June 2011
23 posts
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Screenplays
I’ve been thinking more and more about “The Apocalypse Comedy” lately. I’ve got great characters in my head. It could really be something…
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Internet Posting and How It Comes Back to Bite You...
I want to apologize that I never post any of my writing up here, like so many of the fine semi-anonymous internet authors and artistes (the ‘e’ makes it fancy) do. It’s just that, if it’s good enough to post then it’s good enough to publish, in potentia. You know, in theory and junk. And you can’t get something published when it’s been posted on the...
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the...
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Adam Tutkus.
Relentlessly persecuting comma splices since 1989, you’ll never even see it coming.
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New Submission
This afternoon I sent off a new, genetically modified incarnation of “A Helping Hand Where Needed” to Strange Horizons magazine. Their site claims an average of a month for rejection/acceptance, but also says they sometimes take up to seventy days. So hopefully the former.
I’ll be posting later on the subject of Andromeda Spaceways. But for now — la! Dead cow flesh awaits...
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What I'm Reading Now
The Australian publication Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue #51. There’s a great sense of humor here, a stark contrast to “the dark-and-gritty style that characterises so many other SF mags this day and age.”
You should check it out. The PDF only costs 4.95AUD, which is only a few cents more in USD.
Here’s the site:
http://www.andromedaspaceways.com
The Next Victim
“A Helping Hand Where Needed” is as done as it’s going to get. I’m not going to change Jenna’s character. I find nothing wrong with her.
I’ll send it to “Strange Horizons” as soon as I can.
—Adam
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The Magazine Selection Process
Whenever I’m feeling bored, but not enough to actually stop procrastinating, I research new venues for short stories online. Currently I’m working my way through this list:
http://www.everywritersresource.com/sciencefictionmagazines.html
I’ve found some gems, and some broken links, and more than a couple duds. I have somewhere around a dozen bookmarked for later perusal.
...
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“Extra Lives” is all written out. Eleven pages. In my notebook.
Now I need to get it written onto the computer.
It’s all that stands between me and having another short story to shell out to magazines.
It could be all that stands between me and the career I’ve been working for my entire post-adolescent life.
I could do it now.
I could do it right now.
…
...
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Extra Lives
I should be sleeping, since I have an eight hour seafood a-cuttin’ shift starting in five hours, but I wanted to finish a short story I started around noon today. And I did, making this only the third short story I’ve ever finished in less than twenty-four hours, after “Swampguy!” and “Rachel’s Story”.
She’s about eleven pages long in the notebook,...
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I always said I wasn’t smart enough to do science fiction. But here I am, on a nothing-but-sci-fi kick. Just goes to show…
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Dark Emperor 1
I’m still waiting on people to look at “Rachel’s Story”, so here’s a small mouthful of what will amount to the Thanksgiving dinner of How To Be A Dark Emperor, my big novel and proud daddy of this blog.
————
“We shall now elect our champion based on the ancient traditions. Heroes! What are your names?”
“My name is...
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I think it’s probably likely that there’s only one fiction magazine in the world that accepts simultaneous submissions. And that…is just hilarious.
Rachel's Story
So I’ve read through’er, and done my highlighting. That’s how I edit, particularly if it’s been a while since I’ve fine-toothed-comb’d a particular manuscript: I’ll scrutinize it sentence by sentence, and if there’s any part of it that I’m uncertain about, for whatever reason - redundancy, overkill, nonsensicality, being out of line with the...
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Trolling Poem
Don’t get me down
Or I’ll follow you round
To Facebook and YouTube and eBay;
I’ll troll on your thread
And throw doubt on your cred
With proof circumstantial and hearsay;
So if I am around you
I beseech you not argue
Or I’ll mispell at you a large amount;
And if your comments DO pan me
And they do permaban me
I can always make another account.
...
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Priorities Update
I finished step one; “The Hypothesis” is done. It’s not sterling, but what do you want for less than fifteen hundred words?
As far as step two goes, I discovered I no longer have the printer up there for whatever reasons. Step two now encompasses going to the library to print it out. Probably sometime later in the week, I’d say.
So I moved on to step three. And I had to...
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Priorities
All right. I think I’m confused about what I want to be doing right now, because I have so many things on my list. I believe this is hurting my productivity because I’m reluctant to start on one project for fear it’ll mean I can’t start on another.
Soooo, here’s a list of priorities.
#1. Finish “The Hypothesis”, since it’s due postmarked in about...
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Darwin's Evolutions
Okay, I had to post this; it’s from the submissions guidelines for Darwin’s Evolutions, a fiction anthology: “Straight up warning: The standard Leftist tropes that have been the “passkeys” for getting attention in a story are actually hurdles to selling to Darwin’s Evolutions. I don’t mind when certain aspects of these things are properly integrated as part of the world...
Anonymous asked: Only for the extra text.
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Leading Edge Magazine and Rejection Letters
Big writing update today. A couple of days ago I got back a response from the magazine, Leading Edge, which I sent out back at the end of January. Before I opened the envelope that was addressed by my own hand, you should probably know, I turned to Chelsea and said, “let’s see why they’re not going to publish me.” I did not expect to get in; I feel this is important to...
