Christmas Break Outing

The Kansas Underground Salt Museum was a fun and enlightening family field trip this week. Taking a break from feasting and lazing around the house, we took a trip to one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas.

Hey, don't laugh. We have them! Among the finalists that Kansans voted on are the largest ball of twine, largest hand dug well, and Big Brutus. And they're all on our list to see in 2012.

Back to the salt mine - it's a real, working site that probably provides salt gravel for your roads in the winter. In addition to an underground museum, the mine hosts Underground Vaults and Storage, a place where government records, movie films, and anything else imaginable is stored.

There are so many organizations that want to use this mine, it's crazy...do you know? Because a mine is a terrible thing to waste. :)

Hey, Traditional Publishers Here's An Idea

The Passive Guy posted an excerpt from Joe Konrath's neener neener Happy New Year wishes to all the editors who rejected his best selling indie novel, The List. This prompted some interesting discussion. One person, William Ockham, wrote:

The question that came to my mind when I read this is why don’t the big publishers have an e-book only (or e-book + POD) imprint? Surely, all the editors who rejected that book for traditional publishing can’t be idiots, so lets assume that the book was too big a risk to publish the usual way. Why don’t the big publishers take the “not quite good enough for ‘real’ publishing” manuscripts, put them through a low-cost assembly line (copyediting, cover art, etc.) and send them to Amazon and B and N? They could charge a lower price for these ‘inferior’ goods and make a ton of money. I am increasingly convinced that if you are a stockholder in a traditional publishing house, you should be suing the company for corporate malpractice (that’s a joke, I know our host is a lawyer).

This prompted David Forbes to say:

I love William’s idea of e-book only imprints. Though the standard publisher stance at the moment is that it’s not that much cheaper *for them* to do e-books since only 25%, or thereabouts, is tied up with the actual physical media.

That’s what needs to change. Publishers have to *dramatically* lower some of their so-called “fixed” costs so that they *can* create e-book only imprints that can get books to market in weeks to a month or two rather a year to a year and a half. Time will tell if they realize this before Amazon and others eat their lunch.

Which in turn led Ockham to state:

If the publishers want to lie to themselves and say it isn’t much cheaper to publish e-books, there’s not much that can be done, but as our host points out, publishing is not a healthy business. The slush pile is an asset that can be converted very easily into a brand new revenue stream.

Remember, an editor has read these manuscripts and should have a fairly good idea which ones can be turned into a decent quality e-book for $5,000 or less. Pay no advances, but give the authors a 50-50 royalty split ($3 on our $6 e-book). If you figure the distributor (Amazon, et al.) gets $1, that leaves $2 a copy for the publisher. If these editors can’t pick manuscripts that will sell 3,000 copies in a year, why do they have jobs?

They should be able to do this with essentially zero risk. They need to start now while their name still means something.

I think this idea has merit. Anyone else have a reaction?

The Right Way to Critique

Came across a link at Deb Walker's blog about an intriguing call for entries from Edmund Schubert, editor of Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show. At Magical Words (a site for aspiring writers), Schubert offered to critique the first 200 words of the first 20 authors who posted excerpts from their short stories.

I was pleasantly surprised by how he worded his feedback. I learned a lot from reading his responses - as much from how he said something as what he said. Of course, he set the ground rules from the beginning: "So that we’re clear, I’m going to post my comments about your short story in a direct fashion. I don’t intend to mock anyone or be brutal, but I need to be honest or this exercise is a waste of everyone’s time." Fair enough!

Here's one example (I may post more in the future):

A writer* posted:

If one could trudge across the Atlantic, that’s how I might have described my progress back from London, where the streets were cool, the men were well-dressed, and when they weren’t, they at least had the decency to give a polite, “morning!” before darting nakedly down an alleyway in search of a Lycanthrope Emergency Box. The muggy North Carolina summer seemed to suck out not only my energy, but every ounce of expectation I’d had for a good break between semesters.

A buffalo-sized man in little more than a greasy apron and an orange hunting cap shunted me out of line in Target. I watched in horror as his gray-sprouted backside rippled away from me and noticed that he was also wearing pristine timberlands with the price tags still attached.

He slammed a tent-sized pair of sweatpants in front of the clerk. Her thin ponytail quivered as she scanned the barcode.

“F-five-twenty-”

“Y’all think I walk around like this for fun?” he barked. “You happen to look up last night, hun? This is what my tax-dollars pay for!”

“The town is really growing up!” my mom said, taking my attention away from the train-wreck of Lycanthrope-Human relations occurring a few feet away. She gestured out the window. “We have a Starbucks now.”

Schubert responded:

Your opening is an interesting mix of confusion and intrigue. I think “If one could trudge across the Atlantic, that’s how I might have described my progress back from London…” means that your narrator has just returned from London, but I found it confusing and had to read it more than once to come to than conclusion. Openings need to be crystal clear, but slush readers aren’t going to take the time to figure things out; they’re just going to reject anything that doesn’t make sense and move on to the next one.

On the plus-side, you’ve created a really intriguing blend of everyday normalcy and werewolf madness, and that is clear. And it’s not ‘told;’ it’s very deftly shown through details.

The other thing I’d ask you to address is that I don’t yet have a sense of what is driving your narrator. What does she want? That needs to be established strong and clear very early on in short stories, and I don’t any hint of that yet, beyond “a good break between semesters.” That’s not enough. I doubt it’s the main thing, but you need to get to the main thing ASAP. What does she want? 

You’ve created an intriguing setting for a story (a world were lycanthropy is a common problem that borders on mere nuisance its so common), but you need a specific situation/problem that impacts and drives your character specifically.

Now this is the right way to critique, imo. Helpful, honest, and still encouraging. As an editor, I wish I was able to respond with as much detail to every submission, but of course it's impossible. Schubert doesn't either - this was just a special event, if you will. But pretty cool idea. What are some of your experiences with feedback and critique from editors? Do you want it? Ignore it? Use it?

(*BTW, the above story excerpt is copyrighted by its author - I'm just using it here as an example, but since it's posted online I figure that's okay. Just know that it belongs to someone else. :)

A Shepherd Boy's Christmas

Based on the Master Story from Luke 2:8-20

            In the hill country of Judea some 2000 years ago there was a little shepherd boy tending some lambs for his father.

            “Hazaiah,” his father called, “bring the little ones back to the flock. It is getting late and we must set up camp.”

            “Yes, father.” Hazaiah obeyed and with his little stick herded the five young lambs back to their mothers. 

            Sheep are affectionate animals and when treated well are almost like pets, following their masters from place to place. Hazaiah's father, Melki, had told his son not to get too attached to this bunch. The owner of the flock would soon be taking them for sacrifice since the five lambs were without blemish.

            Hazaiah knew all about that but still he would run with his animals and care for them as if they were his own. He even named them.

            “Father,” he said, “can Rhappa sleep with us tonight? It is getting cold and she is the smallest of the herd.”

            “No,” said Melki. “That is why there is a herd so that they can protect each other from the cold. Our job is to protect them from wild animals. All of them, my son, not just Rhappa. Come, help me pitch the tent."

Continue reading this Christmas devotional story at FWD: Thoughts.

Christmas Break At Last

Quick updates for those who care, or pretend to, or even for those who don't.

1. I passed my PLT (Principles of Learning and Teaching) and have just one more major hurdle before I'm fully certified as a 6-12 Language Arts teacher. This will come next spring.

2. Speaking of spring - I just have one more semester in my Transition to Teaching program and I didn't flunk this past semester. So that's good.

3. Speaking of not flunking, I completed my CE requirements for licensing in another area of business (not teaching). So I can continue making money there.

4. Speaking of making money (there sure is a lot of speaking going on here, well that makes sense as this blog is called bloggin' outloud!), I have an editing job for a friend that I'm going to complete before Christmas. I'll tell you about it when the book is published.

5. Oh, and since you brought up Christmas, I'll be sharing a short story that I wrote with my congregation titled, "The Joy of a Shepherd Boy" on Christmas Eve. I'll post a link to it soon so that you may enjoy it as well.

I think that's about it for now. If I don't get the chance to say it again next week, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Christmas Fiction

In the mood for a story? Here are some holiday themed selections from ResAliens.com - short, speculative fiction with a spiritual twist.

1. "A Gift Long Forgotten" by R. Scott Russell - a science fiction encounter with an ancient civilization.

2. "Traveled So Far" by Stoney M. Setzer - a flash piece and a surprise journey of discovery.

3. "Sleigh Ride" by Charlie Bookout - Jesus chats with Santa about the meaning of it all.

4. "The Debut" by Francis W. Alexander - What? Did you think Santa was the same person year after year?

5. "The Little Star" by Nick Ozment - a Christmas fable in a star spangled setting.

Which story did you enjoy the most? Comments welcome. And, by the way, Merry Christmas!

Write 1 Sub 1 Challenge

Write1Sub1 Reloaded

Yep, I'm almost thinking about maybe considering potentially participating in the Write 1 Sub 1 Challenge - possibly!

The goal? Write a story a week each week in 2012. And then submit a story for publication each week in 2012. As an editor, I do read and comment on stories quite a bit, but I've gotten away from actually writing them. So my New Year's resolution? Write more stories!

But I know me...if I don't have support, it'll be a tough row to hoe. But now there's a web community to help me reach my goal. You can read more details here, but here's the overview:

Here's the challenge, should you choose to accept it:

• Write and submit a short story or poem every week (or month), starting the first week of January and ending the last week of December.
• Goal: 52 new submissions in 52 weeks (or 12 in 12 months).
• You don't have to write and submit the same story within the same week -- although that's what Bradbury did. Often it pays to set a story aside for a while and come back to it.
• The length of your story can be as short as Twitter fiction (140 characters) or as long as a novelette (15,000 words). Any style, any genre: whatever you write.

Now, perhaps it's time to conceivably get ready...

Coriolanus: Epic Hero, Political Failure

This post is an essay on Coriolanus by Williams Shakespeare - not the new movie starring Ralph Fiennes. Although I do want to see the movie.

The original play from the early 1600s is a political drama centering on the heroic life and tragic end of General Caius Marcius. The play is set primarily in Rome during the 5th century B.C. following the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic. General Marcius is given the honorific “Coriolanus” after an epic battle against the Volscian city of Corioli in which he defeats the enemy almost single-handedly.

Such an example of extreme valor is worthy of epic recognition, and indeed Coriolanus is an epic hero; he’s proud, arrogant, and condescending, with little patience for the common person or even his fellow soldier. However, the mythic age of heroism is quickly coming to an end and Coriolanus finds himself out of place in the newly formed Roman republic.

One question this play poses, then, is: can a fundamentally anti-social hero survive the demands of the body politic? In other words, is there a place in modern society for a classic hero? By examining the life of Coriolanus, we’ll discover that the answer in most cases is no. Assuming the mantle of champion practically necessitates failure as a politician. Because this is generally true, the drama ends in tragedy due to Coriolanus’s inability to be anything other than what he was born to be – an epic hero.