[July 12th] Slaves and Stories

I've had an amazing weekend, which involved the beach at day time and the beach at night time with drinks. Monday involved ironing, so no blog posts, but I do have things to share.

First, an article I wrote for Beyond Victoriana has gone live over the weekend. I discuss the creation of the fiercest Ottoman special ops division in their military, the enichari corps, which consisted of abducted Christian children brainwashed into loyal soldiers:

"Enichari Corps: Slaves in the Ottoman Empire"

When I agreed to write the series about Bulgaria under the Ottoman rule as a suitable stage for the steampunk genre, I underestimated the challenge these articles present. I want to deliver a portrayal of a complicated and cruel span of five centuries in Bulgarian history. At the same time I’m dealing with controversial and sensitive material, given that the Ottoman occupation has hindered Bulgaria’s access to Europe during the time of the Industrial Revolution.1

Even more so, given that this article deals with the cruelest tactic from the Ottoman empire to ensure its armies never lacked man power, while at the same time assured the assimilation of all conquered lands: the ‘enichari’ corps. 2. The word ‘enichar’ means ‘new soldier’ and refers to an Ottoman military class, which consists from non-Muslims. During the 14th century, the Ottoman conquests resulted in a sizeable amount of conquered territories and the aching need to expand the empire’s armies.

In other news, I'm back to submitting stories. "Hurricane Drunk" has been sent without alterations, but I tidied some moments in "Cosmic Love" before sending it out. At this point I'm not harboring any hopes to get both accepted, having no active hope is the best case scenario, when sending shorts in my opinion.

Short Stories, Short Stories

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I have self-evicted myself from Twitter after a much traumatizing realization that my university schedule does not integrate completely with my work schedule. So I have to figure out semantics and get my brain into 'serious' thinking. However, I did manage to squeeze out a re-submition of the most recent and the best story I have written up to date. I am not bragging, but I do think a writer feels, when he/she discovers the first really good story.The one, which still hasn't lost its charm and power. In my eyes "From Behind Empty Eyes" is that story.

Yes, I can't say if it is publishable or if it can be fit into what magazines are looking for, but I know that this is the story to mark my maturing into the craft. Not bragging. Again, I feel that writers feel this milestone. But I am straying away from the topic. Several days ago I received a rejection from the magazine I initially sent it. I am pretty much used to them, so this is not the story I am about to tell. I polished it. Added a three or four sentences to tighten up things as far as concept and world-building goes and resubmitted. Now thatI did all the submission steps and hunted down a well paying semi-professional magazine, I have opened myself towards the topic at hand.

I got to thinking about short story rates. Where to submit. How to query after the response time has elapsed. How many times to submit, before taking the story off the rounds. There have been posts on this before as I have read them, but I also wish to think out loud on the blog and add my own humble two cents to the table.

Any suggestions on where to start?

Freed from the Chains

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Newsflash: I’ve risen from the proverbial grave, dusted off proverbial ashes and proceeded burning in proverbial flames of anew.

Real Life: The exam session has passed and I have made my momma proud in passing all the exams with a steady B, which is miraculous [Math and I are not on speaking terms] and one powerful relief. I can imagine how Atlas felt, when he tricked Hercules into carrying the world for a few. Best sensation ever. This means that I will not devote a substantial amount of my waking time to dry theory, but to succulent fiction reading/writing/reviewing, while I wait for some development on the employment frontier.

Fiction: Yes, January was a miserable writing month, but I did it to myself, because I figured that ‘1)Exams + 2)Themed Month on my Review Blog + 3)Writing Fiction = Possible’ is in the realm of reality. Because 1) is mandatory and for 2) I have made a public promise and had people in contributing, I had to do my daily quota on both, which usually reduced me to the state of a zombie [or an accountant, hiding money from the IRS] or left me with no time at all to sit down and write reasonably readable fiction.

However, now that I am with all this free time on my hands my goal is to produce 2000 words a day and catch up with the lost month in January. I have a novel to revise and a short story to finish, so I will be okay.

News from the Front: “Lunar Hues” was rejected for the anthology I submitted. The rejection letter consisted of ‘I read your story and unfortunately I am going to pass’, which didn’t bother me one tiny bit. Is it that waiting has dulled the emotional charge connected with the work submitted or is it that I might have finally gotten that publishing is an impersonal business? Who can say? Right now I am gearing for a new submission.

There is no development with “From Behind Empty Eyes” and I think that I may hear from ‘Weird Tales’ in April or possibly May, because Ann Vandermeer’s promotion to editor in chief is going to cause a certain fluctuation to the speed and process of submission approval. I am not in a hurry, just happy that Ann got promoted. I have yet to read her and Jeff’s anthologies, but I know from reputed sources that they are worth the read.

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Because I am still on the Comic Book wave, I have this breathtaking cover for the new Batgirl series by Artgerm. I am not sure what in this illustration pulls me and makes me stare, but it is undeniable and overwhelming.

Why go OCD with these Submission?

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I am going to be pretty brief today and I think that I will be as brief the whole winter, because I feel like defrosting from the weather and the warmth from the heater lulls me to sleep. That scary fact about my body reactions to temperature changes poses a question on its own of how the heck am I going to be productive at all, but to be quite honest that is a mystery better left for a different post.

Now I shall answer the question/title for this post. It’s a fact; I have submitted “Lunar Hues” to targeted anthology with high hopes that Anthology Editor falls in love. Fairy tale sequence aside I had a small panic attack attached to this submission. It took ages to figure out how to tone my bio and how to shape my publishing credits, which by the way can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Most painful was how to approach the anthology editor, since research on the matter never revealed his/hers name. I guess I am doing the quest for name wrong, but I couldn’t find a thing.

I quadruple checked everything from formatting to headline, contact information and what not and in the end the mouse hung quite a few seconds over the “Send” button, before clicking. I had the feeling that I was Dexter Boy Genius, while experimenting with dangerous chemicals and awaiting something to go wrong, even though I have followed procedure.

Did I format the file accordingly? Did I miss something vital? Was it a slap in the face to clarify that although my full name is Haralambi, it’s better for everyone to be called Harry? I did this in the most well meaning tone without indulging in self-explanatory territories, but I am a slow writer, so the submission process is a new and I fear that I might have stampeded over a sacred unwritten law somewhere.

As you have noticed I turn into Monk, when it comes to submission, which got me thinking: Why the hell do we near heart failure every time we submit something, whether it be a short story for a magazine or anthology, pitching to an agent or editor and god knows what else, we as writers hyperventilate. I even got reassured that it is normal, which I know it is, but then again why is it so.

To me the gist of it lies that to make a good impression, a writer relies on too many variables that determine success. One would be following the guidelines, which is the most obvious of them all, but then there is the ability to slightly differ from all the other submissions without crossing a line, which has to happen within the submission text and doing that via e-mail is an art form within itself. Something that might seem acceptable to write, may irk off the editor and since the submission text is a lot like a novel’s cover [it aims to get a reaction from the one intended to see it] rubbing the editor the wrong way can be a very sloppy French kiss with death.

When someone is irritated the weaknesses or personal pet peeves stand out and scream for the work to be stacked in the rejected pile, while when one’s mood is perked up by the positive fuzziness conveyed in the submission along with flawlessly followed guidelines and manners to boot may result in a positive viewing of the work. This is not to say that editors are bunnies that one can manipulate so easily, but these fine, fine details determine one way or another the success of the submission at least as far as submission goes. A good submission tells the editor that the writer has professionalism, which is a valued quality, while bad submissions can make the editor doubt whether working with a writer, who can’t even handle the submission stage can be adequate, if published.

Would you trust a taxi driver, who would try to speed from the right lane? It’s the same here to a point.

That being said, I have to add one more thing. There are plenty of writers out there and the business is pretty competitive, so one needs to be stellar as far as submission goes. Precisely why I am going OCD when it comes down to submissions.

Yeah, it’s not that short, when I think about it and it’s kind of incoherent babbling, but it’s my logic on this anxiety when it comes to submissions.

Opinions?

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I am also indulging in yet another mythological piece that has been re-imagined, because as far as I recall gorgons aren’t male or muscular, but it’s certainly a striking illustration, which I discovered on my DA hunts. The hand behind it belongs to Mushimaro Tachikawa, a very talented Japanese artist in my humble opinion. Now doesn’t this provoke an interesting story?