Journal rk's Journal: Shadow Wrought asked... 4
so, I answered. Once upon a time, I flirted with the idea of writing fiction. The most luck I had with a short story was a personal rejection letter from Gordon Van Gelder at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (hey, I got it right, Fun Guy!).
So I can (somewhat) control the continued publication status of the story without deleting journals, I am linking to Laren Grey Steals The Stars instead of including the text here. This is more or less the same story I sent to F&SF nine years ago. The only change I made was a technical astronomical edit because those damned exoplanet researchers reduced the chances of a Terra-like planet in the original system I picked to almost nil. Obviously, they need their funding cut.
Feel free to comment on the story. Constructive criticism is welcomed and you really can't be too harsh on it. I workshopped it with a bunch of serious SF writers, some of them now published, so I've probably heard worse. It's obvious it's not great, because if it were, I would've sold it!
Thanks! (Score:2)
Thanks for sharing this! I enjoyed reading it. It's not easy to write something that is seamlessly engaging.
I have a better understanding of the writing and publishing process with every example from different places on the spectrum of "concept-draft-revision-final-submitted-published".
Excellent (Score:2)
I thoroughly enjoyed that, I don't know why you didn't get published. Maybe the style these days is dark ominus fiction, I don't know. But keep at it.
It feels "old school". I like it.
My only negative critique is the title, but I guess it's better than I kissed an ex-marine on the lips [slashdot.org].
Re: (Score:2)
I have a huge problem coming up with good titles. This one's major fault is it tips my hand, but I've not come up with one I like better. If anybody has a better one for it, I'm all ears.
Yes, it is very much an old school story, which is why I think I have a hard time for finding a market for it. So many of the mainline professional SF magazines have fallen victim to either dreary clinical postmodern navel-lint examinations (which IMHO already ruined mainstream short literary fiction decades ago) or (esp
Rather Heinleinian... (Score:2)