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First Rejection Slip - from Stephen Mazur, Editorial Assistant of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Well, folks, I finally got my first-ever official rejection slip. Stephen King admits in his memoir, On Writing, that he got sixty of these bad boys before ever getting published. Hopefully I won’t collect that many right out of the gate, but a few will only motivate me to become better. Here’s to the next five rejections!

Well, today I finished reading Orson Scott Card’s widely-praised How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, so I feel that I must comment. Not just on Card’s book in particular, but on how-to-write books in general. I have heard many pros and cons from all over the spectrum regarding the subject of books on writing, and having read three–a modest number, really–in the past few months, I must say that if you pick the right ones to read, it is indeed worth doing so.

A few months back, I read Stephen King’s acclaimed On Writing. Sufficient review of the memoir/how-to book would be to simply say that anyone who desires to write fiction, in any genre or to any degree of professionalism, simply must read this book. It is considered an instant classic by most critics and is so admirably honest, concise, and practical. Its conversational style, coming from the soul of one of the absolute greaters writers of fiction in our time, makes for one of the most satisfying reads of a writer’s life.

Throughout the book, King makes frequent reference to Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, which I had no difficulty in finding at the nearest Barnes & Noble; I immediately grabbed it up, then read it the following afternoon in nearly a single sitting–it’s that condensed. I consider it to be, now, the greatest go-to guide of stylistic aspects of writing. It’s hard to consistently follow all of its “rules,” but I am endeavoring to do so, even as I type these words–though they are not nearly as important as, say, the prose of a fictional work. Highly recommend it to any writer; it’s more important than the dictionary!

Today, as I mentioned, I finished reading Orson Scott Card’s guide on writing speculative fiction, How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I read the bulk of it in two sessions, roughly getting halfway through during the first read, then finishing the second in a 1-2 hour timeframe. I’ll be brutally honest, here: The first half of the book had me questioning everything about my ambition to become a writer of speculative fiction. I wanted to ritualistically destroy the book in Bradbury-an fashion, calling in the Firemen to purge me of its filth. It spoke of rules and things like types of story arcs; it spoke of world creation and the work that must be done, sometimes taking years to fully develop. This angered me, feeling as though I were being told that most of what I’ve already written is, as Card states in a later, unrelated axiom, worthless drivel.

However, as I ventured further into the final pages of the book, I discovered that what Card had been doing in the first half of the book was whipping the reader into shape, figuratively; a sort of boot camp, to make any amateur writer aware that good speculative fiction writers can always tell when someone is “faking it,” referring to the “research” any speculative fiction writer must invariably do. As the book goes on, you learn that this daunting set of tasks he presents you with in the earlier sections lead to an inspiringly optimistic resolution. He ulimately concludes the book by assuring the reader that, if you are able to overcome the obstacles presented earlier on, by perseverence and patience, you will eventually end up with a finished work. He writes extremely personal, insightful essays toward the end that discuss the most intimate, perhaps inobvious elements that contribute to the eventual success–or failure–of a writer who adheres or deviates from the absolutes regarding success. After all, he explains, there is a degree of luck involved, but it is ultimately the quality of the fiction that will drive a work toward publication. Only courage, patience, and perseverence can hope to cultivate any modicum of luck.

I highly recommend any writer to read the first two aforementioned works religiously; the third is for speculative fiction writers in particular. All three of the books (eventually) filled me with immense inspiration and courage. As of today, my first story submission, “Taken by Darkness,” is making its way to a total of five potential publishers (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Weird Tales, Electric Literature, and Dark Discoveries).

I thought it worth noting that today at 10:03 am I made my first-ever short story submission for publication to Weird Tales. I suddenly decided, after having some more works underway, that perhaps that magazine would make a more appropriate home for that particular story. “Taken by Darkness” is a science fiction story for the most part, but is cast in the light of a horror story–inspired a great deal by my recent reading of Stephen King’s collections Just After Sunset and Night Shift. Anxious to become published, and set alight by King’s ingenious short stories, I set out to write my first horror story–somewhat of a departure from my usual preference for science fiction. But, as my story was transferred from the fairly fleshed-out draft in my head to the computer screen, I quickly saw the so-called “horror” story for what it was: another science fiction tale, only maybe a little weirder, and a little scarier. The story went through several revisions to create a more balanced, fulfilling plot progression; I think that it succeeded, at least to some extent. The ending is now far more creepy, and the reader is given a better sense of where the story is headed even after it is finished. I hope that Weird Tales decides to make the work at home, as that would mean professional publication in one of the oldest, most prestigious magazines of short horror fiction–one that began the careers of both Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft. The next six to eight weeks will tell. So, here’s to hoping!

A fun little article idea for you–I’ll let you in on some of the great works of art (films, books, short story collections, music albums, etc.) I’ve been enjoying as of late.

Books I’ve read recently

Under the Dome, Just After Sunset, The Gunslinger, The Mist, The Shining, Night Shift, The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King – All fantastic reads; any reader would enjoy them as I did. Under the Dome and the two short story collections were especially good.

The Man In the High Castle by Philip K. Dick - A very interesting and haunting piece of science fiction of the alternative history variety. I’ve also been dipping in and out of the Philip K. Dick Reader, a marvelous collection of his best short stories. The Hanging Stranger is a new favorite alongside The Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly. Hope to soon pick up a copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil by Drew Karpyshyn - A great conclusion to my all-time favorite Star Wars expanded universe trilogy, which examines the life of the Sith Lord who instituted the familiar philosophy of master and apprentice seen in the films.

I just purchased the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXV anthology, as well as Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, so I’ll try to mention them in future posts. So far Foundation is brilliant–some of the most vivid descriptions of alien planets I’ve ever encountered in the genre, and written in the 1950s!

Films I’ve seen recently

Pulp Fiction – I honestly can’t believe I waited so long to see this; I always heard it was one of the greatest films ever, but I was a little skeptical, naturally. Damn is it entertaining–and some really rich performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. Travolta and Willis are fairly neutral characters early on, and your opinions of them change drastically as the movie progresses.

District 9 – I don’t think this science fiction film got quite the amount of attention it deserved. It is truly rich in its examination of social issues and human nature. The “Prawns”–the aliens imprisoned in District 9–are very well designed and cleverly written into what is essentially a story about humanity. Good special effects, but they aren’t central to the plot as with many films of the genre. Right up there with Blade Runner. Seriously.

Adventureland - Possibly one of the all-time great American male coming-of-age films. Time will tell, but I rate it up there alongside The Graduate and Risky Business.

Avatar – As a science fiction lover and writer I feel it essential that I comment on this movie. First of all, James Cameron is a man who has embraced science fiction his whole career–The Abyss, Aliens, and The Terminator are some of my favorite films. This movie has been getting a lot of negative criticism in regards to both its negative depiction of the military and the “stereotypical” nature of its indigenous alien race. I must argue in Cameron’s favor–he’s done his research (reading Sci-Fi adventure novels as a young man, making great films), he’s created a vivid, unique, and believable world and also crafted a fairly brilliant visual style for the film. As for the plot, sure, it’s been done; but never in quite this way. The Avatar concept of a stand-in being having been genetically engineered to be used for infiltrating an alien society is pretty ingenious–if it has been done before, I’m certainly unaware of it. And as for the characters, they are pretty rich thanks to some top-notch acting by Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington (the guy who saved Terminator: Salvation), and Zoe Saldana (the gorgeous new Lt. Yuhura from the 2009 Star Trek reboot).

Music I’ve been jamming out to

Alice In Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue

Joe Bonomassa – The Ballad of John Henry

John Mayer – Battle Studies

Pearl Jam – Backspacer

U2 – No Line On the Horizon

Muse – The Resistance

Welcome, everyone!

It’s been awhile–KaneArts has, as of late, been a tomb of sorts, devoid of activity or substance. The reason for this is, of course, that I’ve been diligently working on several works of fiction and also attending Monmouth College to earn my Bachelor’s degree in English (concentration in Creative Writing, of course!).

To fully explain my works, I’ll first discuss my entry for Writers of the Future. This novelette has been in existence within my mind for quite some time–nearly five years, in fact. It is part of a larger universe that will first exist as several shorter works and eventually result in a somewhat larger-scale novel if my hopes come to fruition. The second draft of this 17,000-word novelette is now finished, and is being read over by several friends and professors of mine. Once I have their input and have made another–likely minor–polish of the story, I plan to enter it in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest, a quarterly competition that culminates in an annual anthology which I would love to see my work published in. If I receive no more than a rejection from this contest, I may choose to submit it elsewhere; however, I feel that WotF is certainly the place for such a story.

“Taken by Darkness” is a story the second draft of which I finished around the same time as I was about 4,000 words or so into the writing of my Writers of the Future contest entry. This story is a much darker one in my opinion, with a fairly clear set of themes which I hadn’t intended on writing into the work, but are nevertheless very much present. I hope the reader will pick up on them (there’s really ONE main theme–but anyhow), as they enrich the story. I won’t spoil the plot, but it’s a fairly horror-influenced science fiction story inspired by sidestepping science fiction for a few months to delve into the works of one of my all-time favorite fiction authors, Stephen King. It is, as far as I can presently say, finished. I hope to have it submitted to Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine very soon for consideration–then, there are always Asimov’s Science Fiction and Weird Tales.

I’ve written another story or two, and am preparing to write another novelette set in the universe of my Writers of the Future entry, but set before its timeline and on another planet (or several others).