13k

At last, "High Tide" has gotten to thirteen thousand words. I feel like I've been pecking away in between 12k and 13k forever now, so blowing past that admittedly arbitrary benchmark was a good thing. Even the story seems to have picked up again - I was lost somewhere in the transition between the second and third acts, trying to figure out how to pull it off without resorting to cliche. That seems to me to be the biggest problem when writing a horror story. Chances are that no matter how inventive your idea seems to you, it's already been done (and most times to death), so the real trick is to find a new way to present it. This of course was the genius of Buffy/Angel creator Joss Whedon, who somehow managed to put a lively spin on even the most shopworn of stock horror monsters week after week. I thought I'd found that fresh take with my story "Bambino", and maybe I did, but it's one thing to convince yourself of something and another thing entirely to sell a publisher on it.

Ah, well. Speaking of rejection, I got my second official "Thanks, but no thanks" letter yesterday, this time for "Amber". This one stings to be sure, but less so than the first, especially since I wasn't entirely convinced that Analog (the magazine to which I sent it) would be interested in a story that was more political than science-fictional. Maybe I should try Mother Jones instead? Well, it's almost time to send out the manuscript for "Keeper", so now I'll have four stories out there in search of a publisher. I'm thinking of sending the latter to the magazine that turned down "Bambino", as the editor took the time to personalize the rejection letter, leading me to believe that he might just be interested in something a little less... shopworn. I guess I'll find out soon enough!