Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 46

We Could be Heroes

This is just me noodling around, trying to make sense out of tangles of thought in my head.  This is not work, but it is tangential to all my work.  Well, almost all my work.

Heroes, and why they become that way.  There is a kind of a line that makes all heroes the same - call, refusal, allies, road of trials, katabasis, blahdy blahdy blah, and it's kind of nice that someone did some work on bringing that cycle to light, but I think it really only describes one type of hero.  

Today, I am looking more at motivations and the internal engine of the heroic, and the things I have been thinking about, they are fluid, and a hero might shift from one to another over the course of a narrative, but for now, I just wanted to list out the ones I see and see if anyone is interested enough to join in:

1) The Chosen - Luke Skywalker, Peter Parker, Frodo Baggins, et al.  Something made them heroes, something external; the whole "becoming a hero" was totally out of their hands and the conflict was what they did with it.  This is Campbell's hero, Call, Refusal, blahdyblahdyblah.  That's not to say the story isn't interesting.  It's really fucking interesting, but I don't think it's the only one, so I am not sticking around for this one.

2) The Paladin - Steve Rogers, Diana Prince, et al.  When the Call came round, there are some people whose first words are "what took you so long?"  Steve was standing up to bullies and getting his ass kicked all up and down Brooklyn before becoming Captain America.  Diana entered that whole Amazonian contest in disguise to get a look at these Nazis who were, apparently, worse than Hercules.  This is a different sort of motivating force than one the chosen hero ends up with - granted, Diana got made all special by Hera, sure, and was, by far, the best Amazon for the job, and Luke Skywalker was planning on defecting to the rebels the first chance he got out of the Imperial Academy, but Peter Parker would have probably been a research chemist and a quiet sort of dude but for that radioactive spider and Steve Rogers would have eventually ended up shanked in an alleyway standing up to some jerk, no matter what.

3) The Prodigal - Bruce Banner, Sarah Connor.  People who literally cannot live normal lives, no matter what, not because of external forces, but internal ones.  Dr. Banner turns into the Hulk when he gets angry, and the only constructive thing the Hulk can do is fight against things worse than him.  Sarah Connor saw Judgement Day, and knows her child has to fight in the time after.  In MFP, Gem is like this, in a lot of ways.  She's a tuned instrument of violence who isn't sure exactly how much control she has over it, just yet, and so she's kind of stuck with her skills being adventure and/or murder.  Chances are, and I am hoping, she gets to resolve that and transition over to some other type of hero, even as a couple of her companions kind of transition in to this one...

4) The Avenger - Bruce Wayne, Eric Lenscherr (okay, well, not a hero, usually).  I suffered an experience, and now I want to make sure no one ever suffers the same thing.  It's a pretty common, basic, often poorly executed, and deeply problematic handling of the heroic impulse.  As I am typing this, I am thinking of all the ways Batman and Magneto are the same guy, only one of them has a much narrower band of people he wants to protect.

5) The Idealist - Clark Kent.  Got a vision for the world, works to make that vision a reality, with the strength at their disposal.  Definitely a difficult road to follow, since my example's arch-nemesis is exactly the same, just willing to hew more closely to his ideals rather than let things take the long route towards getting better.  I don't know, this one is still a little unformed.  Is it that different from the Paladin?  Kind of.  The Paladin is more reactionary.  There's bad in the world and I want to stop it.  The Idealist is more proactive, though, again, proactive heroism is a really tricky thing to manage, and puts the would be hero dangerously close to villainy.

6) The Caretaker - Samwise Gamgee, Lucy Pevensie.  Okay, these guys get put into supporting roles, usually, but here is another one of those things I would like to write someday - a story with this sort of person getting the top billing they deserve - yeah, Frodo carried the fucking Ring.  Sam carried Frodo.  Peter and Edmund (and Susan in the movies - Lewis might be turning in his grave, but on the subject of Susan, I have only a resounding FUCK YOU for the man, and she kicked some ass with that bow) get all the cool fight scenes, but who is it who runs and fetches Aslan and saves her siblings?  Yeah, Lucy.  Who fights a rear-guard guerrilla war against the Death Eaters when the chosen trio are camping?  Ginny, Neville and Luna.  The heroic impulse here is to help people, protect and strengthen the people around them, and I think that's really powerful.

Ah, this helped a little.  Noodling about.  The cats are waxed, the chores... well, actually, I need to do the dishes and sweep the floor!  Heavens, how did I let that get by me.  Then writing.  Yeah, then.

I don't *like* Italian...

Scorpius is getting a workout today.  "Courage" is out the door as well.

[Submissions Don't Matter] Tequila Shooters!

So I sent it somewhere else instead.

So that was helpful

Okay, turns out that the top hit on Google for the submission guidelines gives old and now inaccurate guidelines, and that the fourth hit has the accurate guidelines.  The magazine can't control what Google thinks should go on top, so I am going to take this as my fault, and leave it there.  So, if you want to submit to the market in question, go here.  DO NOT GO HERE.  Google will send you there and Google lies.  So yeah, I earned this auto-reject.  That's my story.

In which I am confused

First, shortest subs time to rejection ever.  No worries about that, I suppose, but it comes with a message "We are not using $automated-submission-method as of $date-before-today, please check $url-that-goes-nowhere for our updated submission guidelines."  

Checking google gives me the guidelines page that says "We use only $automated-submission-method," with no sense that this is not still in force.  Now I figure this is a case of no one had time to update the guidelines, but I don't know how to ask about this, or even if I have the right to ask.  

As for the story, I am going to assume that by coincidence, there was a slush reader who got it within an hour of it's arrival, read it, hated it an bounced it immediately.  I did that a couple times at FM.  Or that an automated rejection for not following the guidelines (despite not being able to find the current guidelines) is just as legitimate a rejection as one that a human had to do, either way, I don't want to dispute it, but I would like to know if the market in question is in fact, open for submissions, and how one would properly do so, without getting the editorial staff to think I am an asshole whose work they will never want to buy.  

I figure I can manage that part without any help at all.

[Submissions Don't Matter] Then You Get to Eat Shit Space Cowboy

And "Draftyhouse" is out the door again.  A good way to start the morning.

[Signal Boost] Send to Stone Telling!

Originally posted by  rose_lemberg  at So, guys, we need your help.As you know, we are reading for the Queer issue; and we've been reading it while faced with various life challenges.  shweta_narayan  has been sick, and moving from the US to Scotland; I've been facing various work-related and health-related setbacks.

Some of you asked how you can help, and thank you for that. So.

The inbox... it is not full.

We received much less than our usual amount of submissions, including for other themed issues. What we received is strong, and a joy to read and consider. But purely from the numerical perspective, there is not enough material, and that is a problem.

From the very inception of ST, we worked hard to bring queer content to readers of speculative poetry (and not just through ST). We want this issue, and we want this issue to shine (and there are further secret plans for this issue!)

But we need your help.

How you can help:

1. Send in your work. If you are not sure if it is queer, or queer enough, please just send it.
2. Spread the word. The more people submit, the better the final product shall be.
3. That's all.

Thank you.

Shit SF Writers Say

Well, because I am a snooty bastard, I try to resist internet memes, but that only means they get to me just as they are dying out, which, really, pretty much ruins my snoot.  Maybe I should just give up and be as early an adopter as I can and not try to preserve some sense of precious integrity I haven't got.  Anyway, last night, I gave in and went looking to see if there was a "Shit Writers Say," which there is, but it's not very good, so I thought, well, having been an SF writer for a little while and since most of you are SF writers, I figured it would be fun to make a list, and you can join me, or feel superior, whichever is more fun.

SHIT SF WRITERS SAY
It's Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction is part of it.
Science Fiction... Yeah, like Star Wars.
Fantasy... yeah, like Lord of the Rings.
Fantasy... yeah, like Harry Potter.
It's dark fantasy.
It's an epic dark fantasy.
Well, I kind of do something like fantasy, only it has horror elements in it and...
I need to get my word count up.
I need to get my word count down.
Does that market still exist?
I don't care about the SFWA.
Maybe I should do a YA.
Maybe I should get into ParaRom.
Romance, that's where the money is.
Horror's going to die with Stephen King.
Oh look, another fucking novella.
I never get out of the slushpile there.
No electronic submissions, are you fucking kidding me?
It's a semi-pro market.
I've got something I think I can rewrite for that anthology.
*whispered* I actually don't like Neil Gaiman that much.
Neil Gaiman is overrated.
Saying Neil Gaiman is overrated is overrated.
It's a fairy tale retelling.
I wonder if Weird Tales is coming back.
Are you going to WisCon?
Are you going to Readercon?
Are you going to World Fantasy?
I need a roomate.
Now all I have to do is find a place that's going to publish this.

...play along!

Run Blogging Day 16 [2.56/36:00]

Much better. Remembered how to actually run, as opposed to what I was doing. Had to slow pretty frequently to a walk, but it was more of a workout and less of a frustration/pain thing. So kind of a breakthrough, even if really slow. 

Two Things that Need to be Three

1) Realignment of the game turned out to be a rousing success.  Skarrah (sword bearing crows), blues singing ugly birds, a witch's oven tree and the words "Hookshot:  Your argument is invalid."  I'm getting better at what's worth a Fight and how to frame them, though I think I'm going to make sure the responsibility defaults to me to frame them in future iterations.  

2) I spent the weekend trying to revise "Blue Vervain Murder Ballad #2: Jack of Diamonds" to try it out on the new Vandermeer steampunk anthology.  Turns out that the story, when I look at it close is not what I thought it was.  It's better than I remembered.  It's also harder to revise.  I'm not sure I can, actually, unless I rewrite it.  Big problem is that, to me, it doesn't feel very steampunk - there is steam in it; it takes place on a gambling riverboat, but, that's pretty much it.  I could slap a gear on it, but that seems wrong.  I guess I will just send it out and see if they think its steam and punk enough.

3) No, I haven't even started on the rewrite of "King of Pine," yet, why do you ask?