The Journal of Michael Merriam

I know I said this before, but I think it's worth repeating.

I'm in support if this award, not just because all my sales have been to semiprozines, but because I think semipro fiction magazines are actually publishing some of the best stuff around. Sure, they can also publish total crap, but so can the big boys, and I think the smaller magazines provide a better platform for experimental work, work that is a little out on the fringe, work that pushes the envelope, and works by writers who are cutting their teeth and learning their chops.

If the fact that Locus has dominated this category over the years is the problem, maybe it should be divided into fiction and non-fiction sub-categories. I think that should be the case for all the magazine-based Hugos.

I'm really smoking along on the novella this morning, so I don't want to step away for it for too long, but I do want to let you guys know that Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #36, which includes a poem by me, is available.



Not only am I in it, but a number of people on my flist are in some way involved with this issue as well, whether it is stories from lisamantchev and maggiedr, internal artwork by tiny_wings or asimmum on the editorial and production end.

Really, it's filled with goodness and you should buy it!

Untitled Weird West Steampunk Novella

I pulled my other WiP novel out yesterday and looked at it again. Though it makes me nervous to say it, I feel like Dark Water Blues is some of my best work. I'm looking forward to working on it again once I've finished Rija's Tale.

I received my contributor's copies and a check from Fictitious Force yesterday. A quick glance showed that I am sharing a ToC with truepenny, and for the second time aliettedb.

Yesterday careswen took me out to the Mill City Museum for my belated birthday gift, where we, among other things, took a walking tour of the Washburn "A" Mill , including going down in the bowels of the ruined mill to places most visitors never get to see. It was damned interesting, and yes, I do plan on using some of this in fiction, eventually.

Gaming was afterward, and while it wasn't a total disaster, I'm starting to wonder if I'm losing my touch as a DM. I have to wonder if it is because my storytelling focus had shift away from gaming to writing. Or maybe I'm just getting old and can't react as quickly to my character's decisions.

One the way home careswen and I got behind a driver who was obviously impaired, weaving and swerving between lanes, speeding up and slowing down erratically, that sort of thing. We called the State Patrol and followed the guy. Over the next thirty minutes we tailed this driver or sat watching him as he sat park on city streets, all the while talking to police on the phone. Every time he got off the highway, the State Patrol switched me to the local city police, but then the guy would get back on the highway.

We followed him around for Thirty Freakin' Minutes as he swerved into other lanes and did other stupid shite, endangering people's lives, with me on the phone giving the police dispatcher a play-by-play of where we were. We followed him until he short down a dark residential street and then got behind us, at which point we decided it wasn't safe and broke off. Did I mention we did this for Thirty Freakin' Minutes? Guess how many cops we saw. Go on, guess.

Right, not a one, even though we were feeding dispatch exact information.

I was supposed to go to the monthly Twin Cities Speculative Fiction Writers Network meeting today, but I woke up sick to my stomach and dizzy, like I'd gone on a terrible bender last night and was reaping the rewards, except I didn't have anything alcoholic to drink yesterday.

I'm feeling a little better this afternoon, so I'm going to get some lunch now, fold some laundry, and work a bit on Rija's Tale.

After much conversation, careswen and I have decided we are going to collect some of the short stories I've had published in various magazines into a self-published anthology. I talked to several traditional publishers about this, but the truth is, collections don't sell very well, even for fairly established writers. So we are going to do this ourselves. Of the over thirty pieces I've sold and published in the last three years, about two dozen of them have had the rights revert back to me.

The idea here is to put out something professional that I can give to family, and maybe take to cons to sell to people at readings. My fiction is scattered all over the place and most of my family members do not have access to magazines published in Australia, or a real good working knowledge of how to use the internet.

My question for you, O Flist, is this:

What size book, trade paperback (6 X 9) or standard pocket paperback (4.25 X 6.875), do you prefer and why? You're input will be greatly appreciated and will enter you in a random drawing to win a free copy of the collection when we publish it.

Help me, flist. You're my only hope...

1) "Weaving Threads" has sold to Cats with Wings.

2) careswen, greykev, and I are working on getting my website back up. We were hosting with our old cable service, but they were sold to Comcast. Rather than move the website to Comcast, we've decided to buy space on sff.net. I'm currently trying to write taglines for the stories I've published. I suck at this.

3) "Over the Bridge" is live at The Harrow:
http://www.theharrow.com/journal/index.php/journal/article/view/2106/651

4) I'm reading kellylink's collection of short stories, Magic for Beginners. It's eating my brain.

5) June Stats:
Submissions Made: 6
Sales: 1
Rejections: 5
Other: 0
Publications: 1
Crits Given: 16
Approx Word Count: 6126
Stories Circulating: 12

6) Current Works In Progress:

Fey and Mage: They Fight Crime!


Fey and Mage: They Fight Each Other!


Space Opera Pirates!


Steadfast

I'm home after my half-day at work. Finished up a couple of Grant Applications and spent some time brainstorming about the company's future with The Boss, The Puppeteer, and The Marketing Manager. We have Things in the Works.

Now that I'm home and had lunch and changed into comfy clothes, I need to do a few things to get ready for tomorrow's gaming session (like vacuum the carpet and write the scenario) and try to get some writing in, not necessarily in that order.

Payment from Sam's Dot Publishing and my contributor copy of Illumen. I checked the table of contents: I'm in good company, including stillnotbored.

Time to pet the cat, pour more coffee, open some windows, and work for a couple of hours.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) sent me a newsletter detailing their newest services in the works (self-playing digital audio books in 2008 and a Google Search Site for the Blind).

They also listed the newest magazine you can subscribe to in audio format: Playboy.

That's okay, I'm good with Asimov's and Analog, thanks.

ETA:

From the Playboy faq:

Does anybody really read Playboy for the articles?

The articles may not be the first part of the magazine most readers turn to, but judging from the letters we get, millions of Playboy readers also enjoy our award-winning journalism, humor and fiction. The only people who can rightfully claim to read it solely for the articles are the thousands of blind readers who peruse our Braille edition, which has been distributed by the Library of Congress since 1970.

And this From the NY Times:

House Cuts Off Fund For Playboy in Braille

UPI
Published: July 20, 1985
The House of Representatives says it will no longer pay for Braille editions of Playboy magazine stocked at the Library of Congress.

Rejecting warnings about censorship, the House decided to strip the library of the $103,000 it spends on producing Braille editions of the publication.

Representative Chalmers P. Wylie, Republican of Ohio, introduced an amendment Thursday to cut the money from the library's budget, questioning the ''literary merit'' of the bawdy magazine.

Mr. Wylie said the Library of Congress produced Braille editions of 36 magazines, including Popular Mechanics and Good Housekeeping, all chosen by blind readers.

The magazines are usually selected for their literary merit, but he added, "I do not feel that Playboy meets those standards."