORY - COMMENTS ONLY
There's a huge list here too: http://www.theindieview.com/indie-rev...Perhaps one thing we can do with whatever earnings there were from previous years would be to buy a few copies of Vol 3, and send to reviewers.
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@Paula - My series may be different than anthologies and certainly is different from stand alone books. But I will share this. My first three self-published paperbacks have sold 89 copies (72 to a store I did a signing for) since June. The e-books so far are less than 20 (haven't got final figures) E-books are very competitive, but it is also a difference market. Older folks 50 and up like to hold a book, younger people like the e-book convenience. I have a huge promotion coming 12/24 thru 12/27 with heavy discounts on e-books (you can get all three for $3.99 on 12/24 only). This puts my e-books in the $1.33 range. It is a price test. Your anthology has missed that window of opportunity which is why I suggest publishing quarterly and change the publication dates to coincide with the buying seasons. You could offer a subscription. Book buying has four distinct seasons. You also need to review pricing, even if you don't go to a quarterly schedule. The market trend changes at least annually. One last comment: If you go to quarterly, you will need to add more stories than 3. You can have a winner and the rest selected can be called honorable mention. Nothing need change in the selection process. But this might fix the idea some winners got the nod by only by one vote. I call these suggestions 'noodle food'. Easy to chew, easy to digest, easy to eliminate. "Ponder you must. Do as you will". Yoda might have said this but it was cut from the script. :-)
Jot, thanks. So, then, 81 (68 plus 13) pb copies plus the ebooks. That is actually not bad for a new group-self-publishing venture, as long as we understand we're not doing it for the money. Otoh, we want readers. Jeremy's suggestion here is super-good, that w buy--that is, we all contribute to a "budget item" to purchase and ship (which also costs money) 20 to 120copies to reviewers and major sf bookshops (Dark Carnival, Other Change of Hobbit (if still extant), and --?--) and to take to sf conventions. Ben--great suggestion. Were you offering to handle the editing/production 4x/year, or only, say, 1 or 2 x/year, lol? Cool.
Jot, look what you have done! Remember 3 years ago when this was just a tiny contest you'd had the idea to start?!
In fact, everyone here look what we have done---keeping this going long beyond what groups like this usually get to. Nice achievement for, among other things, the holidays. . .
Just finished the most recent stories. Hey look, folks, we have a very respectable "anthology" just in this month's stories. Seriously, all or most of this and last month's stories are up to the quality of any equivalent-length selection of sf stories one's gonna find anywhere.
How many year's worth of anthologies should we produce, before we start referring to this as an institution?
Andrew,Your story, "Pick a Number" is fantastic! A noir thriller film script could be made out of that story! The shower scene had the same suspense as Hithcock's Psycho ... yet not a physical knife to be seen! But if Number was somehow to be cut from our lives (save just one number, in your story, the number 'two') what would that be like?
A film about that, done so entertainingly, could do so much to bring the inherent majesty and importance - in ordinary life - of Number, of mathematical concepts generally, to the full consciousness of the great unwashed whose consciousness is always being otherwise subjected to the sullied 'dumbing down' efforts of whoever makes money from such 'dumbing downs.'
And, imagine if, in a film of your story, such a universal loss of Number did occur, there's lots of story potential there re tracking down the cause - or culprit - and, re what on earth could be done to restore mathematics.
and p.s. it might also elicit empathy. This story was clearly about a universal cutting out of the concept of Number (the friend he called was also affected.) But .... it could also have been the personal, individual story of someone with Alzheimers (or similar) who might feel the terror of such cuttings from their life. We get 'taught' in our pragmatic world, that such sufferings of individuals is 'removed from us' as long as we ourselves are not affected.
good point about the Alzheimer's connection, Heather. Yes, I noticed that connection, too--interesting one, whether or not intended.
Jot, can we message you our votes on Goodreads or do we send them to (please repost your email for us)? Thanks.
Yes, there's a lot of breadth and depth and connections and possibilities to be found in that story of Andrew's story, Paula. Another possibility within it that I find fascinating is the question of what would the results look like if Humankind had to rediscover maths (assuming that all memory of it, bar the one remaining number, was lost!)
For one thing there'd likely be more female mathematicians and would that affect what was quested after in the way mathematics was renewed and redeveloped?
What would happen to architecture? (Assuming that buildings already built would stand ... unless non-human materials also all lost maths-memory!)
Thank you Heather for your kind comments. At the risk of evisceration by explanation, a couple of thoughts on your notes.LOL, my model was certainly not Psycho, although some screeching violins would be a fun audio track. My thought was to do a Gregor Samsa waking up to realize he's become a cockroach - type of reveal. And for the same reason, I would not offer an explanation for the onset of global innumeracy. It would be distracting at best and a large WTF! at worst. And of course, it has to affect everyone because that's this month's theme. Also, because if it only happened to Tom, it would just be a not-very-interesting chapter in an Oliver Sacks book. And, no, the loss of Number would be permanent. End of humanity As We Know It. Sorry, but gotta do it.
As far as a film treatment, I can't see a 20-page story treatment about a guy who can't count to three being very tempting to a film exec, unless...
Tom and Brian are lovers. Or, better, Brian was born as Brenda, and by studying mathemeatics, comes to realize that she is a man on the inside ( may have to work a bit on that aspect). Tragically, she is about to get the final hormonal treatment to become the guy she, and of course, Tom, want her to be. Only, she's spent all her money on turning her apartment into a man-cave for her/him and Tom to watch the NFL Network day and night. So, as global innumeracy (GI) distress strikes, s/he is in this twilight world - so close, yet so far. Which dovetails neatly into the main story (the above is all background slowly revealed in flashbacks, you see), which is that Tom and Brian live only, say, 20 blocks apart in Manhattan. As the implications and devastations of GI start to be evident in scenes of expensive CGI special effects, Tom and Brian each tragically try to make their way midst the chaos and devastation to the the other's apartment, but because they can no longer decipher the street numbers, (hell, they can't even decipher the street signs) keep missing each other. Meanwhile, it's the Hottest Summer Ever, and all the icebergs and glaciers melt at once, raising sea levels 20 feet in one day. So, in the final scene, the tidal wave thus produced, gushes over Manhattan, and we see Brian and Tom being washed on a wall of water to each other, and in the last shot, tragically reach out to one another in in a clever , cultured though tragic, reverse-echo of Michelangelo's God reaching out to Adam, and... cut -to- black!
Hmmm, might could maybe work as a Netflix mini-series after all.
But once again, thank you for your thoughts, and I'm pleased you enjoyed the story.
Paula wrote: "Jot, thanks. So, then, 81 (68 plus 13) pb copies plus the ebooks. That is actually not bad for a new group-self-publishing venture, as long as we understand we're not doing it for the money. Otoh, ..."Everything has a price, me dear friend. A business plan needs to be adopted first, including the cost (read time here) analysis, excluding marketing. Marketing needs its own plan. Just sayin.
Don't give up the microstory writing and go into film writing, Andy!! I liked my interpretation of your story a lot better than your interpretation. I'll stick to the moving pictures I saw in my own head while I was reading it! But I've already voted!! lol
And I completely missed the Metamorphosis reference too .
Brenda studies "mathemeatics"!! That's a very steak and beer sounding topic ... a bit like sport is! No, I still like my version much better. In the modern world - where women can, in their own right, study the traditionally-regarded-as-masculine disciplines - a whole new discipline arises out of the ashes, courtesy of heroines, not heroes.
And, maths is a thing that is, simultaneously the relationship(s) between all things and the description of that/those relationship(s.) So, if/when it is taught as that it makes sense that it is a very feminine-friendly area of study. But if it is taught as (that newly coined term) "mathemeatics" then yes it probably is more Brian than Brenda friendly. (Roger Penrose's book, "The Road to Reality" takes that relationship-between-things slant to explaining the maths relationships behind real-life.)
Mod
Four votes cast out of twenty, including myself, Jack, Jeremy and Heather. Keep em coming...
As to the discussion above, everyone should explore their local library's policy for books to be included in their collection. Since many are struggling for their own existence, they are most likely will accept donations to add to their collection. It may take some time, but promoting local authors is good business for libraries. People want to meet authors-(seems we're some mystical bunch with super powers to create something out of thin air.) I was thrilled when the Fairfax County Public Library system accepted the copies I donated of Volume one, The Future is Short. Mystery revealed.
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I think the main function of the anthology for me is one of exposure as a writer and to keep my hand in just so my voice is heard. I actively sold my work (real business and everything because I was also trying to break into voice over work) from 2011 to 2014 for 4 books (2 adult urban fantasies; 1 travel memoir; one YA equine science fantasy), both paper and e book, for the most part. Many things I learned too late which could have helped sales. Paperbacks, maybe sold 10; ebooks, maybe 20. My last and best book, which was only in ebook form on Amazon, sold 0 copies. And yet, on Wattpad it is this book that has many reads and folks asking for a sequel. I missed the boat with Booktrope on that one because at the time, that group was not accepting manuscripts. Booktrope has done anthologies. I believe it helps to have the backing of a new publisher if sales are paramount. The reality is that most publishing houses, because of the glut of self-published work, never mind an anthology, won't even look at a manuscript without an agent. I do think those of us who can donate copies to libraries of our anthology will help the cause of exposure, if not sales.
OH well, Heather and Andy, my Smittie character has some comments on math, Brenda, Barry or whateverhisname, and Manhattan (and nameless) signage, but she drowned in the viscous medium, or possibly median. *But actually very different stories/concepts, let me add.*And Sharon and Ben and Jeremy--all great points re distribution. Do any of us know a reviewer for the trade media that librarians/library systems read? I ran once a literary mag/collective that one collective member's friend worked for, and he did one review and the mag got subs from hundreds of libraries, so this could be a very valuable resource if any of you know someone.
Confession time, Paula. I was a bit p'd off with you for calling me 'discourteous' when I hadn't been that at all (quite quite some posts ago) and I thought you had completely misunderstood me. Soooooo, when I started reading your story and saw that it was indeed 'viscous' I thought "I can't be bothered" and skimmed along the top layer thinking to myself "she's writing about children/childhood again ... I wonder what's behind that?" and I therefore failed to look through the viscosity very far at all, certainly not to the stage of calculating the median.But now I've been back and read it again you did get there before Andy's story! And from his disappointing ("self-eviscerating") "explanation" of his story - which is quite different to how I interpreted and enjoyed it before The Explanation - lol, "well maybe:)" it's lol or maybe its not! - yours is the better telling. (A classic case of literary tale vs entertaining tale.) But I've put my vote in and I'll just leave it as true to what I felt at the time.
Thank you--but anyway, I don't feel we're in competition with one another, Heather, other than insofar as this group is arranged as a monthly contest, and the orginal concept for that section of my story, and possibly one of the origins for Andrew's story, and possibly one for a couple of Le Guin's stories that touch on such issues, and also (I think) a couple of Benford's novels (in part), would lie in the "foundations of math"/"philosophy of math" area and the like. Each its own tale--none a "better telling." (Best may be Godel's. ) The Le Guin was in her first book of short stories, and f---d if I can remember the tale's title--anyone know? Thanks.
My vote can sometimes reflect how I feel, at the time, at a personal level ... but it never extends to being, even vaguely, in the region of 'for reasons of competitiveness.' I primarily see the competition (indeed the whole experience of being in this group) as a learning-the-craft/honing resource and opportunity/a corner of my writing workspace.
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Richard Bunning
Chris Nance
Ben Boyd, Jr.
Karl Freitag
Joseph Williams
J.J. Alleson
Thaddeus Howze
Jot, I voted on our 'friend' link at LI yesterday, and voted again a moment ago on the GR link you sent. Thanks for sending again. Better to have two notices than none at all.
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Richard Bunning
Chris Nance
Karl Freitag
Joseph Williams
Thaddeus Howze
Sent my vote, Jot.I'm going to be out of things for the next few days so wishing everyone here a very Happy Christmas and Seasons Greetings. It may be a poignant time for some of us, but life goes on.
Best wishes to all.
Hello everyone,I hope your holiday finds you in good health and good spirits.
Old Business: Settling in
Jot, I sent my votes in via the Goodreads messaging system. Please let me know if you didn't get them.
It appears, with just a few idiosyncrasies, Goodreads is working as a platform. I guess time will tell if it will work long term.
I enjoyed this months stories and the new 750 word limit has given us a little more room to maneuver in than the 4000 character limit of LinkedIn. It seems as if it was a light month of writers but with the holiday, I am not surprised.
New Business: Some good news on the Writing Front
TL;DR - Managed to produce a wide array of new works, participate in various contests with varying degrees of success and will be awarded Quora's Writer of the Year (2nd Place) and Quora's Top Writer 2016 award.
My writer good news: I write for the website Quora, answering questions and six months ago, I put in a renewed effort there. https://www.quora.com/profile/Thaddeu...
In June, I was honored as a Quoran of the Week - 12 July, 2015
https://quoranoftheweek.quora.com/Jus...
QOTW acknowledges a writer who was considered unknown on the site but is producing quality works. Granted it was an unofficial award, sanctioned by Quora but provided by other writers of the site and not the company.
I admit this made me want to achieve even greater notoriety with the company so I decided to increase my writing both in intensity and quality. Quora would later get three of my articles published: two with the Huffington Post and one with Gizmodo.
In December, I was notified I was being considered for Quoran of the Year. The 28 writers previous written about in Quoran of the Week would be voted upon by the community. Considering the number of people to choose from (and the astounding quality of writing in this group, I figured I didn't stand a chance...)
Big surprise! I came in second place for Quoran of the Year: https://quoranoftheweek.quora.com
But now that the year is over, there was one other surprise for me. Quora has a sanctioned award they assign to their very best writers, the title of Top Writer.
It has been revealed to me (unofficially, but the coordinator wanted to share the news with me before X-mas) I will be one of the Top Writers for 2016, announced in January.
Since you are my main writing community, I thought I would share this with you. While this may not have any real meaning in the world today (it's not like I won an Eisner, Hugo or Nebula) but it is a form of recognition of my work by someone other than me... Look out Nebula, you're next!
I was very pleased and hope this will help galvanize me toward more consistent writing for my own publications (despite family and friends cajoling me to continue, I have had limited confidence in my work. Perhaps it's time for therapy...)
What are some facts about Top Writers?
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-f...
Shout outs!
I have Carrol Fix (thanks for the correction, writing these things at night...) to thank for publishing three of my stories in her anthologies this year.
Jot Russell and the rest of you, tireless, talented writers for keeping me on the grind to produce new and better works all year long. You guys keep me honest and focused on writing better every month.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear in our own Flash Fiction anthologies this year as well.
A special shout out to: Paula Friedman, Andy Lake and Andrew Gurcak for supporting me and keeping me at my terminal when I would rather have thrown in the towel on this writer gig. You guys rock. Thank you so much.
Upcoming Projects
In an effort to accept the circumstances as they have been dealt, I will working in a part-time capacity as a driver, now that I have managed to get my car repaired by Honda.
If you have a hybrid Honda and you find your CVT transmission going out before the 100,000 mile mark, make them pay for half the repair costs, they know about this malfunction and you shouldn't have to eat the $6,000 for the known issue.
I will continue my son's training and working with his autism as his primary educational therapist. He was a straight-A student in the seventh grade with his winter report card and he was rightly proud of his accomplishments. He is still learning and growing but we are confident he can go further.
With renewed vigor I will be submitting to new publications, anthologies and magazines seeking writers. If you know of anything interesting please don't hesitate to share. I will also share news of publications looking for new voices.
In the coming year, I will be producing two collections of short stories and at least one novella already nearly complete. My first novella is slowing gaining traction and decent reviews.
https://kensbooksandstuff.quora.com/B...
I will also be taking some of my favorite comic related essays from Quora and a few other places and compiling them into a non-fiction book for publication in the new year.
The non-fiction book is tentatively named: The World According to Superheroes - essays on the genre, mythology and cultural phenomena of the superhero in modern culture.
For anyone interested, you can partake of the raw essays here: https://list.ly/list/sqs-the-world-ac...
Have a happy seasonal holiday (whatever that happens to be for you and yours) and may your new year offer you unheard of opportunities to write your hearts out!
Be back Monday. Everyone have a great Christmas holiday! (Or whatever you celebrate this time of year!)
@Thaddeus: your work ethic is inspirational. I look forward to reading your work as it comes out.@Everyone: season's greetings, and a happy New Year to all!
Joining in the well-wishing--to each of you here!--for belated Chanukah and solstice holidays, for Christmas and Kwanzaa, for the Gregorian or whichever New Year--wishing you each good health, happiness, and lots of new writing!Shall we do year-end narratives? Sure, why not. Thaddeus's is inspirational indeed.
I received honorable mention in the annual New Millenium Writings Awards again this year, and this month completed--with the unmatchable, inimitable, etc. editing help of Andrew Gurcak and, earlier, Elizabeth Eyles--the really-near-final edit of my novel of the late 1960s Antiwar Movement. And meanwhile, for clients, edited 3 books, copyedited 2 books, and prepared manuscript evaluations for another 3 books during this past year. Oh, and a whole bunch of other projects, publications, and so on; need to get back on the mountain for more xc-skiing, like this week.
Best to you each for a great holiday!!!
Paula
And thank you, Thaddeus. I think we've all encouraged you because your work IS so very good!
Thaddeus - Congratulations for all your achievements this year - not at all surprising, but still very gratifying. And I do like your combination of Huffington Post and Gizmodo placements. I doubt if many authors could pull that off. Not at all sure what I did for you, but absolutely pleased that I did so.And a happy holiday season to all of the participants here, and a special thanks to Jot. There is a small Christmas here every month with the stories submitted. Fine work all.
Congrats Thad. Best wishes for the coming year. You are most certainly an inspiration to many of us, who seek more market awareness which is good and not notoriety which isn't to mine and Webster's way of looking at it. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Excellent news about your son. :-)
"The cormorant has a notoriety for its ability to dive deeply and quickly for fish." from http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodwo...which dictionary also informs us that
"Today's Good Word is a good example of the difference between a word and its usage. Notoriety by itself simply means "famous, well-known"; however, it is used most often to refer to that which is known for its bad qualities, such as a notorious criminal. This makes the use of this word quite tricky since its connotations tend to be pejorative ..."
Its a good lesson I think for those of us in "the business of words." Our notoriety - good or bad, spread wide or restricted to a small range of self or family or friends or acquaintances or real or potential story-buyers - depends ultimately on a very simple thing: our honesty of thought, feeling and expression (our creative integrity) left at that ... for others to interpret.
I hope everyone here will interpret my "Merry Christmas and all best wishes for the New Year" as coming from my heart, regardless of whether or not, at some level, I have otherwise felt a bit miffed by some ... sometimes.
Heather it was a joke. Sorry you wasted all the time at the library. :-)
Hey Thaddeus, I didn't realize Carol Shetler is doing anthologies.Carrol Fix however HAS published three of your stories in anthologies. Lillicat Publishers (Carol Fix) is working on it's forth now and doing well. Maybe the rest of you should check it out.
No need to be sorry, Ben ... it was a fast-caught fish.
Merry Christmas to one and all.Thaddeus, thanks for your news and the kind comment, and Paula good to hear your update. It's really great to hear about everyone's achievements.
I haven't been able to contribute a story for a couple of months, but hope to be back at some point. Most of my energy and time this year, especially the latter half, has been in business writing - and it's been quite a good year for that - and organising events and activities around that. Lately also a bit of travelling which has been fun and a great break.
Wishing everyone every success and happiness both in writing and the rest of life
Andy
W. A. wrote: "Hey Thaddeus, I didn't realize Carol Shetler is doing anthologies.Carrol Fix however HAS published three of your stories in anthologies. Lillicat Publishers (Carol Fix) is working on it's forth n..."
Thanks for catching that. I didn't check it and I was very tired when I wrote it. Corrections made.
Yes, glad you guys caught that--and agreed, Bill, we'd do well to check out Carrol Fix's terrific anthologies. Oh, and where is Ms. Fix, by the way? Carrol, we miss you!---And are delighted by *your* work and last year's anthology too, Carol S.!
Hoping we've all had fun opening presents, eating various birds and vegan substitutes, and doing what we can for persons now refugees or homeless today (or any day). Joyeux noel, and so on.
fyi: sent my votes (this time, with critiques of the top five) via GR email system.
Thaddeus,You're an inspiration as always - congratulations to on those awesome achievements, with hopefully many more to come.
Congrats Thad & Paula & all who are finding their paths :)
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Rearranging Worlds by Jack McDaniel
Fatal Error by Dean Hardag
Whatever the Mind Wants by J.F. Williams
Final Ship to Mars by Helen Doran-Wu
Between a Rock and a Soft Place by J.J. Alleson
Pick A Number by Andrew Gurcak
Votes needed from:
Dean Hardag
Ben Boyd, Jr
Ron, please feel free to post your critiques. Thanks!
He might be worth reaching out to:
Twitter.com/LPOBryan