Pod Castle

And we're back!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:34:13 GMT

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!

PodCastle is temporarily closed to submissions.

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:28:56 GMT

PodCastle is temporarily closed to submissions.

Ms. C. G., author of "Professional Responsibilities"

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:50:34 GMT

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.

Today's Required Reading

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:52:19 GMT

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.

International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:37:00 GMT

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
Stone Born by Loreen Heneghan
For Fear of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
Run of the Fiery Horse by Hilary Moon Murphy
Giant by Stephanie Burgis
Goosegirl by Margaret Ronald

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:42:18 GMT

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.

Upcoming Acceptances

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:28:05 GMT

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.

PodCastle Episode 1: "Come Lady Death" by Peter Beagle

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:28:03 GMT

PodCastle episode one is up on our feed!

You can find it here on our website: http://podcastle.org/2008/04/01/pc001-come-lady-death/

Here's our teaser:

PodCastle Episode 1

"Come Lady Death" by Peter Beagle

But in time her own parties began to bore her, and though she invited the most famous people in the land and hired the greatest jugglers and acrobats and dancers and magicians to entertain them, still she found her parties duller and duller. Listening to court gossip, which she had always loved, made her yawn. The most marvelous music, the most exciting feats of magic put her to sleep. Watching a beautiful young couple dance by her made her feel sad, and she hated to feel sad.

And so, one summer afternoon she called her closest friends around her and said to them, “More and more I find that my parties entertain everyone but me. The secret of my long life is that nothing has ever been dull for me. For all my life, I have been interested in everything I saw and been anxious to see more. But I cannot stand to be bored, and I will not go to parties at which I expect to be bored, especially if they are my own. Therefore, to my next ball I shall invite the one guest I am sure no one, not even myself, could possibly find boring. My friends, the guest of honor at my next party shall be Death himself!”

Rated PG. Contains…well, Death.

Slush Update - Mar 22, 2008

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:08:12 GMT

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)):

EF (2/9)
JK (via GG) (2/14)
NS (2/17)
NS (2/17)
VK (2/25)
VK (2/25)
LT (3/5)
GvE (3/12)
MC (3/13)
AK (3/17)
EV (3/18)
WM (3/19)
LW (3/21)
JB (3/21)

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.

PodCastle has a feed!

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:01:57 GMT

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/PodCastle_Main

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

PODCASTLE METACAST #1

Hello! This is Rachel Swirsky, PodCastle’s chief editor.

People have been asking us when we planned to put up a PodCastle feed. Well, here it is. And as long as we’re putting up a place holder, we figured why not include some teasers about the episodes we have lined up for you over the coming months.

We’re not far from our launch date on April first – yes, we know there’s an irony in launching a delayed fantasy podcast on April fool’s day -- when we’ll be broadcasting an audio version of Peter Beagle’s first published story, “Come Lady Death.”

After that, we’ve got dragons, both western and Chinese. We have rats and dead girls and princesses. We have zeppelins and ghostly husbands and weekdays that can be sent through the mail and magic that’s only magic in a certain slant of light.

We here at PodCastle feel that one of fantasy’s strengths is how many different kinds of fantasy stories there are, from traditional high fantasy, to mythic fantasy and folktales, to dark fantasy and urban fantasy, to dream-like surrealism and the more literary magical realism. At PodCastle, we plan to provide fantasy fiction that excites all these yearnings: from the desire to enjoy vicarious sword-swinging adventures to the use of the fantastic to explore the human mind and experience.

Over the course of our first three months, I’ve put together a kind of tour of fantasy, hitting many of the genre’s highlights. We begin with fantasy staples like personified death, fairy worlds, and dragons that menace villagers and haunt dreams. Then we move into myths and folktales, both new and old. From there we’ll emerge into magical versions of our own world, first epically historical and then quieter, simpler stories of mundane lives laced with a hint – just a hint – of magic. Finally, we’ll move through the other side of realism into mad, surreal visions, like our own world distorted by fun house mirrors.

Who’s bringing you all these stories? Well, you’ve already sort of “met” me – I’m Rachel Swirsky, and I’m PodCastle’s primary editor. I’m reading through the submissions we get and making final story selections -- although some of our first round of stories are ones that Steve bought for Escape Pod before PodCastle was a glimmer in Escape Artists’ eye, and so for a while you’ll be hearing a mix of both our tastes. I’m also working at getting our episodes into the hands of hosts and readers, and I’ll be introducing about one in four PodCastle episodes.

That’s right – PodCastle is deviating from the Escape Artists format by having multiple hosts. We’re excited to bring many voices to PodCastle. Fantasy is diverse, and we want to present it to you with diverse perspectives. My regular co-hosts are my associate editor, Ann Leckie, who is also handling our slush; writer and puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal; and Summer Brooks of podcasts such as "Slice of Sci Fi" and "The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas."

We’ll also have guest introductions from authors and fans. Occasionally, you may even hear a certain familiar voice coming through your speakers to let you know, "it’s story time.”

PodCastle episodes will air every Tuesday for your weekly fantasy fix. Additionally, we plan to have bonus PodCastle miniatures at least once a month. PodCastle Miniatures will be short-shorts of two thousand words or less – not long enough for a morning commute, but perhaps long enough for a morning coffee break.

We’ve decided to call our extra-short stories miniatures because according to wikipedia, the word miniature is derived from the Latin minium, red lead, and is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript. We thought it was a good way to describe very short stories with a fantasy theme: a word that indicates brievity, manuscripts, and a medieval atmosphere.

Our first miniature will be coming from the Escape Pod contest for flash fiction under 300 words, which some of you may remember taking over the forums last February.

PodCastle’s web presence is already established. Our official site is http://podcastle.org. You can also chat about us on the Escape Artsists forums at http://forums.escapeartists.info – the same place you go to discuss Escape Pod and Pseudopod. We also sometimes post information of interest to writers at our livejournal, http://podcastle.livejournal.com.

Speaking of writers, we’re always interested in reading submissions. You can find our submission guidelines at our website. We accept stories and queries at submit@podcastle.org (though please do read our guidelines first).

For other types of correspondence, you can reach us at editor@podcastle.org. We are now prepared to hear audio samples, by the way, in case anyone is interested in narrating. We’re also looking for audio editors to help out with our projects. Steve will have more information about that over at Escape Pod.

So, off we go. We’re working hard behind the scenes to launch PodCastle on April 1. Believe me: you can’t be as excited as I am. We’ll all just have to wait a few weeks longer. In the meantime, though, let me leave you with some words from that renowned fantasy genius Dr. Seuss – “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”

You can find a list of the links in this post on our website. See you on April first!

LINKS:

PodCastle official site: http://podcastle.org.

PodCastle forums: http://forums.escapeartists.info

PodCastle livejournal (with slush updates): http://podcastle.livejournal.com

CONTACT:

Submissions: submit@podcastle.org (please read our guidelines first!)

Other correspondence: editor@podcastle.org

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:20:11 GMT

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."

Things that are not funny

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:39:31 GMT

Here is a partial list of things that are not funny, for those humorists who find themselves confused:

Rape scenes.

The idea that black people are uppity.

The idea that women are uppity.

The idea that anyone is uppity.

Homophobia, misogyny, racism, or the reinforcement of stereotype against any historically disadvantaged group. For instance, the keen observation that Asian drivers suck? Not funny.

Rape scenes where the victim is male.

Rape scenes where the victim is male and the rape is implied, such as "hur hur you'll get it in prison."

Fat people being fat.

Trans people being trans.

People *being* much of anything, as opposed to *doing* things.

No, seriously, rape scenes.

This has been a rant. Thank you.

Grammar

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:54:12 GMT

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!

Slush update

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:45:26 GMT

We've received following submissions to which we have not yet responded (author initials, date):

JR (2/22)
BHR (2/21)
CCF (2/19)
NS (2/17)
NS (2/17)
CMD (2/17)
LB (2/17)
JK [via GG] (2/14)
LT (2/13)
EF (2/09)

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.

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:21:26 GMT

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.

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:23:36 GMT

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)
Asimovs (1)
Atlantic Monthly (1)
Chizine (1)
Flash Me (1)
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine (1)
Strange Horizons (1)
Sword & Sorceress anthology (1)
Tales of the Unanticipated (1)
Weird Tales (2)
Sword & Sorceress anthology (1)
? (1)

Me

submissions to the EP 300 word contest (1)
Diagram (1)
Fantasy Anthology / Fantasy Magazine (3)
Fantasy Gone Wrong Anthology (1)
Fantasy & Science Fiction (1)
Farthing (1)
Heliotrope (1)
Intergalactic Medicine Show (1)
Lone Star Stories (1)
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine (1)
Talking Back: Epistolary Fantasies (1)
Polyphony (1)
Realms of Fantasy (3)
Strange Horizons (3)
Son & Foe (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.

Call for Submissions: Halloween Flash

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:32:36 GMT

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.

Rights

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:40:49 GMT

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.

Slush Update - 2/12/08

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:20:52 GMT

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)
VN (2/8)
IJ (1/3)
AD (12/25)
PR (12/14)
MRK (12/11)
MM (12/10)
TC (12/10)
AS (12/9)
AD (11/26)

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.

Line Up Switch Up

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:21:05 GMT

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

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:50:45 GMT

Posted by Ann, xposted to ann_leckie

I am extraordinarily pleased (and relieved) to be able to say that Podcastle will begin running on April 1.

The pleased needs no explanation. The relieved--well, I'll just say that for a while there I was wondering if it was going to get off the ground. Rachel and I have been putting in work doing our end of things--which up until yesterday included only the reading of slush on my end, and the actual choosing of stories on Rachel's. Neither of us was in a position to make announcements, official or not, about the status or even continued existence of Podcastle. Musings about the experience of reading slush and the status of the slushpile, sure. Beyond that, no. And frankly, I don't think my slush musings belong on the official blog, which I have assumed, based on the Escape Pod site, is only for posting episode links anyway.

There is a link to the livejournal in the submission guidelines, by the way, and the lj is described (entirely accurately) as a way for writers to get updates on the status of the slush. Not official podcast announcements. Honestly, listeners who are not also submitting are probably not interested in slushpile issues.

And until yesterday, there was nothing to announce. Rachel and I had no information, as soon as we got information we assessed the situation, made a plan, and acted on it. The result of that action: an official announcement, posted mere minutes after we knew what was up.

Apparently at least one reader has taken offence at the delay. I do understand being disappointed that the podcast hasn't arrived yet, and the frustration with no announcements. But frankly, Rachel and I have been in that same place, with the added fun of having spent months reading and responding to subs.

People have crises in their lives. It's hard to schedule crises. They'd be ever so much less stressful if you could do that--"No, I'm busy that month. May is always slow, how about then?" Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. And casting aspersions when you don't actually know the details, let alone taking personal offence at a situation that has in fact not injured you at all...well.

Maybe Anonymous is having some trouble of their own, and needs a hug. So, have a hug, Anonymous, and a warm fuzzy blanket and a squishy, soft teddy bear. Grab your favorite comfort reading. Get tucked in on the couch, I hereby send you a nice warm cup of tea, or bowl of soup, or maybe a big box of yummy chocolate. Take a deep breath. Breathe in the calm, breathe out the stress.

Isn't that much nicer?

Update in Good Humor!

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:10:46 GMT

Hey ho again!

Persuant to the various stuff explained in my last post, I can now firmly announce: Things are Officially Getting Rolling. We're going to cast the first episode on April 1. An April Fool's Day joke, you ask? I'll let you determine that for yourselves.

What proof do I have that this is for real? Well, check out our opening line-up. Barring crises with contracts or reading, behold what you'll listen to for the first six weeks. Notice that in addition to weekly full-length fiction, we'll be airing flash every two or three weeks.

EPISODE 1 - April 1: "Come Lady Death" by Peter Beagle
Bonus Flash - April 4: "Skyscrapers" by Rachel Swirsky
EPISODE 2 - April 8: "For Love of Dragons" by C. L. Vaughn
EPISODE 3 - April 15: "Run of the Fiery Horse" by Hilary Moon Murphy
Bonus Flash - April 18: "Pahwahke" by Gord Sellar
EPISODE 4 - April 22: "Goosegirl" by Margaret Ronald
EPISODE 5 - April 29: "The Girl with the Sun in Her Head" by Jeremiah Tolbert
Bonus Flash - May 2: "Giant" by Stephanie Burgis
EPISODE 6 - May 6: "The Dead Girl's Wedding March" by Cat Rambo

Got questions? Lay 'em on me.

PodCastle Update

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:01:41 GMT

Hey Ho,

This is the editor of PodCastle, Rachel Swirsky.

First off, I want to post something about some of the deranged stuff that got posted here while I was ill. Those of you who have been following the tribulations of PodCastle will know that there have been severe problems with getting the cast started. These have nothing to do with my illness, or indeed, me. Nor do they have anything to do with Ann Leckie. I would like to stress that. Ann and I have done everything we were asked to do, and indeed everything we were permitted to do within the structure as it had been set up by Steve Eley.

Unfortunately, our fearless leader Steve Eley has not been recently well. Those of you who know him personally will know what's happened; those of you who don't may simply rest assured that his personal crises prevented him from being able to launch what is essentially a new business venture.

It's taken Steve some time to come to grips with the full effects of this crisis, but now that they've become clear, he has agreed to allow Ann and I to take more of the responsibility for the podcast. Now that we have been alloewd to do so, we will be able to guarantee the launch of the podcast by April 1. Yes, we are aware of the irony of it being April Fool's Day. You've gotta laugh.

You may justifiably ask why earlier announcements were not made. In fact, they were: on Escape Pod, and particularly on the message boards.

Would I have posted more information in those announcements? Probably. However, up to this point, I have been editor only in that I am doing story selection. One reason I signed up for this project is that I was promised that someone else would be doing the administrative, audio, and voice aspects of the 'cast. Steve was the leader here; I felt it important to follow his guidance in terms of what information he wanted made explicit.

I can't say I understand why the delay of a free podcast has driven some people to a frothing fury. That's clearly bizarre behavior. However, I do understand that the delay of the podcast has been frustrating, and I apologize for that. The crisis which created this delay is unfortunate, but at least its scope is now understood, and I am optomistic that Ann and I -- who are not in crisis -- will be able to work within our expanded roles to create the launch.

Comments are allowed here; harrassment of myself or commenters is not.

A post containing customary good humor is upcoming. :-D

Cliche

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:20:40 GMT

Posted by Ann Leckie, x-posted at ann_leckie

I’d like to talk a bit about cliché. Why? Well, basically, I’m avoiding working on the project I’m supposed to be writing. Also, you know, slush reading.

So. Cliché. And its cousin, or nephew, or whatever, Stereotype.

It’s commonly said that a cliché is something that has been overused. A phrase, a plot, a trope, or a character. But I think that definition is off the mark. Worse, I think it’s unhelpful to a writer who wants to avoid cliché in her own writing.

It’s true that clichés are very frequently used. But I don’t think that’s what makes it a cliché. It’s not a matter of familiarity, but of laziness. The cliché is so pervasive that one reaches for it without thought, and worse, uses it without thought. The stereotype remains unquestioned, uninterrogated; the trope placed, generic and unaltered, into its waiting, prefabricated slot.

They’re commonly used as shortcuts, a way of getting around actually thinking through the story elements you’re using. “Oh, elves!” we say to ourselves, and we all know about elves, no need to spend too much time on that. Say “Elves” and the reader will know just what you mean, freeing you from all kinds of expositional problems.

Not to mention worldbuilding problems. Elves conjures up a whole raft of associations. An entire map rolls out before you, one vast Lego board, and all the blocks that fit right on it in any combination you care to use. It’s easy! But when you’re done, well, it all kind of looks like you snapped it together from Lego kits.

How to avoid that? Well, if you’re thinking to yourself, “this is cliché because elves are overdone...but I want elves!” you might try, for instance, adding some sequins and rickrack, or better yet, some grunge. Give your elves motorcycles and tattoos! Everyone else’s cliché elves wear green and ride horses through the woods, so yours will be different, therefore not cliché! It’s the easiest, most obvious “solution” to the problem, and believe me, I’ve seen several examples in Podcastle slush. It almost never actually works, even when it’s done jokingly.

Why not? Well, the “solution” is as unconsidered as the original conception. And the elves themselves, they’re not real characters, are they, they’re either a mass of cardboard cutouts with ELF written on them in glitter glue, or they’re characters you got buy one get one free at J.R.R.’s Dry Goods and Fantasy Supply.

And it’s not just elves. I only use them because they are among the most obvious and egregious of clichés available to the fantasy writer. It’s stock characters like, for instance, one of my very unfavorites, The Vengeful Ex Wife. She has no real motivation for behaving as she does, really, but since Some Divorces Are Just Like That the writer feels relieved of the responsibility of making her an actual person, with the same sort of complicated mix of impulses any real human being has. (And don’t even get me started on Adorable Little Girls.) It’s phrases like “her blood ran cold.” It’s the farmer’s son destined by prophecy to rule the land. It’s anything that comes to your mind, whole, fully formed, on the instant.

Elves are, by the way, a very hard sell with me. If you want me to be impressed with your elf story, it needs to be one humdinger of a piece of fiction. I’m sorely tempted at this point to say, “Don’t write about elves, for Mithras’ sake!” But it’s very much contrary to what I believe about fiction, and art in general, to issue such declarations. There are no rules. Nothing is forbidden. Write what it’s in you to write about. I believe with my whole heart that it is entirely possible for someone to write an elf story that will kick my ass from here to next March and back.

It is also entirely possible to jump out of an airplane without a parachute and live. Fortunately, the consequences of failing at the former are less fatal than the latter, so by all means, give it a shot if you feel so moved.

Anyway. The problem isn’t that anyone who’s read Tolkien, or daydreamed about Orlando Bloom with long blonde hair, has decided that pretty elf boys would be smashingly sparkly and beautiful in a story. It’s that those elves, as I said above, came in a shrink wrapped Family Value Pack (Now 30% MORE ELF!). And the author unwrapped them and snapped them into his Lego world, next to the other Legos. And it may look all shiny to the author, but let me tell you, we get a lot of Lego sets--some of them fairly artfully done, granted, but still.

The problem is, you’re not looking at the Legos. You reached for them because they were there, and they snap together easily, and hey, they work! You don’t ask, “Why Legos, even? What is it that makes these Legos snap together so easily? What if I snapped them backwards? Or melted them in the microwave? Are Legos really the best thing for me to be using?” Ask.

Look carefully at what you’ve snapped together with the Legos. It was the first thing, as I said, that came to hand. Never trust the first thing that comes to hand. Why did you reach for that block, there? Do you really need it? Is there a different one that might serve a similar function but look even cooler? Maybe you’ll have to carve it yourself—now we’re talking.

Reading a lot really helps here. Reading slush is amazingly instructive—you come to see the things that tend to be those first ideas that come to mind. You can watch for them in your own work. But really you don’t need that. You just need to not trust the first thing you reach for. Ever.

And you need to consider character more carefully. I firmly believe that any cliché can be saved by good characterization. Good characterization is the Anti Cliché, its opposite. If you’ve got good characters, and handle them well, the rest can’t help but be less prefab. But of course, good characterization requires abandoning stereotypes.

Abandon the freaking stereotypes! They are not handy shortcuts. They’re traps. They’re not true. “Oh,” you say, “but little girls are adorable! So, see, it’s true!” Yes, little girls are adorable, but every little girl is, in point of fact, her own, unique human being. The fact that she is a little girl is not actually a defining fact about her, it does not say everything we need to know about her. Yes, this particular issue makes me grind my teeth. I hate sentimentalized little girls in stories. And saying so, once, I was told that if I only had a little girl of my own I might understand!

Deep breath. Yes. I have not only been a little girl, at one point in my life, but I have Paidhi Girl. Little Girl. Completely adorable. Completely her own person. That stick figure little girl thing, that’s not her, that doesn’t even come near to her. (Stereotyped teens do the same thing to me—I serve lunch to real teens. Even with that brief contact, it’s clear that they are all of them unique individuals. They might statistically fall into one or another group, but they’re distinguishable from each other. )

What really bothers me about this is the person who admonished me did so on the assumption that if I had real experience of little girls, I would realize that they were…all conforming to a stereotype. The implication is that they actually see their own daughters through this framework, and see “Adorable Little Girl” as a defining characteristic of all the little girls in their lives.

Well, I told you not to get me started on that. Anyway. Ditch the stereotypes. When you meet people, lose that framework. Don’t say “what category does this person fit into?” Instead ask, “What makes this person different from everyone else? Even (especially!) the people who are ‘just like’ him?”

Do the same thing with your characters. They’re real people—or at least, you want the reader to think so. So make a study of real people. And don’t just grab the first thing that comes to mind. Just don’t!

It's hard work, yes. But it's worth it.

Slush

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:54:27 GMT

(x-posted from Ann's LJ)

So I’m reading slush for Podcastle these days. And some of the commenters on Scalzi’s post about Dragon’s rights grab (are you freaking kidding me? All rights?) have got me thinking about things you don’t learn until you’ve read slush.

One of those things is that, no, really, it’s not worth getting just any credits at all to get yourself noticed. It’s all about the writing. If you think that your stuff isn’t getting past the slush reader because you have no credits, and your writing is just as good as the people who sell stuff all the time—well, dude, think again. I mean, it might be true? But I wouldn’t bet any actual, real money on it.

Another thing? Is the whole question of “you’ve got to grab the editor in the first few paragraphs.”

This is more or less true. But it leads to people saying, for instance, that this means you’ve got to have something fast paced, actiony, world-destroying in the first paragraph. Open with action! Explosions! Fights! And, went some recent complaints, this is sad because what about wonderful stories that open slowly?

Well, see, this is the thing. Those wonderful stories that open slowly—they grab you in the first few paragraphs. It’s not exploding suns and fast-paced action any given editor is looking for (though she might be, tastes differ of course). It’s writing. Slow or fast, really good writing makes you sit up and go, “Oh!” and you want to read more.

No, don’t tell me that it gets really good on page four. I have only two possible reactions to that.

A)No, it doesn’t. Really. Believe me. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, the first paragraphs are a really excellent indicator of the quality of the rest of the sub. I know this because, in an invisible and pointless gesture of solidarity with writers languishing in slushpiles, I generally read the whole ms. If you’re being rejected all the time, and never passed up to editors (when there are slush readers, which there aren’t always) it’s because you don’t write well enough. Make your next project as good as you can make it. Go over every detail until there is nothing you can point to that makes you say, “Well, that’s not exactly right but it’s good enough.” Because “good enough” is not good enough. Good enough is not the name of this game. Freaking fantastic is the name of this game, and you won’t get there except by writing, and reading with an eye towards seeing how the writers you admire do it.

Or optionally, rarely, but it is possible,

B)So then start on page four! Or else go back and make pages one through three really freaking good! Don’t figure those three iffy pages are okay if four is good enough. Like I said, good enough isn’t good enough.

It’s true that you get some leeway when you’ve made a name. But it doesn’t work the way some assume.

I’ll give an example. This weekend, I met with some other writers to crit stories. It was a lovely afternoon, actually, and great comments from everyone. But at one point, one participant mentioned worrying, when she’d started reading a particular story, that the issue this story dealt with was going to be trivialized, and she was pleased and relieved when it wasn’t.

That was when I realized that I had never even considered that possibility—because I already knew the writer being critted. The commenter was, at this session, meeting and reading the writer for the first time.

That’s the kind of extra leeway you get. “Hey, Susan’s doing something really odd here—but I’ve read a bunch of her stuff and she usually knows what she’s doing.” Or “Wow, this really seems to be headed in a cliché/offensive/whatever direction. But I know Susan, she’s probably going to do something interesting with it.”

Is that fair? Well, no, not entirely. What should the unpublished writer do about it? Well, the same thing the unpublished writer should do about anything—write each story as well as she possibly can, send it out, start on the next project with the intention of making it better than the last one. Lather, rinse, repeat. Because if nothing else, the slush reader gets to know you. “Oh, here’s another one from Susan, and…wow, this one is even better than her last! I’m sending this up!”

Write. Write well. Write as well as you possibly can, and then write better. There is nothing else.

I do realize that there’s some ego-defense involved. Rejections are hard, repeated rejections are downright depressing. And besides, it’s hellishly hard to actually see your own writing for what it is. In some ways it’s like your child, and have you ever met a parent who didn’t believe their baby was absolutely beautiful?

And you need some of that to survive. You need to keep sending out, even when your work isn’t perfect. You either need to be a masochist who loves being rejected all the time, or you need to be convinced, on whatever level, of your own ability. Maybe some internal, private narrative about how Those Idiots fail to recognize Your Genius and you’ll show them one day! And hey, whatever lets you print out the next SASE and get it to the post office. But don’t be so convinced of your ability that you fail to improve yourself as a writer.

When I say, “You’re not selling because you’re not good enough,” understand that I’m most emphatically not saying “You miserable wretch! You suck!” I get rejected, too. Sometimes (hell, always, when it comes down to it) stories I’m very proud of and that I’ve worked very hard on. But it’s not because I don’t have any credits, or because my openings aren’t flashy enough, or because I don’t know the right people. It’s because for whatever reason that story just didn’t do it for that editor at that time. The end. Send it out again. Make the next project even better.

Like I said, there isn’t anything else.