College Student. Sales to Chizine, Flesh & Blood, Flytrap, and Pine Magazine.
| About a year or two back, I had a story called "Schoolhouse Runway" published in a zine called SDO. Well, they've just launched their Best-of Anthology with my story in it. You can order it at Project Pulp. |
| We published a book review Catherynne M. Valente's new novel up at LitHaven:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| heh, I almost has no idea what you were talking about. |
| But I did find my way to this website! :oP I don't care that you put my SN online, as it's friends only anyway. But never say never!
-Andrea |
| Thanks for the warm words!
Samantha, I'm so glad you sold to them too! |
| Congrats, Simon.
Chizine has bounced everything I've sent them, so I'm jealous. Greg |
| Congrats, Simon. That was a very strong story, and I'm not surprised it sold to a pro market.
And it turns out you must be good luck for me... |
| Multi-congo-rats to YOU, Simon! That's wonderful! (You don't need booze to celebrate. Chocolate's the BEST. Here's a virtual chunk of milk chocolate-cashew. Enjoy!) |
| Today I found out that Chizine wants to buy my story, "The Child Looks Back At You," for a future issue.
I wrote the first few paragraphs of this back at Tobias Buckell's Writing Jam. I let my girlfriend read those first few paragraphs and she loved them and kept begging me to finish the story throughout the entire summer. I finally finished it during the fall semester (its original title was "This Hand, Waving"). Special thanks to Samantha Henderson, Pam McNew, Chance, and the Codex Writer's workshop for helping me revise this story. It's times like these when I wish I was 21 so I could go out to the bars to celebrate. |
| We just published a new piece of fiction by Doug Lain up at LitHaven:
http://www.lithaven.com --Simon |
| I already posted this at LitHaven, but I wanted to post it over here too:
One of my favorite Strange Horizons stories ever has been posted for this week: "On our street...," by Donald Barthelme. http://www.strangehorizons.com/2005/20050328/street-f.shtml |
| Simon,
Yes, I knew you weren't judging the entire series on the one ep; it's just unfortunate that it happened to be the one you saw, because I really do think it was the weakest. "First Contact" does seem a good way to introduce people to Next Gen. Have a great weekend! |
| For those of you who don't know what Amy is talking about, she's referring to an episode of Battlestar Galactica.
You're right, that's the only episode I saw, and I know the hype is big enough that I didn't judge the entire series based off that one episode. I'll probably get around to watching more episodes if I remember to when they're on. When it comes to Star Trek Next Generation, I usually show newbies First Contact first to get them a sense of the series. You're right though that some episodes are downright ridiculous and could turn people off forever. |
| Simon, commenting on a post you left over at Kameron Hurley's blog (I would have commented there, but didn't necessarily want to highjack her blog with a discussion of a television show, not really related to her initial comments)...
Anyhow, I agree the show is less successful when it's portraying politics in that manner. I would probably call that the weakest episode of the season. I would consider the episode "33" one of the strongest, and I suspect it might end up nominated for the Hugo for Dramatic Short Form. It really got to the heart of exhaustion and desperation and fighting for survival. Had you seen the mini-series and watched other episodes? Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought you meant you'd just seen this one political episode. But imagine if someone decided on whether to watch Star Trek Next Gen based on the second or third ep of the first season in which they all get drunk and start climbing all over each other like overstimulated dogs! ;-) |
| Woops, typo :-) |
| Way to go, Simon! But, er, are there really two "The"s in the title? How unique.
*pops champagne cork for Simon's toast* |
| After not submitting anything forever, I sent out some subs recently and tonight made a mainstream sale (for a surrealist story) to an Australian mag called Coppertales that's been publishing for about 10 years. I'm not sure exactly how much they pay since their guidelines aren't very specific, but I'm happy to make a paying mainstream sale either way. The name of the story is "The The Executioner's Lament." |
| We've just published a brand new Greg van Eekhout Interview over at Lit Haven.
http://www.lithaven.com |
| We've now published a brand-new piece of fiction by Aimee Bender called "Night" over at Lit Haven. Please read and enjoy and comment. If there are any Aimee Bender fans out there, I'd really appreciate it if you spread the word by linking to it so others can read it as well:
http://www.lithaven.com --Simon |
| We have prep links for one of our upcoming interviews over at Lit Haven:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Lit Haven has revamped its site some. Now we have both top and sidebar advertising:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| More good news, we'll be publishing an original piece of fiction aolong with our interview with her at Lit Haven. |
| Good news, we have an interview with Aimee Bender coming up. I'm allowing readers to submit questions they would like to see asked in the interview, and I also made a showcase of where you can find Aimee's work for free over here:
http://www.lithaven.com/main/index.php?p=95 You can use the "submit" function at the top of the site or email me the questions if you'd like. |
| I tried to put together a kind of ultimate fiction market listing up at Lit Haven.
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Just finished a new interview with Catherynne M. Valente at Lit Haven:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Thanks, guys |
| Hi, Simon,
I think it's a wonderful idea--and much needed now that WH has closed shop. Thanks for your efforts. Best regards, Laird |
| Thanks for offering that service, Simon. |
| http://www.lithaven.com
Earlier today I posted a message on several boards asking if writers would be interested in me opening Lit Haven up to writer’s market posts about submissions guidelines since The Write Hemisphere has been discontinued. On the message boards where people responded, everyone said they’d like me to do this. So starting today, I will be accepting submissions from publishers and editors for submission guidelines and other related writerly info. You can either use the “submit” function at the top of Lit Haven or email me at SimonOwens@comcast.net. You can also submit links to your markets if you’d be interested in me recommending any writing in your publication. I’d like to ask those who were interested to spread the word about Lit Haven so that publishers and editors can find their way to this site. You can also point livejournal users to Lit Haven’s livejournal syndication at http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=lithaven if they want to add it to their friends list. I’ll issue a disclaimer now that I reserve the right to not post certain submission guidelines on this site. I’ll also say that Lit Haven will continue to serve its previous function as a valuable link portal resource for readers. |
| As many might have noticed, it looks as if The Write Hemisphere has been discontinued. Would anyone like to see Lit Haven pick up where the Write Hemisphere left off by putting in occasional writer's market posts?
http://www.lithaven.com |
| We've been mostly quiet for the past month, but over the last week we've added some new posts that others might like to read.
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Really? How cool. :-) |
| oh, thanks Eric, didn't see your post before. I got the idea for the story from your webzine. |
| We just posted an interview with M. Rickert over at Lit Haven:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Simon, I just read "Holding Your Lone Star" in Flytrap 3, and I enjoyed it a lot. Nice work! |
| Since the election, many liberals have decided to turn back to activism, but are unsure of where to start. At Lit Haven, I just posted an essay on Political Activism through Literature, perhaps as a thinking point on how to start:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| We published an interview with Doug Lain at Lit Haven.
http://www.lithaven.com |
| We published an interview with Paul Tremblay over at Lit Haven.
http://www.lithaven.com |
| just posted another interview, this one with Nick Mamatas.
http://www.lithaven.com |
| We just posted an interview with Elizabeth Bear:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Thanks, Simon!
Very useful info. |
| We just published a mini-interview with Jack Fisher, editor of Flesh and Blood, up at Lit Haven. Potential writers can get an inside look at his tastes:
http://www.lithaven.com |
| Just writing this to say that Lit Haven is back up and running, and it's gone to blogger format:
http://www.lithaven.com Check it out, tell your friends. |
| Writers Market Question
I began an essay today, titled "English Major Woes: In which I complain when I have no right to." Below, I'll paste the first paragraph to give you an idea as to what kind of essay this. I'm looking for a place to publish this, hopefully a publication that actually pays. Any suggestions? *** We drink wine (in fact, I'm drinking wine as I write this). We smoke self-rolled cigarettes. We consume coffee in cafes. No, we do not wear berets and embrace deconstructionists with fervor. We are sometimes looked down upon by the hard sciences. We recognize this, process it, sometimes even accept it. We are English Majors, and despite your assumption that we merely must assess Hemmingway, Beowulf, Faulkner, and the occasional Shakespeare-- child's play at best, these masters have given us something so rich and enjoyable --- and that these things in this particular field are "easy," one must only look at our actual course load, for instance, a class called "Selected Topics: Virtue and Vice in 18th Century British Literature." :: Later in the essay :: No, this is not merely a pamphlet, or a short article, but rather an essay (?) that spans over fifty pages long, all of which we are required to read. This is not the literature we dreamed of when we signed up for our major, when we imagined ourselves curled up on our bed reading A Farewell to Arms or The Complete Oscar Wilde, reading ahead of the syllabus schedule like we did in high school because we actually enjoyed them. No, this is extremely thick, 18th Century medical language, almost arguably as thick as any language set in a science text. But, whether or not we expected it, it is literature, and it is through our own naivety that we were surprised. We hit this kind of literature with modern criticism hiding in the back of our brains, and it is this subconscious criticism which provides a wall for us to get around. Why did he use so many words to describe so little? Why does he hide the point within pretty prose? These are the questions we assail ourselves with when we try to navigate ourselves through these thick texts. |
| I've begun a new news link blog over here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/simonsaysnews I come across too many links every day, whether it be weird, news, etc... and wanted to have a blog for it. --Simon http://www.lithaven.com |
| We're about to make some major changes to Lit Haven in order to increase traffic. Instead of a monthly basis, we're going to combine the current format with a slashdot-type blogger format.
We'd like to open up to ideas and discussion regarding suggestions for changes. http://www.lithaven.com |
| I have a new slipstream story up here:
http://www.darkenergysf.com/stories/CandyChild.htm If you like slipstream lit stories, you might like this one. There's very few speculative elements. Some could argue there's none at all. |
| The next month of Lit Haven has launched:
http://www.lithaven.com Spread the word! |
| http://fukthis.com/fun/car_commercial/
This is such a cool car commercial, I love how well the music flows with the action in the scene. I don't think they showed it in America, though. |
| I read the first story in Polyphony, and sent this email to Jeremy:
Spoilers ahead . . . . . I read your Polyphony story, "The Girl With the Sun In Her Head," and wished to comment on it. So far it's the only story I've read from the antho (I just received it today) and falls within my favorite genre: Subtle surrealism. First, comments about the world you created: I noticed that the world your characters live in is very similar to the alternate world created in Clive Barker's Everville, a world on the edge of a kind of mythical sea, a kind of odd world in an ocean of other odd world we can't even begin to fathom. With this story, you seemed to mix three genres: A. Literary. This is evident with the writing itself, especially your use of present tense. B. Myth. The Myth aspect enters in the very end, when your main character becomes a star who chases the sun, since many myths try to explain something in nature. You've carried this out nicely. C. A mixture of surrealism and realism. It isn't completely surreal, since your characters perform many realistic actions, but you have a few small parts: The mother stolen up the chimney, the laws that govern her drawing on the sidewalk, etc... which work well enough to add nice aspects without taking the reader out of the story. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Cafe Irreal www.cafeirreal.com, but sometimes they publish stories a little too surreal for my tastes, a surrealism so convoluted it's impossible to draw the metaphors out of the story. There were a few confusing parts. The green chalk for instance. I recognized that it was a segway into the old woman talking about the man in the green hat, but she seemed confused for some reason, which was kind of contradictory, as if she knew exactly what she was doing and yet didn't at the same time. Also, I never understood whether or not the man in the green hat was good or bad. For most of it, I considered him a good guy, especially when he gave her a reason to run fast enough to catch the sun. But there were other parts: When the old woman told her to stay away from him, and then also your last line, "Anyone he meets gets what she wants, but not always what she deserves." Anyway, just thought I'd comment on it a little bit. I know, as a short fiction writer, that sometimes short stories get published and then writer never finds out if the public enjoyed it or not, or if they even read it, so I wanted to email you to let you know that I did read it, and I enjoyed it as well. Thanks for writing it. Take care, Simon Owens |
| Crap, I'm supposed to be doing reading for classes tonight, but my purchased copy of Polyphony 4 arrived in the mail today.
Ok, just one story and then I'll stop, I promise... |
| Mainstream sales are good, too! Yay, you! |
| Well, as you'll see, we say over and over again that even though it's very much possible, it's still not easy. |
| Interesting discussion, although I have to admit I would probably weigh in among the pessimists. Obviously new writers do break in - and you're living proof! - but the sad fact is, the majority of us won't. You're right, though, it's not because some hidden cadre of editors has decided whom to anoint and whom to discard. It takes talent, and luck and a whole lot of hard work. Still, you have to admit, the odds of breaking through are less than encouraging. *G* |
| And the debate continues
http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=administrivia;action=display;num=1094663752;start=30#30 Yes, that debate, the debate that all pro editors and writers dread: The frustrated writers who are absolutely positive that the system is against them, and that the pro editors don't accept new writers, no matter how many new writers you list for them who have made it in to the pros. |
| How the hell can I edit a post? When I select the "edit item," it only allows me to edit my bio. |
| The cover and TOC of the next issue of Flesh & Blood is up and guess who's name you'll find within its pages?
http://fast.horrorseek.com/horror/fleshnblood/issue16.html *** In other news, just when I had google just where I wanted it, now everything is screwed up. Googling my name, my website doesn't show up until the third or fourth listing, and the first story to appear is yet again from a nonpaying webzine. I'm this close to emailing those guys and just asking them to take the story down. |
| (this will be posted on several forums)
There seems to have been some controversy over the web design of Lit Haven, saying that it was somewhat misleading and not immediately obvious that it serves as a link portal. In response to this, we have modified the website to make its mission more clear: www.lithaven.com Hopefully, these changes will further enhance Lit Haven's readability. If there are any other concerns, please feel free to add comments to this forum. |
| Nope, it's mainstream |
| Yay, Simon! But--is it a genre story? |
| Yay, a mainstream acceptance! Carillon Magazine, a mainstream print magazine, has accepted my story, "For Dirt." It's a magazine that is published out of the United Kingdom.
There's something about mainstream acceptances that make me feel accomplished. |
| Remember that new zine launch I was talking about??
http://www.lithaven.com/ It's live!!! Go read. Spread the word. Enjoy. |
| prepare for a zine launch at the beginning of September. But this won't be like other zines. You'll see. |
| In an attempt to pull these stories up the list on google, here are links to where you can read my stuff that was actually paid for. I'm tired of google pulling up stuff of mine from back in high school that was published in nonpaying ezines.
http://www.neometropolis.com/index.html Tractor girl http://www.kenomazine.com/frazier.htm Frazier Said http://www.writersstories.com/stories.asp?stid=1336609913&Stcat;= A means to an edge http://genspace.com/ctta/issue-4/tocframe.htm For Wheels and Checkers http://www.neverary.com/N4/N4Feed.htm Feed http://www.owlsoup.com/3LBE/3LBE14/3LBE14story3.html There Are Better Kittens than These http://www.samsdotpublishing.com/aoife/OwensTieron.htm A diary for Tieron Red http://www.twilighttimes.com/apr04/s_Owens24.html The Bickering of Stone http://genspace.com/ctta/issue-3/tocframe.htm Schoolhouse runway |
| I hadn't realized this before, but Pine posted my story I sold to them online. This story was originally published in the print issue of Pine, and I guess they're offering up my story as a sampler for the issue, which is always a good sign. Potential authors should submit here because it's a kickass zine that reaches 10,000 readers and pays 30 bucks a page.
http://www.pinemagazine.ca/issueone/13lies.htm |
| Ooops! My bad. More and more, it seems like acceptances come via email, don't they. |
| Hey Justin, it wasn't my first acceptance by a print magazine, but rather it's the first time I've received an acceptance by snail mail.
Thanks for the congrats :-) |
| Hey, Simon. I just saw your post about the print acceptance. Congrats! As much as I like electronic publication, there's nothing quite like opening an envelope and finding contributer copies inside. |
| Forgive the misspellings, I had a little bit to drink tonight |
| Re: Toiya K. Finley
Of course! Ok, I have three possiblities. You, Jaime, and a Russian creative nonfiction writer, code name Roxie. I think we have some potential here :-) |
| Congrats, Simon!
I might be interested. Would you be interested in critting novels and novellas too? |
| Way to go, Simon! *loud applause* |
| I received my first snail mail acceptance today. Spire, a mainstream lit poetry mag, accepted my poem, "How I Tuned Your Piano." |
| I'm tentatively interested. Let me know if you get more people, and I'll see if I think I can fit it in. |
| Any writers out there who write or are at least interested in critiquing "mainstream" pieces along with genre stories who would be willing to join a writer's group that will critique stories which are both genre and non-genre?
There will be no major requirements when it comes to how many stories you have to critique or write, the group would remain very informal. I'm doing this because I have several stories that are creative nonfiction and mainstream which don't really belong up in Codex. |
| how is that for a random post. as you might have guessed, all entries from my online journal that have to do with writing will get pasted into here |
| I'm not going to even pretend like I feel like writing right now. I know I'm going to start churning out words again soon enough, but this break really hasn't hurt me at all. The thing I've noticed about taking breaks from writing is the fact that I can daydream a lot more about writing. I actually think about writing a lot more when I'm not writing. When I'm writing, the same two words play over and over again in my head: You Suck. But when you're not writing then you can pretend you're really good and it's only a matter of time before you're opening your mailbox to find an acceptance to Harper's.
Oh yeah, I think Harper's has moved up past The New Yorker on my list of dream sales. I read a story in it from this month and fell in love with the magazine. I don't think it pays as well, but once you get up to the slicks level, you're already getting paid a shit-load, what's an extra few thousand give or take? My desire to sell to the various reviews isn't as strong. Sure, I'd like to sell to the Paris Review, but there are a lot of other mags out there buying the kind of stuff I like to read and write, it's just a matter of finding them. Everyone can appreciate the dark moody pieces that find their ways into the literary reviews, but it's all they seem to publish and those kind of pieces make it harder for a newer writer to sell because it doesn't really allow experimentation. Why would they buy the next guy-and-girl-exotic-relationship-with-problems story from me when they can buy the same exact story from someone who already has a book contract with Putnam or Viking? I can see a large amount of creative nonfiction coming in September. Word on the street is that it's easier to sell. |
| The first issue of Neometropolis, which pays 3 cents a word, is out with my story, "Tractor Girl."
You can check out the issue here: http://www.neometropolis.com/index.html |
| Yeah, Simon!
We're TOC-mates! |
| Cool stuff, man. Way to go. |
| Yay, Simon! |
| Congratulations, Simon. Very cool. |
| Congrats again!
--HeyTrey |
| My excerpt from my story, "How To Succeed at Work," just sold to EGGPLANT LITERARY PRODUCTIONS LIBRARY for 5 cents a word.
This was one of my favorite stories, and I'm glad that at least a part of it found a home. |
| Thanks! |
| Way to go, Simon! That is a great market.
--HeyTrey |
| Simon's on fire! w000t!! |
| Yay! My story, "Holding Your Lone Star," sold to Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw's Flytrap today. This is one of the coolest semi-pro zines out there.
The plotless pretty stories win again! Hannah and I will someday rule the world! Depending on what way you squint at my bibliography (would a magazine that pays in contributor's copies be considered a sale? Would my Emily Dickinson Poetry Award be considered a sale because it paid a good sum of money, or does it not count because the poems weren't actually published anywhere?) this was my 30th sale. Oh yeah, for the first time in years, I submitted to a nonpaying webzine because it was a short screenplay and I didn't know of any places that would actually pay for short screenplays. My short screenplay, "His Lasts," will be published in the next issue of Bewildering Stories. |
| Congratulations on your erotica sale, Simon! |
| Oh hey, Samantha, didn't see your post before.
Um, not sure if it's a Lovecraft mythos story, I don't know what that is (yes, I know who Lovecraft is, but I'm not sure if 'lovecraft mythos' is some kind of genre that doesn't automatically have something to do with Lovecraft) |
| My short story, "Inanimately Purple," sold to the Eternally Erotic Anthology today. This is my first erotica sale, I originally wrote this story and submitted it to Playboy, it got rejected, then sent it to a ton of erotica markets I found on some erotica page. The guy wants me to add on another 500 words but that shouldn't be so hard, I think I'm going to do some flower/gardening research and throw that in, it would add some nice flavor to the theme.
This is my third sale this month, and it was nice that it slipped in last minute before the first of June. I'm almost back up to my sale-a-week that I was carrying for two months straight before it winded down. I have a feeling that I'll have another dry spell coming up soon. I'll have to let my ego inflate as much as it can before then so it can last me through the hard times :-) |
| Congratulations, Simon! Is it a Lovecraft-mythos story?
Oh, and re: 410738 -- Thanks for the plug! I hadn't heard of that contest before -- have to go check that out. |
| My short story, "Burying in Eden" sold to The Book of Dark Wisdom, a print magazine, and will be published in the 5th issue. I'm glad it found a home, even though it's a semi-pro market; this is one of my favorite stories, one I wrote about a year ago.
See, every now and then my plotless pretty stories do sell :-) |
| Hmm, look at this here: http://www.ralan.com/contests/listings/chiarosc.htm
Some semi-big publishers are looking for people to vote on the best up-and-coming writers that haven't hit the big times yet. This offers a lot of potential for a Neo-pro to land some major sales, aka me. I need to compile a list of three Neo-pros to send into the contest. I think Samantah Henderson would make a nice candidate, although I don't know if her stuff is dark enough. Same with Hannah Bowen (although now that I think of it, she's already sold to Chizine so she's already on their radar). In the meantime, anybody who votes for me, I certainly wouldn't mind... |
| w00t! Simon's back in the game!
: ) |
| > it's not like she'll ever find her way to this place.
Unless she Googles her screen name... |
| My short story, "Tractor Girl," sold today to Neometropolis for 3 cents a word. This story was based of an AIM screen name of a girl who goes to college with me, her screen name being TractrG1rl (it's probably not a good thing that I'm posting her sn here on an open message board, but hopefully we're all professional here and it's not like she'll ever find her way to this place.) I was sitting at home over last summer and I saw her screen name on my buddy list and then wrote this first, opening line about Tractor Girl, with no idea where I was going to go with it.
After I finished the story, I decided it sucked and didn't really actively submit it...I mean I sent it to a small number of place, but only out of some guilt obligation and I'd let it sit at home for extremely long periods of time before sending it back out...I think it only went to two other markets before this one. Anyway, sometimes people find it interesting to hear about the orgins of a story, and that's a brief history of this one. |
| Well, when I first started up this account I was making sales pretty frequently so I thought I'd get to use it on a regular basis, but then I had a losing streak for over a month.
But today I had a small victory, a poetry sale to Kenoma. |
| Nope, author topics are automagic when you log in. People need someplace to go to flame you in private, if needed. :) |
| Well, here's my own topic. I always thought I had to be a speculations subscriber in order to get my own topic. I guess I'll eventually but a bio or something up here or something. For now you can visit my online journal at www.livejournal.com/users/sdowens |