AUGH.
Okay, I was going to send the Werewolf Fic off to Asimov's, but in looking over their guidelines, they say:
In general, we're looking for "character oriented" stories, those in which the characters, rather than the science, provide the main focus for the reader's interest. Serious, thoughtful, yet accessible fiction will constitute the majority of our purchases, but there's always room for the humorous as well. Borderline fantasy is fine, but no Sword & Sorcery, please. Neither are we interested in explicit sex or violence. A good overview would be to consider that all fiction is written to examine or illuminate some aspect of human existence, but that in science fiction the backdrop you work against is the size of the Universe. [Emphasis mine]
Now, there's absolutely no science in the Werewolf Fic. Nope, none. It's probably as fantasy as fantasy can get without having actual magic spells. That being said, I recently checked out a book from the library called "Isaac Asimov's Werewolves"...which was an entire anthology of werewolf stories published by this self-same magazine. And the story is definitely character-driven.
So. Do I send it? Or not? I don't want to look like one of those idiots who hasn't read the guidelines, fer heck's sake. Or I could just ship it off to the next market on my list for the thing, which pays half as much--with the understanding that it's probably got a snowball's chance in Hades of being published by Asimov's in the first place.
And again, I say: AUGH.
In general, we're looking for "character oriented" stories, those in which the characters, rather than the science, provide the main focus for the reader's interest. Serious, thoughtful, yet accessible fiction will constitute the majority of our purchases, but there's always room for the humorous as well. Borderline fantasy is fine, but no Sword & Sorcery, please. Neither are we interested in explicit sex or violence. A good overview would be to consider that all fiction is written to examine or illuminate some aspect of human existence, but that in science fiction the backdrop you work against is the size of the Universe. [Emphasis mine]
Now, there's absolutely no science in the Werewolf Fic. Nope, none. It's probably as fantasy as fantasy can get without having actual magic spells. That being said, I recently checked out a book from the library called "Isaac Asimov's Werewolves"...which was an entire anthology of werewolf stories published by this self-same magazine. And the story is definitely character-driven.
So. Do I send it? Or not? I don't want to look like one of those idiots who hasn't read the guidelines, fer heck's sake. Or I could just ship it off to the next market on my list for the thing, which pays half as much--with the understanding that it's probably got a snowball's chance in Hades of being published by Asimov's in the first place.
And again, I say: AUGH.