I have no energy to work just now (also, the snow stopped), so instead, I thought I'd actually discuss the story that's up, instead of just pointing at it.

Firing the Dead

"The pots tick softly as they cool. I can hear them under the rise and fall of the priest’s blessings and invocations. "

This story has many other posts out there, all with the tag firing, all the way back to when I first started writing it. And unlike many of my other stories, where I end up with nothing more than an obscure journal entry or just 4 lines of text in a file (yeah, I've got about 45 of them), this one has made it all the way out of my journal and into the real world.

I wrote the first page or so of the story shortly before I went to clarion, and then did about 20 seconds of research (yes, you can cremate a body and do raku firing, which is how the pots are done, at the same temperature) and wrote the whole story. And then it went around and received very nice rejections from everyone (seriously! Personal rejection from Gardner!) and then it languished for a while not quite good enough to sell and not nearly bad enough to trunk. And I sent it out every so often when a new market opened up. And I think...Yeah, I'm pretty sure this one went to Fantasy because snurri yelled at me for trunking stories that hadn't gone everywhere first. And so obviously that means I should listen to Dave about all things from now on...wait, I don't think that's what I was talking about.

Right. So essentially it's just one of my Dead stories, which are little stories that wind around strange death/dying rituals that I've created for my various cultures in them. This is the same 'collection' that Nightlight(Waking the Dead) belongs in, along with at least two unfinished stories, Hoc Vale (Exposing the Dead) and The Libation Bearers (Feeding the Dead). This was the first one I finished, and somehow I managed to pack a huge ambigously explained culture into a little story about a girl and her dead sister in such a way that everyone believes I know more about the culture than I do. I do love my little weird cultures. I wish I could finish them.

So there. That's my story, and that's why my story.

Tags: firing, writing
Current Music: Electric Soft Parade - Misunderstanding

Firing the Dead, to Fantasy Magazine.

"I watch the pots while the priest speaks, while we stand and sit again, while my mother cries softly next to me. Sophie was her favorite aunt, but I don't know which she mourns more--Sophie's death, or Tori's. A family Matriarch is expected to die, eventually, but not an Heir, not my older sister."
( Read more... )

Tags: firing, sale
Current Music: My Morning Jacket - Mahgeeta

"The butcher's shop was still clean and empty when she got there in the morning. The young priest called to her from the back room where he was dressing for work."

I was fussing with this story in my head last night, so I have to dig it out and look at a little now. I like this one, just like I like my pillar saints story (shame on the podling for not having seen Uncorked yet, btw. More shame on Hannah and mek for not having seen Amelie yet) But like Hoc Vale, I have no plot. Less of one even here than in Hoc, but that one's also stalled. I think I have to pull them off the back burner in my mind now, and start thinking more actively, see if I can't get something going with them before Firing comes back and I have no death stories out there. :) Well, Listening's out, but that's got even fewer markets left.

Tags: firing, hoc vale, libations, listening, roma

He kisses you before you climb from the car, his lips still sticky with apple juice. You can taste him for the rest of the night--ashes and apples and him.

300 words. plus some moving arounds, so it's a total of 3600 words long tonight.

I'm figuring out background of the story slowly, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to background before I know what's happening now, so it's something I need to fuss with, even when it bothers me because I'd rather be writing than futzing.

I'm also figuring out why this story is bothering me so. It's a multi-faceted problem--first off, my lovely shiny idea calls to me and wants to be appreciated for being lovely and shiny, but a story is more than an idea, so I have to keep reminding myself of that. This is why Firing the Dead sat around for 4 months before I wrote the story--lovely shiny ideas often think they're all the story needs, and you end up with something stupid and ordinary. I had to rejuggle this story already because my lovely shiny idea had become just...wallpaper for a completely mainstream story. And it's not supposed to be mainstream, or wallpaper. So that's one of the problems.

I'm also thinking it's going to be longer than I want it to be, that I'm just a third done or so, not halfway. (well, the 3600 mark maybe halfway, but the 2600 continuous words are a third or a quarter)

But I think my biggest problem is that suddenly I've got too many balls in the air. This is all working out really well, overall. But I know that I don't know how to handle plot and setting and details language and characters and all the rest of them at the same time. So I'll handle it all in pieces, but overall, it's paralyzing me when I think about it. And that's when I need to get out the dragons, instead of staying stuck somewhere and fretting. Because as soon as I get past the stalling point, I'm usually okay. And as soon as I'm writing, it's beautiful. And as soon as I'm past the stalling point, I usually figure out how to handle the part I skipped. But I get too caught up in being paralyzed, and can't take a deep breath and skip it. I got too worried about my tendency to write in a non-linear manner that now I don't want to skip around, even though I'm not everyone else, and I'm allowed to write the way I want to write.

Things I'm doing right so far: Language. Voice. Telling details. Setting--well, better at least. That's what I've got to look at, not where I'm stuck.

Tags: coal town, firing
Current Music: sense field - Save Yourself

Poor, sad subs page. Just two stories out. ROF finally sent me a BFOD for Church (which I can abbreviate as CCR, but I won't to spare you all.) And Alchemy bounced Listening. *sniffle* and just when I was starting to think of myself as a style monkey. Church needs to be re-read, but much like Firing, it's probably as good as it will get while remaining itself, so I'll probably just tweak a couple of sentences and send it back out. Bough is still in my revision pile. It's actually at the top of my pile, which is probably why I'm not revising anything. I should go dig through my files and bring Taste of Salt out for revisions. It's been about 5 months since I last looked at it, so I should be ready to revise and get it ready for the rest of the markets.

And for those of you reading this on your friends page, I posted three movie review things from months ago, sorry.

Tags: bough, church, firing, tos
Current Music: Morrissey - Trouble Loves Me

Contract go in the mail!

Plus, I found the stamps. So I can mail the rest of the bills. And Firing. gah. Oh I love this story. But just two more pro markets for it to try. *sigh* But I don't think I can make it any better than it is without making it something different. Maybe my mom's right *horrified gasp* and it is just the first chapter of a novel. everything I write seems to be in that place now.

I'm not a novelist!!! I'm not I'm not I'm not. *sigh* Time to go print it out so I can ship it off.

Tags: firing

Finished up Requiem and posted it on the workshop. I'm hoping it's just a polishing revision away from submitable, but we'll have to see.

I'm still torn about Bough, but I don't have any market open to send it.

Oh! and I was just going to moan about no market for Firing either, except of course, Bough just came back from there. So that's something I should do this week, maybe tomorrow.

I'll have to find the stamps though. I ran out of all the current ones today, mailing bills for my mother. THis doesn't matter for the sub, seeing as I'll just use a couple of them anyways, and I over stamp anyways because I have to estimate, but I have three or four more bills, and the SASE. She should have more current stamps somewhere though.

Tags: bough, firing, nightlight

80 words tonight. Of revision, so it's probably really at least twice that, and about an hour's worth of work. First 4 pages of Requiem (known to Clarionites as either Nightlight or Laying Ghosts.) Slower than sludge, but hey, it's something. And I've had nothing for so long, anything is good.

I cleaned up Listening for submission last week, and Feeling Driftwood the week before, but both of them were just polishing runs. I haven't revised something seriously since early March when I worked on Firing, and before that, the last time was the end of January when I got three pieces out the door in a week. I haven't finished a story since Wounds, and I've barely written any since then as well.

That's what's so frustrating about my problems with Requiem. I *know* what happens. I fixed the ending in my head, so I know what happens where and all, I just need to buckle down and find the words for it. And I can't. I end up staring at the story and drooling. (well, not literally.)

I think maybe I know why everything sucks so much. And it's not SH's rejection of the Firing rewrite, even though that wasn't nice. What hurts is a form from Alchemy for it. I really love this story. And I know that doesn't translate to much of anything, really, but I really love it. And I've only had one other form rejection for it so far (and only two more pro markets for it, I think), so I don't like that. I think I deserved a personal note, even if it was "didn't get it." I know it's my entitlement gnome. I *know* this. (or gnow this). But it still makes me cranky.

I'd like to query ROF about Church of Chain and Roses. I didn't much care how long they were holding on to it before, but now that I have Firing back, I have a story to send them, and I want CCR to come back. I was going to query, but I was being neurotic about who to query (Carina? but she doesn't have it, she passed it up to shawna, and I know this, and she knows I know this, so is it coy to ask her, or should I still ask her?), and while I was being neurotic, someone who subbed well after me (early Jan, I think, instead of late October) got a rejection letter. So maybe she's holding onto mine for a reason? or maybe not, but I think I'll give it a week or so before I query.

Tags: church, driftwood, firing, listening

Form Rejection of Firing from Alchemy. I can't remember what my plans were for this one next. I think Asimov's, if they ever reply (I'm exaggerating. It's only been about 60 days), unless I receive my BFOD before then.

This is really fabulous. An interview with GVG (publisher/editor of F&SF) up at Strange Horizons.

Tags: firing

No love from SH. Firing got bounced today--they still had problems with the ending, and didn't quite grasp the whole firing thing. I have to think on it a little bit. Next stop should be Asimov's, but as I may have a good two months or more before then, I may send it to Alchemy, they of the stylemonkeys and fast turn around. I do have plans as to what to send them next, but until it's free, I plan to sulk and kick things.

On the other hand, it's a special day for Church of Chain and Roses. Yes, it's at day 200 at ROF. You're all invited to a party in honor of it.

Tags: church, firing