Conversations with Dragons

It's coming up on a year in lockdown now. At some point along the way I stopped waiting for things to go "back to normal" and just accepted that this is the new normal, and I've been happier since. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to remain in lockdown forever (although we might, if the Tories keep bloody opening things early and causing cases to spike), but I don't think things will ever go back to the way they were before. At the very least I think masks will be around for a while, and possibly social distancing in public places since I suspect many people are going to discover an intense dislike of crowds going forward.

For me, accepting this as the new normal has meant some lifestyle changes. I learned to cut my own hair, and it's good enough to get me by since I hate having really long hair, although I haven't been brave enough to attempt my blue-purple dye job at home. I've bought a breadmaker since I'm sick of running out of bread at the weekends, and a step machine so I can get some exercise in. Overall we've got better about home cooking. Since our groceries arrive once a week and we can't just pop to the shop for when we run out of something or fancy dinner out, we're roasting up our leftover vegetables once a week and using them as a base for the next few days' meals. We're not being particularly adventurous, since cooking at the end of a working day is still a chore and not a pleasure, but we are eating better overall.

Working from home has turned out to have unexpected benefits. Early last year my employer asked everyone for their opinions on home working, and I said I didn't think I'd particularly like it, but it turns out I love it. I was worried about losing the routine of working in the office, but I'm perfectly capable of keeping that going at home - the getting ready for work routine is exactly the same except for an extra hour in bed and no commute. It helps that we each have a dedicated space to work in, and I always make sure to be dressed, even if I'm dressed down. That's not to say I haven't worked in my dressing gown a few times, if I'm feeling low or it's been particularly cold, but I'm in clothes underneath and not my PJs.

The thing that's really helped is not having the commute, and that's something I'm hearing from a lot of colleagues. It wasn't until that was removed that people really realised just how much stress it was causing them - whether with traffic and finding somewhere to park, or rushing to catch crowded public transport.

That's not to say everything's come up peaches. Mental health has been a big concern and both of us have struggled at times. It helped that we set ground rules early about asking for and giving each other space, and letting the other person know if we're having a bad day or are likely to be particularly snappy. It's helped to keep things from escalating into arguments, where before we might have taken the other person's bad mood personally.

I'm going on social media less often now, since Facebook and Twitter are mostly relentless firehoses of negativity, although I'm keeping up with other online connections like forums since it's easier to control what I'm exposed to and have actual conversations. Something I wasn't expecting is to be less interested in watching TV and movies. There are a few things I'm keen to keep up with or rewatch, but mostly I find it a bit dull and am reading or playing computer games instead - things I'd been doing less off. (Although we are planning a full rewatch of Supernatural before we get to season 15 on DVD).

I'm writing more, having tailed off to pretty much nothing by the end of last year. Part of that is the annual reset (I take December off and then hit January running) but hopefully it's also a sign that things have settled enough that I can plough on. My novel was abandoned early last year, and I wrote little apart from a handful of pretty dark poems and some fanfiction. I want to keep doing that, but also pick up with longer works and turn around some projects that have been languishing on my harddrive for far too long.

Of course I said I was going to take on new things last year, too...

Late again, because there's a lot going on isn't there?

We have a few cases of coronavirus locally, but nothing major as yet. My day job is working up to being able to have people working from home, but in the meantime I'm stuck taking public transport in every day under dystopian signs about hand washing.

Since last posting I finished up the contest with eight stories. Three are already out on submission although I expect two of them to be hard sells because they're a bit more experimental (first person plural, and second person list stories, anyone?). Three more are on the pile for editing. One's been trunked because it's a just-for-fun piece of fluff written just to get something done, and the last turned out to be back story for a novel.

Said novel is my current main project. It's a old piece of work, and I've basically stripped out an entire plotline and everything except bare bones plot and a couple of main characters from what remains. I have around 10,000 words of opening chapters, notes, and backstory written since January and aim to finish by the end of the year. I'm also keeping a short story or poem deadline on the go each month in case I get stuck. The aim is to keep some forward momentum even if it's not on the same project.

I've also had two reprints published:
"Dark Ghosts and Flamingos" at The New Accelerator
It was mid-week and still too early for paying customers. I was watching the vidscreen at the Stray Cat show programs about Earth, and wishing I’d never left.

and "On the Cusp of Darkness" at Luna Station Quarterly
It was the cusp of dawn when I reached the village, that strange half-light before the sun reaches the horizon. Early enough to show my allegiance, late enough not to offend the villagers’ sensibilities. They were rarely welcoming to those who knocked on their doors in the dark hours.

It's been a busy couple of months and I still haven't caught up with Babylon 5.

Now I've signed the contract, I can share that I've sold the reprint of "A Night of Many Months" to Pseudopod, although I'm not sure yet when it will be out.

In October I went to Bristolcon, my first SFF con experience. I enjoyed the panels and workshops I attended, and meeting new people, but it was heavy on the socialising (as these things are) which I found very tiring after a while. Especially after getting on the train to Bristol at 7am. It was nice to hang around with other writers for a while, and the entertainment was excellent (ever seen a string quartet play while doing the can can?), but I probably should have gone to bed half an hour, maybe even an hour, earlier and by the time I hit my room I was having a full-blown anxiety attack brought on by overtiredness, poor hydration, erratic eating, and too much input in a short space of time.

So, mixed feelings. I enjoyed it and would probably go again, but don't feel the travel and expense of a longer con, or one further away, would be worth it. I definitely won't be doing Worldcon any time soon!

During the course on Finishing Your Novel, I committed to finishing a novella by the end of November. It's a full rework of an older project, so I have a pretty good idea of where it's going, but then I got sidetracked by a story I'd been stuck on - which was an altogether more appealing prospect than slogging my way through an ill-advised outline (although it was an interesting experiment). Then I got sidetracked by projects at home, and preparing for Christmas, and haven't finished either.

I've got some time off over Christmas, so I'm going to spend the time making plans for next year. There are several projects that need time and attention, and I've got several online courses from The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers to finish. The days when I could rattle out several thousand words a week are long gone - I no longer have the time or energy (free Thursdays not having panned out so far which is something else to address in the new year), so need to get the best out of what I do have.

In the wonderful Good Omens, there's a scene that muses on how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. The answer being one, because angels don't dance except for that one time Aziraphale learned the gavotte only to be disappointed when it went out of fashion.

Which then got me thinking about how writing is exactly like an angel learning to gavotte.

While it appears a throwaway reference in the book, the scene in the series has around thirty seconds of Aziraphale dancing. Not only did they have to find someone who knew how to gavotte to teach Michael Sheen and the dancers how to gavotte, they had to source appropriate music and costumes for the scene. They had to rehearse to make it look effortless. All for thirty seconds of film.

None of that research or practice is visible on the screen, and if writing is done well none of it's visible on the page either.

It's also not a throwaway reference at all. It refers to an argument in logical thinking first recorded as early as the seventeenth century, and probably even older, which is still in modern usage. In addition, the narrator (God in the TV adaptation) tells us that "Aziraphale had learned to gavotte in a discreet gentlemen’s club in Portland Place in the late 1880’s". That discreet club was probably The Hundred Guineas Club, an exclusive gay club, given the other gentlemen's club in Portland Place at the time was a gambling club and probably not the sort of place an angel would learn to dance. It also ties nicely in with other references in the text to people assuming Aziraphale's gay.

Which is to say, good writing has layers.

And finally, fashions come and go. If you spend all your time writing to market (or learning to gavotte) you're likely to be disappointed when the trends change. Write what you love, and enjoy yourself as much as Aziraphale clearly does in this (slightly edited) video of him dancing the gavotte.

Since last posting about where you can find paying markets, I've come across some more sites.

These are all blogs or list sites, so more for those who don't mind sifting through rather than having a searchable database:
Angie's Desk is the blog of writer Angela Penrose. Every month she posts up anthology deadlines - it's also her all purpose blog so filter by using the tags "anthology market listings" or "open submissions".
Publishing ...and Other Forms of Insanity is the blog of Erica Verrillo, who posts publishing news, open submissions, and contests.
Cathy's Comps and Calls specialises in free to enter calls that can be entered online.

Some websites that have a section of contest and competitions are:
Trish Hopkinson's website
Christopher Fielden's website
Almond Press
Creative Writing Ink
Writers Reign
Mslexia
Writing Magazine (this only their own competitions)

Obviously as these aren't searchable they may also list markets that don't pay or charge fees. As always, read the guidelines before submission. Happy hunting!

I had a surprisingly lazy day on Wednesday. After reading my poem out in the poetry specialist course - and really not enjoying it - I decided to skip the Performance Poetry short course. I didn't feel like taking any of the others (Heroes, Life Writing, Comedy Sketch Writing). In hindsight I wish I'd taken the life writing course, as this isn't something I've ever looked at before (which was also the reason I didn't take it), but by this time I was feeling a little ragged so glad of the extra down time.

I also skipped the workshops on journalism and editing. I probably could have spent the day working on a poem from my new prompt, a glittery purple egg, but spent it chatting, reading, and walking around the lake instead - all time-honoured Swanwick traditions in their own right.

The evening speaker was Imogen Cooper of the Golden Egg Academy and formerly of Chicken House, who gave an informative talk about the academy's services for writers. After were the Page to Stage performances, and another early night for me.

Monday is when I start to get the days confused at Swanwick - after all, it's the second day of classes. I spent the whole day convinced it was Tuesday, a trend which continued all week.

The day started with the specialist course. This year, again, I took the poetry course run by Alison Chisholm. We were following the course of the year with poems following the seasons, and today was Winter so Alison gave each of us a glittery snowflake as a prompt, with instructions on how to use the spaces and spokes to generate a poem. We also discussed diary poems, and how these can cover different time periods (hours, days, months).

I had been planning to take the Marketing and Promotion short course, but decided against it in the end. Also on offer were Writing Intimate Scenes, Poetry from Dreams, and Illustrated Picture Books. None of these appealed so I gave them a miss and parked by the coffee machine instead and chatted to other delegates for a while.

Later in the afternoon I took my only workshop of the week Writing for Competitions, run by Ingrid Jendrzejewski. She's won a prodigious amount of competitions since she started entering in 2014, including winning a free trip to Swanwick last year, but she's a nice as she is prolific so it's difficult to hold it against her! She hadn't expected many people to come, but the hall was packed. She rattled through a lot of useful information in the hour, and could really have done with being given a short course slot. At the end of the session she gave us a writing prompt and instructions to write a story or poem, taking into account the guidelines she'd given us, for a competition with a deadline of Wednesday.

Our evening speaker was children's author Cathy Cassidy. I've enjoyed my time at Swanwick a lot more since I stopped feeling like every speaker was compulsory, so I gave her a miss in favour of curling up in bed with a book, and another early night.

I am, once again, blogging a week late. I took my tablet and some good intentions, but didn't switch it on all week.

The trip up was mercifully uneventful, and we found ourselves outside Derby station waiting for the coach. And waiting. When it eventually arrived it turned out to have been designed for children, in rows of five tiny and uncomfortable seats. I wonder in hindsight if the coach company saw the booking and assumed school meant children, but they've provided coach services often enough in the past to know better.

We arrived late, but there was still enough time to unpack before the Chairman's Welcome. After that was dinner, and our first experience of the new buffet-style dining. I loved it. There was a choice of main (generally two meat, one fish, one veggie), two choices of carbohydrates (potato and rice or pasta) and two vegetable choices. Despite having to queue, everyone was served quickly which left us with plenty of free time before the speaker. This was something that often came up in conversation during the week - how much extra time we found ourselves with, because of that one simple change. It also meant there was a choice of desserts, which usually alternated between multiple cakes, or a choice of cold desserts (including fruit), and one hot option. The down side of this was I ate more puddings than at previous Swanwicks, the up side that several of these were fruit rather than cake.

After dinner was the evening speaker, crime writer Stephen Booth, who was excellent. I don't read a lot of crime (although I'm starting to) but it's always nice to hear other writers' processes - and he's most definitely a pantser. I went along to the book signing and picked up a copy of Dancing with the Virgins, the second in his Cooper and Fry series, which I then spent the rest of the week reading instead of writing.

As always, I headed to bed early as even uneventful travel is tiring and there was a busy week ahead.

I've seen, two or three times this month, writers saying that non-paying markets are the norm. There seems to be this myth that paying markets are few and far between, and that's really not the case. I suspect this is a form of The Tiffany Problem: people "know" that markets don't pay because that's what common knowledge says. But the reality is that there are plenty of paying markets out there if you know where to look.

This varies across genres, and non- paying markets seem to be far more prevalent in literary and poetry circles than speculative fiction. Here's the thing: a number of literary and poetry journals don't pay because they're a labour of love. For example journals run by universities, staffed by students, without the budget to pay writers. Some of these are more prestigious than others, and sometimes it's worth not getting paid for appearing in a highly regarded journal or magazine. However sometimes these markets are simply a guy with a blog, posting stories for fun.

There are several ways to look for paying markets. Many writing magazines (certainly here in the UK) include a section of listings. The drawback to this is that you have to wade through all of them, whether or not they're relevant. This is also the case with books like The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and Poet's Market, with the addition that these quickly go out of date.

Fortunately there are a number of ways to search online:

General market databases
Duotrope - Duotrope contains a searchable database that lets you look for markets by genre and pay rate, among other variables. It leans more towards poetry and literary markets, and has a subscription fee of $5 a month.
The Submissions Grinder - Although technically still in beta, this is a a perfectly functional site with another searchable database. It tends to skew more towards speculative fiction since that's where it originated and where most of the user base lies, but has recently started populating poetry markets and does have a fairly big catalogue of non-genre markets. It's also free.

Both sites also allow for tracking of submissions.

Paying Publications allows for very basic search filtering, and allows for searching of paying poetry markets based on whether a poem is new/already published, already under submission somewhere else, and whether or not the poet is established.
Poets and Writers has a basic searchable database - which doesn't allow for searching by pay rate (see above regarding literary markets!)

Blogs and list sites:
There are also a number of blogs and listing sites that are a useful resource even if not searchable. These are often genre specific.
Dark Markets is for horror markets and offers a very basic filter by publication type (anthology, podcast, etc).
My Little Corner is a blog by author Sandra Seamans that focuses on crime and mystery markets.
Womagwriter is aimed at women's magazine fiction.
Ralan is for speculative fiction markets.

Poet Alison runs the Creative Writing Opportunities List, although please note you need to be logged in to Yahoo to access this.

Facebook groups
There are also several groups you can join on Facebook where opportunities are posted, both paying and non-paying.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Pulp Markets.
Horror.
Crime, Thriller, Mystery Markets.
Poetry, Fiction, Art.

And this one specifically for paying markets.

So, there are plenty of opportunities out there!

If you want to submit to a non-paying market, that's up to you. Sometimes the prestige or opportunity to support a charity is worth the loss of payment. You might not be interested in publishing for money. But please, whatever you do, don't give your work away for free because you don't think anyone will pay, because that's simply not true.

With thanks to Helena Bell and Dan Stout for additional links. Further suggestions welcome in the comments.

I've decided to mix things up with my writing magazine subscriptions. I did subscribe to Writing Magazine and Mslexia, but I've got to the point where I no longer look forward to the new issue of Writing Magazine. In fact, when the current issue arrived I thought "oh god, another one" since I still had the previous two on the go. The content has become decreasingly useful - it seems like it's all article writing, and apparenty no venues for short fiction exist except competitions. The only reason I was still getting it was for the market info in the back, but that's become less and less useful since usually I know about a deadline two months before it actually appears in the magazine.

So I've cancelled my subscription. I'm keeping Mslexia, since I do still look forward to that. And since I want to read things that will help with writing short fiction, I paid for a year's subscription to F&SF and ordered the bumper-pack of 8 back issues of Asimov's/Analog. At the very least I'll get something worth reading out of it.

I've also managed to edit and submit the other oubliette piece for #12for12. I really need to start writing some non-flash this year now.