Worms on a Helicopter!

Over at the blog of Shane Jiraiya Cummings, he's put up a simple writing comp. The winner will be published in Black Box, the sequel to Shadow Box.

120 word horror story, with the theme of the tackiest movie title of all time: "Snakes on a Plane". Check out my entry while you're there. I tried to get some depth of character in, and snuck in references to Samuel L MoFoJackson, Black Box itself, and what I hope is an innovative take on the snakes.

Still Moving

Another review of Moving Dad just popped up at Australian Specfic In Focus (scroll down to it), by Talie Helene. She writes:

“Moving Dad” is Steven Cavanagh’s Second Place winning story – beginning with whimsical familiarity, moving to poignancy. A lovely slow reveal, blurring the line between the infirmity of advanced age, and the shambling corruption of undeath. An exploration of a universal horror – the realisation of the mortality of the father – I won’t spoil the ending, but Cavanagh kicks off beautifully into an even deeper horror in the last line. Fantastic dialogue in this one too.

It's good to see someone who really got the central concept (the similarity between how we treat the old and how we treat the dead). Very nice of Talie to say such kind words. Poignant? Hell, wait till she sees Finding The Words! Pop them tear ducts right open, it will.

Hmm, speaking like Yoda, I was.
Digressing, I am.

Fastest rejection in the west

I got word of new market Clarkesworld Magazine from the Horrorscope Blog, and thought I'd send 'em a story.
A rejection was back in my Inbox, with quotations and detailed reasons for the rejection within an hour! For those who read this and don't write, the normal procedure is to wait a year and then nag them.

The rejection was polite, professional, and made me feel like I'm a kindergarten kid going for the Pulitzer. The further I go as a writer, the further I have to go.

Just got an interior art sample for Street Smarts. The artist wanted to know what I thought, and some pointers on fitting the characters with how I pictured them. This is the second time an artist has brought my characters to live, and it's such a buzz. It's great art, too.

Things to do before I die: con someone into making a movie of something I've written. Even if it involves a Jedi, a Sith and a forest.

By the Numbers published.

The August Infinitas newsletter has just been released. It includes my story By the Numbers. Click here for a free read!

Well, I'm Staggered

Soooooooold!

Permuted Press has just picked up my zombie story Street Smarts for the sequel to their much loved Undead Anthology.

For this one I set myself a challenge. Could I write a short story for the zombie genre (a genre that's been gnawed to the bone) and still make it original enough to get paid for it? Wait, let's make it harder. What about a classic zombie, streets-full-of-staggering-dead story?

I guess I could. I'm assuming that the market isn't awash with publishers who'd buy anything, but Permuted Press certainly know what they're doing and the first antho got some great reviews.
When it comes out it'll be available on Amazon, I'll let you know.

Eek!

A couple of previous posts in this blog were kindly offered some drinks, fell asleep and woke up far out to see as members of Her Majesty's Navy.
In other words, I made it into this month's Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival!
It no doubt has some good points. I've said something that someone thinks someone else might want to see. Or laugh at. It might lead someone to think "hey, that's the guy that wrote Save Galaxy Fast/Elf Esteem/Moving Dad/etc etc", and they'll remember it in 2023 when my first novel comes out. Maybe making the Carnival is on an obscure list of things to do before you die, I don't know.
What I do know is that I've been writing comments on here thinking that about four people read them, two of those being personalities of my own. I feel like a ton of guests have burst into my house and I have underwear lying all over the floor.

So, you're all welcome to stay, just sit down on the (brush brush) lounge, mind the mess and I'll... uh.. clean up.

Little story lost

I've written a horror short called I Saw (it has four meanings, not that the reader will get that). It's extremely Australian, and features a lot of detail about the bush where I grew up.
I don't know where to send it.

-I could send it to Dark Animus, but they're a few centuries behind on their slush.
-I could send it to Aurealis, but although their site adds news, nobody seems to know if the market is alive.
-I don't think I could send it overseas, it's too Australian.
-It's too long for Shadowed Realms.

Perhaps I should hold onto it for a little bit. Brimstone Press seem to be starting new projects all the time.
Any ideas?

Submitted Home Cooking to the Macabre anthology. I think it has what it takes, but may be a little short for what they're looking for. Kidneys crossed.

I look like a writer.

Hell, I even look like a successful writer. Okay, so I've had a handful of publications in small press stuff and anthologies that appear spine-out in four bookshops across the country. But that's okay because this arrived in the mail.

<--
The first prize for the Australian Horror Writers Association's 2006 Flash Fiction Competition!

It's quite an honour, the AHWA are a great bunch of guys who do an awful lot for dark fic in Oz. Needless to say, it went straight to the pool room. Or would have, if our tiny house was big enough for something posh like a pool room. Actually, it went on the wall of our kitchen/dining area/computer desk area/main thoroughfare, where we stick little Ben's works of fine art. It's between a doctor's stethoscope (milk bottle lids, straws and a bit of egg carton) and a cellophane/paper plate jellyfish.

So I look like a real writer now, right? Is that what one looks like?

So you can behold Cat Sparks' seven Ditmars, or ogle Richard Harland's Golden Aurealis, but if you really want to feast your eyes, look at my wall.
It has a cellophane jellyfish. Bloody good one, too.

Random happenings

1) Always nice when you walk into a bookshop and the owner says "hey, I heard you won the competition at Conflux!"- and he was told by a publisher.

2) Sold a little story to said bookshop, By the numbers.

3) Currently having critted a story called Home Cooking which I plan to submit to the Macabre Anthology. I didn't think I'd have a story ready, but one leaped into my head last weekend. The market closes reaaaly soon. Crit, my Prose Nest friends! Crit like the wind!

4) I'd submitted a zombie story to an antho a while back, and just got a reply. Now as any writer will tell you, a market replies with either
A: Yes, or
B: No.
But these guys said
C: Make changes X, Y and Z with more emphasis on Q, and then send it to us again. That doesn't mean we'll take it.

First time for everything I guess. But their suggestions were all good and hey, they're the customer.

Looks like I found the words

My story Finding the Words Won the Australian Horror Writers Association's 2006 Flash Fiction comp! I came second last year.

Special thanks to my critique group The Prose Nest, who put on white gloves and ran their fingers over the mantlepiece, and made it a stronger story.

Interestingly enough, there were fewer entries this year. I thought aussie dark fiction was a boom genre??

Back in yer box

While I haven't been visited by the Black Dog of Depression for quite a few years now, the Purple Puppy of Self-Doubt is an irregular visitor. The little mongrel tends to run away with my writing motivation, and tugs at it like buggery when I attempt to take it back.

But yesterday I was handed that holy talisman sought after by all newbie writers, the Rolled Up Newspaper of Affirmation.

-Girl Power finally sold, to ShadowSword Magazine. They said it was 'well done and amusing'. Good to find another market that doesn't sneer down its literary nose at humour (well, humor actually. It's also my first international sale).

-I'm on the short list (ie top 4) for the Australian Horror Writers Association's 2006 Flash Fiction comp! That's the comp in which I came second last year. This year they're only awarding a first prize and four commendations, so I've already equalled last year's effort, using Kenobi's Certain Point of View (patent pending).
My story is Finding the Words. That's the one where, for the first time, I cried while writing. As opposed to crying before re-submitting :)
I received an invitation to go to Conflux, but unfortunately there's been a death in my wife's family and the funeral is on that weekend. My story takes place just after a funeral, which is kinda wierd.

Oh, and the Outcast has been reviewed over at the Horrorscope blog. Save Galaxy Fast! gets one of those reviews that merely describe some of the story and don't really pass judgement on it, apart from saying that one concept is 'cute'. It doesn't list it among the weak stories, so I guess I'm happy with that.

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.