Save Crossed Genres!

Hey there, everyone! I know that I’ve been really lax about blogging recently. I had a friend in town and frankly, hanging out with my visiting friend was more important than you people. But I’m back on the blogging train, and I wanted to tell you all about something really important.

You might have heard of a wonderful sci-fi literary magazine and anthology publisher called Crossed Genres. If you follow my work at all, you know that Crossed Genres was responsible for my first-ever fiction sale (my horror short story, “December”) to their Characters of Color issue! I was so proud and excited to know that a magazine that was doing so much to not only further the careers of new sci-fi/genre writers, but to make sure that points of view not given much attention in the mainstream were heard wanted to publish my story (in a genre I’d never tried before!). Even when later, they decided not to publish a second submission of mine for their Fat Girl in a Strange Land anthology Kay, one of the editors, took the time to critique my story when I asked her to, giving me solid, constructive criticism while continuing to encourage me. It was one of the best rejections I ever got in my whole life.

Well, Crossed Genres is in trouble. As you can imagine, this economy is taking its toll on small enterprises like indie literary magazines. The thing is, Kay and Bart have been OK with losing money on Crossed Genres, because they cared about it so much! So long as they had their day jobs, they could continue to produce quality fiction collections as a labor of love. However, they’ve recently unexpectedly lost their day jobs, and simply can’t afford to keep Crossed Genres alive anymore. Not without your help!

So, they’ve started a Kickstarter, which you can find HERE. I’ve just backed it myself. They’re only asking for $4,000, which would be just enough to carry Crossed Genres through their planned publications for 2013. Thing is, I don’t want them to just meet their goal. I want them to exceed it. This is a publisher bringing readers work from undiscovered talent and giving voice to those who are often marginalized in speculative fiction, and I don’t want that outlet to disappear. I don’t think any of you do either. I want to do my part to ensure that this publisher stays around for a long time. Let’s see if we can’t get them to $8,000. Maybe even $12,000…

Please support Crossed Genres by BACKING THEIR KICKSTARTER. Do it, because they had the good sense to publish my fiction first. Do it, because you want speculative fiction to be a place that’s safe for diversity. Do it, because you love quality fiction. Whatever your reason, just do it.

Thank you!

My First Published Fiction! (and Other Money-Making News)

Despite the craziness of my housing situation, I’ve been having a run of good luck with regard to my writing. My first published short story, “December,” is out NOW! It’s in Issue #24 of the sci-fi magazine, Crossed Genres, which is the “Characters of Color” issue. While my story is available on the Crossed Genres website, I highly recommend purchasing either a print copy or an ebook copy, as this is a great issue filled with wonderful writing that features characters that aren’t often prominently featured in sci-fi. Also, Crossed Genres is a unique magazine that is worthy of your support!

In other writing news, I was so pleased to have several copies of On The Ground Floor to get out in the mail today! Thank you so much to those of you who have purchased a copy. For the rest of you, there are still copies available, and I’d love for you to have one! And now that I’m settled into a new home, I’ll be able to mail them out more reliably. Snag your copy of On the Ground Floor today!

There’s still an Awesome Seekrit Project that I can’t announce yet, but I’m DYING to! Do you hear me?! DYING.

Lastly, I think I did get that job I interviewed for at the comic shop where I applied. I say “think” because my phone wasn’t working when I got the job offer call, they sent an email instead, I called, then emailed, and I haven’t heard back since. I hope to start training this week. So, yay? I think?

One thing about life as a freelance writer? It’s never boring.

NYCC Recovery, Productivity, and EXCITING NEWS!

 

Sporting my Jayne hat at NYCC 2010

 

Hello everyone!

As always happens after a convention, I was a bit shell-shocked after NYCC. Even during those moments at the con when I was sitting quietly in the food court having a cup of coffee, my brain wouldn’t stop spinning. There was so much visual stimulation going on, so many conversations floating past me that I couldn’t stop myself from listening to…it was a lot of fun, but SUPREMELY EXHAUSTING.

This is just my excuse for not having blogged substantively in a while. Sorry!

And then there’s the writing about NYCC, which I’m still doing. I did write-ups at Tor.com for all three days, and there are specific panels I wanted to write about individually, because I thought they were worthy of attention. My NYCC Panel Spotlight on the Image Comics Writers Panel is already up, and more spotlights will be up this week. And then there are the creator interviews I have planned, which should be going up next week.

And in this flurry of activity, I realized something…I’ve written a LOT. So often, I think I’m not doing enough, or not being productive enough. Then I turn around and look at what I have produced and think, “Holy crap! Look at all those purdy words.” It’s a nice feeling to realize that I’m not as much of a slacker as I thought. Though it’s hard to NOT feel like a slacker. Freelancing makes you lose track of what day it is, and the hours of your day run together in such a way as to make you lose your concept of time altogether. I’ve noticed that it’s become hard for me to judge how long it will take me to do something. Did I spend an hour writing that article? Or did I spend 4 hours working on it? Lately, I’ve been shocked whenever I check the time, because I never see the time I expect to see. Losing track of time makes it hard to judge how much you’ve accomplished, because you always feel like you’re spinning your wheels not doing anything. What I have to remember is that all that wheel-spinning IS productivity, and I should stop and enjoy what I have done every once in a while.

So, I haven’t done a Teresa’s Tuesday Round-Up since Sept. 28th. I hope to get back to that being a regular feature, but if you don’t want to miss a link to my geeky online scribblings, or any of my writing news, please “LIKE” MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! Yeah, I know. It sounds so douchey to say I have a “fan page,” but really it’s just a repository for all my links and stuff, so you can have them all in one place.

And there’s some big news! My horror short story, “December”, has been selected to be in the next issue of Crossed Genres! It’s Issue #24, the “Characters of Color” issue, and it will be available for purchase November 1st! It’s the first time I’ve sold a piece of my fiction, so I’m very excited about it. You might have already read “December” at this very blog, but now that it’s been edited for publication, I’ve taken the story down. So, the ONLY way to read the new-and-improved version it will be by snagging a copy of Crossed Genres next month!

There’s other big publishing news coming up. I’m going to be included in another collection next year, but I can’t tell you what it is yet. However, and this is mostly for the geeks out there, you will SQUEE when I tell you what it is. Will fill you in on this Seekrit Project as soon as I can. I’m very excited about this one, too.

So, this year marks the first time I’ve ever been paid for my online writing, AND it marks my first sales to edited anthologies/collections. Not bad for a slacker!

24 Hours to “Midnight” – December

As you might have heard via my Twitter feed or my Facebook page, my short story, December, made it to the second and final round of  the NYC Midnight Short Story contest!  At 11:59PM tonight, I’ll be receiving a Genre and an Object, and I’ll have 24 hours to write a 2,500 short story to compete for the grand prize!  EEEK!  Wish me luck!

And in the meantime, please enjoy my short story, December.  The Genre I was given was “A Ghost Story.”  My object?  “A Piano.”  I’m actually rather proud of how this turned out!  I’d never written a ghost story before, but I think this ended up being appropriately creepy!  I’ll let you lot be the judges:

EDIT: “DECEMBER” WAS SELECTED TO BE IN ISSUE #24 OF CROSSED GENRES! IT IS AN EDITED VERSION OF THE STORY THAT WAS FOUND HERE. IF YOU’D LIKE TO READ IT, CHECK OUT THE “CHARACTERS OF COLOR” ISSUE OF CROSSED GENRES, AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 1, 2010! VISIT THE CROSSED GENRES WEBSITE FOR DETAILS ON HOW TO GET YOUR DIGITAL/PRINT COPY!