Author Archives: James A. Miller

A Little Competition

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I have started wondering how I stack up, how I compare to the rest of world writing skills wise, that is.

Comparing is a tough thing to do. You know right off that you likely aren’t the best. If you were you probably wouldn’t feel the need to compare in the first place. In fact, I figure that’s likely true of the top ten percent of anything.

So that puts me under the ninetieth percentile right away.

But then, I have never been published, that is the whole point of this blog, chronicle my struggle to get published.  And there are A LOT of books out there, so if I face the fact anyone who is currently published automatically has me beat, well, that puts me down the ranks quite a bit further.

And I also know that my grammar and punctuation skills leave a lot to be desired. That’s gotta drop me below all of those unpublished English teachers.

But before I hit rock bottom, I realized that there are a lot of people in the world who don’t write fiction at all, and there are illiterate people, and still others who didn’t even graduate High School. I doubt that they’re writing the great American novel.

I would think that makes my fiction better than at least half the people in the world; the ones who haven’t written, the ones who can’t write, and those others who sign their name with an “X”.

Then I remember the idea that my friend Matt put to me one day:

“I think it’s a bad idea for parents to tell their kids that they are better than other kids.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if you start them thinking in terms of a hierarchy, then the kids will have to know, that while they are better than some of the kids, there will be other kids that are better than they are.”

And I always thought a little competition was a good thing.

When Matt and I had a contest to see who could write the most, as in total word quantity in a week,  I won with 14,580 words.  I don’t have a record of what final word count he had, but both accounts were way more words than either of us had previously put to paper in a week.

Yet it still didn’t seem like a lot of words.

I mean, I am sure I could do better if I pushed.  There were two days in there where I spent the evening with friends, and lots of time when I was just too lazy to write.  But it was a weird feeling, that nagging in the back of my mind that while I was on the couch watching TV, or out having a drink, Matt was likely gaining ground on me, pecking away at his laptop.

But before you think that I bested Matt, you need to know that he has ALREADY been published.  Yeah, the check-in-hand kind of published I am shooting for.  And that, my friends, is the real contest.

But then like a lot of things, it’s not really against the other kids, is it?  It’s really me against myself.

And those dammed gate-keeper editors…

James

Fate Forward

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Fate Forward is a story I wrote about a private investigator type guy searching for a mysterious device. It’s later discovered that the device can manipulate luck. The story goes on to reveal how this man beats the odds to retrieve the device and his internal battle as to whether he should return it or use it improve his own station in life.

I submitted this 6700 word story to Asimov’s Science Fiction Exactly one month ago, 7/11/10, via their online form.  Here is the e-mail rejection I received today:

Thank you very much for letting us see "Fate Forward."  We appreciate your taking the time to send it in for our consideration.  Although it does not suit the needs of the magazine at this time, we wish you luck with placing it elsewhere.

Please excuse this form letter.  The volume of work has unfortunately made it impossible for us to respond to each submission individually, much as web

Sincerely,

Sheila Williams, Editor
Asimovb

Sheila, what kind of ending is “much as web”?  You must REALLY have a volume of work to end the e-mail so abruptly.

Did you find out the bacon was burning while typing and just hit the “send” button anyway?

The sad part is that the letter refers to itself as a “form” letter, so this is apparently what everybody who failed to place a story is getting.

I am not sure what “asimovb” means at the closing either. Perhaps some sort of secret code?  Maybe I made it to grade “b” in the rejection pile or something.

The part I did think was cute was how the letter wished me “luck” in placing it elsewhere. I am sure it’s just a coincidence, but the story I sent in revolved entirely around the concept of luck.

James

Fonzie gets rejected

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On 6/29/10 I sent off a 2700 word Sci-Fi story called “Little green Fonzie” to ANALOG magazine.

I had a lot of hope for this story as it was about and Alien dressed as The Fonz, that comes down to earth to bestow knowledge onto the human race, provided the person he picks can explain why we are worthy.

The story contained a good amount of humor, which I thought would buy me some browine points with the Editor, but unfortunately, this Saturday (8/7/10) I received back my SASE with the default rejection slip inside.

And no personal note of any kind.

It makes me wonder if a story is accepted and they cut you a check, do they would still use the SASE I provided?

I am guessing that payment probably happens via accounting and they use their own envelopes for that.

I really want to see one of those envelopes in my mail box.

Genesis

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I have been writing for about four months now (since about May of 2010).

In that time I have submitted nine short stories to various magazines with each story averaging about 4000 words. Of those, I have received back three rejections.

The highlight was when I received a rejection slip from ANALOG magazine. At the bottom of the page there was a handwritten note signed with the initials “S.S.”

Being an avid reader of ANALOG, I of course knew that the note was from Stanley Schmidt, editor of the magazine since 1978.  The head cheese himself.   To fill you in, this is a man who had taken the torch from the great Ben Bova.  And this is the magazine that published such literary giants as Arthur C. Clark, Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury and one of my favorite authors Orson Scott Card.

I shuddered with excitement. Sure it was a rejection, but Stanley Schmidt had taken the time to write a note to ME about MY story.  I was certain it would be something to the tune of “I really liked this, trying changing “X” and send it to me again.” or “Develop the main character a bit more and I think you really have something here.”

Instead it read:

“Always number your pages! S.S.”

It said exactly that and only that.  And yes, even with that angry exclamation mark on the end.

If I had made an impression on the Editor, it was to show him what novice I am by not numbering my pages.

And that little exclamation mark told me it had also pissed him off.

I could only imagine how many manuscripts this man must read through each month, religiously searching for that needle in the haystack, that one gem of a story that speaks to him like God to Moses, and how my story was just another turd for him to trip over on his quest for yet another Holy Grail of Science Fiction.

Well Stanley, I am sorry about that.

But I do learn from my mistakes. I read manuscript preparation by Vonda McIntyre and now submit using her advice, unless of course, the magazine specifies otherwise.

So while my future will undoubtedly hold a few more rejection slips, I am hoping to avoid the dreaded exclamation mark.

James