O | The Online Writing Workshop for SF & F Newsletter, October 2002 W | http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com W | Become a better writer! | - - CONTENTS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | - Workshop News: Under-reviewed submissions update Prizes! OWW T-shirts November writing challenge Novel market news Membership payment information - Editors' Choices for October submissions - Reviewer Honor Roll - Publication Announcements - Workshop Statistics | - - WORKSHOP NEWS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | UNDER-REVIEWED SUBMISSIONS UPDATE We want to thank everyone who helped us find a bug in the workshop's new "Rescue this under-reviewed submission" feature. Your reports helped us track it down and fix it quickly. If anyone completed one of these reviews and didn't receive the bonus review point, just e-mail support at support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com and we'll add it to your total. The bonus rotation includes all submissions more than three days old with zero reviews, more than one week old with only one review, and more than two weeks old with only two reviews. Our goal is to see every submission get at least three reviews within two weeks. So far it's working! The number of under-reviewed submissions has dropped from a daily average of 125 to only 88 in the space of a month. These 88 represent 12.8% of all workshop submissions, and we'd like to see it come down further. Overall, reviews remain strong. The average of reviews-per-submissions is 4.92, as high as it's ever been. And the average length of reviews this month is 597 words, compared to 400 words in October 2001. If you have any other questions about this new feature or any other concerns about reviews, e-mail support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com PRIZES! We're giving away two workshop prizes this month. Kyri Freeman is our reviewer MVP this month for her many, many useful reviews, and Melinda Kimberly wins a copy of WRITERS OF THE FUTURE, VOL. XVIII, signed by workshop alum Dylan Krider, as the mailing-list good citizen award for trying to cool down some hot tempers on the list with humor and a lesson from Miss Manners. Dylan's Grand Prize story, "Eating, Drinking, Walking," was a workshop Editor's Choice winner in June 1999. More information on Dylan can be found at: http://www.dylanottokrider.com OWW T-SHIRTS We have a few unclaimed T-shirts left that people ordered but never paid for. The following colors and sizes are available on a first-come, first-serve basis: M white, M gray, L gray (2), XXL gray (2) You can see the T-shirt modeled at Worldcon by the workshop's own Charlie here (http://www.digitalphotosystem.com/Tales/BannerPage9.htm). Just follow the WORLDCON PICTURES! link. (Thanks to Jaime Voss for taking the picture and Mike Blumer for posting it at the Serendip!) The cost is $16.50 per shirt including postage, and we'll accept checks or Paypal. E-mail support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com with your order or with any questions. NOVEMBER WRITING CHALLENGE The mailing list's November Writing Challenge is called "Breaking Barbie: Destroying the Archetypical Story." The only requirements are an archetypical character (perky blonde cheerleader, farmboy-aka-king, etc) and an archetypical characteristic (time travel, spaceships, lost kings, etc.) Write your fantasy, and put it on a spaceship. Write your SF in medieval times. This can be anything from pulp to literature. Just make your story break out of those archetypical molds. Workshop challenge stories have resulted in sales for more than a few members (there are at least two in this month's "Sales & Publications" section) so join in and have fun. For more information on the challenges present and past, visit (http://www.thermeon.net/checkered/Challenge.html). NOVEL MARKET NEWS: ROMANCE HYBRIDS Anna Genoese, an acquiring editor at Tor Books, spoke to members of the Romance Writers Association about paranormal/sf/fantasy romances. She said she's looking for unique and original dark fantasy/sf, erotic fantasy/sf, paranormal/sf/speculative romance/"chick lit". Romantic paranormal mystery/suspense is fine (i.e., J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Linda Howard), but she doesn't want straight romantic mystery/suspense. Romantic historical fantasy (i.e., Juliet Marillier, Jacqueline Carey, Delia Sherman) is acceptable, but no straight romantic historicals. Ms. Genoese tells writers: "The romance cannot be an afterthought--but neither can the plot! The romance should comprise 50% or less of the main story. I am open to non-traditional romances (multi-racial/ethnic, multi-spiritual, homosexual, etc.) as well as traditional ones." She was very specific about the submissions she wants to see: a 1-2 page synopsis with the first 3 chapters or 60 pages of your work. No simultaneous submissions, no query letters. All submissions must be mailed to: Anna Genoese Tom Doherty Associates 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 USA Tor is part of Tom Doherty Associates, which also publishes under the Forge imprint. MEMBERSHIP PAYMENT INFORMATION How to pay: In the U.S., you can pay by PayPal or send us a check or money order. Outside of the U.S., you can pay via PayPal (though international memberships incur a small set-up fee); pay via Kagi (www.kagi.com--easier for non-U.S. people); send us a check in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank (many banks can do this for you for a fee); or send us an international money order (available at some banks and some post offices). If none of those options work for you, you can send us U.S. dollars through the mail if you choose, or contact us about barter if you have interesting goods to barter (not services). Scholarship fund and gift memberships: you can give a gift membership for another member; just send us a payment by whatever method you like, noting who the membership is for and specifying whether the gift is anonymous or not. We will acknowledge receipt to you and the member. Or you can donate to our scholarship fund, which we use to fully or partially cover the costs of an initial paying membership for certain active, review-contributing members whose situations do not allow them to pay the full membership fee themselves. Bonus payments: The workshop costs only 77 cents per week, but we know that many members feel that it's worth much more to them. So here's your chance to award us with a bonus on top of your membership fee. For example, is the workshop worth a dollar a week to you? Award us a $12 bonus along with your membership fee. 25% of any bonus payments we receive will go to our support staff, sort of like a tip for good personal service. The rest will be tucked away to lengthen the shoestring that is our budget and keep us running! For more information: Payments: http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/memberships.shtml Bonus payments: http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/bonuspayments.shtml About our company: http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/bonuspayments.shtml Price comparisons: http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/memberships_comparison.shtml | - - EDITORS' CHOICES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | The Editors' Choices are chosen from the submissions from the previous month that show the most potential or otherwise earn the admiration of our Resident Editors. One submission in each of three categories--SF, F, and short stories--is given a detailed review, meant to be educational for others as well as the author. Reviews are written by our Resident Editors, award-winning authors and instructors Kelly Link and Nalo Hopkinson, or occasionally other writing pros. Close contenders for EC will be listed here as runners-up but usually won't get a review. The last four months of Editors' Choices and their editorial reviews are archived on the workshop. To view them, go to the "Read, Rate, Review" page and click on "Editors' Choices" in the Submission Selector. Congratulations to this month's Editors' Choice authors! Runner Up, Fantasy Chapter/Partial Chapter: BOOK OF 2D CHANCES, Ch. 2 by Mike Blumer Editor's Choice, Fantasy Chapter/Partial Chapter: AFTER EPSILON (1 & 2) by Jean Seok A good opening chapter with surprising details like the live salamander with the thread around its tail and the way it becomes a pendant later on. There's lots of action and it held my interest. I wasn't able to predict at any moment where things might go. The opening line--"They kidnapped me at sunrise."--throws us right into the action, sets the stakes high, and immediately makes us wonder what's going on. That's a first line that hooks the reader. One wants to know a little bit more about how that kidnapping was accomplished, though; did the protagonist try to scream, to struggle? Did her captors immobilize her in some way once she was in the van? If not, why was one of the two of them averting his eyes, leaving an older man as the only one paying attention to what the protagonist did? About the salamander, you say, "There was a loop at the end of its tail, and a silver thread coiled tightly against it." Do you mean that the thread was coiled *around* its tail? "Against" is confusing. And was it a real salamander? I managed to figure that out later, but it's something we should know in the moment. As a reader I expect some reaction from both the protagonist and the salamander. How do her captors know that she'd be okay taking a strange live animal into her hand like that? And even if she is, I'd expect her to register how it felt in her hand, and I'd expect it to maybe move a little, or scrabble a bit with its toes for purchase on her hand (or, a little bit later on, her neck); something to tell us that these are two live beings interacting with each other. You say, "Something about the coercion angered as much as frightened me, but I took the gesture as an opportunity. I knelt forward." What gesture? And when did she kneel on the ground? Or do you mean, "I leant forward"? "Tears started to collect in my eyes, but I blinked them away angrily. I would not be raped or killed just because I had been stupid." I don't understand this. For all she knows, she may very well be raped or killed, yet how has she been stupid? Nice twist, that the people who have kidnapped her don't know what roles they will play in the ritual in which they will all take part. In one way, they are as powerless as she. Good sensory detail here: "I stumbled out of the van into a dark tunnel that smelled of urine, rust, and small dead things." I like the distinction between the smell of small dead things and that of large dead things. I could smell this tunnel. Why is she startled into screaming when Tau says, "Remember to breathe"? She knows he's there, and in fact she's just been talking to him. A lot of the description feels sketchy--where people's bodies are in relation to each other, what things feel like. In particular, the battle that Tau has in the dark with his invisible attacker had almost no sensory impact. Yet you would expect that the protagonist would be hearing blows, perhaps feeling the impact of them through Tau's body, and would be hearing intakes of breath, smelling blood and/or the creature, sensing movement. Later on, the protagonist wakes with her hands bandaged. She needs help to drink and to get dressed, so how does she manage to undo the clasp on the necklace she's wearing without help? Generally, an intriguing opening chapter. I was drawn in immediately, and I was curious about why the characters were named for letters of the Greek alphabet. Yet the excerpt feels in need of a rewrite that pays attention to detail and removes some of the contradictions in the text. If a rewrite fixed the sketchiness and the contradictions, I would read on. --Nalo Hopkinson http://www.sff.net/people/nalo/ Short story collection SKIN FOLK now available from Warner Books Runner Up, SF Chapter/Partial Chapter: BOYHOUSE, Chapter One by Olivia Fowler Editor's Choice, SF Chapter/Partial Chapter: DEAD LINKS, Chapter One by Jennifer de Guzman A lovely, almost languid opening chapter, for all that it contains a mother kicking her daughter out of the house, a knife attack, and a spectral apparition. The language is beautiful, and I found the images and character development intriguing. I liked the way that you worked the rituals of Orisha into a futuristic setting (perhaps only because that gives it aspects of my first novel, but I also think that you're doing quite a good job of it). I think that the jumping about in time is working so far. However, that same languidness may be working against you a little. There's a lot of action here, yet we experience it mostly through the filter of lengthy ruminations by the protagonist and Victor. They are interesting ruminations, but I think a bit more dialogue would be in your favor. And if you make a futuristic setting, you need to use it a bit--imagine it more strongly. Your 2049 New Orleans feels like 2003 New Orleans. There will be small but significant shifts in some of America's technologies in 46 years, and people will have made adaptations to them. (I'm 41 years old. In my twenties, there were no such things as VCRs and consumer videotape recordings. Twenty years later, there are, and the way that I watch movies and television has changed as a result.) How might your characters' lives be subtly different from ours? How might you use those differences in your novel? In other words, what are the reasons why you've set it in the future? Figure out what those are and make sure that you write to them, or else consider setting the novel in the present. Specific comments: "...a slow oozing trickle of blood from the gash on her forehead drawn out by the warmth of the train." This reads as though it's the gash that's been "drawn out by the warmth of the train," not the blood. I suggest you change the order of the phrases, so that it reads, "a slow oozing trickle of blood drawn out from the gash on her forehead by the warmth of the train." "...when it arrived at its destination in eight hours, it would only be five hours past the time when it [HAD] left New York." "She smoothed Aja's hair off of her forehead." Delete the word "of." It's a colloquial usage, grammatically incorrect in narrative (it would be okay in dialogue if it matched the speaker's dialect). "He smiled warily and held a glass a quarter full of amber-clear liquid. Aja held it in her hand as if it would burst into flames and speak to her." I would say, "Aja held *the photo* in her hand," else it sounds as though Aja held the glass that the image of her father is holding in the photo. Re-read the two sentences the way that you've written them. Do you see what I mean? POV shift here: "Simon Goldman had been obsessed with that knowledge." We're in Aja's head, and as far as we know, her mother has told her nothing about her father Simon yet. How then does Aja know about Simon's obsessions? "Aja kept her eyes war[IL]y on the shadows." You need the adverb--warily -- not the adjective "wary." Lovely dream image, which probably works all the better for being brief: "In her sleep she was inside and outside of the train--inside, tiny and curled up like a fetus; outside, so big that her hand could push the train forward like a child's toy." Gorgeous writing in the following paragraph: "Calixa had dark eyes, dark like doldrums ... And she wouldn't have known her father then, either." Not only is the language lovely, the content neatly places Aja and Calixa's racial makeup into an historical context. You're giving texture and a sense of time and social realities to your world-building. Excellent. I enjoyed Aja's fanciful image of her mother pulling her father's body out of the cedar chest, but I didn't know what a "twice-turned prom dress" was. I loved the contrast between possession by the loas and Simon, who was "possessed merely by jealousy." Yet I finished that paragraph still unsure what it was that was obsessing Simon so. I completely lost sympathy when Aja said, ""Screw your health benefits! You're my best friend. I'd do anything for you. Please do this for me."" Maybe it's because I know the horrible dilemma of having health problems with no way to pay for them, but Aja's being extremely selfish by asking her friend to jeopardize his well-being that way. Especially since you've already told us that not too long after pulling Victor out of his job, Aja will simply abandon him. Protagonists don't have to be good people--I'm very fond of saying that Hannibal Lecter is a great example of an absorbing protagonist who's nevertheless thoroughly evil--but do you want us to think of Aja as being this self-absorbed and unconcerned for her friend? If you do, then have at. This made me chuckle: "... the traces of nutmeg, still lingering after the baking accident that winter." Nice detail. I'm not sure that the swift POV changes between Victor and Aja are working. I liked the first one, where we popped out of her head as she stood at his door into his head as he saw her standing there, but the second and third ones (where she's walking away to go and visit Marie Laveau, and near the end of the excerpt) were only distracting. Though I did wonder if you were working on some extended metaphor for the Loas manifesting by popping into the heads of their worshippers for a while. Still, I think it's more distracting than anything else. (Except that first one. It's striking, and I'd keep it.) You say that Aja finds Marie Laveau's tomb "less painful to visit" than Victor's apartment, because the tomb had been there so long and would continue to be there a long time. I don't understand why that makes it a less painful place to visit. "... more than two century's supply" should be "more than two centuries' supply." "Centuries" needs to be in the plural, since you're talking about more than two of them, and it takes the plural possessive. "Voodoun" is not a spelling I've seen before, so I'm querying it. Do you know it to be a correct spelling? I've seen "Vodou," "Vodun," "Voodoo" and "Voudun," but never "Voodoun." You yourself spell it "Voodoo" a few lines further down. You say, "two teenage boys." Properly, the word is "teenaged." When Victor is attacked by the two boys, you have Aja witness a couple of their actions and hear a full sentence that one of the boys says while she's running and endeavoring to skid to a halt. That doesn't ring true. It's difficult to hear while you're running, and the effort of coming to a halt takes place in too brief a time to simultaneously watch someone rifle through a bag, watch someone else with a knife at your friend's throat, and hear a full sentence that one of the attackers says. At first you tell us that there are two teenaged boys, but then there seem to be more than that; one at Victor's throat, and others rummaging through his bag. And even later on, you say that there are three boys. Should be "who" here, not "whom": "Before Aja could question whom Marie was speaking of..." I'm not sure where you're going at the end with the image of Victor as Adam stepping on the Serpent's head, but I'm willing to wait to see how it plays out. Generally, this is a strong beginning, though it languishes a bit. I would certainly read on, hoping that you can get your character a little more out of her head and interacting with her world. --Nalo Hopkinson http://www.sff.net/people/nalo/ Short story collection SKIN FOLK now available from Warner Books Runner Up, Short Story: "Curiosity" by Kevin Jones This was an eerie and wonderfully surprising story, part Stephen King and part Jonathan Carroll. The writing, however, is clunky in many places, and the rhythm of much of the dialogue feels off. "Ring then." isn't as natural-sounding as saying "Then ring the bell, Lindsey." A sentence like "The objects of Mrs. Painter's collection were varied but themed nonetheless; it had to be colorful and happy" is ungrammatical, and also longer and vaguer than it needs to be. You can just say "Mrs. Painter collected happy, colorful things." Try reading this story out loud, and simplify the language as much as possible. Plain, clear writing suits spooky stories best--don't over-describe Mrs. Painter, or the outside of the house. You want to get the reader inside as quickly as possible. Choose your telling details carefully. You need to give us a little more information about Becka and Lindsey. How is it that Becka knows about Mrs. Painter and Lindsey doesn't? How old are the sisters? At first they seemed like middle-school children. Keep in Becka's point of view, and tell us that she thinks Lindsey looks older, but maybe not wiser. What kind of relationship do they have? Close? Competitive? Does Becka have a husband or a lover? When Lindsey asks for Mrs. Painter to hurt Robert, we need to know what her face looks like, how she sounds. "She was crying" is stronger writing than "...and another tear escaped." The contrast between Mrs. Painter's collection of happy objects and her paintings is wonderful. The real heart of the story is the contrast of Becka's examination of the gifts, which somehow look more real because of how they have been placed (the dancing, lying-down dog is a fabulous detail), and the woebegone, misplaced, unreal people in the crowded ship; the monkey clinging to the edge of the frame. The last line of the story feels too tidy, too forced. Perhaps you could merely have Becka note that every time she leaves Mrs. Painter's house, the outside world seems not only dingier, but also somehow less real and more like a painting. You could even describe the same sort of overcast clouds that hung over the sky in the painting. After you've rewritten this, try sending it to Paula Guran at _Horror Garage_, or to _Talebones_. Happy Halloween, and thanks for the goosebumps! --Kelly Link http://www.kellylink.net/ Short story collection STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN available from Small Beer Press Editor's Choice, Short Story: "Synth and Natural" by Nora Fleischer This is an engaging, romantic, and rather breathlessly told old-fashioned space opera. We're sucked into the story from the opening paragraph, and whenever we might balk at all the sorts of things that we've seen before, we have Simon to make them new for us all over again. He's a fabulous viewpoint character, and it might be interesting to keep more of the story in his point of view. Dialogue throughout is natural and believable, and writing is extremely comfortable. This is Lois McMaster Bujold territory: warm, funny, and full of good, small details, when the author gives herself enough breathing space. Like Simon, Ana is also a strong character. Unfortunately, everyone else gets short shrift--we have not only a murderer, but villains galore, all of whom seem to shuffle onto the page, say whatever is necessary to propel the plot a few inches further, and then obligingly shut up. The farther into the story we get, the more improbable it all seems, so slow down the action, give your characters some breathing room, and let them act like real people and not story widgets. When we first meet Ian, like Ana, he's grieving over the death of Jim. We find out that he's a friend of Joanne (who, by the way, is not necessary in any way to the story), only she doesn't ask about him when she visits. When we do see him again, it turns out he's a murderer! And yet Ana never seems to care very much, either to grieve again for Jim, or to even notice that her other coworker is a murderer--she's too busy falling in love with Simon. From this point on, everything feels slapdash. Why should we care about Ana as a person, or believe that her love for Simon matters very much, if she has so little feeling for Jim or Ian? We don't even get any emotional reaction from her when Simon discovers the dichronium, and yet she's been terribly worried about keeping it from him. Again, when the Earl of Buell shows up, there are lots of problems, not all of them caused by hasty pacing. Why would the number-one man in the Empire have showed up, and why has he showed up without regiments of guards? Doesn't he have better things to do? It's as if Bush (okay, Cheney) flew into Alaska all by himself to find out what a small outpost of geologists and biologists were trying to conceal (oil! Lots of it!). Lord Ware, Lord Markham, and Ian are also apparently standing around waiting for Ana and Simon to show up. Too many villains, too much intrigue, too many lords--can't we settle for one? And one too many showdowns as well. Fit the love scene in somewhere else, and just give us one confrontation with the evil empire. The hand-held device which short-circuits Simon's brain is over the top. So is the slapstick standoff with Winky--not every gun on the mantelpiece has to go off. Really. The annoying voice in Simon's head is enough: you can play with it during the conversation that he, Ana, Ian, and evil composite lord have about the dichronium and the fate of the planet. And you might consider making the dichronium something that it turns out the Empire doesn't want to use, or for others to know about, because it would weaken a monopoly, or the position of an Empire cartel. That would be a nice twist. You're also going to have to rehabilitate Ian in some way--maybe Jim attacked him first and it was self defense--or else tie up that story line in some other satisfying manner. But first I would integrate him into the plot, and give him and Simon a relationship as well. There are lots of wonderful details in this story, such as the repeated crack about how the empire can always make another synth, and the way that everything is brand new to Simon. The story of what probably happened to Michele the synth seems both real and poignant. But you do need to show us how beautiful this planet is, not just to Simon, to whom everything is beautiful, even his own blood, but also to Ana, who sees it with wiser, more experienced eyes. Does this need to be a novel? No. Just a longer short story. (Maybe a longer short story with a better name.) But this may turn out to be a universe with a lot more stories in it, and I'd like to see them published somewhere like _F & SF_. --Kelly Link http://www.kellylink.net/ Short story collection STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN available from Small Beer Press | - - REVIEWER HONOR ROLL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | The Reviewer Honor Roll area of the workshop recognizes members who have given useful, insightful reviews. After all, that's what makes the workshop go, so we want to give great reviewers a little well-earned recognition! (Some months we also award a prize to a special reviewer.) If you got a really useful review and would like to add the reviewer to the Reviewer Honor Roll, just use our online honor-roll nomination form--log in and link to it from the bottom of the Reviewer Honor Roll page at http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/honorroll.shtml. Your nomination will appear on the first day of the next calendar month. This month's Reviewer MVP is Kyri Freeman, who will receive a copy of THE LADY OF THE SORROWS, Book 2 of _The Bitterbynde_ trilogy, by workshop alum Cecilia Dart-Thornton. Kyri has managed to acquire more than 600 review points without ever winning a reviewer prize and we wanted to correct that oversight. Many thanks to Kyri for all her reviews! You can read all about Cecilia's writing at: http://www.dartthornton.com The Honor Roll will show all October nominations beginning November 1. Some advance highlights from the October honor roll: Reviewer: Brian Otridge Submission: TALE OF A MISSING BOOK by Andre Oosterman Submitted by: Andre Oosterman Nominator's Comments: Brian had commented on all six chapters of the 20,000-word story with great speed, dedication and integrity. He has given me a carload of nits to process, but, more importantly, has also convincingly pointed out a few major inconsistencies. Without him, the story would not be (and would not become) as good. Yes, I am grateful. Reviewer: Sarah Prineas Submission: "Decent Guy" (contains Adult themes) by Ben Searle Submitted by: Ben Searle Nominator's Comments: Sarah took examined this story with great care, and so provided an extremely valuable crit. She showed me where the writing could be tighter, and where things could be explained more clearly. She noted (before she finished reading the story) how she was expecting it to end, which give me insight into the impressions the story was creating. Greatly appreciated, Sarah. All nominations received in September can be still found through October 31 at: http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/honorroll.shtml | - - PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENTS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | We can't announce them if you don't let us know! So drop Charlie a line at support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com whenever you have good news to share. Features: The latest episode of _MarsDust Online_ (http://www.marsdust.20m.com) includes Steve Nagy's interview with Cecilia Dart-Thornton and excerpts from all three of her _Bitterbynde_ books, including an exclusive early look at THE BATTLE OF EVERNIGHT. Awards: Eugene Woodbury's novel PATH OF DREAMS won Honorable Mention (third place) in the 44th Annual Utah Original Writing Competition, Novel category. For more about the prize, see: http://arts.utah.gov/literature/winners.html Sales and Publications: Nigel Atkinson's delightfully titled novella "A Mouse in the Walls of the Lesser Redoubt" has been sold to the NIGHT LANDS anthology, coming from Wildside Press (http://www.wildsidepress.com) in early 2003. John Borneman sold short story "Eggs Benedict" to _Fortean Bureau_ (http://www.forteanbureau.com/) for an upcoming issue, possibly December 2002. John told us that "passes on a sincere thanks to all his reviewers." Your newsletter editor hesitates to note that "passes on" can also mean "dies" or "omits." Chris Clarke sold reprint rights for two short-shorts, "Love Lines Circle" and "Notes for the Gallery," to _Story House_ (http://www.storyhouse.com). Both stories originally appeared in _Vestal Review_ (http://www.vestalreview.net). Chris advises: "Look for those reprint markets, I say. And if you have hard to place short-shorts (under 1000 words) try Story House--they were prompt and professional, and judging by what they bought from Amber and myself, open to pieces that are a little off the mainstream." (Caveat scriptor: Story House publishes on coffee cans!) Jennifer De Guzman's story "Counterpoint" appears at _Strange Horizons_ (http://www.strangehorizons.com) on Monday, October 21. Jen told the mailing list, "It's about Mozart, and was rejected _twelve_ (or was it thirteen?) times before SH accepted it." Another good argument for persistence. Kyri Freeman's sold her short story "The Path" to _Ideomancer_ (http://www.ideomancer.com). She promises to tell us more about it when it appears in early 2003. Pam McNew sold reprint rights to her short story "A Daughter, Lost" to Britian's Folen Publishers for their textbook, MODELS FOR WRITING - ESSENTIAL FICTION. The story started was written as a workshop challenge piece and originally appeared in _Chiaroscuro_ (http://www.chizine.com). Sharon Partington's short story "Haven" will appear in the Nov./Dec. issue of long-running webzine _Demensions_ (http://www.demensionszine.com) on Nov. 3. Sharon tells us, "Special thanks have to go to Don Harris and Laura Waesche for helping smooth out some of the rough spots. Their input made it a much better story." Mikal Trimm continues his world conquest with a poem and a short story, "Emma," sold to new Canadian magazine _NFG_ (http://nfg.ca). His short story "Cable and the Possible God" appears in the third issue of Australia's _Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine_ (http://www.andromedaspaceways.com). Amber van Dyk's short story "Knotwork" will appear pseudonymously in _Clean Sheets_ (http://www.cleansheets.com). Like many other workshop sales, this one started out as a challenge piece! | - - WORKSHOP STATISTICS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Number of members as of 10/20: 616 paying, 91 trial Number of submissions currently online: 684 Percent of submissions with 3 or more reviews: 74% Percent of submissions with zero reviews: 1.1% Number of submissions in September: 514 Number of reviews in September: 2307 Ratio of reviews/submissions in September: 4.49 Estimated average word count per review in September: 541 Number of submissions in October to date: 299 Number of reviews in October to date: 1394 Ratio of reviews/submissions in October to date: 4.66 Estimated average word count per review in October to date: 609 | - - FEEDBACK - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Send your feedback to support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com See you next month! The Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction and Fantasy http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com support@sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com | - - Copyright 2002 Online Writing Workshops, LLC - - - - - - - - -|
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