Chantal Boudreau's Blog, page 34

Submission Blitz – Day 15

A rough day today – but that’s not going to stop me from meeting my submission objectives. I resorted to submitting a reprint today. “The Ghost in the Mirror”. This one will probably bite back though. It’s a pro-rate venue, as I mentioned I’ve never had any real luck with them, and in this case it’s a podcast submission. I’m extra wary about those. I tried submitting to a sister podcast of the one I submitted to today and the rejection letter I got back had to be the nastiest response I’ve ever received for a submission. I can take it if someone doesn’t like my story – not everyone will – but they didn’t just give me negative feedback on my writing; they got downright insulting in that letter, calling into question my intelligence.

The story may not have been to their tastes, but it wasn’t *that* bad. Some of my test readers still say it was their favourite to date of all my stories. We’ll see if the rejection letter that comes back from this venue tells me I’m stupid for submitting this one. If it does, I think I’m done with submitting to pro-rate podcasts. On the other hand, if these folks are reasonable when they turn my story down, perhaps I’ll conclude the other podcast was just one of those exceptionally bad experiences and let it go (although it still burns me that these venues that are supposed to be “professional” offer some of the most unprofessional responses.)

In the meantime, I’m working on “Battling the Shikome,” my next Japanese-themed tale. It has to stay under 3,500 words for the venue I’ve chosen, so I’m hoping I’ll have it done tomorrow. I’m enjoying it, but not to the same extent as “Sanae’s Garden”. I wish Barb could have read that one. I think she would have liked it.

More tomorrow…

Submission Blitz – Day 14

Today proved to be a very difficult day, and not because of anything involving writing. This morning, I wrote my latest flash fiction piece, “In an Instant,” which was a story about a person trying to use science, time travel specifically, to respond to the death of someone she loved – someone who had died from cancer. I had just finished it when, in a horribly ironic turn of events, I got a call that one of my best friends, who had been battling pancreatic cancer, had taken a turn for the worst. Not long after that, she passed away.

I’m dedicating this posting to her, as I have all my books, because she was such an extraordinarily special person. She had this knack of finding the talent in people and drawing it right out of them. I called her my muse because she “demanded” I write for her, when I started off with one novel still in desperate need of more editing, a half finished sequel that had been abandoned for seven years, a handful of pathetic short stories and a boatload of unexplored ideas. Thanks to her – and I will always give her the credit for *everything* I ever write – I now have 20 completed novels, seven of which have been published, and 70 completed short stories, many of which have seen print.

I’m not sure where I’m going to find the same kind of motivation she gave me to write, but I know I’ll never stop writing, or give up on trying to get published, because that’s what she wanted me to do. I’m just going to have to imagine her spirit somewhere, threatening me with a giant cosmic pair of scissors. That won’t change the fact that it feels like someone has cut away a big chunk of my heart and my soul because she’s gone.

And I’m not the only one she worked her magic on. She also found an incredible talent for photography in her fiancé, Terry Crowell. She helped draw it out of him too, and I can tell you, his photographs are the best I’ve ever see.

So I’ve submitted “In an Instant” tonight to a podcast contest in her memory and I wish she could still be here to read it. The world will be a darker place without her.

Love you, Barb, and I’ll miss you always.

Submission Blitz – Day 13

To my slight disappointment, when I went to submit “Relief” today, I noticed they aren’t accepting submissions for that particular anthology until May 1. Argh!

I’m in the same boat with another story; I’m saving “The Elephant’s Graveyard” for a horror anthology that doesn’t open for submissions until May 1. If I don’t get back anymore rejections this month (I’m still waiting), I’ll be scrambling before day 30, and I may fold and submit “Relief” elsewhere. As is, I’m, probably going to have to submit the three novels I have ready that aren’t part of my existing series…I have a fourth, but I was planning on publishing that one myself. The others I’ve finished are still in need of more editing.

So I sent “Territory” out to a magazine for today’s submission. It has come back a couple of times before now. We’ll see if this venue will bite. I have a reprint to try to shop, a Christmas story that’s hard to place and one story I was waiting on sending once one of my other stories comes back, but I’m starting to scrape bottom. I may try to finish two stories I left incomplete.

I have to work on my next couple of flash pieces – I’m aiming for two by end of day tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Submission Blitz – Day 12

Today I sent off a tweaked and prepped “Sanae’s Garden” and I was almost sad to see it go. It was one of those stories that just write themselves, as if by magic. You have no idea where it came from and it doesn’t resemble anything else you’ve written, but there it is. I also got two more confirmations of receipts. So far, out of twelve submissions, only one did not offer a return response right away. This has come as quite a surprise, because only about half of the small presses I regularly submit to bother sending receipt confirmations. It makes for a nice change.

I finished “Relief,” the humorous sci-fi flash fiction I plan on submitting for an anthology tomorrow and I’ve been tossing around a flash fiction time travel idea for tomorrow’s crafting. “Relief” is being submitted to the second volume in an anthology series that I originally wrote “Turbulence” for (which was rejected. My first submission may not have made the cut, but I’m not about to let that deter me from submitting to the current volume. I love a challenge, and if they reject it – oh well. There are lots of speculative flash fiction venues out there. I have an odd sense of humour – I like dark humour and bathroom jokes – but someone may see merit in it.

I’m thinking about switching my focus to editing next month. I have a lot of first drafts and first edits needing extra work that have gone neglected…but we’ll see where things take me.

Submission Blitz – Day 11

Today I sent off “Velveteen,” submitting it for an anthology. I figure this one will be a difficult one to place. Not only is it on the weird side, with a dose of dark humour, it is also seriously risqué. I’ll only be able to submit it to venues that say they are very open to things new and strange, with no reservations regarding mature content. Some might even find the story offensive.

No further word back on any of the other submissions out there. I did finish “Sanae’s Garden” today; it came in at just a smidgen over 5,000 words. I’m going to miss that story. I really liked Sanae and Haruo. It had me teary-eyed as I was leaving the bus. It’s not quite ready to go out yet – it still needs a bit of fact checking and a few tweaks – but I will be submitting it tomorrow. I then have to come up with some flash fiction ideas for the weekend, something under 1,000 words involving time travel and something comical involving aliens (or at least UFOs). Then I start my second Japanese-themed short that has to come in under 3500 words.

I figure I’m doing well. I have enough submission material to last me a few more days even if I didn’t write anything more for the month. Maybe I’ll plan on doing this once a year every year when things are amassing dust on the shelf and my submissions are lagging. It certainly has proven to be great motivation when I was feeling uninspired.

-Back to prepping “Sanae’s Garden” for tomorrow’s send-off. J

Submission Blitz – Day 10

I had to dig a little harder to find a venue today, and I ended up submitting “The Godmother’s Curse” to a pro-rate venue as a result. That never ends well – but this isn’t a “submit-only-to-venues-likely-to-accept-you” blitz, so I’m going to have to dive into those far reaches a couple of times this month. I got another receipt confirmation today too. I’m thinking I may see another rejection or two to allow for resubmissions by month’s end, but that’s only if my submissions from the summer and fall of 2012 weren’t sucked up into some submission black hole. That has happened to me before, where presses have folded, my submissions were ignored during the reading period I sent them in and not read into the following one many months later, or just not deemed important enough for anybody’s attention until they bothered to send out a form rejection letter more than a year after the short story had been submitted (a pro-rate venue at that.)

In the meantime, I hit 3,200 words today on “Sanae’s Garden” and realized there’s no way I can finish it in the 3,500 word maximum required for the original venue I had planned – not without completely deconstructing the story. I won’t do that. It’s a story I get lost in while I write and changing the story excessively would ruin it. I *know* the ending and I’m just trying to get there as concisely as possible. I’m expecting it will run between 5,000 and 6,000 words when I’m done and I found another venue I can submit it to that will welcome that word count. I’ll just have to write a new story for the anthology I was going to submit it to. The way I see it, all this Japanese-themed content is good practice for “A Bed of Bones”, the Japanese mythology based novel I have in planning for the 2013 NaNoWriMo in November.

Anyway, we’ll see if I can finish up “Sanae’s Garden” by tomorrow. Then I start work on the next couple of flash pieces I hope to put out there.

Submission Blitz – Day 9

I did mention I was expecting rejections from older submissions to be coming in soon, and sure enough, two of them were sitting in my inbox this morning. I don’t know how or why, but I always get a vibe as to whether a response is an acceptance or a rejection before I even open the e-mail, and as far as I can recall, I’ve only been wrong once so far (in a good way – I thought it was a rejection but it was actually an acceptance.) Anyway, these two e-mails gave off a rejection vibe, and sure enough, that’s what they were.

Thankfully I had already decided what I wanted to do next with these stories. I resubmitted “Rev-Ursal” to a charity anthology today, as my daily submission, and I’m saving the other story for a submission I hope to make later in the month.

In the meantime, I’m working on my Japanese-themed fantasy tale, “Sanae’s Garden.” I already have 1,400 words in, and I hope to have it ready for submission on Thursday or Friday. It has one thing in common with my Green Man dark fantasy story “Come Into Her Garden” (aside from the garden thing) but for the most part they are *very* different stories.

I’ll update you with my progress on this one tomorrow.

Submission Blitz – Day 8

I can’t believe I actually managed to bring “The Maw” in under 500 words, but I did – 486 to be exact. That meant I could submit it to the anthology I had in mind, which was a happy thing for me. I’ve gotten the impression that folks think I’m not bad at writing flash fiction. I regularly get compliments on it (I got one just yesterday for my piece in Slices of Flesh) and my “Little Sister” made it into the finals of Fangoria’s Weird Words contest – they said they had received over a thousand entries. I find what works best is if I limit the story to one moment, with a minimum of background and as little description as I figure I can get away with. Normally, I find this is easiest done if the story is written in first person narrative, even though I find writing in first particularly difficult, but I did end up writing “The Maw” in third. “Flash!,” “Little Sister,” “What I’ve Gots in my Pocketses,” “Thanksgiving Special,” and “On a Wing and a Prayer” were all written in first person.

Good news – I received two more receipt confirmations. It’s always nice to know that the publisher actually received your submissions.

Since I haven’t had any takers on offering me a challenge for the next story, I’m going to take a shot writing to a request for submissions for an anthology with a Japanese mythology theme. There’s still plenty of time to offer up a challenge (paid or charity venues – I don’t do “exposure only”) by the end of the month.

Flawed to a Fault

Reblogged from Guild Of Dreams:

By Chantal Boudreau

Those who know me know I think having heroic characters with flaws in my stories is important for realism. It's not unreasonable to find a beautiful protagonist who is vain, arrogant or promiscuous, a highly intelligent character who is absent-minded, overbearing or socially awkward, or a physically strong character who is overly aggressive or not so bright. Protagonists might be naive or gullible to begin with, or they could be more mercenary than one might expect.

Read more… 513 more words

Submission Blitz – Day 7

I wrote “Flash!” in one sitting (1,369 words,) did a quick read through and sent it out the door – well, shipped it off via e-mail actually. The anthology I had been eying is only looking for pieces 500 words or less, so I had to find another venue for submitting “Flash!”, and came up with a quarterly magazine that looks for stories between 1,000 and 4,000 words. Keeping my stories under 1,500 or 2,000 words is a huge challenge for me, and while I have produced the occasional piece of drabble (100 words or less), I find it extremely difficult to limit myself like that. I doubt “The Maw,” which I will take a stab at tomorrow, will end up under 500 words. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

I had a lot of fun writing this, even though it wasn’t my story idea. The hubby comes up with some good ones, but he says he just can’t manage to turn them into a great story, so he passes them along to me. I always give them my own flavour – I set this one in a basement based in part on my own grand-mother’s basement. This is the third story idea he’s given me that I’ve turned into a short story (one of them, a zombie story, has been published and another I’ll be submitting to a contest.) He also often helps me to flush out my story ideas when I run into problems and I can always count on him to catch plot inconsistencies, anachronisms or inaccuracies. I’ve come to depend on his niggling.

I’m still hoping someone will send a challenge my way or I’m once again going to be forced to pick something at random when I’m done “The Maw”. Any takers?