Remember this? Well Trouble the Waters now has an official publication date (January 2022), and is available for pre-order from Third Man Books directly, Bookshop.org, and Amazon. See the announcement here. For the time being, continue to feast your eyes upon the updated cover design and Stacey Robinson’s astonishing cover art. Roll on 2022…
The Clarkesworld Year Twelve anthologies, Volumes One and Two, are now out in various formats (including print) from various vendors. As well as containing many great (and award-winning) stories, Volume Two also has a reprint of my story “The Veilonaut’s Dream” from Clarkesworld issue #143. Here is the complete table of contents:
So… in the end, a quiet year on the published story front, with two new stories out in the first half.
Still, I’m happy with what’s out there, and happy in the progress I think I’m making in writing at a more consistent level. Happy, really, to be still writing at all, considering the many other much more talented people I’ve known who’ve stumbled upon the rock-strewn way. Happy to be able to pick my own slow path to my own destination, with whoever is willing to come along.
Despite the barren-looking fields, be assured that deep in the earth, there are roots still frantically growing.
Not the greatest of years in terms of new stories published, with only two out:
Still, I’m happy with both, and there were also a couple of reprints last year, including my first ever appearance in a “Best Of” anything with 2018’s “The Veilonaut’s Dream”, and also my first ever Chinese translation with the same story. So no complaints really, even though most of the year was spent writing a 15K novelette I poured a lot into, but at that length it’s really very difficult to find a market.
So what will 2020 bring? At least one more new story, the prequel to “Witch of the Weave”, “Climbing the Motherman”, should be out early 2020 in issue #5 of DreamForge Magazine, and I’m close to completing the sequel too, although of course there is no guarantee it will ever get accepted anywhere. Also this year, my story “Against the Venom Tide” should be reprinted in the Rosarium Press “Trouble the Waters” anthology (touch wood).
Any other stories coming out this year? As always: who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
An odd year. Odd in many ways, not least of which I still consider 2000 to be in the far distant future and how come we’re already at the end of 2018?
Some nefarious plans came to fruition. Others did not. A couple of reprints scheduled to appear didn’t (although they may yet, next year), but some did, with “The Osteomancer’s Husband” featuring in “Diabolical Plots: The First Years”, and “In the Belly of the Angel” in the Metaphorosis 2016 annual anthology. And three new stories came out online, in print, and as podcasts, in some really great venues:
As for next year, at least one new story should be appearing in Kaleidotrope. A tale that when it first started out was about despair and addiction and the physical origins of giants… but in the end turned out to be about something else entirely.
Any other stories coming out next year? As always: who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve written about persistence before, but it’s a subject I want to return to. See, I’ve been sending stories to Clarkesworld for years now. Because of its fast turnaround time (typically a rejection only takes a couple of days, sometimes even less) it’s one of the first places I and many other writers send a new story. It’s high paying, prestigious, publishes great stories by some of the best writers in the field, has great art direction and production values — why not see if your brand-spanking new story is one Neil Clarke might be interested in before sending it anywhere else? So that’s what I’ve done. Many times. Over the years. 15 times, to be exact. Each time rejected.
Until my sixteenth submission, a few days ago.
Yes, this is a sly way to announce my story “The Veilonaut’s Dream” has been accepted by Clarkesworld. I still can’t quite believe it.
So you — yes you, with your seemingly endlessly growing pile of rejection e-mails — there is hope. If not this story, maybe the next. Keep trying. Keep improving. Stay professional. Read the guidelines. Push on through that dark night of the soul — we all get them, all of us. Try new styles, new subjects, new ideas, new characters. Keep getting feedback, keep an open mind, keep the faith. Because one day… you never know.
(PS. Just make sure it’s not a zombie story.)
“The Long Route to Acceptance”
News that one of my favourite stories “She Is Chosen” has been accepted by MYTHIC magazine and will be appearing in their Spring 2018 issue in March. There will be a print edition, too, which I’m very much looking forward to getting my grubby little hands on.
Almost five years to the day since my first story was published (“Amy’s First” at Daily Science Fiction). As good a time as any to reflect on the path taken and to take a squint at the route ahead (or is it only into my fluff-filled navel? — hmmm, not sure).
I’ve been extremely fortunate to have twenty other stories published in the intervening years. Half in pro-paying markets, the rest in semi-pro or token; about half flash, the rest short stories and a novelette. I’ve been privileged to share ToCs with writers I’ve admired since I was a child, and I’ve been published in markets that folded shortly after my story appeared. I’ve had acceptances on first submission in less than a day, and I’ve had stories rejected over thirty times and over the course of many years before they were finally published. I’ve been paid on acceptance and never paid. I’ve had complimentary mail, messages and tweets from total strangers and I’ve had stories utterly ignored. I’ve had stories edited to an inch of their lives, and (mostly) I’ve had stories completely untouched.
Verdict? I still feel I’m very much a beginner, wandering about in the foothills. Possibly lost. Possibly making progress. Possibly just covering necessary ground to get to where I need to go. So many markets and types of stories I still aspire to that I lack the skill and courage to even attempt. Still so many stories in my trunk that I really like, but I don’t know how to fix. I can’t even tell whether they are fixable or not. So the submission process remains largely a matter of throwing stuff out and seeing what sticks. Or not. No magic secret revealed apart from sheer persistence and constantly striving to improve.
I’ve deliberately moved away from writing flash length pieces, for the time being. Nothing wrong with flash — such stories can pack a mighty punch — but it’s currently the longer lengths that I find most challenging and satisfying to work on. Consequently the more difficult to place. And I’m OK with that. That’s where I need the practice. Where I need to improve. Where I need to spend the time, no matter how long it takes.
Because don’t kid yourself. This is a long, long game.
(Which isn’t a game.)
And perhaps, one day… the novel, again.
(Shudders.)
Vonda McIntyre – “Dreamsnake”
C. J. Cherryh – “Gate of Ivrel”
Stephen King – “The Stand”
George R. R. Martin & Lisa Tuttle – “Windhaven”
George R. R. Martin – “Fevre Dream”
Julian May – “The Many-Colored Land”
Glen Cook – “The Black Company”
Robert Holdstock – “Mythago Wood”
William Gibson – “Neuromancer”
Dan Simmons – “Hyperion”
Lucius Shepard – “Life During Wartime”So, as promised, here are ten books that I read during the 1980s that for one reason or other have stuck with me to the present. (Note that I read them in that decade, not that they were necessarily published in that decade.) They’re not necessarily the best books I read in the 80s. They’re not necessarily ones I would recommend you read. Some of them I’ve not even read since, so I’m writing about my possibly rose-tinted recollection of them rather than the reality. And there were, of course, so many, many others from about the same time, all with a various impact, far too many to mention in the space and time available.
Piers Anthony – “The Source of Magic”
Oh crikey, it’s a Piers Anthony book. You may snurk, but actually I read of lot of Piers Anthony in the 1980s. There were certainly a lot of his books and series around: Macroscope, Chthon, Pthor, the Battle Circle trilogy, the Manta trilogy, the Kirlian Quest series, the Apprentice Adept series, etc…. the guy’s nothing if not prolific.
In time honoured tradition I began his Xanth trilogy (yes, it was a trilogy, back then) with its second instalment. I loved “The Source of Magic” — a quest to find the source of magic itself! I loved “Source”‘s posse of goofy characters, the world building, yes I even loved the punnery. Hey. I was 12.
John Varley – “Titan”
Now we’re getting into my tweenage years and beyond. I’d graduated from the local high street’s W. H. Smith’s SF, F & H section to that hardcore genre stalwart, Andromeda, situated in its early years in the shady part of Birmingham town centre, sandwiched between a porn shop and a bookies. And here at last I found I could buy copies of Analog, Asimov’s, F&SF, etc. Holdstock’s Encyclopedia of SF had already pointed me towards Varley’s first novel “The Ophuichi Hotline” but, as with GRRM’s writing, I was drawn to Varley primarily through his short fiction: “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank”, “Air Raid”, “Press Enter” and other such classics. It was in the pages of Analog, in fact, that I read the first chapters of “Titan”, then waited impatiently for the book: another quest plot, a climb from the perimeter of a colossal structure towards its centre in a search of salvation and answers. Unfortunately, now that probes and Hubble have resolved the titular moon in more detail, the novel’s central conceit has dated fatally. But I still remember “Titan” and its sequels fondly.
Gene Wolfe – “The Shadow of the Torturer”
I learnt of “The Shadow of the Torturer” (the first volume in the classic tetralogy known collectively as “The Book of the New Sun”) via an Arrow book marketing mail shot. And Bruce Pennington’s cover immediately sold it to me: the archetypal man in hood artwork, available as a poster that I immediately sent off for. Other boys my age had photos of footballers or pop stars adorning their bedroom walls — I had this cover. Severian’s journey isn’t as straightforward a read as that epic fantasy cover may suggest — it was something of a shock to deal with Gene Wolfe’s uncompromising show-never-tell prose and stories within stories, layers within layers, the future and the past interleaved. On finishing “Torturer” I thought — what the hell just happened? The next three books received the same reaction. And I still feel the same way. Surely the sign of a classic, no?
Larry Niven – “Ringworld”
“Protector”, “A Gift From Earth”, “Neutron Star”, “The World of Ptaavs”…drawn in by the lush Orbit paperback covers and all eminently collectable, “Ringworld” was by no means my first Niven. Not just his novels, but his short stories abounded too (“Inconstant Moon” is a classic). But I guess it’s inevitable “Ringworld” has to be the one entry to represent his work: probably his best known novel, a prime example of the Big Dumb Object story (see also “Rendezvous With Rama” from Acceptable In The 1970s, “Orbitsville” by Bob Shaw, “Eon” by Greg Bear, etc.). I remember precious little of the characters, even much of the plot (such as it was), but the technology and the mind-bending sensawunda remain. Shame about the cover, though.
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle – “The Mote in God’s Eye”
Continuing with the hard SF kick we segue into borderline military SF, with Niven the gateway drug to Pournelle.
“The Mote In God’s Eye”, with it portentous Biblical title, positively glows with sensawunda and the full-on joy of discovery as it explores the well-worn trope of the principled scientist types versus the grizzled military hardliners. I actually do remember something about the characters here, so it’s not all spaceships, aliens and dry exposition (although there is some of that). The surprise, at the end, is that “Mote” subverts the expectation of most (left-leaning liberal type, like me) readers — the alien Moaties actually do turn out to be a threat to humankind, though more subtle than imagined. Perhaps that’s why — along with its kick-ass title — it continues to remain so popular.
Joe Haldeman – “The Forever War”
I needed an antidote to all this tech-driven gung-ho SF – the next two entries provided it.
“The Forever War” is unambiguous as to who is at fault in the war between humans and the Taurans. We are — specifically the aged Vietnam vet generals who plunge the two species into conflict with their presumption of alien hostility and their “shoot first, ask questions later” attitude. The book is highly episodic (it was originally published as a series of instalments in Analog), but that suits the time-warped nature of the war as the protagonist finds himself jumping through centuries of elapsed Earth time due to the relativistic effects of space travel. Haldeman’s own wartime experiences obviously inform the portrayal of the ambiguous, ridiculous, cruel and often unintended consequences of war, lending it a rare feeling of authenticity. As with other authors in this list, Haldeman’s short stories are also excellent, and his second novel “Mindbridge”, which experimented with form and narrative structure, was also hugely influential.
Frederik Pohl – “Gateway”
More hard SF! Black holes! Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity! Black holes! Psychiatry! Felatio! What’s not to like about “Gateway”?
Again sensawunda and the sense of scale in time and space, of discovery, abounds, but so does the grit and the experimentation with structure and chronology. The narrator struggles with post traumatic survivor guilt as he recounts how he and his crewmates risked their lives on board the ancient alien ships launched from the Gateway asteroid to predetermined but unknown and very possibly dangerous distant locations, hunting for alien Heechee artefacts.
The later sequels reveal too much about the Heechee and deflate the initial premise, but that doesn’t change the fact that “Gateway” was a genre game-changer.
Right then, so that’s half of my ten from the 80s. So far it looks pretty white, American, and male. Will Part 2 be any better? Tune in to see.
SZABLOG 