I haven't written a word for weeks. This is for three reasons:
1) Insert standard western society 'really busy' blurb here.
2) I've been researching and planning for a new YA sci-fi novel.
3) A run of rejections and a couple of negative reviews have sapped my motivation. Yes I know they shouldn't and all the reasons why, but when you try really hard only to be dismissed as making a 'slight effort', it does make you question your ability.
So it was good to get two positive signs today. One was an email by a new writer saying how I'd made my mark on the australian horror scene, the other was a little fact I stumbled across: I'm on the 2005 'Year's Best' recommended reading list!

So if I can just remember to bring my danged flash drive to work, I think I'll try to write in lunch breaks again. Maybe some of my critique group remember who I am...

The Long Dry

Well, I knew the bubble would burst some day, and it has. I've just had yet another in a long stream of rejections. At the beginning it seemed like everything I submitted was snapped up instantly.
Have statistics caught up with me? Has my writing turned to crap? Motivation is plummeting.

Still, my original plan when I started all this was:
1) See if I can write a story that someone would want to read (tick)
2) See if I can write a story that someone would pay me for (tick)
3) Do that a couple of times, to make sure it wasn't a fluke (tick)
4) See if I can get anywhere in a writing comp (tick tick)
5) Have a go at a novel.

So, I guess it's time to turn my attention to reeeeeallly long stories. I find this very hard to do because I can't waffle, I only get teeny bits of time to write, and I don't want to wait a year or more to find out if it was all a waste of time. However, this is the next logical step in stretching myself as a writer.

I've already tried twice to write a novel. Both times, my crit group thought the first two chapters were excellent and the third one sucked. This made me give up until I got another bright idea for a novel.

Teeny voice from shoulder: "Stop being such a WUSS! Believe in yourself!"
Teeny voice from other shoulder: "Listen to that Disney-philosophy dork! Ha! As if you could do as good a job as (successful author/acclaimed author/the spec fic clique)".

If only those voices would shut up so I could write.

Told ya. ASIM just gave me a "just not by us" for Hot Discs.

I've written a little 750 worder, critted it at my online crit group, and sent it to the Andromeda Spaceways 3 month critique system. It's a mechanism whereby they take a couple of days to tell you "your story is publishable", and 3 months to tell you "just not by us" :)

Weeding has just been published in the Infinitas newsletter. Good to have my name out there as a comp winner, and it's a timely plug for Outcast.

Girl Power was rejected again. I thought it was one of my best, dagnabit! The first editor didn't even read past the first page, because it had a dragon in it. Funny thing about turning a trope on its head: you have to actually mention it first!

I Win!!

Boy, what a couple of weeks. Spin Doctor is published in AntipodeanSF, Save Galaxy Fast! is born unto the world in Outcast (okay, it hasn't been officially released yet, but people are buying it), and (drum roll please):

I just won the Magic Casements festival writing comp!

My story Weeding took it out, from 150 entries! On Saturday I attended the festival (thanks to the hard work of my supportive wife), met lots of people like Richard Harland, Chris Barnes, Robert Hood and Robert Hoge, chatted to lots of people I'd met the previous week like Cat Sparks, Gillian Pollack, Kaaron Warren and Nicole Murphy, then got up in front of them all (eek!) and read my little 500 words. Felt a little like getting up at the ARIAs and singing a Play School song, but a few of them (Chris, Cat, Robert H) took the time to catch me afterward and tell me how much they liked it. It's not very often I'm a winner at something (I can't remember the last time, actually), so it was good to have a moment that can shut my self-esteem voices up for a while.
The festival was great, I picked up a couple of pointers and found out a couple of unexpected things. For example, I've caused more real-life death and witnessed infinitely more blood and guts than some of the best horror writers in the country. The joys of growing up on a farm.
This should lift my writing out of the doldrums. Onward!

Spin Doctor has just had a favourable review over at the HorrorScope blog.

They said:

“Spin Doctor” by Steven Cavanaugh is a charming little story with an interesting premise. See if you can read this and not smile next time you go to do your laundry.

Gotta be happy with that.
I'm starting to realise another reason why authors use pen names. If your name is hard to spell, it can make it hard for people to find your stuff.

Laughs at Pre-Launch Launch Lunch

Saturday morning I got up to catch the train to Canberra, the sound of flatulent sparrows in my ears. When I reached Strathfield, the Canberra train was 3/4 of an hour late. This was just enough time to completely negate seeing Chris, Christy and Alex in Canberra- I had to call them and tell them not to worry about it :(

So after some neck-wrenching sleep I found myself in our nation's capital and caught a cab over to the launch. I met Nicole Murphy, Kaaron Warren, Cat Sparks, Donna Maree Hanson, Ross Hamilton, Mik Bennett, Kylie Seluka, Lily Chrywenstrom, Gillian Pollack and a large side order of CSFG. The food was great, the atmosphere was warm and breathable, and the artwork was bloody awesome. Had a good chat to the artist, Brian Smith.

Several of us went out to dinner that night. I was struck by the community feel of the CSFG, they really believe in giving each other a leg up.

And I got my hands on the anthology! It's a beautiful thing, and I couldn't stop reading it. The stories are all so different. It's like riding a roller coaster in the dark, you don't know where you'll be pulled next. There's something for everyone, from the surreal to the thought-provoking to the primal to the just plain FUN. Thought I await the reviews with some nerves, I know everyone will love it.

It's been a dry time writing of late. That pesky real world keeps intruding. I need a plan to eradicate the danged thing once and for all.

Spin Doctor has just been published at AntipodeanSF. Not a stellar piece, I just played with some character interaction.

The day after tomorrow I go to the Outcast party, and meet my friend Chris Hore's 5 month old. I'm not sure if those two events are combining. I think if little Alex gives a review of Outcast it would be "yum!"

Just got a rejection. It was done tactfully, and it was from the surreal-or-the-highway crowd which isn't me anyway, but it hit me at a bad time. This story has been rejected twice now, and I thought it was a cracker :-(
That was followed up by stumbling across a negative review of my first story, Elf Esteem. The reviewer thought it had been written only for the punch line- I didn't think of it until the end! She also threw in phrases like "tedious","go nowhere","very familiar ground","awkward" and "uninteresting". My current state of depression really needed that. Other reviewers loved the story so I shouldn't take it to heart I guess, but I'm not exactly bursting with motivation right now.

Two good things though:
-I can just afford to get down to Canberra for the Outcast pre-launch party.
-Someone emailed me to say they found my flash drive! I'd say it's Restored My Faith In Human Nature(tm), but if human nature was that good this wouldn't be a remarkable event, would it?

I've received a copy of the illustration for Save Galaxy Fast in Outcast. It's very cool, and really captures the personality of the protagonist. Amazing to see a character you've created brought to life in another medium. It must be so cool to have a movie made of your story.

It's almost time to launch Outcast. Circumstances have conspired against me making it to the official launch at Conjure.
-We've ordered some new lounges and don't have as long to pay them off as we first thought.
-Then some new neighbors moved in and demanded a new fence (which we were obliged to go halves in). Half a grandish bye-bye.
-Then some of the local little darlings took some time out from tagging walls to put a rock through our loungeroom window. Three hundred bucks to fix (and before you ask, it would have cost us three hundred bucks via insurance).
-Then the kids got sick. As any parent knows, you open your wallet to the chemist and tell him to help himself (after revolving door doctor visits).
-Then part of my tooth fell off.
Will bark like a dog for food.

The pre-launch launch party in canberra is only a couple of weeks away! Maybe I can make it to that, if I can afford to put my family up in canberra overnight. The last few experiences we've had with canberra hotels have NOT been pleasant.

Finally got around to using my 133t programming Skilz to sex up some of my sites. The header, Story button and the fiction list header were all hand crafted while staying back at work waiting for a slow chugging process to finish.

I just counted the submissions I have out there. There are 6! That's either a sign that I'm getting more productive, or editors are getting slower.

The other day I was at the Infinitas Writers Group. We'd critted a story and nobody else had brought one. I said "that's okay, I have my flash drive with everything I've ever written! I'll just print one from that", and produced a ribbon from around my neck... with nothing on the end of it.

Everything I've written. Gone.

...luckily I'd backed everything up less than a week before, and new crits are always with my group at Authors By Design. Still, somebody out there has all my stories and a few photos of my kids.

Strange comin's and goin's

Since my last post I have:

-Submitted Hot Discs (formerly Hot Pursuit) to ASIM . It's already gone through reading rounds one and two (they have a GREAT slush system) and it's waiting to be picked up by an editor!

-Submitted Girl Power to Strange Horizons Not sure if it's their cup of tea, but we'll see.

-Submitted Street Smarts to an american Undead anthology (the sequel to the one shown on their site).

-Completed the rewriting of Weeding, my entry in this year's flash fic contest at the NSW Writers Centre.

-Finished chapter 1 of the novel (again!)

-Created a flash trailer (movie style) for Outcast, that will appear on the CSFG web site soon. You can see a cut-down version HERE.

In other news:

-It looks like Christian Girard will unsheath his pen for the NSWWC flash fic comp!
-Outcast is now available for pre-order!

Outcast cover

I've been allowed to show you the cover to the Outcast antho.
I love it (especially the full version, with more of the plain)- it conveys a sense of loneliness while obviously implying spec fic. Tell me what you think.

Seedy Rom

I thought I'd tinker with something different so I've just finished Street Smarts, a 1500 word Romero Zombie number. It's very hard to write a Rom Zom and get it fresh enough to be accepted anywhere, so I saw it as a bit of a challenge. I haven't read much of the genre so anything I come up with has probably been done to death, but I'll see. I've just put it up for crit.

I'm also getting things moving on my novel again. The planets realigned and it's moving.

It's now submission season again. I have at least 4 stories ready to go out. Fly, my pretties!

Ups and doubts

Pardon Me, Coming Through was just rejected. They said it was well written, but thought it was an alternate history! This in spite of so many words about parallel dimensions. Oh well, I'll try and beat the reader over the head a little more.

I'm also getting frustrated with writing humour. It's far more subjective than say, drama. What leaves one person rolling on the floor merely raises the nose of another. If your work goes through one crit group, then another, then a slush reader, then an editor, then their assistant, and EVERY ONE of them gives you a kill list of the jokes they don't like, what's gonna be left at the end? How on earth did The Colour of Magic ever get published?

Things are also hotting up with Outcast. They just requested my bio, contracts will follow soon and in a week or so they'll be unleashing the awesome cover artwork. I'll add it here as soon as I'm allowed.

A tight pair of shorts

I finished Hot Pursuit, and it weighed in a bit heavy for Infinitas (2000 words). It's a nice little sci-fi trip up the pacific highway to what used to be home.

I've also completed a dark flash (600 words) story, The Man Behind You. My crit group, the Prose Nest, thinks it'll fly so I'll see where I can send it.

Trouble is, it's now december and everyone's shutting down their submissions until Jan. I'll try and stock up for next year :-)

Outlaw Incasts

My in-laws are very excited that I'm going to be published in a book, Outcast (I've been published a few times already, but skip that for a moment), and they want to support me by getting a copy of it when it comes out.
That's very nice of them, but these are people who never read. Well, except for the odd local paper, seniors weekly and any women's magazine containing the words 'princess' and 'commemorative'. Next April they'll unwittingly step into cutting edge reality-bending australian speculative fiction.
I grew up on Australia's Nymboida river, famous for its white water rafting. On one rafting trip I went on, an older asian gentleman showed up in a suit. I don't know what he thought he'd paid for, but the reality was somewhat different and necessitated a dry cleaning bill. I expect it to be like that.

I'm kind of glad Shadow Box was an e-anthology.

Can-do

And I did- can the first chapter of Axes of Evil. I'm rewriting it from scratch.

I'm also halfway through a little short called Hot Pursuit that I'm thinking of submitting to the Infinitas newsletter.