Aeryn Rudel's Blog, page 43

A Week of Writing: 9/10/18 to 9/16/18

A day late and a dollar short, as they say, but here’s my writing week that was.

Words to Write By

This week’s quote is from Jack London.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

– Jack London

I really dig this quote. What it says to me is I can’t sit idle until I feel like writing. I have to get on with it. I have to hit my word count or work on those revisions, even when writing is the last thing I want to do. This is especially true when I have a deadline, and...

A Week of Writing: 9/3/18 to 9/9/18

It’s Monday, and I’m back on track with weekly, writerly updates.

Words to Write By

Today’s quotes comes from one of my favorite fantasy authors, Robin Hobb.

The challenge is always to find the good place to end the book. The rule I follow with myself is that every book should end where the next book would logically begin. I know that some readers wish that literally all of the threads would be neatly tied off and snipped, but life just doesn’t work that way.

– Robin Hobb

I wholeheartedly agr...

Iron Kingdoms Fiction – Peace of Mind

Got another piece of Iron Kingdoms fiction you today. This one is called “Peace of Mind” and it also comes from an issue of No Quarter magazine. It features members of the Searforge Commission, a mercenary company drawn from the dwarven empire of Rhul. This story centers around a group of miscreants and unfortunates stationed at a backwater fort where they can’t get into much trouble. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

New to Privateer Press and the Iron Kingdoms? Check out this link for an intr...

Submission Statement: July & August 2018

Well, I missed the submission statement for July, so I’m just gonna lump it in with August. Here’s a couple of months of submissions, rejections, and acceptances.

July & August 2018 Report Card

Submissions Sent: 13 Rejections: 10 Acceptances: 7 Publications: 3 Other: 3

Thirteen submission is pretty good, though most of those came in August. Ten rejections for two months is a little on the low side, but that’s because seven acceptances in on the very high side. Three of the acceptances were...

Submission Protocol: Summary Execution

In my opinion, one of the toughest things for writers to do is summarize their work into a few sentences. I mean get it down to pitch length, still make it interesting, and avoid giving away the entire plot. Authors aren’t called on to do this very often with short story submissions, but a few markets ask for a brief synopsis in the cover letter.

So how do you write a good summary? Well, I’ll tell you how I do it, but before we get started be advised that story summaries are somewhat rare in...

A Week of Writing: 8/20/18 to 8/26/18

It’s Monday, and here’s my literary ledger sheet for the week.

Words to Write By

Still reading a bunch of Elmore Leonard, and since he’s such a great source for quotes, here’s another one.

“When you are developing your style, you avoid weaknesses. I am not good at describing things, so I stay away from it. And if anyone is going to describe anything at all, it’s going to be from the point of view of the character, because then I can use his voice, and his attitude will be revealed in the way...

Accepting the Unacceptance

I’ve had a good year for acceptances, and I’m up to an even dozen so far. But, as they say, in every life a little rain must fall, and one of those acceptances is, well, not an acceptance anymore. Let me explain.

Earlier this year I received an acceptance for a story with a promise of publication in around three months. When I didn’t hear from the publisher by the end of that period, I sent them an email asking for a status update. Then I checked their website and discovered it had disappeare...

A Week of Writing: 8/13/18 to 8/19/18

Finally managed to squeak one of these things out on a Monday. Here’s my writing week that was.

Words to Write By

This week’s quote comes from one of my favorite speculative authors, C. J. Cherryh.

It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.

– C. J. Cherryh

When I finished the first draft of my novel Late Risers (currently with my critique partners), some friends and family were surprised by my rather subdued celebration of that milestone. I think C. J. Cherryh’s qu...

The Rejection Reversal with Michael Bracken

The accomplished and prolific Michael Bracken reached out to me recently to share a type of publisher response he’d never received before. If Michael Bracken, award-winning author of over 1,200 short stories and several novels, has never seen it, it’s probably pretty unique, right? Anyway, Michael gave me permission to blog about this rare occurrence, so let’s take a look at the letter he received.

Dear Michael,

Re: [story title]

We reluctantly rejected your story because we couldn’t find a...

A Week of Writing: 8/6/18 to 8/12/18

Another week of writing in the books. Here’s how I did.

Words to Write By

I’ve been reading a fair amount of Elmore Leonard, a writer whose style I really enjoy. Today’s quote is another of his pearls of wisdom.

“Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.”

― Elmore Leonard

This is another one of Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing (it’s #3). I agree with it, and I try not to use anything but “said” in dialogue if I can help it. In fact, lately, I’ve been using fewer dialogue tags of any...