EQMM announces "A Death" - CrimeSpace2024-03-29T14:29:32Zhttps://crimespace.ning.com/forum/topics/537324:Topic:51333?commentId=537324%3AComment%3A52758&feed=yes&xn_auth=noBrian raises the point about…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-07-05:537324:Comment:527582007-07-05T16:25:41.616ZKevin Wignallhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Wignall
Brian raises the point about using characters from your novels in short stories and vice versa. After writing "For the Dogs" I wanted to use Dan Borowski again (that book is partly based on The Nibelungenlied, Dan was the Dietrich character, who also went on to be the hero in several other works of literature - so it had a nice resonance). I got to use him in the end in "Retrospective", the story for which I was lucky enough to get shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Award. He's not even the…
Brian raises the point about using characters from your novels in short stories and vice versa. After writing "For the Dogs" I wanted to use Dan Borowski again (that book is partly based on The Nibelungenlied, Dan was the Dietrich character, who also went on to be the hero in several other works of literature - so it had a nice resonance). I got to use him in the end in "Retrospective", the story for which I was lucky enough to get shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Award. He's not even the main character in that story, but ironically, I was able to flesh out his character in the short story in a way I hadn't been able to do with the book.<br />
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I think this is often the case, that the smaller canvas allows greater depth. Short stories get a bad rep because it's so easy for people to write a weak one and send it out into the world, but writing a good one is tough, which is what that Mark Twain quote is about, I suppose. I certainly get as much, if not more, satisfaction from finishing a short I'm pleased with than I do from finishing a novel. Speaking as a fan of your wor…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-07-05:537324:Comment:527532007-07-05T16:07:13.923ZBrian Thorntonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/BrianThornton
Speaking as a fan of your work since I read that potato story of yours back in Shred of Evidence, I can honestly say that I wish you would hurry the hell up and get prolific, Weinman.
Speaking as a fan of your work since I read that potato story of yours back in Shred of Evidence, I can honestly say that I wish you would hurry the hell up and get prolific, Weinman. Wasn't it Mark Twain who said…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-07-05:537324:Comment:527502007-07-05T16:05:35.469ZBrian Thorntonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/BrianThornton
Wasn't it Mark Twain who said, "If you want a novel, give me six weeks, if you want a novella, three months, but a short story will take me six months"? I might not have gotten that quote completely correct, but I think you get the idea. Shorts take a lot of work.<br />
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I can't help but wonder about the idea of using the same characters in both one's novels and one's short stories. After all, Hammett did it with the Continental Op (and less so with Spade), Chandler with Marlowe (cobbling together…
Wasn't it Mark Twain who said, "If you want a novel, give me six weeks, if you want a novella, three months, but a short story will take me six months"? I might not have gotten that quote completely correct, but I think you get the idea. Shorts take a lot of work.<br />
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I can't help but wonder about the idea of using the same characters in both one's novels and one's short stories. After all, Hammett did it with the Continental Op (and less so with Spade), Chandler with Marlowe (cobbling together the content of several short stories into longer works, "cannibalizing" them, he called it), Christie with Poirot, and so on.<br />
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I don't really work that way (yet). The shorts I've done have been intended as shorts, and the characters I've used were intended for the short form: sharply drawn and quickly set so as to not get in the way of the narrative.<br />
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Your Mileage May Vary. I got into AHMM on my first t…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-07-03:537324:Comment:522722007-07-03T17:29:22.108ZSarah Weinmanhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sarahweinman
I got into AHMM on my first try, EQMM on my third. In both cases, I had a good feeling the story would be accepted because it seemed to fit within the magazine's guidelines, but also stray a bit. "Boy Inside the Man," for example, is barely 2000 words and judging from reader responses, has a very open ending to the point of confusion (though it seemed pretty straightforward to me, but I'm the writer, what do I know?) "Politics and Poker" is probably the most plot-driven story I've written and…
I got into AHMM on my first try, EQMM on my third. In both cases, I had a good feeling the story would be accepted because it seemed to fit within the magazine's guidelines, but also stray a bit. "Boy Inside the Man," for example, is barely 2000 words and judging from reader responses, has a very open ending to the point of confusion (though it seemed pretty straightforward to me, but I'm the writer, what do I know?) "Politics and Poker" is probably the most plot-driven story I've written and as a result, the structure plus the setting made me think it would work for AHMM. But up until then, none of the stuff I'd written was either good enough or a good fit for the magazines, so I never submitted them. And I've had a story rejected by AHMM since then - a good thing, in hindsight, because it didn't work.<br />
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I've not written a short story in quite a while - damn freelancing - but when I have something that pings that gut feeling, off it will go to Dell's offices. And even speaking as a former fiction editor who took online submissions, I like that they are old school. Hell, I really liked that I could hand-deliver my stories. I agree Brian, for the fledgl…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-07-02:537324:Comment:519912007-07-02T18:25:46.990ZKevin Wignallhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Wignall
I agree Brian, for the fledgling author, writing stories is a good way of developing and those payments seem generous. Once you're established the payment isn't enough on its own. I write stories partly because of the pleasure (you're right on that, too - I think it energizes the rest of your writing) and partly because it helps you reach a wider audience.
I agree Brian, for the fledgling author, writing stories is a good way of developing and those payments seem generous. Once you're established the payment isn't enough on its own. I write stories partly because of the pleasure (you're right on that, too - I think it energizes the rest of your writing) and partly because it helps you reach a wider audience. I've only submitted one story…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-07-02:537324:Comment:519892007-07-02T18:19:27.430ZBrian Thorntonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/BrianThornton
I've only submitted one story to EQMM, and received a nice rejection letter for my trouble. I struck gold with my third submission to AHMM, and my only short to date ("Counting Coup") with them saw publication in their November, 2006 issue.<br />
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To be frank, I *love* the short story venue. Love it. I think more authors ought to spend more time both writing and attempting to master this form. However, I find that between my day gig, the (far-more-lucrative) non-fiction books on which I've been…
I've only submitted one story to EQMM, and received a nice rejection letter for my trouble. I struck gold with my third submission to AHMM, and my only short to date ("Counting Coup") with them saw publication in their November, 2006 issue.<br />
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To be frank, I *love* the short story venue. Love it. I think more authors ought to spend more time both writing and attempting to master this form. However, I find that between my day gig, the (far-more-lucrative) non-fiction books on which I've been working over the past three years, and the historical mystery that I have been researching/drafting of late, the shorts have pretty much fallen by the way-side for me.<br />
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This is in part because the rate of return on the pay you receive forces me to prioritize them lower than the other work, which pays so much better. After all, the days when an author such as F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway could finance a whole half-year of work on a novel with a good-paying short story are long gone (and if you're wondering how their demise came about, the answer is that TV killed them).<br />
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All that said, I've got a sequel for "Counting Coup" on the drawing board, with a pretty good hook for an ending, so in my "spare time" I'll likely get it up and running and sent to Linda at AHMM before I chance to run into her at Bouchercon in September. After all, short stories are a lot of fun to write.<br />
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All the Best-<br />
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Brian Congrats on "A Death," Kevin.…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-06-30:537324:Comment:515492007-06-30T03:42:26.255ZLaura Benedicthttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/lpbenedict
Congrats on "A Death," Kevin. That's lovely news!<br />
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I've had great experiences with EQMM. I never wrote mystery stories, but I happened to pick up an EQMM and read a Joyce Carol Oates story. I didn't know any of the other contributors, but I have huge respect for Joyce and her work. I decided to try my hand and came up with "The Hollow Woman," which EQMM bought for its Dept of First Stories in 2001. While it had a murder at its end, it was more a story of psychological tension--definitely not a…
Congrats on "A Death," Kevin. That's lovely news!<br />
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I've had great experiences with EQMM. I never wrote mystery stories, but I happened to pick up an EQMM and read a Joyce Carol Oates story. I didn't know any of the other contributors, but I have huge respect for Joyce and her work. I decided to try my hand and came up with "The Hollow Woman," which EQMM bought for its Dept of First Stories in 2001. While it had a murder at its end, it was more a story of psychological tension--definitely not a puzzler. But like you and Sandra (Hi, Sandra!), I like to try to push the boundaries of short stories, since I don't do them very often. I had several more stories rejected, but always very politely. I even got to spend some time with Janet at Bouchercon last fall, and she was terribly nice and quite funny.<br />
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I have another story (finally) coming out in the Sept/Oct issue--I corresponded with the EQMM ad dept about perhaps advertising my new novel there as well. I was interested to read in their specs that their readership is predominantly female, over thirty-five, college educated, and quite prosperous. Not exactly the demographic I had expected (older, I thought, and male). So it doesn't surprise me that Janet--who is quite sharp herself--would find that McSweeney-type stories would round out the magazine's traditional mystery fare quite nicely. Variety is critical to building markets. (Don't get me started on my beef with genre boundaries--it's all good as far as I'm concerned, and I'm fed-up TO HERE with literary pretentiousness.)<br />
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I've never used my agent for EQMM or other short story submissions. There just isn't the kind of money involved to justify an agent's involvement, I think. (Okay, if you're talking Esquire, or the Atlantic, etc. But if a writer is agented, I think it's enough to briefly mention that fact in the cover letter.) Also, Janet apparently sees every single submission, which is pretty neat. I think that if they did online submissions, that would be awfully difficult.<br />
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I would encourage everyone to submit their mystery/thriller/murder short fiction there--It's definitely worth the price of a couple stamps and an SASE. A friend of mine and I both had Dept of First Stories, and we were each queried by Scott Miller, a now-hot agent at Trident. My friend is now publishing a second novel through Scott. Thanks, Ingrid. I'm sure ther…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-06-29:537324:Comment:515332007-06-29T23:07:49.564ZKevin Wignallhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Wignall
Thanks, Ingrid. I'm sure there is some element of sour grapes, and naturally, most of the stories rejected are probably of poorer quality. However, I also know that stories can be turned down for other reasons. You send in a story about a jewel thief and they already have a couple of similar stories lined up for future issues. You inadvertently include subject matter that the editors think might offend. Your story is too long for them to find a suitable slot (even with regular stories, the lead…
Thanks, Ingrid. I'm sure there is some element of sour grapes, and naturally, most of the stories rejected are probably of poorer quality. However, I also know that stories can be turned down for other reasons. You send in a story about a jewel thief and they already have a couple of similar stories lined up for future issues. You inadvertently include subject matter that the editors think might offend. Your story is too long for them to find a suitable slot (even with regular stories, the lead time can be a year). But I suspect agented stories do have a greater level of success, for the same reasons publishers are more likely to buy from agents than from the slush pile. You asked Steven, but since I…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-06-29:537324:Comment:515322007-06-29T22:06:22.410ZI. J. Parkerhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Ingpark
You asked Steven, but since I also publish in AHMM, I'll answer for my situation. I used to submit directly before I had an agent and continued this for a while afterward. But these days, all my work passes through my agent's office. I need someone to look at those contracts and make sure I retain all republication rights. There has been some foreign interest in the stories, and my early contracts gave those rights to the publisher. My case seems to prove that AHMM does not favor agented…
You asked Steven, but since I also publish in AHMM, I'll answer for my situation. I used to submit directly before I had an agent and continued this for a while afterward. But these days, all my work passes through my agent's office. I need someone to look at those contracts and make sure I retain all republication rights. There has been some foreign interest in the stories, and my early contracts gave those rights to the publisher. My case seems to prove that AHMM does not favor agented writers. All of my stories have been i…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2007-06-29:537324:Comment:515272007-06-29T21:59:09.479ZI. J. Parkerhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Ingpark
All of my stories have been in AHMM. The reason for this is that they were the first to accept one from me. I'm very loyal. I have found AHMM very open to new writers and they seem to select a variety of subjects and subgenres. Yes, I also heard that they are narrow-minded, but I've always thought that was sour grapes. They are picky about quality. Congrats, Kevin.
All of my stories have been in AHMM. The reason for this is that they were the first to accept one from me. I'm very loyal. I have found AHMM very open to new writers and they seem to select a variety of subjects and subgenres. Yes, I also heard that they are narrow-minded, but I've always thought that was sour grapes. They are picky about quality. Congrats, Kevin.