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It was nice to have a break, but we couldn't stay away forever! As of today Podcastle is now re-opened to submissions. Send 'em if you got 'em! |
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PodCastle is temporarily closed to submissions. |
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Ms. C. G., On the off chance that you read this journal, I am going to post information about your sub here. You mailed it on August 25; we rejected it on August 26. You queried on October 23; we responded (that we had rejected it) on October 24. You queried again today, and I responded today. It seems clear that you aren't receiving our emails. You might want to check your spam settings. Take away message for people who are not Ms. C.G.: Please don't use a submissions address that will not accept email from the hapless editors to whom you submit. |
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Posted by Ann I've often wondered to myself, "Self," I've wondered, "what will Nick Mamatas do for ten bucks?" And today, the answer: for ten bucks, Nick Mamatas will write a post on ending stories. Too many stories make one of two errors — they cop-out on the implications of the story or exhaust the reader. Both serve to stop the story rather than end it, both fail to leave the reader hungry for more. Go read. |
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International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day is here. Luckily, PodCastle has already made a contribution to the annals of free online fiction. If you happen to subscribe to this journal, but haven't checked out the episodes we've aired so far, I urge you to take a look. Come Lady Death by Peter Beagle |
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Posted by Ann Jed Hartman, one of the editors at Strange Horizons, has a blog. Some of it's personal stuff, some of it is slush updates. Sometimes it's useful posts about writing. It was the seventh day of Rilrak, and Vesnalorm the Mighty, Ess'lor of Nyeang, stood in Yerale Pass by the broad swift-flowing Undh, looking down over Warawe Valley to the golden towers of Soelmwar. "Alas," thought Vesnalorm; "King Dukeko will die this day at the hands of his brother, Lllarod, and his sister, Ightch, and his cousins Nudah and Worler, if my Knights of Banismos do not act quickly." It's a definite problem in secondary-world fantasy. You want to use cool, made-up names. You need to get your characters and settings introduced so your reader will understand who the players are and where they're playing. But a first paragraph like that is a story-stopper, plain and simple. My advice? Don't be in such a hurry. Spread your names out. Consider very carefully just what needs names and what doesn't. The above example is extreme, but instructive--does the name of the river matter? Maybe it doesn't, and can just be "the river." Same for the pass the redoubtable Vesnalorm stands in. At the very least, we can name them later. For now, give us Vesnalorm and his distress about the king (does the king need a name? Maybe, maybe not) and maybe a good description of the river, and perhaps the valley Vesnalorm is looking at. And then, you know, you really might want to consider cutting the cast down a bit. Most short stories don't need four villains. If you can threaten the king with just his sister, get rid of the brother and the cousins. It's essentially an expositional problem, and exposition is, in my personal opinion, one of the biggest, thorniest problems facing writers of fantasy--and of science fiction, and, I'd guess, historical fiction. And coincidentally, Jed wrote an amusing blog post on exposition that's worth reading. |
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PodCastle has a fairly large backlog of holds at the moment. I've been in contact with many of the authors of the stories we're holding to let them know that we've been waiting for launch and some feedback to start making new story selections. Well, launch is now, and I hope to start working through our hold backlog. A few new acceptances WILL be going out now -- mostly of flash fiction. I will still be doing quite a bit of pondering, though. I hope to get back to everyone in our hold pile within the next two months. |
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PodCastle episode one is up on our feed! You can find it here on our website: http://podcastle.org/2008/04/01/pc001-c Here's our teaser:
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As a light snow falls on Iowa City, failing to stick to the ground, it's time for a slush update. The following fourteen stories are a-sitting in my slush pile, waiting to be read (author (date)):
I'm sorry to say those fourteen shouldn't expect replies in the next two or three weeks, as school duties call, but after that I shall try to be rapid with the response time. Those fourteen stories are the only ones that we have to which we have not replied. Anyone else should have received a yes, a no, or a hold notice. (Just 'cuz it's caused some confusion before, I don't count those stories we have on hold on this list. Stories on hold are in their own separate zone of the slush since you've at least heard back from us once. People with held stories should feel free to query us any time, though.) Ann and I have noticed that someone on duotrope has a submission listed to us with no response in fourteen days. We don't have a record of your sub, dear unresponded to person, so either your submission or our response has gone astray. Try to get in touch with us. Anyone else who doesn't see their sub on this list, but who hasn't received a yes, no, or hold notice, should probably also try to get in touch with us. If our email address isn't working for you, you might want to try this LJ. |
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Now that we have an audio file to put out on the feed, we can finally give you a proper podcast feed you can subscribe to, as well as submit our RSS feed to iTunes. (If you don’t know what this means, sit tight and we’ll have some handy tips for you.) The feed URL, for those of you who want to subscribe immediately, is: http://feeds.escapeartists.net/PodCastl We expect to be listed in the iTunes directory shortly, but if you want to start following us in your own iTunes right now, just head over to our website and click the Itunes button. Right now, we have our first post up on that feed -- a "metacast" from me, including some information about the PodCastle format and teasers for our upcoming episodes. You can listen to it here. If you'd rather read the text of our metacast instead of hopping over for a list, just take a gander ( below the cut ) |
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It's the crows that draw my attention. The crows around the Podcastle are huge, four feet high and glossy black. Right now they're wheeling and diving around a man at the bottom of the curtain wall, below our turret breakfast room. The man flails wildly at the crows, shouting incoherently, and then goes on banging at the postern gate. I shrug and return to the table. Porridge with almonds, my favorite! Though I have to eat carefully. Wide sleeves are in (oh, so very in!) this year, and mine go down nearly to the floor. Rachel arrives, resplendent in a scarlet silk bliaut. "I didn't expect you for hours yet," I say. "The concert…" "Was amazing." Of course it was. Guillame de Machaut is the hottest composer of the fourteenth century. Rachel hums a phrase of Ma fin est mon commencement and stops suddenly at the sound of cawing. "Crows?" "John Darling," I say. "Banging on the postern gate." She looks at me with bafflement. "You remember. The troubadour." We're always getting troubadours. They come and sing their songs for us, and sometimes we buy them. Even when the songs aren't quite to our taste, we enjoy the troubadours. Nearly always. "Nick over at Castle Clarkesworld banished this one, if you recall. He issued that proclaimation?" "Oh, yes, of course. I have a terrible memory for names." She goes over to the buffet table, lifts a lid. "Ooh, almond porridge. No tea?" "The caravan from the Province of Unexamined Colonialism is late." I lift my cup. "Cook's made some sort of herbal tisane." Darling's ranting reaches us faintly from below as Rachel settles gracefully into her chair with her breakfast. "Our very first," she remarks. "Our first?" I take a spoonful of porridge. "I don't think he's our first." "No, Ann, I'm sure. He's our very first banishment." I swallow thoughtfully. "But if you lean over the battlements you can hear him quite distinctly. He's offered us only non-exclusive, one time banishment rights." "But have we ever banished anyone before?" "No." "And if we banish someone later, we'll have already banished Mr. Darling, so they can't be the first. First banishment has irretrievably been expended. It is gone, whatever Mr. Darling's protests to the contrary." "Hmm," I say, contemplatively chewing an almond. "Consider first serial rights," says Rachel. "Suppose that Gutenberg offered to print copies of your tract on his machine. (Once he invents it, of course.) Even if he didn't ask for first serial rights, once he printed your text, you can't possibly still have the right to publish it for the first time elsewhere. That's gone." "But…" I frown, thinking. "Obviously there's a serious philosophical problem here. Does a thing's nature remain unchanged even when you change its name?" "Ann." Rachel looks at me as though I've gone daft. "Do you remember Geraint?" That brings back memories! You never forget your first. "Oh, Geraint!" I feel myself blushing a bit. Little Sir Geraint. Well, not all of him was little. Just…well. It's like they say, it's not the size of your pike that counts, it's how well you thrust it in. Of course, I can imagine some combat situations where a small pike wouldn't help you much. And that sort of pike would make for interesting wars… Rachel speaks, mercifully interrupting my train of thought. "What if he'd offered you one time, non-exclusive copulatory rights? Would that have made him somehow not your first?" "Well, of course not! If we hadn't ever…" I trail off. Rachel gives a sardonic smile. "…then you'd still have your pet unicorn." "Oh, Fionn," I say, a little sadly – but only a little. Unicorns are beautiful creatures and excellent mounts, but there are compensations for losing their companionship. "Yes, I see now. I agree." "But of course, Mr. Darling wasn't banished for his philosophical beliefs," says Rachel. "He was banished for his rudeness." I shake my head. "There really was no call to smash that crockery over Cook's head." Rachel looks wistful. "It was nice pottery." "And what he said to the chamber maid…" We both fall silent, remembering. Below us, Darling's thwarted curses waft up, leaving the air tinged slightly blue. "You know, it's like that monkey," I comment. "Which monkey?" asks Rachel. "The one at the queen's banquet last month." Most dancing monkeys, you have to poke them with a stick to make them dance. But this one… "The one with his own stick!" Rachel grinned. "He kept poking himself and poking himself and getting madder and madder." "I wonder if Mr. Darling has a monkey suit?" I ask. Rachel doesn't answer my idle question. She's finished her porridge and she goes to the buffet to lift another lid. "What is this? Fish?" "It's cod." "Cod? For breakfast?" "Yes," I say. "I asked Cook especially to make it. It's practically the national dish of Fantasy." "Surely stew is the national dish of Fantasy?" "The other national dish," I explain patiently. "Cod with verjuice, ginger, and honey." She looks at me uncomprehending. "You know. Cod Medieval." Rachel groans. "You've been waiting all morning to say that, haven't you." "Yes," I admit. "Yes, I have." |
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Here is a partial list of things that are not funny, for those humorists who find themselves confused:
This has been a rant. Thank you. |
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Posted by Ann Those of you who know me personally know that a good way to annoy me is to declare singular they to be ungrammatical. Rant, condensed--Is not, and even if it were, if it was good enough for Jane Austen, it's damn well good enough for me. So. I read and very much enjoyed this essay on the topic. Which I found via Language Log. You all read Language Log, don't you? Yes? The last time the Academic-Industrial Complex unilaterally changed the rules of grammar was in the 18th century, when grammarians, taking a bit too much of a cue from Latin, made up a rule that pronouns had to agree in number with their antecedents, a “rule” which, in fact, had been regularly violated by such writers as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen to say nothing of thousands of less notable authors and, no doubt, hundreds of thousands of plain old native English speakers. Go, read! |
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We've received following submissions to which we have not yet responded (author initials, date): JR (2/22) All other submissions should have received an acceptance, a rejection, or a hold notice. If you aren't on this list and you haven't gotten an acceptance, rejection or hold notice, then your submission has gone astray. Feel free to contact us here or by email so we can figure out what went wrong and how to get your submission. |
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Posted by Ann Podcastle has never (yet) banned anyone from submitting. (Yet) because who knows what the future might hold? But nihilistic_kid is worth reading on the topic of responding to rejections.Submitting writers do not have a business relationship with me; they are would-be vendors showing me, a customer, their wares. Would some salesperson trying to sell a widget-maker to a widget factory respond to business correspondence stating that the device does not meet requirements with a whining complaint or an attack on the factory manager's intelligence or integrity or dare instruct them somehow? Not if they ever wanted to sell anything to that company ever again. He is one hundred percent correct. One may be tempted to argue that Nick's judgment is no better than anyone else's, that he's a writer just like the rest of us so where does he get off making pronouncements from on high? But the fact of the matter is, he's correct. While it's true that some editorial responses are abusive, most aren't. I've been rejected by nihilistic_kid myself, and while his rejections are frank and not one hundred percent complimentary, they're not arrogant or out of line. And even if they were, well, he's the editor. If he wants to choose stories based on what phase of the moon it is, or how the tarot cards fell that morning, then that's his right. Arguing with his reasons is fruitless. It doesn't get you Correctness Points. If his rejections are more than you feel you're willing to handle, don't submit to him. I do hear, and feel, the sincerity in the bannee's cry, that she's been rejected over and over again and she's sick of just "being the good girl" and taking it. I really do, I feel a pang of sympathy for her when she says that. That's a cry from the heart, that is. But she's mistaking good, businesslike practice for "just taking it." You're not going to change the situation by complaining, by talking back, by declaring that you're just as good as them so what do they matter! More importantly, from a writer's point of view, the complaint misses the point, utterly and completely. If you're being rejected over and over again it's not because editors are against you, or arrogant, or stupid. It's not because you're being a doormat. It's because your writing isn't good enough. And that's fixable but only if you're willing to buckle down and do the work. Which begins with realizing that you've got to get better. Complaining about editor arrogance is ego-defense. Fine. Defend your ego. You've got to, one way or another. But please, folks, don't do it in front of the editor. Don't do it on the internet, where Google will make it immortal. Don't mistake your necessary ego-defense for Truth. This is not, by the way, triggered by anything in Podcastle slush. We've been really lucky in the way of responses to rejections. If they happen, they're invariably a short thanks for a quick response. You're welcome! No, this post is more on the order of a pre-emptive strike. Perusing the Clarkesworld guidelines isn't a bad idea. Because although few other markets say things like "you'll be banned for subbing more than once every seven days,"(eta--CW won't ban for submitting more than once a week, see Nick's comment below) Clarkesworld's guidelines give, as few other guidelines do, very specific advice on good submitting etiquette. The things Clarkesworld will ban you for are things you shouldn't be doing, just on general principles. When Nick says something like, "A cover letter is what you wear and how you groom yourself for a job interview," he is absolutely correct. Sure, not all editors read cover letters before they read the story, but you don't know who those editors are, do you? Comb your hair and put on the suit. It's just common sense. I'm not saying this because it affects your chances at Podcastle. I'm saying it because it's good advice for writers, generally. Podcastle won't ban you, or reject your story, because you've done something that mildly annoys us. Nor will we reject a fantastic story because the cover letter is flawed, or whatever. But. Read Nick's guidelines, and his tales of the banned. It's educational. |
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I was curious, so I looked through the PodCastle stock to see where we're buying reprints *from*. I divided the list into purchases made by Steve (before I started editing) and purchases made by me. (Note: many of these pieces are flash.) Steve submissions to the EP 300 word contest (4) Me submissions to the EP 300 word contest (1) * So, clearly, the concentrations for me are at Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons, and the Fantasy Magazine franchise. I knew that we were buying a lot from Fantasy and Strange Horizons, but I was surprised at the RoF. I feel like we turn down a lot of RoF stories -- but apparently we've taken a few, too. |
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PodCastle is planning a Halloween treat for the month of October. Already, we've got a couple stories lined up that are spooky, funny, or both, dealing with traditional hallow's eve themes likes ghosts and vampires. Don't worry, we're not stealing Pseudopod's thunder -- these stories feel more fantasy than horror, at least to us -- though we may borrow a few spine-tingling chills from our sister horror podcast, just for October. PodCastle would like to flash up October's bewitching lineup with some short-shorts of 2,000 words and under. So feel free to send us what you've got that you think would fit our theme. We're not looking for blood and gore, although we don't object to some. We're looking for stories that can loosely fit into a Halloween theme. Ghosts and zombies and trick-or-treaters count, whatever they're up to. Our submission address is submit@podcastle.org. You can find our general guidelines at http://podcastle.org. We pay $20 for flash length fiction. Feel free to repost this message. |
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Posted by Ann This bulletin is the product of several fairly recent cover letters. Because Podcastle takes primarily reprints, we ask authors to tell us in the cover letter which rights are currently available. If you have sold the story to a magazine before submitting it to Podcastle, all rights are not available. First serial rights were sold when you first sold the piece. You can't sell those rights again, they are not available. So-- "This story appeared in the magazine A Figment of My Imagination, who purchased first serial rights and non-exclusive reprint rights. All other rights are available." Also, please do not say your work is in the public domain. Unless you are deliberately releasing it into the public domain, it is not in the public domain. And while I'm all for it if that's what you really want to do, understand what public domain actually means. Because, among other things, it means we don't actually have to pay you if we want to run it. And neither does anyone else. Ever. I'm not sure what the folks who have submitted stories they claim to be in the public domain actually mean by it, but I would bet real money they don't mean actual public domain. |
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We currently have ten submissions in our box that have not received an acceptance, a rejection, or a hold notice. Some I've read and am pondering, others I have not yet read. All of them have been passed up to me - either because Ann liked them enough to recommend them, or because they got pulled out of the slush for one reason or another. They are (initials, date): EF (2/9) If you don't see your name and story on this list, and you have not received an acceptance, rejection or hold request -- then you can assume your story has been lost. Let us know. |
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Whee, it's Extravagant Numbers of Posts Day. Those of you who care about such things may have noticed my name on the PodCastle line-up as the author of the flash piece "Skyscrapers." This is a justifiable flag for many writers. I'll go ahead and establish that I wouldn't consider choosing and publishing my own work. 'Cuz, ick. "Skyscrapers," however, wasn't something I chose -- it was actually the second place winner of a contest held by Escape Pod, and so it's part of the stock of stories I inherited when taking over the magazine. It's also something that some Escape Pod readers have enthusiasm for so I was hoping to use it to drum up some reader happy points. "Skyscrapers" won that contest before PodCastle was even a gleam in the eye of its creator, and also before I was affiliated with any of the Pods. I was not involved in its selection. I was contracted and paid before coming in as an editor. I don't believe there's any impropriety in my running the story, and if I did believe that, I would not have included it in the line-up. But you know what I soooo am not interested in? Drama, even if it follows only an appearance of impropriety. Completely not interested. Consequently, the aforementioned piece will not be running in PodCastle. It may possibly run in Escape Pod even though EP isn't running fantasy anymore. And how does this affect you, dear reader who is probably also a writer? It means I have a particular kind of need for flash to suit the hole in my line-up. Here's what I'm looking for: a story under 2,000 words with a traditionalist kind of cast to it. No postmodernism, no subversion. Tolkein-esque or Gaiman-esque is fine, but it should work within the frames and expectations of the fantasy genre. As always, we pay $20 for flash, and we love reprints. Send your traditional and fantabulous fiction to submit@podcastle.org. :-D |
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