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Ponderings on Writing
I may have related this story here at the Pondering Tree or perhaps it was as the first version over at Journalspace. If I did it at Journalspace it is most likely lost forever, in which case I should probably tell the story again.
You probably should not openly state that the quality of a certain publication would be greatly improved if its’ editor stepped out in front of a speeding bus. Especially if this editor rejected your story.
Rejections are strange things. On the surface they are easy enough to understand. “We don’t want your story.” But they can be so much more, to the point where reading them and comparing stories is akin to reading the tea leaves. In Terri Lowry’s Creative Writing course we actually spend time talking about rejection letters and their stages of evolution. I should probably talk about that first.
When you send your first stories off you will most likely receive either no response back or a form letter. The form letter will be pretty clear. Depending on the publisher, the form letter may contain guidelines, frequent errors and the like. This is what I received in 2001 when I sent my first stories off to John Joseph Adams, the Editorial Assistant at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Over time, and with some luck, you will evolve as a writer. Editors will begin to leave little comments or notes on your rejections. Gardner Dozois at Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine was known for doing this. What gave me hope is that I received these handwritten slips in very short order, by 2003.
This is a sign that the editor is paying attention and sees some potential. It is also meant to encourage you. It does not mean resubmit that story. I’ll get to resubmissions here in a bit.
If you are persistent, you will eventually receive a full letter in response to your submission. This letter will most likely be typed or these days e-mailed to you. It will contain a critique of your story, what the editor liked, what worked, what the editor did not like and why the editor isn’t going to buy this story. Again, this is a sign of progress. You are getting closer. The editor is taking valuable time to advise you and mentor you. Gardner Dozois sent me such a letter in response to my story Tranquility Lost, which can be found and read for free at Bewildering Stories.
At this point of the game, two things can happen. The Editor in question considers you to be pro-material. You are on the brink of breaking through, right on the edge. It can go either way with your next submission.
The best case scenario is a straight acceptance. I received my first one in 2007 from Andy Cox and his Fiction Committee at Interzone Magazine. This acceptance will talk about why they like the story and what they are prepared to do in order to acquire the story for their publication.
The next best case scenario can be (but isn’t always, I’ll get to that) the rewrite request.
The rewrite request looks like the personal rejection letter. It contains positives and negatives. It also contains advice and suggestions on how to fix the story. Finally, last but not least, this letter will contain an invitation to resubmit your story after you have made the revisions.
Depending on the editor and the quality of advice, you have two choices at this point.
1. Follow the advice and hope for the best.
2. Disregard and send the story to the next market on the list.
I say it depends on the editor because editors, just like writers, have reputations. Some editors have reputations for being supportive, straight up, honest and fair. Other editors have a reputation for being fickle, unclear, or in some cases they have other agendas driving their mission which have nothing whatsoever to do with your career or your story.
In most cases, I would advise this. If you agree AND TRUST the editor in question, as I trusted (and still trust) Gardner Dozois, then rewrite the story and resubmit it.
On the other hand, if you disagree and DO NOT TRUST the editor in question, then you really need to ask yourself if this trip is necessary. Again, there are no guarantees.
Case in point. Most regular readers know this but Gardner Dozois retired (sometimes I’m inclined to think he was forced out by a controversy that brewed up over a particular story but I have absolutely no proof of this) as Editor of Asimov’s. This affected me personally because I rewrote a story for his consideration and it missed his retirement date by one week or so. In fact, fellow writer Lou Antonelli was the last writer purchased by Gardner, he made it by that one week margin.
The new editor, who I won’t name here for a lot of reasons, took over. They took their sweet time getting back to me while I waited on pins and needles for a response, any response, on my story.
The new editor sent another rewrite request. Unlike Gardner’s, it was muddled, unclear and in my mind, contrary to what I was trying to achieve with the story. In fact, at the time, it read very much like a veiled rejection letter. However, I was prodded, both by people in the community and people here in my personal life, to rewrite my story and resubmit it.
I tried to get clarification on the required changes. I received nothing. I had nothing to go on with this new editor, no track record or anything else. All I had was word of mouth from various people who had met her personally. I wasn’t reassured by what I heard but when a goal seems to be SO CLOSE, you decide to push forward.
I rewrote (actually, I butchered) my story.
And I sent it off.
And then it was rejected. If it says anything at all about this new editor, the rejection was partially written by her predecessor and it was a half hearted one at that.
As I said, rejections are funny things. I’ve received maybe fifty to sixty rejections over my career to date. Given that many writers receive hundreds of rejections before they achieve their first professional sales, I have done pretty well. None of those other rejections make me angry. They are part of the business, part of the deal. You just roll with them. You weren’t the flavor of the month.
And most of the rejections since my first sales have been personal ones which indicate, “So close, Murphy but not quite.”
Now here is what you should not do as a writer.
For nearly two years I kept my anger bottled up, something I am not very good at. My friends and family will tell you that the longer I try to suppress my anger, the stronger, the more virulent, the more powerful it will become. However, I kept it pretty well in check for awhile.
Until my first sale in 2007. The reviews came in and contrary to what I expected, they were all positive.
The common belief, one that I held until those reviews started coming in, is that my success at Interzone with Tearing Down Tuesday should have negated the anger, the growing ball of something that transcends anger to a point where the emotion I experience doesn’t even have a proper name.
Instead, success served to reinforce and fuel that anger. My feeling today is that Maternal Soldier is every bit as good as Tearing Down Tuesday and The Limb Knitter. Yet I can’t sell it to save my life.
With the second sale in 2008, more positive reviews plus lots of reader comments at Apex and again, my anger grew.
At the same time that Interzone purchased Tuesday, Asimov’s rejected a story set in the same universe, featuring similar themes. For the record, they aren’t the same story but they do feature a post singularity world.
The current editor at Asimov’s rejected it. Readers aren’t familiar enough with the singularity to know what I was talking about.
Which was really the final straw, I thought. The same magazine that published Charles Stross and his singularity stories wasn’t going to publish this? Especially when Interzone was willing go do down that road?
I remember reading that reject in my dock office at 1000 Walnut on a very cold, snowy day with a mug of tea in hand thinking, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
The message of that reject was pretty clear to me. Gardner’s replacement wasn’t going to buy anything I wrote, no matter what it was.
Eventually, sooner or later, my anger will vent. If you are an aspiring writer or even a small writers, you’ve got to learn how to manage this. Anger scares the living daylights out of folks who do not live in the Blue Collar World.
My anger vented in a series of postings at the magazine’s forum. I basically stated, in many different forms, that I thought the magazine would be greatly improved if the current editor was hit by a speeding bus.
I didn’t threaten this person directly. That is against the law. However, it is not against the law to openly wish for bad things to happen to people. It is just bad manners and perhaps more importantly, bad for your writing career.
Why?
Well, the editorial community is pretty small and they do talk to each other. More to the point they read the forum comments left by readers and writers. What happened is probably common knowledge.
Now, to date, I have no evidence at hand that indicates that my behavior has resulted in the rejection of my stories. No evidence at all. It is possible that it is a factor, in fact it is probable in some cases that it is a factor. Editors don’t want to be associated with nutters and the like.
However, I’m realistic enough to believe that the rejections I have received pertain more to the same things which caused many of my stories to get rejected. The story doesn’t match the editor’s tastes, or the anthology, they have some quirk or flaw that isn’t worth fixing, that sort of thing. It is, again, part of the game.
I should probably make one additional point.
Folks would probably forget what I did eventually, especially if I didn’t remind anyone about it like I am doing right now. But the thing they won’t forget is this.
I am unrepentant. I do still hope for the eventual replacement of the current editor at Asimov’s. By speeding bus, by retirement, by medical emergency or through getting forced out, it matters not to me. I harbor no good will toward this person who I feel is cowardly, dishonest, unclear and incredibly fickle.
My lack of repentance probably doesn’t help my case.
There are things I could be doing with my career. I’ve been advised more than once to give up on short stories and move off into novels. I’ve got some options I am looking at and I will probably see about that. I’ve been advised to give up on science fiction and try my hand at mainstream literature. I’ve been advised to give up on writing fiction and concentrate on my career as a college history instructor. Given that within a year I will have finally realized a full return on my investment as a historian, I can see that point.
For now, however, I will endeavor to keep writing fiction. I’ll write what I want to write.
And we’ll see how it goes.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Lou Antonelli plugs Tearing Down Tuesday at SFSignal.com
I got a bit of snail mail this week from Texas science fiction writer Lou Antonelli with some good news. He gave me a plug for Tearing Down Tuesday in his SFSignal.com Mind Meld contribution to the topic, “Memorable Short Stories to Add to Your Reading List, Part Two.” For those wondering, we know each other from the Asimov’s Forums back when Asimov’s was run by Gardner Dozois and sanity reigns therein. Further, Lou’s was the last story purchased by Gardner before he stepped down.
In any case, here is a link and moreover, here is what Lou said.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/07/mind-meld-memorable-short-stories-to-add-to-your-reading-list-part-2-of-2/
From the Last Paragraph:
Stories from this century I find memorable include “Sergeant Chip” by Brad Denton (F&SF, Sept. 2004), a well-written futuristic story with a canine protagonist who was honestly depicted; both Sergeant Chip and the story had a lot of integrity; “Just Like the Ones We Used to Know” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s, Dec. 2003), clever, compelling, entertaining and extremely well written; and “Tearing Down Tuesday” by Steven Francis Murphy (Interzone, May 2007) which impressed me with how there are brand new writers out there who can still write the Good New Stuff.
Lou has a new story collection coming out from Wilder Publications called Fantastic Texas. Many of his stories are set in his balliwick of Texas and he is one of the few writers who do not resort of all of the negative rural stereotypes in his stories. If I were putting together an anthology of positive American Midwest Rural stories, Lou would be one of the authors I’d contact.
He is also, for the record, one of the three people who identified Rev. Caldwell J. Robinson for the cardboard character that he is. Though I’d argue that Robinson had to be that way for the story to sell and also as a bit of a red herring for the ending. Still, Lou raises a valid criticism that went largely unnoticed elsewhere in the community.
So, thanks for the kind words, Lou.
The Teaching Front
I spent part of yesterday cogitating on my American History One Lecture Notes, which are very much a work in progress. While my core AH Two notes have not changed a great deal in structure since my first semester, my AH One notes constantly change. To my eyes, it is important to get to the American Civil War in order to tie my class in with whatever AH Two class the students take.
That means summarizing and simply throwing some stuff out. I tend to spend less and less time in the period from 1500 to 1750. The period never interested me a great deal in the first place per American History (Elizabeth is much more interesting back in England) and it chews up a great deal of time.
So what I’ll do is summarize the initial colonization, reasons driving it, and get on to the French and Indian War. That interests me.
I know, I can hear it now. What about Native Americans and the Slave Trade?
I usually give a block lecture on both subjects. Slavery is covered from the the initial start in the 1600s up to the 1850s in the build up prior to the American Civil War. That lecture needs some work but I have a core foundation that serves well enough. The other topic, Native Americans, could probably be best served by giving a block lecture during the Andrew Jackson Administration. I’ve got the Trail of Tears to work with as a theme.
I do talk about Native American/English Colonial relations during the French and Indian War. I have to in order for the students to have some context per the differences between the French/Native American relations and the English. I also tie in the notion that the English, hardened by their experiences in Ireland, bring an attitude of superiority and harshness to their dealings with the Native Americans.
There is an argument that I should spend more time covering the marginalized groups and I agree in principle. However, the fact of the matter is that the United States of America will eventually be created by landowning aristocrats who are also slave owners (depending on their colony). I spend a lot of time on them mainly because, well, they created the society we live in.
How are we going to understand anything else if we don’t understand the folks who created the country?
So it goes. But to be honest, I’d rather teach Western Civilization One. Maybe this Winter I’ll get my shot.
Other Fronts
Nothing much doing. My story characters keep talking to me but I can’t seem to match my spare time up with any actual energy to write. I had that problem yesterday while reading over the chapters on Andrew Jackson in the new textbook. I could cogitate on history but not on writing.
I’ve got to address and mail out the invitations to Trinity’s birthday party, which will take place at the end of August at Sunset Acres. She is looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. We’ve been trying to find a dress for her to wear.
I’ve been brought along on these expeditions but I think we’ve finally reached a realization.
I should not be taken along for dress shopping. It isn’t healthy to the relationship.
Weatherwise I have to say we didn’t get much of a traditional July summer. We got Fall weather for the most part, which has been fairly depressing. The summer wasn’t as bad as last summer (where I had a relationship on meltdown) nor as bad as the Great Washout of 2005 (where June and July were exchanged for a South Korean Monsoon Season). Still, it hasn’t been a great summer either.
I’m eager to get back into the classroom and teach. The strange thing is that the only time I forget about all of my problems is while I am teaching.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Tearing Down Tuesday Photography
I’ve got some more shots today. Perhaps I should start by saying that just about everything I used is a combination of two or more real world elements. With the exception of Ketchum Road, I almost never used something whole cloth from our own world in Tearing Down Tuesday. The town of Circeville, Missouri, to my knowledge, doesn’t exist. But the primary model for that town is Maysville, Missouri up in DeKalb County.
I suppose some folks will insist that this is a Mary Sue story. I don’t think it is but then you can’t control what others say. And frankly, so what if it is a Mary Sue story?
Ketchum Road
I had to edit this photograph to a degree due to under exposure. This is the road Kyle travels down at the start of the story. The sky would have been clear but roughly the same hue. Obviously the wind turbines, the razorbrush and the snagglethorn are missing, but otherwise, this shot pretty much shows the road I had in mind.
The Driveway
In the opening, Kyle makes his way down this driveway past the first two robots we encounter, Saturday and Sunday. They are working on a series of salvaged wind turbines. Obviously the turbines are absent, but the driveway is there.
Abandoned Tool Shed
This was another inspiration for The Tinkerin’ Woman’s Shop in Tearing Down Tuesday. Though it has fallen into disuse, it was the original tool shed when I was a kid. Much of the clutter you saw in a previous entry was present in this shed.
And it did have a beer fridge.
The Weatherby, Missouri Post Office
This is the post office in nearby Weatherby, Missouri. Circeville probably would have looked more like this image here, very worn down, tired and battered.
The Dry Hole Bar and Grill, Circeville, Missouri
The Dry Hole Bar and Grill
Andrew Leroy, Owner
Dry before Five and Wet until Last Call
Whenever that is.
This is half of the Dry Hole Bar and Grill, the Maysville Town Diner, which has changed names over the years. Since it was Sunday morning we weren’t able to go in and even if we did, it would not represent what the interior of the story’s Dry Hole Bar and Grill looked like.
The interior is actually inspired by The Quaff down off 10th and Broadway in Kansas City, Missouri.
Not everything came from the Country as it were.
Other Shots
Additional Photography can be viewed at my flickr link, http://www.flickr.com/photos/30730762@N04/ . Someday when I grow up, I’ll be able to hotlink it.
I’ve also got more photographs to add as time permits.
Perhaps it is a bit self indulgent to go through this exercise, or maybe a bit too self promotional. Well, I am a bit shameless in that respect and I have to admit that I wish I saw more material like what I am putting up. I’d like to see photographs and images of what inspired my favorite writers. What are they drawing upon when they create my favorite places and characters?
So it goes.
The Writing Front
I wonder if I am not building up for a return to the Tearing Down Tuesday universe? At the same time, The Limb Knitter universe continues to speak to me. I should take pictures of things which inspired TLK at some point.
I did work up some plot info on a possible project but it turns out as I work on it that I’ve probably got yet another novel length project on my hands.
Perhaps what I need to do is pick up at copy of The Year’s Best Science Fiction and read some of my favorites for inspiration. The 26th Edition is out and Al Reynolds has a story within so that would be worth the price of admission alone in my book.
The Teaching Front
I’ve got to work up my American History One notes over the next few days. I’ve got a gap where Andrew Jackson is at on the timeline and I still need to figure out exactly what I am going to cover.
Teaching assignments will probably arrive in the hopper shortly before classes start. I’m pretty sure I’ll get two classes at the minimum, hopefully three to four. I’m hoping for four classes.
So it goes. I’m chomping at the bit.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Pondering Tearing Down Tuesday
I’ve got more pictures to post but I’ll do that sometime tomorrow. I thought I’d take a break from Fall Semester prep to do a little bit of pondering about the story.
Tearing Down Tuesday filled what I felt was a gap in the current science fiction inventory of recent short stories, namely a story set in the American Midwest that did not rely upon East and West Coast stereotypes of Midwesterners. From 2000 to the moment I sold TDT, I found my level of aggravation with the lack of such stories growing. When such a story did manifest itself, it usually took the cheap shots at the population which lives in the Midwest.
Who are those people? Well, in the case of DeKalb County, Missouri, they tend to be of European descent. In other words, they are white. If you look at the demographics, I believe the county population tends to run eighty percent plus on the white side. They are hardworking people who do their best to run their farms, keep their bills paid and support their families. They believe in taking care of their own problems for the most part without a lot of government help.
These days they grow corn, a lot of corn. In fact I remarked to Trinity that we didn’t see a single wheat field on our way to Maysville, Missouri and back. The main crops were corn for use in ethanol and soy. This is a contrast to the fields of golden wheat I remember from my childhood. They also maintain a certain amount of livestock, but not the massive herds that many might think.
In some instances, they’ve managed to adapt to changing conditions. One local example in nearby Clinton County, Missouri is the Shatto Milk Company, located on Highway 33 not far from Highway 36 in Northern Missouri. They produce local organic milk sans additives in an environment that looks to be healthy and easy on the animals. They also run a gift shop on the property which is where we met the owners. The story is that in the late 80s they realized that the major purchasers of milk were not paying anything close to prices that would sustain their business. They had to try something else.
So they took a leap and went local and organic. Others in the region went down the same path, raising heirloom livestock, growing organic produce and changing the way they do business.
However, for every success story, you can find a dozen deserted farms in Northern Missouri. The land has been sold or rented to the survivors.
The people in this region love to hunt deer, quail, turkey and ducks when the seasons permit. They fish with permits and subscribe to the Missouri Conservationist. More than a few of them, including one of my cousins, works for the Missouri Department of Conservation. They care about where they live and want to see it preserved. They are capable of adapting to changing conditions if pressed.
This goes against the usual depiction of the Midwestern Rural Resident. Inflexible, stubborn, unchanging, conservative and very religious.
I suppose the big dig against this environment is that it does not possess the same diversity which can be found in urban environments. Perhaps. However, given demographic trends in the country as a whole, I will make a prediction.
The Midwestern Rural Areas will, probably by the end of the century, be split between European and Latino populations. It is a bit of a failing on my part that I did not account for this in Tearing Down Tuesday. There simply should be more Latino characters in the region.
Another dig against the Midwest is that it is backward. No Starbucks. No bandwidth to speak of.
These are people who still take pleasure in their environment, enjoying a sky full of stars while the coyotes compete with the bullfrogs and the cycadas for one’s attention. They enjoy fishing on the lake under the moonlight, poker games and fish fries.
They have their flaws. The stereotypes would not exist without those flaws. They are the people I know, the land I know, the grist of my sunshine summers under brilliant blue skies. They are the people Robert Heinlein wrote about in his stories.
And yet, I suspect, there is not a lot of room for stories from this land in American Science Fiction today. I find it quite telling that Tearing Down Tuesday sold to a British Publication, Interzone, and not an American one. Now to be fair, TDT was never sent to an American market, but my gut tells me that outside of Apex Online Magazine, I’d have been hardpressed to sell that story anywhere else.
The other concern I have is, well, frankly, these people are the Enemy Personified to many in American Science Fiction. They are rednecks, white trash, probably inbred and most likely engaging in perverse acts with their livestock. There may not be any room for stories from Northern Missouri.
A writer is instructed from the start, write what you know. It is good advice.
However, the message I get from the American Science Fiction Community is also very clear to me.
Rednecks need not apply.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
I’m way past overdue for this project but the road trip up north finally gave me an opportunity to take some July photographs of some of the places which inspired scenes in my first short story publication, Tearing Down Tuesday.
The Tinkerin’ Woman’s Shop: Audrey Young, Owner
Kyle’s parent figure of sorts is Audrey Young. She owns a sort of salvage and fix it shop headquartered out of a white barn on her property. The Murphy Family Barn in this shot is one half of the inspiration. It is actually an old hay and livestock barn.
The Seven Days of the Week in Tearing Down Tuesday make their home in the Tinkerin’ Woman’s Shop.
The Murphy Farm Tool Shed
The Tool Shed in this shot represents the other half of the inspiration for The Tinkerin’ Woman’s Shop. Oddly enough, my Uncle Paul had this John Deere Gator in for work, so you could say this gives a pretty good impression of what I saw in my mind when I created the John Deere Farmerbot Model 805, aka Tuesday.
I love the clutter of this space and the mingling of dirt, grease and other scents. You could hear the methodic beat of the electric fence generator in the background.
Lake Murphy, DeKalb Co, Missouri
In the story our protag, Kyle Hackshaw, reaches a decision point while swimming in a rock quarry pool. This lake inspired that scene, even if it is not a quarry. I think Kyle would have seen the same sort of Simpson’s July Summer Sky.
We used to swim in that lake but the algae blooms and snakes have made that untennable.
Overall Impression
I have mostly positive memories of my summers on the Murphy Family Farm. My Uncle Paul and Uncle Mike still farm up there and while things are a bit worn, the place still feels comfortable and welcoming to me. Strange that I’d set such a dark story in a place of incredible beauty.
To my eyes, the photographs, especially the emerald landscape against the brilliant blue sky, represent what Missouri truly is, a farming state with a culture and history worth retelling in fiction. The sad thing is that these days, most science fiction writers would be quietly appalled at the lack of bandwidth, Starbucks and the like in this environment.
I’ll try to post more photos this week along with other photos of the road trip.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Apparently there is a bug floating around campus and both Trinity and myself caught it. She is struggling through a shift at the bookstore while I wait to see if I need to teach this morning (please, no, not today). I’ve got aches, icy fingertips, chills, messed up sinuses and a slight headache.
So I suspect there will be no writing today.
Apex Online Magazine has a new issue out
Good stuff to be had at Apex. Go over and check it out. The stuff is free but if you can spare a dime or two that’d be great. Help keep Apex operational.
The Teaching Front
Fall is coming up and if things pan out right I should have three classes, possibly four. That is still up in the air. We’ve got a pretty good boss who is up front with us about our classes. The Boss tends to wait until things shake out closer to August but that is fair. The Full Timers get first dibs anyway.
I like working for The Boss. This individual has had my back more times than I can count. I think this is probably the first place I have worked in where I can say this. So often it is completely different.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
New Readers
Seems I have new readers. Ah, such is the danger of hotlinking to my blog.
Anyway, I’m Steve Murphy. Here is a list of labels that apply.
1. Honorably Discharged Veteran, US Army
2. Unrepentant Veteran of the Persian Gulf War
3. Published Writer (two stories to date, both with honorable mentions)
4. Research Consultant
5. Historian
6. College History Instructor
7. Missourian (while I don’t like the state per se, I’m unrepentant about my Midwestern roots as well).
8. Decidedly NOT politically correct.
9. Definitely NOT a liberal.
Just a few things. If you are looking for examples of my writing, you can find both of them at Apex Online Magazine. Tearing Down Tuesday originally appeared in Interzone Magazine, Issue 210 back in June 2007. Apex picked her up for republication. The Limb Knitter appeared in Apex Online back in September 2008 and was recently converted into a podcast at Paul Cole’s Beam Me Up Podcast. You can buy a print edition of The Limb Knitter when she appears in Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One. Just click the link over to the right.
Finally, I usually do not discuss it much, I am the research consultant to John Birmingham. I have two novels to my credit on that front, Final Impact and Without Warning.
Umm, I know a thing or two about science fiction. Some detractors do not care much for that.
So, welcome to the Pondering Tree. Assholes really aren’t tolerated and if you’re all about political correctness then you are probably in the wrong place. But otherwise, folks are pretty well tolerated around here.
Research Project Number – 04
While Trinity was sleeping last night I completed one chapter and got half way through another. This leaves me with two and a half chapters in the hopper to polish up.
For the benefit of the new readers, just what am I doing? My primary job is to work on the military, historical and tactical issues in this project. However, over the course of time, my role has evolved. I will make editorial changes, add details (especially if I have been to a particular place but the client has not) as well as modify dialogue to a degree. The relationship I have with my client is one akin to the apprentice working under a master. I’m very fortunate to have this relationship and as such I generally tend not to toot my horn about it. These RPN updates are more for the client’s benefit and my own than the general reader who might drop by.
But my basic job is to make sure everything is dress right dress. And when in doubt (which happens) and I can’t find answer(that happens to) I blur things just enough so that most readers won’t be able to tell the difference.
Details can be a double edged sword, I find.
Other Fronts
Pretty lazy day yesterday. Trinity and I went to see the latest Transformers movie with her ex-husband (who seems nice enough). The film was okay I suppose. An enjoyable way to spend a cloudy Fourth of July.
We had dinner at the Pod and a quiet night after.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
In December of this year, Apex Book Company will publish an anthology containing my short story, The Limb Knitter. The anthology is Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One and it contains a number of notable stories from the print and online versions of Apex Digest and Apex Online Magazine.
You know the sales pitch is coming, right?
Why buy?
Reason One: Apex has been supportive of my fiction. Jason Sizemore and his crew purchased The Limb Knitter when other publications passed on it. The story did pretty well to judge by the comments thread and it also did well on the review front. If you ask me, that means Jason and his folks are pretty good judges of fiction.
Reason Two: Apex is a professional paying market. They pay five cents a word which means I was well compensated for a story that is available to you online for free.
Reason Three: The purchase of this anthology will support the continuation of Apex Online Magazine as a going concern.
Reason Four: The cover rocks. Have you seen the cover art?
Reason Five: Apex not only purchased The Limb Knitter, they also republished Tearing Down Tuesday.
Reason Six: You can have a print copy of a story that received an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 26th Edition.
Reason Seven: You can get a great collection of Apex Stories besides my own.
But the best reason of all?
Well, if you click on the link below this sentence, you’ll give me a tip of sorts. I get a small cut of the profit from each purchase generated by this link.
http://www.apexbookstore.com/products/murphy-descended-from-darkness
Or let us look at it like this.
If you ever wanted to buy me a beer or a box of tea bags to support me in my endeavors, this would be a good way to help out.
So, go order your copy today. Chop chop. Support the starving writer.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Apex Online Magazine comes out of hiatus
Jason Sizemore is running Apex Online Magazine back into publication. He’ll be operating for July and August and there is a catch.
The mag needs $500 a month to operate. There are a number of ways to support the magazine. If you go to http://apexbookcompany.com, you can learn about these methods.
I suspect probably the best way is to subscribe to print on demand issues at Magcloud.com for three to four bucks a pop.
I strongly urge all of my readers to go support the magazine. The field needs more markets, not fewer. And obviously, I have a personal vested interest because two of my stories are there. 
Training again
What can I say? We’re back at the training thing again. This training will certify me for teaching college courses online.
I’m having trouble with some of the philosophy. There is a great deal of talk about using discussion boards for course assessment. While I am comfortable with discussion boards (I used to live on them) I am not comfortable with using them for assessment. I have a feeling there will be a lot of parroting (verified by feedback I’ve received from people I know who have taken online classes). I also believe that the discussion would be dominated by one or two students, just as it is in a brick and mortar classroom.
I’m not a fan of discussion, Creative Writing courses being the only exception. At the 100 level students simply do not have a fundamental understanding of the course material. Hell, we’ve got students who can’t even read at the grade school level. My inclination is to run my online course as close to the same brick and mortar class as possible.
This did force me to think about my teaching philosophy. I am not a fan of group work at all. I hated it as a student and I hate it even more as an instructor. The slugs coast on the backs of the hardworkers and there are personality conflicts which make the work more trouble than it is work. I tend to be a believer in an indepedenent study model. This doesn’t mean the student is passive in such a setting. You can’t just sit there and absorb the material in my classes and expect to do well. The students do have to give some thought to their reading, lectures and writing, especially if they want to perform well on exams.
In other words, it isn’t enough to regurge a fact. I am often interested in motivations and causes, which are not always hard or even fully agreed upon information. The students are required to provide this information on their exams if they want to do well. You don’t get that from just scribbling down the notes.
What I’d like to do is run my online courses in the same fashion. In fact, I think the online environment would provide an opportunity for a conversation between the Instructor and the Student. Time is often lacking in my brick and mortar courses for this.
But group work and discussion boards? I’ll have to sift through a lot of gibberish to find the nuggets of gold. Far more trouble than it is worth if you ask me.
Oh, it is hotter than hell in this classroom.
Research Project Number – 04
I sent the last of the chapters I have onboard back to the client last night. I’m on standby for more as I start preliminary work on RPN-05.
Other Fronts
Not much else to report. I’ve been reading and working on RPN-04.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Summer Theme Change
You know, sometimes black with white text is just too depressing. Good for winter and fall, not so good for summer and spring. So after a stroll through the templates I ended up with Tarski, which has a handy dandy tree no less.
Feel free to comment on the new template. Like it, love it, want more of it or hate it, want none of it.
The Limb Knitter receives an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Edition
Well, the anthology which taught me about the short story market is out with the latest release. Gardner picked Tearing Down Tuesday for an honorable mention in the Twenty-Fifth Edition so I was interested to see if The Limb Knitter would have the same luck.
Published by Apex Online Magazine, The Limb Knitter received an honorable mention and my name was mentioned as one of the prominent SF writers to appear in that venue.
So, that was a welcome spot of good news after yesterday’s bad news (so bad I couldn’t even blog about it).
That’s two for two. Now I just need to figure out how to crack into the anthology itself with a story of mine.
Oh, and I’d need to write a story and sell it in order for that to happen.
Research Projects Number – 04 and 05
I sent the bulk of Version One of the draft back to the Client last night. I feel like I could have done more work on it but the various disasters and meltdowns have impeded my progress. I suspect there will be opportunities to make additional mods. From now forward I’m to work on Chapters 31 to the Last Chapter. I have 31, 32 and 34 on hand. I’m currently on standby to receive follow on chapters.
As this is a three book series and my summer is (supposedly) clear, I suggested that I might do the ground work for RPN – 05. We’re cleared for that as of this writing. So I’ve started pondering those issues even though I do not know how RPN – 04 will end.
I didn’t know how RPN – 02 would end either (last few chapters were never sent, which is cool) nor did I fully know how RPN – 03 would end. Some bits were modified after I had worked on 03 which made it a better novel in some respects.
So it goes.
Kudos to Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds picked up a 1 million pound novel deal which will see one novel per year for the next ten years. I’m probably one of Al’s Biggest Fans (no, that is not a sledgehammer behind my back) so it gives me great pleasure to see him achieve a level of security most writers only dream of.
So, a blog shout to Al. Good on you, man.
The Teaching Front
Busy today. I was called in to cover two classes this morning. The upshot of that is this means August (when I will see this paycheck) will be pretty good. I had a choice between The Great Awakening and the French and Indian War.
That was an easy choice. I skipped the Awakening (which often puts even me to sleep, it is worse than Reconstruction) and started the French and Indian War.
After class I was incredibly hungry so Trinity and I hit the campus mess hall (Army habit, can’t break it) for taco salad that was a bit iffy.
So it has been a busy and far better day than yesterday.
SHINE: Optimistic Science Fiction
Jetse de Vries announced that he has extended the submission deadline to SHINE until August 1st. If you are an optimist, then this is probably the anthology you need to submit your work to.
Strangely enough, Jetse once said that Tearing Down Tuesday was optimistic and hopeful (which, while appreciated, confuses me to no end as it seems awfully bleak to me). I’ve got one submission to him right now. I’ll cull through my stockpile and see what else I have.
I am seriously thinking of deploying the following:
Entangled, the earlier version from 2007.
Fishin’ Fer Tuesday, a Tearing Down Tuesday prequel.
Healing Hands of the Killer.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff