Speculative Author Wins Nobel?

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2007 was awarded to the English writer Doris Lessing
"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". Congratulations, Ms. Lessing!

It seems some of Ms. Lessing's works are considered to be speculative fiction. From the official Nobel Prize website (nobelprize.org):

"In the novel series Canopus in Argos: Archives (vol. 1–5, 1979–1984) Lessing expanded the science fiction genre. The series studies the post-atomic war development of the human species. Lessing varies thoughts about colonialism, nuclear war and ecological disaster with observations on the opposition between female and male principles. Among inspirations for the work was the Idries Shah’s school of Sufism that she discovered in the 1960s. Doris Lessing revisited her interest in Sufism in the Time Bites (2004) collection of essays."

"The vision of global catastrophe forcing mankind to return to a more primitive life has had special appeal for Doris Lessing. It reappears in some of her books of recent years: the fantasy novel Mara and Dann (1999) and its sequel The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog (2005). From collapse and chaos emerge the elementary qualities that allow Lessing to retain hope in humanity."

Wow.

Workshop presentation available

FYI-I finally uploaded our excellent Electric Spec workshop presentation from RMFW's Colorado Gold Conference. It's called "Break into Publishing the E-Zine Way". Enjoy!

Writing Books

My colleagues at Electric Spec chose to comment rather than blog. Aw. :(
In case you are too lazy to click on the comments, Dave said his favorite is Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. What do you like about it, Dave?

Renata concurs that King's is a good one and she also likes Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. What do you like about them, Renata?

Hhm. I'm not sure what my favorite writing book is. I'll have to ponder it.

Betsy, any thoughts? Electric Spec writers? Readers?

Aren't Editors Great?

For most of the general reading public, editors are pretty much invisible. Still, as pointed out in a recent article in Salon, editors are important, not just for writers, but for readers. As the content on the web and in the blogosphere grows, editors will become increasingly important in separating the wheat from the chaff. Am I patting myself and my fellow Electric Spec editors on the back? I guess so, but my editor tells me that's fine once in a while.

Becoming a Writer

From time to time I (we?) will mention some good books for writers. Here's one: Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. This was published first in 1934 but still has a lot to say to today's writers about being creative, writing daily, not being overly-critical of one's work, and other topics.

Okay, Electric Spec editors, what other writing books do you recommend?

Writers, what do you recommend?

SFWA's job?

I'm not sure if you all have been following...but the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have been dealing with some copyright issues this year. Recently they sent out a questionnaire to all members asking us what we thought their role should be in copyright issues. It's food for thought. An individual writer doesn't have much power , whereas a large organization like SFWA might.

Here, at Electric Spec we strive to assist writers. Please let us know if there's anything we can do for you. :)

Ailing Short Stories, part two

In reference to Lesley's last post about ailing short stories:

If you missed the comment thread on King's article, it's worth taking a gander. Sad to see how little respect a grand master like Stephen King garners. Whether you like his books or not, he is a solid, craft-minded writer, and millions of sales don't lie. Someone even said Stephen King doesn't write short stories. Heh. His credits listed him as having written 400 short stories, and like any writer worth their salt, he cut his teeth on short stories before most of us could hold a crayon.

His point about short stories, how they often feel dull and mass-produced, is well worth considering. I see them all the time, short stories that have had the spark beaten out of them, or maybe it was never there in the first place. And I don't mean just in our slush pile, but published, as well. They lack passion. They lack life.

The best short stories are long on craft, short on verbage, and they get beneath the reader's skin like a sliver. The themes might be big but the stories and the characters peopling them are often small--and that is the point. They don't show us the entire ocean, but just a few grasses near an undersea cliff. Short stories only hint at the blackness beyond, and let's face it, that blackness can make us damned uncomfortable.

Remember that old personality test from Psych 101? Do you eat around the edges of your jelly-filled donut, savoring the anticipation, or do you bite right in? In this day and age of Supersize Me and McMansions, I think the answer for most of us is clear. We don't like to be uncomfortable. But for this editor and reader, the best short stories don't have jelly. They let me fill in the middle with my own experiences and worldview--newly sugared by the author's ideas.

Short stories are meant to pulsate, to push limits, and to make us think, albeit in not so many words. It is up to the reader to fill in the blanks. Like Barth Anderson said in our interview: "...every sentence is like another incremental dilation of a camera lens, letting in a little more light, information, or field of vision of what we're looking at. To me that explained what short stories can do." But the physical limitations of word count means an entire world cannot be revealed. It's one lens, not CNN. Something has to be left out. Something must be left to the reader's discretion, and that's the beauty of the thing.

I do think the genre is ailing, and I do blame editors for buying so much milquetoaste. After all, we provide the bridge between our readers and our authors. One time I got the comment from an editor that I hadn't developed the world enough in a particular story. "You only spent 2000 words and you could have spent 4000." Hmm. I'd specifically aimed this story at online markets, in which shorter often does well. But, in all fairness to the editor who had taken the time to comment, I had a friend read the story and then I asked her questions about the world I'd developed. Guess what? She got all the answers right, even the ones that weren't specifically addressed in the story.

Many of the published shorts I read have all the I's dotted and T's crossed, and not just by the copyeditor. One of the commenters in the article's thread said they can't identify with the characters in most short stories. Maybe that's because the authors don't leave the reader any space to do so. They comb the protag's hair and make sure their buttons are lined up right. Such stories leave no room for the reader, and hence the characters, to breathe. I challenge editors --and writers!--to trust their readers. That bridge I was talking about...it ought to be more of a swinging rope than a Golden Gate.

The saddest bit is that short stories uniquely fit our sound-bite society. They ought to be doing well. But then, a sound-bite isn't meant to make you think, it's just meant to make you buy.

Ailing short story?

No doubt some of you saw Stephen King's essay in the 9/30/07 Sunday Book Review of The New York Times: What Ails the Short Story. He claims the short story is alive but not well. Clearly, he doesn't read Electric Spec! :)

Let's prove him wrong. Support authors and read lots of short stories! And better yet, write lots of excellent short stories--and send them to us!
Our in-boxes are waiting! :)

We're live!

...and we're live! Check out the excellent new issue of Electric Spec.

Thank you to all the authors, editors, and artists that made the issue possible!

New Issue Soon!

As faithful readers know, we usually publish Electric Spec by midnight on publication day, i.e. the Sept 30, 2007 issue would go live by midnight Sept. 29. Sadly, this will not happen this time. :( We hope to have it finished some time tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

Elves that Won't Behave Themselves

I hate it when this happens (I didn't make this up):

Fired Judge Blames Elf for Court Mishaps
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The Philippines Supreme Court has asked a fired judge who claims he is assisted by three elves to stop making threats of “ungodly reprisal.”
The court kicked Florentino Floro Jr. off the bench largely because of his belief in the supernatural, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). A medical clinic determined that the judge was suffering from psychosis.
Since then Floro has battled to get his job back, appearing on TV and winning converts who seek his healing powers. At the same time, a series of unfortunate incidents have befallen the supreme court justices or their families, including serious illnesses and car accidents.
Floro says the person to blame for the mishaps is one of the elves, "Luis," a "king of kings" who is an avenger. He told the newspaper that the elves help him predict the future, but he has never consulted them when issuing judicial decisions.
The Supreme Court has not reversed any of Floro’s decisions since firing him.

The Wheel of Time Turns Again

Author Robert Jordan (his real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr.) died on Monday at age 58. Fantasy fans will remember him for his best-selling fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. I admired Jordan for his complex world-building and plotting, and I'm sad that we'll never know how the multi-book series was supposed to end.

conference

We spoke at a conference this weekend about Electric Spec, as well as short stories and markets in general. The biggest question was: What are you looking for more of?

For me, it's dark-themed fiction (of course!) and even tragedies. These could be horror pieces, but you don't have to frighten me to make me shiver. I also would love to see more serious, well-written high fantasy pieces.

Two weeks until the next issue!

Earth Saved!

As many of you spec fic writers out there know, the Earth is believed to have a limited lifespan. Specifically, when the sun expands into a red-giant it will engulf the Earth. This sounds bad! Of course it won't happen for 5 billion years or so. Recently, however, an article in Nature "A giant planet orbiting the 'extreme horizontal branch' star V 391 Pegasi" would seem to indicate this will NOT be the end of the world. Hurray! Earth is saved! I, for one, am relieved.

I would love to read a story about Earthlings and their red-giant. :)

I see The New York Times has a nice article on this:"Scientists’ Good News: Earth May Survive Sun’s Demise in 5 Billion Years".

The Slasher

Lesley, in her last post, asked me to reveal why I’m called “the slasher.” It is not a name I made up for myself, but rather one that was bestowed upon me by my fellow editors. I like to pretend it is a term of endearment. After all, it does NOT have anything to do with a knife or other sharp object (well, maybe a red pen . . .).

At Electric Spec, we love to get submissions that are as polished as the authors can get them, but we don’t reject a story just because it needs more polishing before it is ready for publication. Every story we pick needs some editing, but some need more than others. One of the more common problems we see even with stories that we love is that the story is not as focused as it could be. In other words, the story loses some of its punch because it includes details, actions, or even entire scenes and characters that serve little or no purpose. Other times, five words are chosen when two can do the same job, which drags down the pace. When it comes to editing a story, I am not shy about cutting (or, as some would call it, slashing) words to make a good story great. As always, I give authors a chance to comment on the edited version before it is posted.

New Issue Coming Sept 30!

The new issue of Electric Spec, due out September 30th is starting to come together. It looks like it will be our best issue yet! Make sure to check it out. In the meantime, I'm really hoping my fellow editors might do a little blogging about behind-the-scenes. For example, Dave, why do they call you The Slasher? What is your editorial philosophy? And Betsy, what does Barth have to say about American's demise(!) and/or grand themes, if anything? Give us some hints.

If you read the excellent interview Dave did (see blog entry below), you'll know we have a story coming that DOES combine extra-dimensional physics and hot, fluffy pancakes. :)
You'll just have to wait until the 30th to see how!

Don't forget the Electric Spec Editors will be presenting a workshop this Saturday September 15th at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in Denver! I had blogged that I would post the presentation on the Electric Spec webpage and I will, but probably not until the new issue comes out. Look for it in October 2007.

Thank you VERY much authors, editors, and artists for all your hard and prompt work for this excellent upcoming issue!

Madeleine L’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88.


I, for one, will be putting down my current book to reread A Wrinkle In Time.

New Issue coming up!

We've got a great new issue taking shape behind the scenes here at E-spec, EIGHT new stories, and an interview with science fiction writer Barth Anderson.

After a year-and-half in business, we're enjoying higher readership and greater publicity . We feel our stories are among the best out there, and the quality of submissions proves it!

Sometimes people ask me what we look for, and this time around, the editorial staff had a discussion about what our magazine is about. If you read past issues, I think you'll notice we like our speculative fiction to address the trials, challenges, and dilemmas of our real world. This is not to say the entire magazine is futuristic sci fi or urban fantasy, or even that literary themes must revolve around global issues. But we do enjoy stories that give us something to relate to amid creative speculative elements, be it resolving endless religious wars or dealing with grief over the loss of a spouse. I think you'll see our preferences reflected in this upcoming issue.

Don't forget to join us September 30th for an exciting new issue!

Interview with Author Lesley L. Smith

We've managed to tear Lesley away from her work at a shadowy government agency to answer a few questions. Lesley L. Smith is the author of "MyMind's Eye," which will appear in the September 30 issue of ElectricSpec. Lesley-this is actually the second story you've had in ElectricSpec. The first was nominated for Prego and Nebulous awards. Do youthink it's possible to top the last one?

Gosh, Dave, that's a really good question. Of course, it was a HUGE honor to be nominated for the Prego and Nebulous. I don't want to seem cocky, but I do have high hopes for "My Mind's Eye"; in fact, I'm hoping for an Extra-Spicy Prego nod this time. In all seriousness, I wrote "Entanglements" well over a year ago and I would like to think my writing skills have improved. Reading all our fabulous submissions at Electric Spec can only have helped. I also have an excellent critique group, which is something I highly recommend for all writers.

I hate to leave readers in suspense, so tell us what is a "mind's eye"?

I consulted my mind's eye for something funny to say here but I got nothing. So, I'll just say, 'mind's eye' refers to our ability to imagine, remember, and "see" things with our minds. Actually, now that I think about it, this might be a metaphor. What do you think, Dave?

I’m sorry, I’m having trouble seeing it. Anyway, I’m the one asking the questions here. Keep talking, er, typing.

Anyway, in the story, the protagonist can't see with his eyes very well, so he uses his mind's eye a lot--which ends up being beneficial.

What happens if you have poor mind's eyesight-can you get correctivelenses for that?

Sure. For the low, low price of only $1000 I can sell you some.Since you asked the question though I'm guessing you don't need any.

What inspired you to write "My Mind's Eye?"

I can tell you it was not that old Star Wars novel, "Splinter of the Mind's Eye". I was inspired by...wait for it...physics. I know this must shock you, Dave. Physics is filled with some truly bizarre ideas. One of these mind-bending ideas is that the universe may consist of more than the four dimensions humans perceive.The most popular number of dimensions is ten advocated by string theory.

ZZZZZZ.

I see your eyes are starting to glaze over, so I'll just say, the math makes us think such things. It's truly mind-boggling to try to imagine such more-than-four-dimensional things. And yes, I do use my mind's eye to do it. Of course, different numbers of dimensions isn't a new idea in SF. Way back 1884(!) Edwin Abbott Abbott wrote"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions". As an aside, on the surface Flatland seems super-sexist, but I guess it's supposed to be social satire.

Why did you choose to have it published in Electric Spec rather than,say, Asimov's?

I think you know I really enjoy Asimov's (and Analog), and in fact The Good Doctor had a huge impact on my life, but what can I say, ElectricSpec is my fave zine.

I know—I hear it all the time. The editors over there are constantly e-mailing the editors here requesting that we stop snapping up all the good stories. There’s one that got away and is going to be published at Analog, but I can’t remember whose . . . oh yes, another one of yours! Anyway, I digress. Part of "The Mind's Eye" takes place in a particle accelerator. Is it true that you did some of your research for this story in your own personal particle accelerator that you constructed in your basement?

Good question. I did not use the accelerator in my basement this time around. Instead, I used the one at the national lab where I work. It was really interesting because [MATERIAL DELETED IN THE INTERESTS OF NATIONAL SECURITY].

Oh. So that’s why those guys in black suits were -- What guys in black suits? Why did I type that? Oh, well. Next question. Do you personally prefer two- or four- dimensional pancakes?

Four-dimensional pancakes, of course! The bigger the better! In fact, think I can say with confidence that all pancakes in the history of pancakes have been four-dimensional.

[Interview cut off here because the rest got too syrupy]

Thinking about POV

Once again, I love Crapometer and its thought-provoking comments. When someone questioned me recently about an opinion, I thought, yeah, why do I really think that? To my surprise, I actually had legitimate reasons backing my opinions. You can tell me different if you want. I love when readers and writers make me think!


I'll have to think about that whole POV thingy... When someone tells me what readers want- I need to ask "How do they know?"

I don't know if this is directed at me, but I can answer why I think the way I do about POV. Most of my opinions derive from the experience of editing a short story magazine and reading other magazines. I'm fairly confident that what I think is widely accepted because I'm not a one-woman show at Electric Spec; I work with two other highly competent, professional, published authors. In the process of reading the magazine I read a slush of 20+ stories per month. I also speak regularly with several editors, by virtue of my own submissions and just plain ole internet chatter.

But I heard Robert Sawyer talk about POV recently and it really put words to what I already knew. He spoke about the mentality of people today, especially those in America and other free-thinking, free-press countries. We no longer just take something for granted as Truth just because someone in authority (ie--an omniscient voice) tells us it is so. Consider the news (CNN, argh!): We try to understand the bias so we can filter through what is said and not said--sift through opinions and agendas find some semblance of Truth. Sometimes we even modify information to better fit our own Truth. (Wikipedia, for example.)

Thinking, feeling, opinionated readers need, by virtue of POV and character development, to understand the particular filter through which they view the author's world. That's why single POV can be so powerful, and also why effective multi-POV can be so difficult. Just like every scene counts, so does every POV. You have to consider, as a writer, what message you are trying to put forth by using a particular POV and what bias accompanies it. In short stories in particular, you've very little time to engage the reader to your way of thinking. Switching up POVs can be really disorienting and make the reader lose faith in your message and in their own ability to understand your characters' bias.

This is my opinion. I write and edit by my own opinions; others might have differing views. It's your job to figure out what works for you. Hope this helps.

I must admit I pulled 20+ number on the fly--we haven't added up this issue's submission rate yet. Right now, though, we have 30 stories in our inbox and that's just since August 7, so I might not be too far off!

The Locus Index

Speaking of the Hugo Awards.... I thought I'd remind our writers and readers about a nice resource The Locus Index: everything you possibly want to know about speculative fiction awards. Check it out! :)

Hugo Awards website

There's a new website for The Hugo Awards. All spec fic authors should be aware of the Hugo Awards. How else will you win one? :)

Gibson

I don't often do this, but check out The Onion's A.V. Club Interview of William Gibson. Gibson is an author (e.g. Neuromancer), a SF 'seer', and apparently 'invites the zeitgeist in to tea'. :) I must admit The Onion is a guilty pleasure; it may have something to do with the fact I have to pass 2 of their hard-copy machines on my walk to work.

Got any noirish prescient stories? Send them to Electric Spec!

gender-mysterious

I read a couple of stories recently at Electric Spec in which the protag's gender was quite mysterious. It wasn't until pages in that the author referred to the protag as female or male; I found this rather irritating. I vaguely recall my fave author Connie Willis did this in one of her early books, so it CAN be done. (Was it Uncharted Territory?) But please don't do it unless it's intentional. Often, in real life, men and women use language differently because they've been socialized differently. Authors need to be cognisant of such issues--while being careful not to lapse into stereotypes.
Yes, 'authoring' is difficult! :)

Speaking of Ms. Willis, she has a new book coming out September 25, 2007 The Winds of Marble Arch. Hurray!

Awesome stories!

We are starting to put together the Sept 30, 2007 issue of Electric Spec.
I have to say, there are several awesome stories in contention.
Huzzah to our authors! You rock! :)

Thank you for sending in your stories, and keep 'em coming!

Judgment Words

Since we had some good comments on the last post, I thought I'd elaborate a little more on what I called 'judgment words'. Judgment words are words that contain within them value judgments, e.g. pretty, handsome. They can work effectively for first-person pov, or very close third-person pov. In such cases, they primarily give us information about the character uttering the judgment, not about the item/person being described. For example, if your character says 'Auschwitz-Birkenau was beautiful.' that says something entirely different from 'Austria was beautiful.'

Feel free to send Electric Spec stories with judgment words.

"Beautiful"

Sadly, our fall 2007 Electric Spec deadline has passed. :(
If you made the deadline: Thank you for your submission!.
If not: Please submit for our next issue, coming out in winter 2008.

I was reading through submissions earlier and came across the word "beautiful". I have to admit this word does not impress me. Beautiful, how? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? So, "beautiful" is full of judgment and short on details. It is a 'telling' word, not a 'showing' word. Show us through description, deeds, or even better, how people react, that the person or item is beautiful.
Keep in mind, though, judgment words can work effectively for first-person pov, or very close third-person pov.

Today's the day!

Hopefully everyone out there knows midnight (MDT) today is the deadline for story submission for the fall 2007 issue of Electric Spec.

Send those stories in!

And if you've already sent us a story: Thank you very much. We appreciate it! Electric Spec is only as good as its authors.

Some relevant dates:

• August 26, 2007, our editorial production meeting
  
• approx August 27, 2007--August 31, 2007, editors contact writers with the good (or bad) news
  
• approx September 1, 2007--September 15, 2007, editors and writers prepare stories for issue
  
• approx September 15, 2007--September 29, 2007, editors and webpage gurus put issue together
  
• September 30, 2007, the next issue of Electric Spec goes live!
  

There you go; more information than you probably wanted!

Deadline looming!

Only 4 more days until the cutoff (Aug. 7, 2007) for our fall 2007 Electric Spec issue! Send those stories in!

In other news, I notice yesterday was our 1-year blog anniversary.

Happy blogiversary to us! :)

Later, but not goodbye, to a founding editor

I've always relied on Renata for copy editing--she's the definitive word on grammar and spelling in my work and as an editor. I'll also miss her instinct for good, solid stories--we share a liking for military sci fi, but she has a literary slant that always encouraged me stretch my tastes.

As a crit group member, she made me stretch my own writing wings. She was kind enough, and experienced enough, to tell me not only when I hadn't produced my best work, but how to fix it. She also knew how to point out what I'd done right, which is an oft-neglected, valuable quality in critique.

I'll miss my roommate at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's Conference, too!

Thanks, Renata, for everything you've done for Espec, and for my own writing, in the past two years.

The Writers In Our Lives

As solitary as writing fiction can be, it is rarely done in isolation. Just look at the “acknowledgements” section of most novels. A wide variety of people can influence your writing: editors, agents, research assistants, spouses, friends, teachers, and critique group members, just to name a few. A smart author will listen to advice wherever he or she can get it—then try to make an objective decision about whether it is useful.

But every once in a while, we get really lucky. We find someone who not only gives us a useful writing tip here or there, but also helps us grow as writers in profound ways. He or she gives criticism, praise, support, and friendship that lasts longer than a single class or a writer’s retreat. Usually, he or she is a writer just like you and (hopefully) gets the same from you in return.

I proud to say that Renata was one of those people in my life, and I am very grateful. Even though she is leaving Electric Spec, she will always be a part of it, just like she will always be a part of my fiction. Thank you, Renata—I’ll miss you.

Thank you, Renata!

Recently one of our Electric Spec founding editors, Renata Baron Hill, resigned from the ezine. I'll be sorry to see her go, but I understand she has new challenges to take on.

So, I wanted give a shout out for her years of excellent service:
Thank you, Renata! I sincerely appreciate all your efforts, and I'm sure the ezine is much better for your participation.

Good luck with those new challenges!

World-Building

Please make your world(s) believable, Electric Spec writers. If your characters are going around in their shirt-sleeves, make sure it's a habitable planet--unless, of course, your characters aren't human. :)

An excellent free reference for world-building is "Habitable Planets for Man" by Stephen H. Dole, the famous RAND Report from 1964. This 169-page (!) document was prepared for the U.S. Air Force and includes such things as Human Requirements, Probability of Occurrence of Habitable Planets, The Nearest Candidates, and even a nice glossary. Granted, some of it is dated, but it's all fascinating. Enjoy!

Dialog

One easily-repaired problem I see in Electric Spec stories is what I call 'inconsistent dialog'. I'll show you what I mean:

"I've got to find the gate," Lisa, the dwarf queen, said. [a bunch of description here]

"Who?" the elf asked. [a bunch of description here]

"I'm too tired," Lisa said.

Here, I think the author got distracted by all the description and lost track of what the, er, people were saying. It's easy to get distracted.... Wait. What was my point? :)

Oh, yeah. I recommend you double-check what your people SAY and make sure it's an actual conversation. Of course, if you have telepathy or other non-standard modes of conversation in your stories, the same principles apply. Remember, the readers don't have telepathy--at least not most of them!

Good luck!

Humor

Here's more in the continuing saga of what one editor thinks.... I, personally, love humor. At Electric Spec we've published quite a few humorous stories. I hope you've read them!

However, humor is tricky. I've made an amateur study of it and it's based on the unexpected. The tricky part is everyone has different expectations. For the last issue, for example, we had what I thought was a hilarious fantasy story. It was chock full of over-the-top cliches and stilted dialog. It was so over-the-top, I thought it was a spoof, and so very funny. My fellow editors, having read the accompanying letter (I hadn't), said it was not a spoof; the author was sincere. Oops! Needless to say, we had to pass on that one.

As a more specific example of the trickiness of humor, in yesterday's hardcopy The Onion we have "Earthquake Sets Japan Back To 2147", which I thought was hilarious.
In the same issue, however, we have, "New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn't Shot", which I did not think was funny and was in bad taste.

So, what's a poor writer to do? Critique group to the rescue! I think you need to make sure at least one other person thinks your humorous story is, in fact, humorous.

Send us your humorous stories, but caveat scriptor.

Adverbs

To continue my thread of inside-the-Electric-Spec-editor's-head (gasp!) tips: watch out for adverbs. We've actually blogged about adverbs before, but who looks at the blog archives, right? :)

I am not totally against adverbs, myself. [I can't speak for Dave, though!] But, rarely are adverbs a good idea in fiction. But, seriously. :)

The worst is adverbs with dialog tags, e.g. "Give it to me," he said fiercely. I have seen quite a few adverbs this week in my readings. You guys are better than that! I recommend searching for "ly" in your stories. If the adverb is with a verb, think about replacing adverbs + weak verbs by strong verbs. If it's in a dialog tag, replace the dialog tag with body language/facial expressions, e.g. "Give it to me." He bared his teeth.

Quick, send us some more (low adverb) stories before the Aug. 7 deadline!

page one

To follow up on Lesley's post, I, too, am reading like crazy. I aim for a one-month turnaround at the longest, but I'm more like two months behind. (It's been a crazy summer.) I'm hoping to catch up by week's end, because, as she says, the cut-off is coming up. I want to let you know I realize how frustrating waiting on a response can be for a writer (I have one story working on three months out myself) and I'm doing my best to get back to you despite my myriad of other projects.

Last reading session, I realized I had several stories in which too much was held back in the beginning. A clever world and engaging characters will not carry an opening. By the end of page one or thereabouts, I'd better know what the story is about. As I read in groups of 5-10 stories, if someone makes me slog through an unfamiliar world with no payoff--and in the first pages this means delicious anticipation about what might happen--I reject it.

This is something I'm keeping in mind for my own writing, especially for short works: the propelling event, the crisis that sets the plot in motion, must happen on the first page. That tells you your story is starting in the right place. This is as close to a formula for writing a short story as we can get (from there, they go all wonky in different directions, which is the joy of the thing.) (And are there exceptions to this rule? Of course there are! This is a general preference.)

For example, the propelling event for the story of my delay in reading would be the last day of school in June...

Grammar

We're nearing the home stretch for submissions for the Electric Spec fall 2007 issue--but keep 'em coming. I have been reading, reading, reading, and since we cannot give personal critiques to our excellent writers I thought I'd try to blog more about what I think as an editor....

Yes, I know, being in my mind does sound a little scary. :)

Up first is: grammar. I am quite forgiving of grammar mistakes (which you know if you're reading this). However, if there is a grammar mistake and/or misspelled word in EVERY sentence or almost every sentence, I get grumpy. And frankly, when I'm grumpy it is difficult for me to enjoy a story.

Please profread!

Ha, ha. Of course, I mean "Please proofread!" :)

Hurray for Rowling

I am amazed and delighted by the furor over A BOOK this past weekend. From the bottom of my heart, 'Hurray for J.K. Rowling!' Anyone who can get the entire world excited about reading is totally my hero.

"The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles' first visit to the U.S.," Lisa Holton, president of
Scholastic's trade and book fairs division, said.

Scholastic estimated that 8.3 million copies of the 12 million first printing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold in the U.S. on Saturday.

The AP (via the Seattle Times) calculated that sales of the book averaged more than 300,000 copies per hour or more than 5,000 a minute.

At its stores around the world, Borders sold 1.2 million copies of the book on Saturday, the highest single-day sales of any title in Borders history.

Amazon said it had delivered almost 1.3 million copies of the book in the U.S. on Saturday and that worldwide it had received more than 2.2 million advance orders as of Friday.

Wow.

What's next? World peace?

Our writers rock!

I just read an article Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See and I have to say, at Electric Spec we don't see a lot of these. So, our writers rock! Keep it up! :)

Here's a summary of the mistakes:

1. repeating words
   
2. flat writing I'll come back to this
   
3. too many adverbs
   
4. characters talking about what they already know
   
5. "no-good suffixes" huh?
   
6. the 'to be' words
   
7. lists
   
8. show,don't tell I'll come back to this
   
9. awkward phrasing
   
10. commas

One of "mistakes" I occasionally see are flat writing, which I would call a boring voice. I blogged about this recently, July 17: 'Show us your ...voice'. :)

Another one I occasionally see is telling rather than showing. I've blogged about this, too. But it can be difficult to explain. Holt says, If you say, "she was stunning and powerful," you're *telling* us. But if you say, "I was stunned by her elegant carriage as she strode past the jury - shoulders erect, elbows back, her eyes wide and watchful," you're *showing* us. The moment we can visualize the picture you're trying to paint, you're showing us, not telling us what we *should* see..

Keep writing, and keep an eagle-eye out for these potential problems. :)

The First Five Pages . . . or Paragraphs

I just finished reading The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman. Mr. Lukeman is a literary agent who knows his stuff. His book points out the most common problems with manuscripts that he sees in the slush pile. If you’ve been writing fiction for awhile, you won’t find any surprises, but what I liked was the way he articulated common problems he sees in manuscripts.

Really, the problems that Mr. Lukeman sees in the first five pages of a novel are many of the same problems I see in the first five paragraphs of short stories that end up in the Electric Spec rejection pile. They are problems with:

Presentation/Format
Too many adjectives and adverbs
The sound of the prose (e.g. word echoes)
Overuse or poor use of comparison (analogy, simile, and metaphor)
Style (i.e. too academic, journalistic, or stream of consciousness)
Dialogue, including
Missing or bad tags
Commonplace topics
Overly informative dialogue
Melodrama
Hard to follow
Telling instead of showing
Viewpoint and Narration
Characterization
Lack of hooks
Lack of subtlety
Tone
Focus
Setting
Pacing and Progression

If you are not familiar with any of the issues raised above, it might be a good to check out The First Five Pages. I guarantee that if you address the issues Mr. Lukeman raises in his book, your chances of getting a story accepted at Electric Spec will be much better!

Foundation on the big screen--not :(

This is a bit off-topic but I just read in "Futurism vs. Futurisn't" that John Rogers and Shekhar Kapur to tried write a screenplay for Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy! That's a movie(s) I'd really like to see! Sadly, they got bogged down, and "...fell into the honey trap of Asimov's genius." Aw. :(

And if any of you are asking Isaac who? Get thee to a library!

Show us your ...voice

I've been enjoying reading the stories in our Electric Spec inbox. Keep 'em coming folks!

I had to pass on a story recently because among other things, the author did not appear to have a voice, and hence the characters did not seem real. :(

What the heck is voice, anyway? Voice is basically the personality that comes through the writing and is achieved through word choice, syntax and the like. Maybe it's easier to grasp with the help of an example or two.

Jane walked to the door and went outside. She got in her spaceship and flew away.

Technically, this piece does have voice, but frankly it's a boring voice.

Brunehilda danced toward the front door. "Now you've gone somewhere else," she sang. "Far away. I don't know if I will find you." She smacked her elbow into the wall. "Frakkin',frak frak!" She grimaced as she wrenched the door open. She ran for her spaceship, not even bothering to close the door behind her. "I'm coming, sweetcheeks! I'm coming for you!"

Okay, that last one is pretty silly, but it is much more interesting, at least IMHO. Brunehilda seems real. Jane could be a robot for all we know. Ooh, wait, that could be interesting.... :)

So I don't care what your voice is. Maybe you like metaphors and similes. Maybe you like made-up words. Maybe you like your-choice-here.

Just show us your voice!

Is Sci/Fi dead?

God I hope not, and I'm not even the hugest sci fi reader. (I prefer mainstream, fantasy, and cozy English mysteries, of all things.)

Some people think the evidence points in the direction of death though: slow sales, sci/fi sold under alternate genre names, fewer submissions. I believe as long as humans are interested in their world, there is a place for sci/fi stories. However, I think that interest is changing. I read on a recent blog comment thread how people are bored with technology and so are bored with sci/fi. Really, with the information storing capabilities of today, it's an easy (and somewhat dull) leap to consider the capabilities of tomorrow. And definitely, I think we are bored with the sci/fi trope that as much as technology changes, people stay the same.

But what if we don't? How does technology change us? Right now popular trope seems to be about how it changes us for the worse--but how about for the better?

However, I think there are greater leaps to be made than storage tech, jet packs ,and even the human condition. I'm no scientist, but I've never believed that science does anything less than prove what a miraculous world we live in. Even so, there are steps to be made beyond exploring the human condition. One way might be to linktechnology and science to the unexplained/supernatural/spiritual realm that so many of us believe exists. I've never thought the two of them were mutually exclusive (think even beyond Ghosthunters), and I think it'd make a fascinating premise for new fiction. Taking it a step further, wouldn't it be cool to write fiction that could bridge the gap between chasms of disagreement like creationism and evolution?

Most people agree that sci/fi speaks to the hope for the future we all have, but our future is not only about scientific advances. It's about the people involved in them and the ways science can positively affect our lives. Rectifying science with seemingly contrary beliefs (even in fictional, metaphorical worlds with fictional science and beliefs) could provide an exciting new direction or sub-genre for sci/fi--so long as it maintains human terms.

irritants, annoyances & nuisances

Hurray! I just read a very good submission to Electric Spec. The author created a fully-realized world complete with irritants, annoyances & nuisances.

In more general terms, in my personal opinion, it's these petty problems that make a story seem real. For example a SF writer a couple centuries ago might imagine a car, but a good writer could imagine parking lots. And an excellent writer might imagine traffic jams, road rage, and insert-annoyance-here. :)

Illustrating this point is a REALLY good novella, Mr. Boy by James Patrick Kelly, in The Best of the Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels by Gardner Dozois. Talk about imagining irritants, annoyances & nuisances! Talk about a fully-realized world! Wow. I highly recommend this book, by the way.

What irritants, annoyances & nuisances exist in the worlds you create?

September 2007 Update

We continue to work hard on the next issue of ElectricSpec, which will be published on September 30, 2007. We have decided to close to submissions for this issue at midnight on August 7, 2007. I will post this on the webpage soon. We will make our final story selections at the end of August/beginning of September.

Have you heard? ElectricSpec editors will also present a workshop "Break into Publishing the E-zine Way" at the 2007 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers annual conference Colorado Gold, in Denver. Specifically, we present on Saturday Sept 15 at 2:30pm. I plan to post the presentation afterwards on the ElectricSpec webpage.

In the meantime, keep those stories coming!

RIP, Fred

As some of you may have heard, Fred Thomas Saberhagen passed away in his Albuquerque, New Mexico home on Friday, June 29, 2007. He was 77 years old.

Fred was the author of over 65 historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy novels, including the Dracula, Gods, Swords, Lost Swords, and Berserker series. See the SFWA article.

I'm sure Electric Spec editors, readers and writers got a lot of enjoyment and inspiration from his books over the years.

Rest in peace, Fred. We'll miss you.

Celebrate Heinlein's 100th Birthday

Many of us were first interested in space by the novels and writings of Robert Heinlein. Now, the 100th anniversary of Heinlein's birth gives us all a chance to reflect on the influence of this great author.

The Heinlein Centennial will be held July 6-8 in the honoree's hometown of Kansas City, MO, and will recognize the influence that Heinlein's writings have had, from The Man Who Sold the Moon to Stranger in a Strange Land to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Hundreds of presentations, panels, and debates will allow attendees to discuss the ins and outs of Heinlein's work and its influence on life today and in the future.

Planning to attend the convention are Apollo 11 moonwalker Dr. Buzz Aldrin; NASA Administrator Mike Griffin; the first winner of the $500,000 Heinlein Prize for Accomplishments in Commercial Space Activities, Dr. Peter Diamandis; X PRIZE winner Brian Binnie; and other science fiction writers who have been inspired by Heinlein's work, such as Sir Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ray Bradbury of The Martian Chronicles.

Read more at the centennial website.

I love time travel, but....

We've been poring through the new stories folks have been kind enough to send us at Electric Spec. Thank you very much, by the way! Recently I read a time travel story, but sadly, I had to pass on it. I LOVE time travel. However if you are at all familiar with the history of science fiction, time travel has been done to death.

I would love to see a time travel story with a twist and a dramatic human element. Actually, a good example of this in recent times is the novel The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. The twist here is the protag has a genetic disorder that makes him time travel, and he cannot control it. Take note: the time travel does NOT work in the standard way. The dramatic element is the story is actually a LOVE story between the time traveler and his wife. Take note: the novel is NOT primarily about time travel; it is about the love story. Of course, the time travel is an integral part of the story, which is why I enjoyed it. :)

What dramatic human element/situation can you fix/solve using non-standard time travel as a MEANS (not an end)?

I agree--critique rocks!

I totally agree with Editor Betsy. Critique rocks! I hope all you aspiring Electric Spec writers have a critique group. As I mentioned 19 June 2007 in the what-we-want-review, concentrate your story. Critique partners can help you with this. This concentrating idea was from the 18 Dec 2006 posting. What I didn't retread from that posting is I used that idea to concentrate a short story I was working on--with help from my critique group. I sold that story to Analog Science Fiction and Fact, my favorite SF mag--after Electric Spec of course. :)

What are they saying about YOUR stories?

My latest short story is about an assassin named Lucia who finds redemption in motherhood. How does she achieve said motherhood? By adopting the infant of her last victim. How does she adopt it? By performing an impromptu, bloody c-section on said dying victim. The child is her saving grace because he is the offspring of killers--one of whom tried to impregnated Lucia. They, Lucia and the baby's parents, belong to a caste whose business is death and so cannot create life.

I recieved a harsh crit of the story from an editor, which most of my critique friends said was bullhonky. If you think because they are also my friends they cannot be honest critters, you obviously were not a fly on the wall at the library last Tuesday while my recent chapters recieved a sound thrashing. My crit group, some of whom are fellow editors, are a (sometime cursed) picky, knowledgable lot. I've suffered much angst at their hands. The more painful the crit, the closer it is to the truth. However, I believe in honest critique, and there are jewels even in idiocy. This editor's critique was not very emotional for me, but still, I set the story aside for a few days and then tackled it again with a fresh eye.

It's a better story for it. I developed more levels. Several themes crash into that moment when the baby is pulled from its dying mother's womb. I also strived to find ways to make Lucia more sympathetic. Lucia just wanted redemption, and through hearing even a clumsy critique, I learned that.That's the power of critique, and it's the greatest gift a writer can recieve.

Tentative schedule for Sept 2007 issue

We are still working it out, but very tentatively we will cut off submissions for the Sept 2007 issue of Electric Spec in the beginning-ish of August 2007 and make our story selections at the end-ish of August 2007. I sent out some emails to authors with incorrect dates yesterday. Sorry. My bad. I will post the firm dates here and on the website when we get them.

What style do we want?

We had a writer ask what style we were looking for at Electric Spec. The answer to this question is: we accept any style--as long as it's well-done. Super-helpful, right? :)
But seriously, there are a myriad of styles and I think we have accepted a large variety. Recall style can include such things as sentence structure, pace, vocabulary, use of dialog, point of view, tone, character development, time sequencing/chronology. So, pick whatever style you like and send it in!

What we do want, a review

I have thought A LOT about short stories since we've started Electric Spec and I have learned some things. Many of these things we have mentioned on the blog. Way back on 13 Dec 2006, Betsy said Put your story on a diet. This is very good advice. I added to it on 18 Dec 2006, when I posted concentrate your story: just put in the essential bits. I stand by this.

I also stand by my comments on 8 Feb 2007: Stories should be about more than one thing, and Add a dramatic human component. Betsy built upon this comment on 2 March 2007 when she introduced her Big Bang Theory of Writing in which Good stories are about more than one thing and all these things impact at the resolution. This is VERY good advice.

Thus, to summarize, Good Stories

1. are concentrated, with nothing extraneous
   
2. are about more than one thing--one of which is a dramatic human element
   
3. all the bits impact at the resolution
   

So there you have it. If you write a story like that, we will buy it (even if it is about global warming).

Piece of cake, right? :)

I understand

I understand why our writers are submitting global warming stories as Dave mentioned earlier this week. We have mentioned global warming a few times on the blog--specifically five times (4 May 2007, 5 Feb 2007, 15 Dec 2006, 27 Nov 2006, 8 Nov 2006)! I must admit that's probably the influence of my day job creeping in--and the fact that I still get people arguing with me about it! But I'll try to refrain from mentioning it in the future.

Dave's comment about adding a twist definitely holds, however. See my next post.

Global Warming Stories

I've been going through our latest batch of Electric Spec submissions, and I've noticed a number of science fiction stories themed around global warming. The message about the horrible impact of global warming is important, but selling us a story based on that theme is a long shot. Why? First of all, it has been done, and perhaps overdone. The concept of global warming is hardly cutting-edge science. Second, the idea that in the future, nature will be paved over, or the living environment on Earth will be nearly unbearable, or that nobody will have heard of a tree isn't that original. A story with such a "revelation" will not grab me.

Still want to submit a story about global warming? Fine--just make sure you put a twist on it nobody else will think of.

Issue 2 Live!

Yep, folks, it's out! Our ElectricSpec Volume 2 Issue 2 is out. Check out what acclaimed fantasy author Carol Berg called "a cool publication". Thanks, Carol!

New ElectricSpec Issue Tonight!

Tonight we'll go live with the new issue of ElectricSpec. As usual it is chock full of excellent short speculative fiction and art pieces. This issue we even have an interview of a world-famous fantasy author. Check it out!

It was a dark and stormy night...

I just read recently about gothic romance on another writer's blog. Now, I'm no romance writer or reader, but something she said stood out.

Is it just me or has atmosphere and setting suffered from the lean-and-mean definition of suspense? I have the impression that a supportive setting has become a largely irrelevant tool in tales of woman in peril.

It's not just happening in romance, and it's not just setting. Every element should speak to the story. It makes for good writing, and darn it, good writing is just more interesting.

For instance, one of your characters has a tattoo. Don't you want to know what that tattoo is about? It could be a basic descriptor--she's the type of girl who has one. (You know the type.) Or, it could be an identifying mark when she dies. Or it could reference a history--an event--that informs her current situation. Which is more interesting?

I don't think I'm so different from other readers. I like to feel like I got my money's worth (or time's worth) when I read a story. I like when every element, from plot devices to setting to character descriptors, supports a story. It makes me think. It makes me feel. After all, even in real life, nearly everything from our own past speaks to who we are today.

Awesome idea from Niven

According to a Washington Post blog Larry Niven recently said the structure of the universe is a side effect of using antigravity. Awesome! I love this idea! This is quintessential science fiction--explaining a scientific mystery in a plausible way.
Send us some stories like that. :)

More on Rob Sawyer

Betsy did a very nice job summarizing Rob's workshop this past weekend. Thanks, Bets!

I've been pondering what he said over the last few days. Two things he said really resonated with me:

1. Written fiction the only medium in which you become someone else.
   
2. Novels that become hugely popular and/or stand the test of time have big themes.
   

Regarding the first point: Wow! He is totally right. I am a voracious reader, a writer, and an editor and I still hadn't put this together. Kudos, Rob!
Regarding the second point: I also totally agree with this. My favorite novels work on multiple levels. I must admit I also try to do this with my writing. Possibly this is related to my writing paradigm; I do tend to think of 'big ideas' first, and then consider what character would be best-suited to tell this story.

In ElectricSpec news: Our May 31 issue of ElectricSpec is almost ready!

Please continue to send us your fiction for the Sept. 30 issue. Anyone got any 'big theme' pieces? I'd love to see them!

World Con Tickets 2008

Electric Spec is planning on having some kind of presence at World Con 2008 in Denver.
It may be some of the editors just wandering around, but hopefully we'll be more organized than that! I just noticed that Con membership prices go up on May31, 2007. Consider buying early. For more information: World Con 2008 Denver.

Robert Sawyer Seminar

All the editors here at Electric Spec attended a Robert Sawyer seminar on Saturday. I personally talked to several fun people and got to hang out with my critique group - the Boulder Speculative Fiction Writer’s Group - for a whole day. Yea!

He covered P.O.V. in a way that was interesting even to those of us who “get it,” but I found my interest piquing when he launched into the business of publishing and advice on how to “make it”. These tidbits are what I came away with, in no particular order:

1. It’s easiest to break into novel-writing by establishing yourself in the short story market. In other words, get some credits to include in that last paragraph in your query letter. This was exciting to me because I love reading and writing short stories, and I have a steadfast belief in the short form as a learning tool.
2. Keep submitting until you’ve exhausted the market. Sawyer submitted an award-winning short story seventeen times before it was accepted.
3. Every book must pass the 30 Second Editor’s Pitch Test. This test determines the commercial fate of your book. What will the editor tell their publishing house’s sales staff in 30 seconds on how to market and sell your book?
4. Write a “perfect review” for your own book (or short story, for that matter), and strive with every revision to earn that review. While we’re on revising, Sawyer’s answer to the question of when to stop revising is “when you’re only changing things, not making it better.”
5. The best books are thematically ambitious. Don’t write in the ODTAA style (“one damn thing after another”), but make every nuance speak to your theme.
6. According to Sawyer: Science Fiction sales are dropping, the market for Horror is nearly nonexistent, but Fantasy is on the rise. History has proven that publishing is not a cyclical market; once a genre is dead, it stays dead.
7. Magazine sales are dropping and they barely can pay their editors. For instance, the editors of Analog and Asimov’s can’t come to work on the same day because they share a desk. Fantasy and Science Fiction is run out of the editor’s garage.
8. Point of View test: does everything your character say stand up under cross-examination? How do they know what they know?
9. Sawyer recommends avoiding first person because it implies a central conceit and removes suspense because the character will live to tell the tale. It can be useful with difficult-to-like characters in that it can be confessional in tone.
10. Sawyer prefers third person because it implies the character will survive the scene, not necessarily the entire book. He likes close third because drama is added by not reporting what all the characters are thinking. (For the record, this editor prefers close third, except in cases where the voice is integral to the story.)
11. Fiction is the only medium in which the reader is able to become the person in the story, rather than just an observer.
12. Fiction is the one artistic endeavor in which the author/artist thinks their first work should be purchased. Most artists and actors and singers know their first efforts are learning experiences.

Everyone I spoke to was very glad they’d come. I found Sawyer to be encouraging, amusing, and knowledgeable, and I really enjoyed my day.


In other news, the new issue is shaping up nicely, due out at the end of the month. Thanks to one of my authors, Stuart, for helping me out with finding a picture for his story. I needed some professional guidance on selecting a proper guitar.

There, that should pique your interest. What's a guitar doing in a speculative fiction magazine? You'll just have to read to find out!

The Nebula Award Winners

If you've been reading our blog, you know I've been following the SFWA's Nebula Awards this year. You probably also know that this past weekend was the 2007 Nebula Awards Weekend in New York City. So, without further ado, the winners were...(drum roll please):

Novel: Jack McDevitt for Seeker

Novella: James Patrick Kelly for "Burn"

Novelette: Peter S. Beagle for "Two Hearts"

Short Story: Elizabeth Hand for "Echo"

Script: Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt for Howl's Moving Castle

Congratulations to all the winners! And a special congratulations to the new Grand Master James Gunn, who was kind enough to let us interview him at Electric Spec!

Check out pix.

Vol 2 Issue 2 Going Live May 31!

We have lined up the next issue and notified authors. I continue to be impressed by the quality of our submissions and the stories held for voting. It makes the job of settling on stories so difficult! So, aside from blatant bribes of brownies and beer, how do we choose? Bottom line, if the story gets into our voting file, it's good enough to be in the zine. However, our selection process has taught me just how subjective and particular this business is.

We had 17 stories, all of them with merit. Why did we choose the six we did? Sometimes quirky things come into play, like we have an abundance of sci-fi stories and we really can't overload the issue, even though choosing just one or two takes much debate. But aside from that, it often comes down to the nitty gritty of story mechanics.

I'd say, first and foremost, does the story hold our interest all the way through? Are there any spots that sag? We prefer not to do heavy cutting, and we only will if the story is excellent. Along those same lines, does the story stick to its topic? That's not to say the plot must be absolutely linear, but every digression must lead back to the conclusion. Does every scene hold up that three-legged stool of plot, character, and setting?

Does it manage the theme well, without beating us over the heads with it? Is there even a theme? All great stories make some sort of statement about our world, even if it just makes fun of it. But is it an overdone theme? We see those sometimes in our voting box, but usually because the story has taken a new tack around an old lake.

How much editing will be required? This is when grammar and punctuation really do count for something. We've taken stories that needed help with the basics, but they were excellent in every other way.

Does the voice match the power of the story? Sometimes a voice is intriguing when the plot is not. Sometimes the voice exceeds the limits of point of view. This is most often seen from a child's point of view, but we've seen consistency issues, like a close third POV edging on knowing things they shouldn't or inconsistency with a character who is omniscient or psychic. I believe POV rules have some fluidity within speculative fiction, depending on the character. Violations can be difficult to spot, but such rules must make sense within the confines of the story, not at the author's convenience.

Who will it offend? We're not over-worried about it, but it comes up occassionally. Our stories are often dark, sometimes violent. Sometimes they make controvercial statements about the real world. Sometimes it's a fluke of timing. I recently had a story of my own turned down because of violent imagery. The editor was complimentary--the writing was powerful enough to evoke such a reaction. But it wasn't a coincidence that my rejection arrived just days after the W.V. Tech shooting. Sometimes the world isn't quite ready for a particular story.

Anyway, we've got an inbox full of new stories to read, though we might be a bit pokey since we've got to sort Issue 2 by the end of the month! Congratulations if you were selected, and if not, please try us again.

advice from Kurt Vonnegut

As everyone knows by now, Kurt Vonnegut passed away this year on April 11. He was a truly unique person and the author of such classics as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973).

Today someone emailed me VONNEGUT'S RULES FOR WRITERS so I thought I'd pass them along:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
   
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
   
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
   
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
   
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
   
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
   
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
   
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
   

Wow! Excellent advice!

Rest in peace, Kurt.

Global Climate Change -- the New "It" Antagonist

Yet another author writes about the cataclysm of global climate change, carving an even keener definition of the sub-genre "eco-thriller." *Sixty Days and Counting* completes Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy on the subject, pitting scientists and politicians (yikes!) against total collapse of the environment. Robinson has won many prestigious awards, including the Nebula, Asimov, World Fantasy, and Hugo, and his wife is an environmental chemist so, he must know what he's talking about. I'll have to find a copy of his 1st book in the trilogy, *Forty Signs of Rain*, and get started. For more from him, listen to his interview on Planetary Radio.

At the other end of the climate change perspective, well-known author/filmmaker Michael Crichton stands staunchly with, or at least in the same rose garden as, the Supreme Decider after denying the existence of any true quantifiable climate change data in his novel *State of Fear*. Personally, I found this book a bit, well, slow, which surprised the hell out of me since I thoroughly enjoyed so many of his other stories. For his comments on the topic, see and/or listen to his interviews and debates on his "official" website. Crichton -- one Hollywood insider who is NOT going with the flow. Who woulda thunk it? Actually, the real question is: if Al Gore accepts an Oscar for a movie filled with persuasive data, august scientific personages, and cool uber-PowerPoint graphics, does Crichton clap in his Santa Monica office?

Finally, of course, there's our own Electric Spec editor, Lesley L. Smith, who surfed the leading edge of the eco-thriller genre with her novel, *Neutrino Warning*. Hey, she's been recognized by the SFWA, and she works daily with this "It" antagonist in real life. More on her book and her at lesleylsmith.com.

So, global climate change is blowing hot in the fiction markets now (sorry, couldn't resist). Will it outpace all the cross-genre vampire stories out there and lend some profundity to commercial fiction? More broadly, will life imitate art? Ya picks yer data and takes yer chances.

Internationally Acclaimed Fantasy Author Talks to E-Spec

The editors here at Electric Spec are getting very excited about our next issue, which will come out on May 31. We have not finalized our story selections yet, but we have lots of great submissions! Also we have an interview with one of my favorite fantasy authors, Carol Berg. Carol tells us about her new novel (which came out yesterday), talks about her prior work, and gives advice to aspiring authors. It's an interview you won't want to miss.

Pep Talk

We want your stories.

Writers hear this all the time:
We want your stories.
You are the lifeblood of our magazine.
Most of my clients/stories/sales comes from the slush pile.
You can't win if you don't play.

Right before all the caveats:
Please read our guidelines.
Please use our preferred format, which we could explain but don't have to because we're the editors.

Due to an abundance of submissions, our current response time is a month/year/never.

Right before 99% of the submitters receive:
Please try us again if you have something you think is suitable; see above.

Shampoo, rinse, repeat.

I had an email conversation with an editor at another magazine last night about this very topic. I was querying to see what was taking so long, she responded how busy all the editors are, I responded that yeah, I know, I don't get to my reading as fast as I should either, yada yada. We finished on a "the-slush-is-never-ending" note.

Well, thank God it is never-ending, I say, because all of the above is true. Writers are the lifeblood of our zine, of every magazine and publishing company and agency out there. I wouldn't be half the editor I am without the reams of brilliance that runs through my inbox here at Electric Spec. Yeah, it's competitive, yeah, it's subjective, yeah, the entire process is downright frustrating.

But the crux is that most of us write simply because we must. We have stories clawing their way out of our brains. I call it a sometime unhealthy compulsion, my husband calls it plain annoying. Whatever it is, happiness lives there.

I actually like the business end of writing. I like editing. I like selling my work. I even like writing queries for my novels. (Not the synopsis, though. There's insane and then there's insane.) I get satisfaction out of story turn-around; I try to have rejected stories back out the door in twenty-four hours. I like when people read my work, even critique it, because that means they're thinking it over. I even like getting rejections, if they're personal. (By virtue of being an editor, I believe I get more personal rejections than some.) I get itchy if I don't have something on submission...

But not half so itchy as an unfinished story makes me. The greatest joy I've experienced has not been from selling my work, and not even, gasp, being read--it's in the writing itself. Fingers on the keyboard, butt in the chair, neck in a cramp, characters yacking in my heads, watching them struggle in ways only I can see and only I can relate.

So in the midst of all the hassle and submissions and rejections and unreturned phone calls, remember the joy of it all. Keep writing, keep enjoying your characters, keep telling yourself stories, and hopefully, someday soon, you'll tell them to us.

Because you are the lifeblood of Electric Spec.

Submission Guidlines

As a writer, I realize it is a royal pain in the ass to figure out the picky preferences listed the submission guidelines for each magazine. In fact, I've seen a few magazines where the guidelines were so complicated I decided it was not worth my time.

But as an editor, I have a simple request: READ THE SUBMISSION GUIDLINES! Why? I don't want to waste my time reading something we can't use, and I don't want to waste your time sending us something we can't use.

So, what if your story does not quite fit within our guidelines but you think we'd love it? Query us first, or, at the very least, admit that your story falls outside of the guidelines in the cover letter. Thanks--I feel better now.

chainsaws and pruners

Over on Miss Snark, there's been a dialogue about trimming word count. Most novels and many short stories benefit from a purposeful meat cleaving. A lot of the short stories I read for the zine are flat-out too long. Think of it this way: the longer you take to say it, the longer you have to keep my interest. I'd say the single most important edit is trimming that story down until it's as sleek as an eel.

Something like two adverbs would be appropriate in your average short story. Sometimes they help with brevity, oftentimes they just look lazy. But, consider them placeholders for a decent verb or improved dialogue. Do an -ly search and kill them dead. Search "that". Pick one perfect adjective for your description. If your protag or antag is an ordinary human, most of the time I don't need to know what he looks like. And a word to the wise: David's latest sticking point is eye color. He makes a good point. Describe the single most important feature of your character. It's usually not what he looks like. Try to write without using "emotion" words. Instead, spend your word count on internal dialogue or physical reaction. Finally, read your story on paper. Do you say the same thing twice in two different ways?

I often draft a story with a word limit in mind. Think of it as going to a party and only filling your plate once.

spring 2007 issue deadline posted

I just posted the deadline for submissions for the spring 2007 issue of Electric Spec.
We are accepting submissions for the spring 2007 issue through midnight on April 20, 2007 (and that's Mountain-something time). So get those subs in! Good luck!
After that, we will be accepting subs for our fall 2007 issue.

The spring 2007 issue should go live on May 31st!

Showing versus telling

I've been reading a lot of fun Electric Spec submission stories lately. I've come across a lot of neat ideas. Thank you for sending them in!

Unfortunately, I have also read a lot of 'telling'. Some telling is okay with me, but a story that consists ONLY of telling is not. As writers we're supposed to be telling a story, but IMHO showing a story is much better. I'll give you an example:

TELLING: He was an attractive man.

SHOWING:He had Paul Newman's eyes, Robert Redford's smile, Sylvester Stallone's body, and Howard Hughes's money.

Which of these descriptions grabs you?

Addendum: I must admit I stole this example from someone else, and frankly it is a bit tell-y.

More on conflict: external vs. internal

Yep, I'm obsessed with conflict lately. One can further separate conflict into external conflict and internal conflict. A writing teacher recently told me EXTERNAL CONFLICT is a PERSON or PERSONIFICATION or NATURAL FORCE which OPPOSES the protagonists aims, goals, wishes, dreams, etc..
While The internal conflict is the character's thoughts, emotions, opinions, values which PREVENT him/her from achieving his/her goals. And furthermore Internal conflict is dramatized by the external conflict.

Wow! This is actually consistent with Betsy's big-bang theory of writing. Or, wait, was that her theory of the best way to spend Saturday night? :)

More on Rejections

A couple more things about Electric Spec rejections I would add to Bet's excellent post. Electric Spec's "standard" rejection letter is writer friendly, IMHO. We do that for a several reasons. First, most of the stories we get are pretty good, or at least have some bright spots that make us think the author has potential. We know it's hard being a writer and even harder getting a rejection, so we don't want to rub salt in the wound with a discouraging rejection e-mail. Instead, we mean it when we say we want to look at something else from the author it they think it would be a good fit. (This does NOT mean we want to see your trunk stories that have been rejected by everyone else!) Second, we recognize that considering stories is a very subjective process. One editor may love what another one hates. Third, we don't want to leave a bad taste in a future author's mouth. It's bad enough getting a rejection, but if the rejection is nasty, you're unlikely to be motivated to submit to that 'zine again (unless, perhaps, they pay lots of $$, which E-Spec does not).

At times (very rarely), I will add an encouraging p.s. to stories that stand out but are not really right for us. Other times (even more rarely) I will take out the nice, encouraging parts out of our standard rejection. I only do this when it appears from the story that author is clueless about how to write a story or lacks a basic understanding of English.

critiques vs rejection letters

I recently wrote this in the comments section of a blog post wondering why editors and agents don't give more specific reasons for rejecting a story:

I'm an editor at a smallish zine and I'm not half as busy as the folks at SF&F. I still don't have much time to write anything personal on my rejections. The sad fact is, my fellow editors and I are interested in making the best zine possible, so we put most of our time into the writers and stories that make it so.

If you get a personal note from me, it means your story was damn good, just fatally flawed in some way. I always do my best to detail it in a sentence or two if I really liked it. But understand, that's for about two stories a year. (note: and Electric Spec doesn't accept resubmissions) The rest of them get the form letter.

The sad reason we on the recieving end of writing often don't detail our thoughts is because at some point it's inadvertently invited a conversation with a writer desperate for critique. (I admit I've been on both sides of this table.) I already give much of my time to my two crit groups, http://crapometer.blogspot.com, and sometimes to fellow bloggers. That's the time and place for it, not at my zine.

Critiques come from critique groups. Unexplained decisions come from editors and agents. Unfortunately, we're in a competitive business.

I don't exaggerate when I say I put in a lot of time critiquing others' work. I recently posted on this very topic. Fact is, I love it. I think it makes me a better writer and reader, it challenges me to stay at the top of my game, and some of the very best things I've ever read I've found in the process of critiquing.

But I can't critique the stories I get here. Example, right now I have likely 40-50,000 words in my inbox right now. I do tend to read stories to the end, somewhat compulsively, and I do keep a running crit going in my head while I do. But I can't write those critiques and have much time for anything else. I wish I could. I'm not much different from any other editor out there. If you get a critique of your work from anyone in a position to get or give you money for it, consider it a grand complement, consider what they've said carefully, and then move on.

side note: if you're interested in a crit from me, Crapometer is the place to go. It doesn't mean that I'm going to buy your story if you do everything I say, but I think you'll get valuable advice there. You might consider it a back door entrance to my inbox. I've already requested one story from there. Just note that I didn't ask for any changes when I did.

What is conflict?

I hope you believe conflict is necessary in fiction. But what exactly is conflict?
A writing teacher recently told me conflict is a fight of some kind between people with opposing goals. Bad luck, natural disasters, accidents and the like are not conflict.

Show us your conflict!

No Writer is too Good for a Critique Group

Every writer needs beta readers. This (in general) must be someone who is not related to you and not a friend--even if they're always honest about your butt looking fat in those jeans. You're looking for active writers to fill this role, not just people who like to read a lot.

They should always sandwich problems with your work with positive aspects in their critiques. This serves two purposes. We learn much from having the things we do right pointed out, and also a good critique group is supportive by taking your work seriously and by encouraging you.

Generally, the further away from your inner circle of friends and family, the better a working relationship you can create, because, make no mistake, a good critiquer and a writer have a working relationship. If you don't know anyone in your area, see "online writing critique," where you'll find a host of other, free online sources for critiques. I prefer my face time with my critiquers, but I've used Crapometer, a free, collaborative blog. I sometimes submit my short works there to get extra feedback, or when I'm knee deep in novel revisions and need my critiquers' full attention on my book.

The other, less glamorous benefit of critique groups is doing the critiques. It makes you read...well, critically. I generally can tell whether a submitted story has been read by a beta reader. The first clues are clean grammar, clarity of thought, and appropriate spelling. But mostly, it's because the story has creative insight that others just don't have. A good critiquer will often touch on "creative decisions." This means something along the lines of "this character doesn't work for me" or "have you thought of this mechanism" or "this plot point is not plausible based on X and Y." I've had one member of my critique group who has helped me with this extensively, but we as a group are conciously fostering this level of critiquing.

I'm fortunate. I have an excellent, rigorous critique group with whom I have a fabulous working relationship. I'm even more fortunate that they've become my friends, too. There really is no better environment for a writer to be in, among other writer-friends.

Writing a Novel Isn't Like Sex

Although James Gunn posited that reading was like sex, I've formulated another theory: writing a novel is nothing like sex.

I've just finished the first draft of my second novel, and perhaps I might have a different perspective when I've finished my tenth. Also, publishing the novel may put a different sheen on the whole thing--I'll let you know when and if the time comes. In the meantime, here's the support for my theory:

1) After the "first time," I wasn't completely sure I wanted to do it again. After all, it was a lot of work, and when I was finished, no one but me seemed particularly excited about the whole thing.

2) When I went back to work on it some more, I found that it got better with the assistance of a whole group of people, rather than the close attention of a single partner.

3) Although I learned a lot from my first attempt, I wasn't completely confident that my second attempt would be that much better than my first. (OK--maybe this one isn't a complete dissimilarity).

4) When I finished the first draft my second attempt, I knew I had a whole lot of work ahead of me before I got it to the point I'd be completely satisfied.

And here's some tips for those just getting started: do a little every night, don't get discouraged if you lose your drive--it will come back if you just give it a chance, and, above all, remember not to get too hung up on an extended metaphor--it can get old fast!

What do editors and readers want?

Recently I've been pondering what do readers, and hence editors want from a story. A writing teacher recently told me:
READERS READ TO EXPERIENCE TENSION. Wow! That's interesting! And it totally fits in with Jim Gunn's comment in the Current Issue of Electric Spec, namely The release we feel when the characters we have been led to care about finally achieve their resolution is akin to the release we feel from sex. Obviously you can't have a resolution without a problem, or, in other words, TENSION.
Show us some tension!s

Big Bang theory of writing

Many zine submissions reqs include story ideas considered as trope. Basically, that says "send us a story with this and we'll reject you". Well, I've been focusing more on our acceptances lately. What do these, and other published stories, have in common? I won't get into specifics on stories in our "hold for voting" file, but they seem to have some things in common.

Lesley wrote recently that good stories are about more than one thing. Sometimes people put things so succinctly, it bears repeating. Good stories are about more than one thing. However, I'd add, Good stories are about more than one thing, and all these things impact at the resolution. Internal and external goals and motivations, even seemingly unrelated, should collide into one Big Bang at the end of the story.

I recently read "Clockmaker's Requiem" by Barth Anderson in which the characters undergo personal changes, an industry undergoes changes, and even how the world measures itself changes. A lot to pack into 4000 words, but he did it brilliantly. I felt like I was reading four stories at once. Every character had discernable, conflicting goals which served to torture the other characters, this relevant industry, and the world.

I tend to torture my characters with irony, which can be a tough thing to nail down (probably why I often take up to two years to write and edit a short story while I can measure my books in months.) However you do it, everything must collide at the end. My suggestion is this: when you've got a story idea (I'd call it a story problem, but that gives me mathematical heebie-jeebies) work out goals and motives for each character. Do the same for their primary space, be it a job or home or in the middle of an ocean kicking at sharks. Then name the goals and motives for the world at large. Keep all that in mind, even if you don't quite know where the story is headed. Give the magic of writing a chance to act, and watch all those goals collide in the resolution of your story, creating a new reality.

After all, isn't creating new realities what writing's all about?

Final Nebula Awards Ballot 2007

Since I announced the preliminary Nebula Awards Ballot was out, I thought I better give an update. The Final Nebula Awards® Ballot is out as of 2/27/07. Some of the finalists can be read online. I think I spy some slightly unusual things, namely second-person pov and present-tense. Interesting.

Frankly, I think Electric Spec has many (all?) stories better than these.

What was your favorite story of 2006?

Re. Philip K. Dick

I think writers need to be voracious readers.
I have been reading a bizarre book this week: What If Our World Is Their Heaven? The Final Conversations Of Philip K. Dick. It consists of transcribed conversations with Dick shortly before his death. From these conversations I can only deduce he was a deeply disturbed individual. He believed he had precognitive abilities (Minority Report anyone?) among other things. I'm not sure what to make of it all, since I've read MANY of his amazing stories and books including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, and they are all excellent and throught-provoking. Frankly, I'm somewhat flummoxed.

What are you reading these days?

A Challenge!

Did you know we are accepting submissions for our spring 2007 Electric Spec issue? Well, we are! Very tentatively this will be published around May 31st, 2007. Thus, I issue a challenge to all you writers out there: can you write a speculative fiction story that has something to do with that time of year? It could be related to a holiday in May/June or something about springtime or whatever your imagination can come up with. Good luck!

A born writer

I recently judged a writing contest for an elemtary school, and I found a writer... a real writer. A million people are born with talent; this one already has turned it to skill.

His story is called The Oak Cupboard, and it was an urban fantasy. No, it's not perfect, but the problems were minor, and of the sort I'd be willing to fix if the story was a stand-out. He touched on the required themes and included the two lines required by the contest--not as an afterthought but as an integral part of the story. It had humor, speculative elements, believable characters, a good hook, forshadowing, and decent world-building. It showed rather than told. The use of effective characterization even made it about more than one thing. Most of all, I hated to see it end.

All of this from a fifth-grade kid's 600 word story.

We all could learn a thing or two.

Stories should be about more than one thing.

Hi gang,
I've been wading into the huge pile of new stories we have. Thank you very much for submitting! There are some real gems in there! :) However I also saw some overused plots. I apologize if we've blogged about this before, but we're still getting them. Here's some plots you may want to avoid UNLESS YOU CAN PUT A FRESH SPIN ON THEM:

• Alien abductions, complete with cattle mutilations
  
• Time travel in which the good guy goes back in time to stop a crime but ends up committing it
  
• Post-cataclysmic rag-tag armies struggle to kick the aliens/mutants/cyberpunks out of the US
  
• A virtual reality program is activated,and the distinction between program and reality becomes confused
  
• Android/Robot love: A human falls for a android/robot, or a android/robot falls for a human, or both
  
• Space battle! Humans fight whatever in outspace, complete with explosions, etc.
  

I could go on and on, but I won't. I think one piece of wisdom I've gleaned in years of writing and editting is: Stories should be about more than one thing. It's tough to come up with something fresh when we've seen the story dozens of times, but making sure the story is about more than one thing can do this. And I don't mean use two overused speculative fiction plots; I mean add a dramatic human component.

I look forward to reading more of your stories!

IPCC says we're warming

One of the big news stories Friday was the release of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th Assessement Report from Working Group 1 "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis". The IPCC consists of scientists from all around the world.

Highlights include the statements:

• "Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years.... The global increases in carbon dioxide concentrations are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture...."
  
• "The understanding of anthropogenic warming and cooling influences on climate has improved since the Third Assessment Report (TAR), leading to very high confidence that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming...."
  
• "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level...."
  
• "At continental, regional, and ocean basin scales, numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in Arctic temperatures and ice, widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity,wind patterns and aspects of extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and the intensity of tropical cyclones...."
  

I could go on and on, but I won't. What this means is according to scientific data global warming is real and it is caused by humans. What this means for writers is you better take it into account if you're writing about the future.

Song of Ice and Fire on the Little Screen

It made my day today when I discovered George R.R. Martin's fantasy series, Song of Ice and Fire, will become an HBO series. Martin is one of my favorite authors, and it will be exciting to see a quality epic fantasy brought to television. Martin's books would not be good material for movies because they are longer, with more complex plots, than LOTR. The plan for now is to make each book in the series one season. Hey—I wonder if HBO needs an extra screenwriter for the project?