FaePublishing Dead? A Salutary Tale

Back in May I was trumpeting the happy news that I'd sold a story to FaePublishing : my second pro sale in a month. I made edits, signed contracts and all was well.

A few weeks back, wondering when the story might be appearing, I went over to their web site. It didn't seem to have changed much. I assumed they were just busy. Then fellow writer Lydia Sharp got in touch. She'd had a story accepted by FaePublishing too, but couldn't get any reply when she emailed them. I went back to the web site today and it's no longer there. Nor is the Twitter account of editor Theresa Miles. Emails sent to the faepublishing.com domain bounce. It looks very much like the magazine has folded.

This happens, of course. Magazines come and go. What's annoying is that we, the poor writers, weren't informed. My story hasn't been published and I haven't been paid. Right now I have no idea if FaePublishing still exists and is having some temporary glitch, or if it's gone for good. The kicker is, my contract says that, in the event of my story not being published, I have to wait until next May before I can submit elsewhere. But I don't know if that's void or not because I don't know if Fae still exists.

Perhaps there's a good reaon for all this and the magazine will be back up tomorrow. I hope so. But I bet not. If you're in the same situation there's an AbsoluteWrite thread here.

Not good. FaePublishing and Theresa Miles : writer beware.

Dan Quixote Published in Inkspill #5

Inkspill #5 is published today, an issue that includes my own flash story Dan Quixote. Guest fiction editor Eleanor Perry describes my little story thusly :

‘Dan Quixote’ ... charmed me with its splendid simplicity; the pithy tale of a man seeking order in a chaotic world.

So, not autobiographical in the least, oh no.

You can download the issue as a free PDF from this page. My own slight contribution notwithstanding, this is a marvellous magazine, full of not only fiction and poetry but also musings upon fiction and on the process of writing. Entertaining and informative stuff.

Fastest Route Published by Nanoism

Nanoism has published my latest Twitter fiction story Fastest Route today - it's here if you want a (very quick) read.

Which reminds me that I've had a few microfiction stories published over the last month or so, a fact I've singularly failed to highlight. I'm so good at this self-promotion lark.

Here's a brief round-up :

• Birth Moth(er) published by One Forty Fiction on September 5th.

• Warning published by Seedpod on September 4th.

• Many Happy Returns published by 7x20 on September 2nd.

• A(mong Rel)atives published by PicFic on August 25th.

• Skydiving published by Seedpod on August 13th.

• Written in the Stars published by Trapeze on August 11th.

I think that about covers it. The Seedpod and 7x20 ones will be a bit hard to find now as they'll be well down in the respective Twitterstreams but the others are still readily accessible.

Write1Sub1 Week #38 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

Written :

• Do I? (Twitter)

Submitted :

• Haunted (fantasy, short story)
• Do I? (Twitter)

Accepted :

• None

Published :

• None

These posts are a bit boring aren't they? Seriously, I'd ignore them. I only write them to keep myself on the straight and narrow with Write1Sub1. I'm sure there'll be a much more interesting post along soon ...

Short Story Anthology Progress

Been kinda quiet round here of late. Does anyone else go through periods of finding social networking a bit of a distraction? I'll be blogging and tweeting like a mad thing again soon, I'm sure.

Thought I'd post a quick update on Perfect Circles, my planned short story anthology. As mentioned before, I aim to publish three separate genre-specific volumes : Spell Circles (fantasy), Eccentric Orbits (SF) and Life Cycles (mainstream). Plus, a combined volume called Perfect Circles that has all the stories ("One ring to rule them all, one ring to bind them"?)

One thing that has really come out of all this is how much work is involved in both editing and formatting. All the stories have been published already, so they've been through an editorial process. Even so, I'm finding I'm making changes to just about every story I include. Which I actually quite enjoy but it does consume the hours.

Right now I'm formatting for the Kindle and that's real time-consuming too. The Kindle basically wants everything in HTML and in the past I've just saved my Word documents as HTML and used that. Not this time. The HTML Word saves is just too ugly and bloated, and can give the Kindle all sorts of formatting hiccups. So I'm basically reducing everything down to raw text, then building it back up as HTML. Again, time consuming, but it gives me complete control. If anyone's interested, I might write a post detailing exactly how I'm going about all this. I keep thinking I really should write a program to automate the whole process ...

The fantasy volume will be done first. I have about 20 stories lined up for it, of which about half are now formatted. It would be real good to get this out this year but we shall see.

Artwork, artwork. Must sort out artwork ...

Write1Sub1 Week #37 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

A lot of stuff getting in the way this week. Remember, kids, reality doesn't get to win!

Written :

• Trick or Treat (fantasy, Twitter)

Submitted :

• The Magister's Clock (fantasy, flash)
• Trick or Treat (fantasy, Twitter)

Accepted :

• None

Published :

• None

Rejections :

• Sigh. Several.

My "Simon Says" Guest Post

You might like to know I have a guest post over at The Long And The Short Of It today, in which I talk about genre pigeonholing. My thanks to the estimable Sue for giving me the chance to rant air my views.

Book Review: Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

Had to mention this book as I just I loved it. It's urban fantasy, probably classified as "young adult". It's an alternative city story, telling the tale of the weird and wonderful adventures of two London girls in an alternative version of their home town.

It's a book that just sparkles with imagination and crazy ideas. Witty, amusing and thoroughly entertaining throughout.

Great stuff. Highly recommended.

Un Lun Dun

Write1Sub1 Week #36 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

Back in the saddle after the summer break and writing merrily away!

Written :

• The Magister Clock (fantasy, flash fiction)
• The Ghost Train (fantasy, short story)

Submitted :

• Midwinter's Sacrifice (fantasy, short story)

Accepted :

• Cernunnos by Trapeze
• Rho-m10 by Trapeze

Published :

• KeyQuest by Spaceports and Spidersilk

KeyQuest Published by Spaceports and Spidersilk

The latest edition of Sam's Dot zine Spaceports and Spidersilk contains my light-hearted fantasy flash KeyQuest : a story for kids (and adults) everywhere who are always being told to stop playing those computer games and live in "the real world".
 

“Enough! You must set aside these meaningless fantasies, boy. You must embrace the real world."

Don't listen to them, kids!

Campaigner Challenge: Flash Fiction!

The first challenge in the Rach Writes platform-building campaign is to write a flash story starting with the words "The door swung open". And optionally, for a greater challenge, to finish with the words "the door swung shut". And, for an even greater challenge, to do it in exactly 200 words.

Can't resist a challenge! Here's my entry :

The Magister Clock

        The door swung open in the golden clock face. Saffiah swallowed, her heart pounding, as the miraculous device before her whirred and ticked and whirred again. How could she have been so foolish? She could have asked it anything. She could have asked it nothing. Instead she’d laughed and called in a clear voice :
        “Tell me the time of my death.”
        The Magister Clock was never wrong, of course. Other clocks knew only now. This knew the time of all events. The death of queens and the birth of saviours. And here it was. Guarded by vicious horrors, locked away in dungeons so deep no-one had found it in years uncounted. Patiently ticking away.
        Something flashed inside the workings. No clockwork cuckoo here. A waxwork face wound forward, the countenance of the Magister himself. It scowled : dismissive, cruel. Saffiah backed away a step despite herself.
        The clock spoke.
        “Nearly an hour ago, now.”
        Saffiah breathed again. After everything, the miraculous clock was broken, useless. Laughing, she swung her fist at the sneering face.
        She felt only confusion as her hand passed right through. Her ghostly, translucent hand.
        The face grinned as it retracted and the door swung shut.



Thanks for reading!

Write1Sub1 Week #35 Check-In

Sunday is Write1Sub1 Weekly check-in day. I'm posting updates on my short fiction output here as well as over on the main Write1Sub1 blog.

Another quiet week. Next week will be better! A good slew of rejections but I did also get a story shortlisted by The Red Penny Papers.

Written :

• Grains! (Twitter)
• Black Beetles (Twitter)
• Cernunnos (Twitter)
• Rho-m10 (Twitter)

Submitted :

• Grains! (Twitter) 
• Black Beetles (Twitter)
• Cernunnos (Twitter)
• Rho-m10 (Twitter)

Accepted :

• Warning by Seedpod

Published :

• Many Happy Returns by 7x20