BIG NEWS!
BIG NEWS!
The great... big... announcement... is....
Not here yet.
Ha. Gotcha. Almost time, I swear, and I know I've been teasing you with that one for waaaaay too long. We're moments away, I promise! Just no jinxing, okay?
In the meantime, feast yer eyes on this!
• "Wonderland" is a finalist for the Darrell Award!
"Wonderland" is one of my favorite short stories, cursed by a little trick called epistolary format to be generally unpublishable, at least in magazines. In epistolary format, the entire story is told through letters, emails, news accounts, etc.
In practical publishing terms, this means the same story takes twice as much literal space on the page. Even though it was no longer in word count than, say, "Deep Breathing," "Wonderland" was nearly twice as long in terms of page count, and that was too much for most magazines.
After we decided to include it in SETTING SUNS, my poor editor texted me:
FRANK: I hate italics.
FRANK: Oh, and I pretty much hate any story told simultaneously via newspaper snippets, IM conversations, letters and other assorted non-standard text.
FRANK: That is all.
ME: Glad I could annoy you.
Frank later referred to laying out SETTING SUNS as "like wrestling a f---ing bear," mostly due to "Wonderland." Let us all pause for a moment to give him a belated round of applause.
No, seriously. Because Frank put SETTING SUNS out there, a horror/sf collection from an author hardly anybody had heard of, known only for vamporn and ending phrases in prepositions. He had the intestinal fortitude to lay out "Wonderland" on the page and make it pretty, a task that no other editor had been willing to do. There's a reason I called him "director of dreams," and if "Wonderland" wins the Darrell, he'll be the main name in my acceptance speech.
I'll find out about the award at the end of the month at Midsouthcon in Memphis. You might recall, NOCTURNAL URGES won the Darrell Award in 2005 and A MORE PERFECT UNION was a finalist in 2006. Have I mentioned how much I love Memphis?
• This month Aoife's Kiss Magazine reprints one of my short stories. Many thanks to editor Tyree Campbell!
The story is "Silent," often cited as a good reason for being creeped out alone in the house, according to my reader mail. (In fact, one person said he had trouble getting to sleep, so he was reading my book... "And that SURE didn't help!" he complained. Heh heh heh.)
PLEASE support Sam's Dot Publishing (and me!) by picking up your copy!
http://www.genremall.com/zinesr.htm#aoife
There's also a half-page ad for NOCTURNE in there. Please buy a copy, and if you like it, let the publisher know why!
• Speaking of ads, Romantic Times Magazine is supposed to have an ad for NOCTURNE next month. Unfortunately, there was a clerical error with the reviewers, and the RT review of NOCTURNE will not appear until the May edition.
By then, maybe I'll have that BIG ANNOUNCEMENT for you....
P.S. "Your Neck Or Mine" T-shirts are now in stock at www.elizabethdonald.com! You know you want one!
The great... big... announcement... is....
Not here yet.
Ha. Gotcha. Almost time, I swear, and I know I've been teasing you with that one for waaaaay too long. We're moments away, I promise! Just no jinxing, okay?
In the meantime, feast yer eyes on this!
• "Wonderland" is a finalist for the Darrell Award!
"Wonderland" is one of my favorite short stories, cursed by a little trick called epistolary format to be generally unpublishable, at least in magazines. In epistolary format, the entire story is told through letters, emails, news accounts, etc.
In practical publishing terms, this means the same story takes twice as much literal space on the page. Even though it was no longer in word count than, say, "Deep Breathing," "Wonderland" was nearly twice as long in terms of page count, and that was too much for most magazines.
After we decided to include it in SETTING SUNS, my poor editor texted me:
FRANK: I hate italics.
FRANK: Oh, and I pretty much hate any story told simultaneously via newspaper snippets, IM conversations, letters and other assorted non-standard text.
FRANK: That is all.
ME: Glad I could annoy you.
Frank later referred to laying out SETTING SUNS as "like wrestling a f---ing bear," mostly due to "Wonderland." Let us all pause for a moment to give him a belated round of applause.
No, seriously. Because Frank put SETTING SUNS out there, a horror/sf collection from an author hardly anybody had heard of, known only for vamporn and ending phrases in prepositions. He had the intestinal fortitude to lay out "Wonderland" on the page and make it pretty, a task that no other editor had been willing to do. There's a reason I called him "director of dreams," and if "Wonderland" wins the Darrell, he'll be the main name in my acceptance speech.
I'll find out about the award at the end of the month at Midsouthcon in Memphis. You might recall, NOCTURNAL URGES won the Darrell Award in 2005 and A MORE PERFECT UNION was a finalist in 2006. Have I mentioned how much I love Memphis?
• This month Aoife's Kiss Magazine reprints one of my short stories. Many thanks to editor Tyree Campbell!
The story is "Silent," often cited as a good reason for being creeped out alone in the house, according to my reader mail. (In fact, one person said he had trouble getting to sleep, so he was reading my book... "And that SURE didn't help!" he complained. Heh heh heh.)
PLEASE support Sam's Dot Publishing (and me!) by picking up your copy!
http://www.genremall.com/zinesr.htm#aoife
There's also a half-page ad for NOCTURNE in there. Please buy a copy, and if you like it, let the publisher know why!
• Speaking of ads, Romantic Times Magazine is supposed to have an ad for NOCTURNE next month. Unfortunately, there was a clerical error with the reviewers, and the RT review of NOCTURNE will not appear until the May edition.
By then, maybe I'll have that BIG ANNOUNCEMENT for you....
P.S. "Your Neck Or Mine" T-shirts are now in stock at www.elizabethdonald.com! You know you want one!
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