Saturday, March 6, 2010

The long road to making it to print

So I'm realizing that publishing a book is not as easy as I had hoped (although deep down I kind of figured). I've had two rejections so far out of three submissions on my first real novel. I feel rather... well... rejected. But alas, I shall remain hopeful! I'm still confident (or arrogant) and I truly believe The Savage Queen is worthy of print; I just need another approach.

Well, on the advice of the interweb and googlepedia, I am going to pursue another avenue; the short story! This is a genre I've struggled with in the past. As a writer of all things fantastic or science fictiony, keeping the page-count down has always been a little tough. I guess I can view this as an opportunity as they say back in the real world. I suppose the short story is a valuable skill that I'm long overdue in spending some time on.

I've pulled from the dregs of my hard drive a little story I puttered with nearly ten years ago, a SF/comedy piece that I was always rather proud of. I think it's a good piece that shows I can write in different styles as well as genres. Here's hoping the publishers agree.

Here's an excerpt from what I have so far:

The Unremarkable Marcus Frinkle

He turned, content with the current status of his dinner, and ready to return once again to prime time. He jumped back, when to his surprise, he noticed a gigantic black man, with no fewer than four arms crossed mightily over his chest, standing directly in his way. The gigantic creature was successfully blocking the view of the room behind him, where Marcus noticed that for some odd reason he could no longer hear the television.

The giant, dressed in a neatly pressed and obviously custom-tailored tuxedo, adjusted his mirror-like shades, and nodded as if to an old friend. "Good to see you, Mr. Frinkle," he said in a deep voice, like the rumbling of tectonic plates, deep below the surface and ready to do something unexpected. "We have a table waiting for you, Mr. Frinkle. I'm Pip, and if anyone messes with you, just send' em my way. Ms. Steve don't like nobody messing with her guests, especially the special ones."

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