Comments on: Book of Mormon fiction contest, AML annual meeting

By: Th.

Th. — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:52:25 +0000

lulz

By: William Morris

William Morris — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:33:15 +0000

Last chance to guess which one is mine -- a post revealing all will be up in about 20 minutes. Here's a big hint: think about what my strengths and weaknesses are likely to be as a writer considering my background and in light of what I've written so far (Return and Juniper Hands in particular) and then what Emily and Th might have to say about that.

By: David J. West

David J. West — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:21:45 +0000

Thanks for that Th.

I only started the second piece when I feared LDSP was only going to have a dozen stories. Personally Covenant of the Scalp is my fav over the one that won.

By: Th.

Th. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:45:52 +0000

I’m generally the same way. Meant the stories had to be all the better for me to actually read them.

The first time I looked at David’s “Covenant of the Scalp” (which in the end I think was the best of them all), I could barely skim it. Blogs and fiction are a lousy combination.

By: Moriah Jovan

Moriah Jovan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:19:15 +0000

I didn’t read any of the entries because I don’t read fiction on blogs. For whatever reason, I don’t absorb anything that way and it annoys me.

eReader, yes. PDF/Mobi/ePub on the computer, yes. Paper, yes. Blogs, no.

By: Th.

Th. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:12:30 +0000

Yeah, I’m starting to learn that in a much much more real way than I ever had before. And it’s not just the LDSP contest.

By: Lee Allred

Lee Allred — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:12:57 +0000

“I have to say that reading them all in one sitting was a mistake. After the first four, few were able to cut through the noise.”

Sorry, Theric. I’m laughing — not at you personally — but I’m laughing all the same. Hard.

Welcome to the wonderful _real_ world of publishing. :)

Now imagine you as an editor having to do that every single day at work (and nights at home and on weekends), only it’s not 26 but more like 2600 paper manuscripts stacked up on (and around) your desk (with well past 26 new ones arriving everyday), and you get a rough idea of what one faces trying to get manuscripts past an editor’s slush in the national market.

Your mss _has_ to cut through that noise in order to even be remotely considered.

The sad truth is most manuscripts get shoved back into their SASE with only the briefest of glances, if that. (Many of my own manuscripts have met that sad fate.)

One of the most useful things for me when I started writing was working on the staff of THE LEADING EDGE (BYU’s semi-pro sf magazine) and seeing first-hand the horror that editors face with their never-shrinking slush pile that won’t die, and learning at least what NOT to do. (Learning what TO do is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.)

– Lee

By: Th.

Th. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:45:18 +0000

I have to say that reading them all in one sitting was a mistake. After the first four, few were able to cut through the noise.

By: William Morris

William Morris — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:16:49 +0000

It’s okay, Theric. My entry was universally ignored so either I failed miserably (or mediocre-ly) or the exquisite use of language and themes and the careful attention to detail got lost in the experience of reading 16 (or 26 — I actually read all of them and voted in both categories) stories.

By: Th.

Th. — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:01:28 +0000

It is over and I’m really not sure. There were two I suspected briefly, but ultimately, “Speculations” didn’t prepare me to recognize you in a more conventional format.

I did pick out both of David J West’s and I think I know which one is Daron Fraley’s but you my friend are a mystery.