MunchSized Rambles - Update and Anthology Woes
Doing this on my phone so I'm going to keep it brief for now. Things have been crazy-busy the past few weeks x.x
The very first place I applied to wound up hiring me. They started training me almost immediately. I'm a security officer again, but it's for better pay, better environment, and even better software. I start at my site this Monday. The commute is going to be hell but it will be worth it in the long run.
My dad was in the hospital because of his gallbladder. They wound up operating on him, and it turns out the organ was just short of dissentigrating. He suffered some horrible confusion post surgery that I've never seen from him before. When we were Finally able to get the staff to look into it, they changed his pain medication and he started doing far better. He was able to go home yesterday under my ma's care.
With Pax this weekend, we have Nick's brother, sister-in-law and niece staying with us. It's so much fun having them, and oddly I don't feel like I'm missing out on quite so much despite having to miss two days of Pax. I guess the real secret to conventions is using it as a fun excuse to hang out with friends and family.
I've fallen painfully behind on my writing and I really don't know how I'm going to find the time x.x Hopefully soon; I still have promises to keep.
At least Fragments, the anthology I'm editing, is still going at a decent pace. I'm only behind by a few stories and the extended deadline seems to have come as a relief to a number of writers. I never imagined we would be "competing" against as well established of an anthology as Heat, but apparently Fragments is already starting to build a decent reputation. Rejections aren't going out as quickly as I would have liked, but we're holding off on sending acceptances until the final deadline.
On a personal level, I'm worried that I'm being too picky. We have over 250k words in stories for a 100k word anthology, and a few folks started asking if we plan on releasing a part two with what we have alone. Yet there's only about 60k in words so far I'd be happy and comfortable with publishing, including both well-established and never-before-published authors alike.
Other editors have told me that it's the nature of the beast in this community; there's simply no avoiding the sub par filler. One of the main goals of a writing group I'm a member of keeps haunting me though, and that's to encourage and uplift the quality of writing within the community.
So is it worse to have a slim anthology with only stories that meet a higher standard, or a full anthology with more stories including ones that don't meet said standard? This is an honest question I've been asking myself as i watch the rejection pile grow more and more. Would we be cutting off our noses to spite our face with the former or doing the writing side of the community a disservice with the latter?
Anyway, that's what I've been up to these past few weeks. Sorry this turned out kind of long with the ramble on the anthology :p
Have a pleasant Friday everyone.
The very first place I applied to wound up hiring me. They started training me almost immediately. I'm a security officer again, but it's for better pay, better environment, and even better software. I start at my site this Monday. The commute is going to be hell but it will be worth it in the long run.
My dad was in the hospital because of his gallbladder. They wound up operating on him, and it turns out the organ was just short of dissentigrating. He suffered some horrible confusion post surgery that I've never seen from him before. When we were Finally able to get the staff to look into it, they changed his pain medication and he started doing far better. He was able to go home yesterday under my ma's care.
With Pax this weekend, we have Nick's brother, sister-in-law and niece staying with us. It's so much fun having them, and oddly I don't feel like I'm missing out on quite so much despite having to miss two days of Pax. I guess the real secret to conventions is using it as a fun excuse to hang out with friends and family.
I've fallen painfully behind on my writing and I really don't know how I'm going to find the time x.x Hopefully soon; I still have promises to keep.
At least Fragments, the anthology I'm editing, is still going at a decent pace. I'm only behind by a few stories and the extended deadline seems to have come as a relief to a number of writers. I never imagined we would be "competing" against as well established of an anthology as Heat, but apparently Fragments is already starting to build a decent reputation. Rejections aren't going out as quickly as I would have liked, but we're holding off on sending acceptances until the final deadline.
On a personal level, I'm worried that I'm being too picky. We have over 250k words in stories for a 100k word anthology, and a few folks started asking if we plan on releasing a part two with what we have alone. Yet there's only about 60k in words so far I'd be happy and comfortable with publishing, including both well-established and never-before-published authors alike.
Other editors have told me that it's the nature of the beast in this community; there's simply no avoiding the sub par filler. One of the main goals of a writing group I'm a member of keeps haunting me though, and that's to encourage and uplift the quality of writing within the community.
So is it worse to have a slim anthology with only stories that meet a higher standard, or a full anthology with more stories including ones that don't meet said standard? This is an honest question I've been asking myself as i watch the rejection pile grow more and more. Would we be cutting off our noses to spite our face with the former or doing the writing side of the community a disservice with the latter?
Anyway, that's what I've been up to these past few weeks. Sorry this turned out kind of long with the ramble on the anthology :p
Have a pleasant Friday everyone.