Olga Godim's Blog, page 32

Are my stories too kooky?

A post for the Insecure Writer���s Support Group

May is Short Story Month, so I���m going to rant about short stories again. I like writing them. The short format seems to agree with me. My short stories have been published in various internet and print magazines. Not the top notch magazines, but any publication is good. It means an editor read my story and liked it enough to include in his next issue. A validation of sorts, even if the magazine doesn���t pay much (or at all). Recently, I have written seven new stories, and they are all currently on submission rounds. Despite my previous publications, it���s not easy to find a home for my new stories, and I have been wondering: why?

My writing is good, better than before. My latest novel EAGLE EN GARDE won EPIC eBook Award this year. Why can���t I place a story in any magazine? So far, I have only rejections for this bunch of stories.

Of course, good writing is not enough. There should also be rapport between a writer and an editor. Like any art form, writing is subjective. Furthermore, there might be another problem with my stories.

Many magazines have a list of story types they DON���T WANT. Obviously, they get a barrage of such stories. For some reason, not one of my stories ever fit any entry in such lists. It should be good news, right? All magazines say in their submission guidelines that they want innovative, original, unique, but I���m not sure that���s true. Most magazines publish stories with a similar vibe again and again. Maybe their editors only appreciate one story type, and their request for originality is an affectation, a fake claim, because it sounds good on submission guidelines.

Or maybe my stories are too out in left field, and the editors don���t think their readers would enjoy them? One of my stories might serve as an example. It���s a love story but not a standard love. It���s a love story where the hero and the heroine can���t have sex. He was injured in the war and is impotent. She was raped long ago and can���t imagine entering a sexual relationship. They seem created for each other. But… What magazine would accept such a story?

For a romance magazine ��� without the possibility of sex, the story doesn���t conform to the modern romance requirements. For a family-oriented publication ��� the content is too adult. For urban fantasy magazine (yes, there is some magic in the story), it���s too old-fashioned. The heroine is a classic female, soft and loving. She doesn���t kick butt. She cooks dinners for her man. Even a magazine dedicated to disabilities rejected it. The characters��� disabilities are too freaky; almost unspeakable.

I think it���s a beautiful story about two wounded people finding each other despite huge odds, but no editor has agreed with me yet. Why can���t I write standard romances? Of course, I could publish my stories myself ��� on FictionPress or Wattpad ��� but I don���t want to. First, I want a magazine editor to acknowledge my story. I want that validation. Is it too much to ask?

Review and interview with Donna Hole

Donna Hole interviewed me on her website Book Lover. We talked about magic, writing, and my road to fantasy. Donna also reviewed my book Squirrel of Magic – a collection of urban fantasy short stories. She gave the book 5 stars. Hooray!

Character goals – positive is keyword

In any story, the lead character must have a goal: to find a sword, to defeat a dragon, to get married. Without that goal (or five) a story becomes just a series of events described in scenes. Of course, there are stories like that, but a story with a well-defined goal is much more interesting. We root for our hero. We want him to succeed, to attain his goal. Take any classical story, and you see a glowing goal beckon like a star from a distance.

One of the crucial rules about that goal – it must be positive. Negative goals don���t make good fiction. Examples of a negative goal: to escape xxxx, to avoid yyyy, to prevent zzzz. Notice the negative verbs. In all these cases, what a hero is trying to do is to preserve the status quo, to keep his old life. That���s exactly what must be broken for a story to start. Every successful story begins when the current state of affairs is destroyed. To restore the equilibrium in his world or to find a new one, the hero must go on a quest. That���s in essence what a story is: a chronicle of the hero���s journey to reintroduce balance in his life.

All the heroes and heroines in my fiction have positive goals, frequently more than one. In my novel ALMOST ADEPT, the heroine���s ultimate goal is to find an evil blood mage and neutralize him, so he would stop hurting the innocent. She has other goals as well, interlinked with the main one����� to prove her magic status as Adept, to help her beloved, to save young apprentices ��� and their synergy complicates and enriches the story.

In my short story MAGIC, SWORD… AND TURNIPS, the lead character���s goal is to find a magical talisman which would save lives. The protagonist of the story is a woman warrior, and her second goal, intertwined with the first, is to protect her magician partner from getting hurt, while they are both searching and retrieving that talisman. You can read the story here.

Sharing my stories: Wattpad or what?

A post for the Insecure Writer���s Support Group.

When I first decided to make my short stories, previously published in magazines, available to my readers, I chose Wattpad as the place to post my stories, and I link to it from my blog. I like the site,��it���s free for both readers and writers, and the UI is fairly simple. I have 15 stories on Wattpad by now, BUT���

There seems to be a problem on Wattpad. For some reason, a couple of my stories keep disappearing from the list of my published works. It���s already happened 5 times (and not with the same titles). Even before I put all my stories on Wattpad, one or two often went missing. I would complain to their help desk, they would restore all the stories, and a few days later, a couple of different titles would vanish again.

Obviously, Wattpad is not geared to support numbers larger than two or three for one account. Most people post novels there, so the number glitch is somewhat understandable. I decided to remove some stories from Wattpad, but I still want to share them with my readers. I���m searching for another similar site that allows writers to post their portfolios for free.

I���ve already investigated a few sites. There is WriteOn, an Amazon affiliate, but I don���t like their conditions. It looks like whatever I might post there could become their property. There are a few other sites, some free, others requiring a small fee for anything more sophisticated than the basic services. I���m still looking, and my stories keep disappearing from Wattpad.

Does anyone know of a good free website for a writer���s portfolio? I have several new stories, currently on submission to magazines, but after they���re published, I want to add them to my portfolio. Where can I do that with stability? Any suggestions? Anyone tried a site and liked it?

 

Interview on Great Indie Authors

Image credit: http://www.foodmarketingpodcast.com

Kevin Cooper interviewed me on his website Great Indie Authors. Thanks, Kevin, for the wonderful opportunity and for your interesting questions. They made me think.

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I won EPIC eBook Award in 2015

This morning, when I opened my gmail, I got a bunch of congratulations on my novel winning the EPIC competition. I didn’t know what they were talking about until I opened the EPIC Book Award website and saw that my novel Eagle En Garde indeed won in the Fantasy category. The badge above arrived as an attachment to an email from EPIC, but the email itself didn’t contain anything except the word ‘CONGRATULATION!’ and some twinkling gif. I didn’t even think the congratulations applied to myself. What a strange feeling. I have never won anything before. I’m happy but I think I’m still processing.

Eagle En Garde, my sword and sorcery fantasy novel, was published in May 2014 by Champagne/Burst. It tells a story of a mercenary officer Darin Barclay and his fight against homicidal anti-magic fanatics during one memorable summer.

Darin lives in Talaria, a kingdom surrounded by a magic-resistant spell. While the king wishes to break the spell and invite magic back into the country, the fanatical sect of Cleaners resists the return of magic. Darin doesn���t agree with the Cleaners��� doctrine but he doesn���t dispute it either. He is a soldier, not a philosopher. Then he accidentally overhears the Cleaners��� hidden agenda to destroy all magic workers in Talaria, including witches and elves, and his orderly life turns upside down. His sweetheart is a witch, his daughter is a half-elf, and he has many elven friends. He can���t allow the Cleaners��� murderous scheme to succeed, can���t allow innocents to suffer. But what can a lone mercenary do against a horde of rabid zealots? His only choice lies in trickery and deceit to outsmart his enemies. And the anti-magic spell on the border suddenly becomes his only ally.

 

 

Friend or Unfriend

A post for the Insecure Writer���s Support Group

Recently, one of my online friends unfriended me. It happens. The reason for the unfriending was that I commented on one of his posts, a book review (not of my book but of one of the classics) and expressed an opinion that was different from his own. I wasn���t rude; I just think differently. He commented back, saying that I always disagree with him. I didn���t, not really. I liked many of his posts; they were informative and fun. I replied to his comment and apologized. I didn���t want to offend him. I don���t wish to offend anyone. After my apology, he unfriended me.

That little episode stated me thinking. There is lots of noise online about writers reacting explosively to negative reviews of their books. Some writers go to extremes and behave in a totally unforgivable way. And the reviewers everywhere are unhappy about that. I understand. I never comment on anyone���s review of my own novels, even if I disagree with their critiques.

But if reviewers expect writers to be polite and accepting, whenever someone criticizes their writing, shouldn���t they prove their point by example? Shouldn���t they tolerate different opinions in the comments to their own posts and reviews? If they���re allowed to criticize, doesn���t that mean everyone is allowed, too?

The lesson I learned from the entire situation: I won���t express a disagreement with anyone again. If I disagree with their opinion, I���ll stay quiet. I���ll only comment or ���like��� their posts if I agree. I don���t want anyone to unfriend me again. It makes me feel sad, unwanted. Besides, I really liked his posts in my feed. I���ll miss them.

Scarlet Sails – final chapters on Wattpad

I posted the final chapters ��� chapter 6 and chapter 7 ��� of my translation of Scarlet Sails, a novella by Alexander Grin, on Wattpad.

Read Chapter 6 here.

Read Chapter 7 here.

Scarlet Sails – chapter 5 on Wattpad

I posted Chapter 5 of my translation of Scarlet Sails, a novella by Alexander Grin, on Wattpad. You can read it here.

The ending of the story is coming next.

Scarlet Sails – chapter 4 on Wattpad

I posted Chapter 4 of my translation of Scarlet Sails, a novella by Alexander Grin, on Wattpad. You can read it here.