submitting

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A New Lease!

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
~ Walt Disney

So I finished a new story this morning, have sent it off to my editors, and will hit it again this afternoon. My deadline is today and I will get it in just under the wire.

The name of the story (right now anyway) is New Lease and is a sort of vacation story, going to an anthology at DSP called Two Tickets to Paradise. Here is the blurb for the anthology:

    A vacation is exactly what these men need to find love in their lives. It may be about looking for a little fun, gaining a fresh perspective after a breakup, or building up the nerve to take the plunge. Whether they travel by plane, train, or automobile, none of them want to go it alone. They’re hoping romance will be the ticket to finding paradise in another man’s arms.

I hope it fits the bill. It is far more about new chances and healing old pains and finding love than it is a vacation. If it turns out not to be right for them, they have another anthology coming in about a year called Snow on Top that it is very appropriate for!

The important thing is that I am writing again. Months of overtime through me into a completely exhausted depression where I couldn’t even clean house, not even the bathroom or dishes, let alone write.

I love love love love to write, it fulfills me like nothing else, but what a lot of non-writers do not get is that writing is work. A considerable amount of it.

Take New Lease. I would write and then hack out whole sections and then write and repeat. I had to keep the story focused on what was important and not all the side story lines that tried to make the short story a novella or more. I have diarrhea of the keyboard, wanting over and over to make a story much, much longer than it needs to be. I love long short stories and novellas, both to read and write. I want to know more, and I have to learn which will get my point across better; a plethora of words, or a bare minimum. So while some of the side story lines were interesting, I knew in this case they were not what the story was about and to stick to the point.

The story is sweet and sad but has a doubly sweet and hopeful ending. I will keep you informed as to what happens with it.

Next ~ I just can’t resist it despite my reticence to write for anthologies anymore ~ is at least one story for Men of Steel (once again for DSP). My whole life until maybe the last decade was comic books and I still adore a good superhero movie. Iron Man, Thor and Captain America were awesome examples of superhero storytelling and I have always wanted to do a gay superhero. As it write it and not “do” a superhero. Although come to think of it…

The story will keep me from attacking my novel full force (and it is going to be a good one), it will fulfill a long fantasy of mine. A whole part of having a super power has always been the aspect of feeling left out and different. Imagine gaining such a power and being gay as well, a double whammy. At least this circumstance leaves you able to help your fellow gay man.

So thanks for listening. Hope to have lots of good news for you soon. And don’t forget, is now available!
Much love,
B.G.

UPDATE! Story has been edited by my wondrous betas Sal and Chris, I have worked on the final draft, and just this minute hit the SEND button. Wish me luck!

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Pirates Are On the Back Burner (darnit)

So after getting myself geared up to do what I didn’t know how to do, it turns out I missed the deadline for the pirate story I was planning already. EC has an in-house deadline and an outside deadline. It was the in-house deadline that was a month away. The outside deadline was a few days ago…

*sigh*

So it is temporarily on the back burner. Dreamspinner is taking pirate stories and I have plenty of time. I also see now that EC does take unsolicited manunsripts after all, it is just harder to get in that way.

SO…when I am done with my dude ranch story, I will write my pirate story. If it works under 12k words, I will send it to Dreamspinner. If it goes over, I will try EC.

I’ll sell it! *G*

I’ve been really wanting to start in on this dude ranch story anyway, and this will make it happen sooner. YES!

Now, to work!

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Blood Plague

Okay, I just sent off Blood Plague to Freaky Fountain Press!

I should have sent it out last week, but to tell you the truth, I freaked out! *G*

I have really worked a hell of a lot on this story. I liked the idea for the anthology that was taking submission. As I said in my last post, it is called “This is the Way the World Ends,” and they want “…stories exploring the connections between destruction and sex, death and love, survival and rebirth, all set in the post-apocalyptic landscapes of your hottest dreams.”

Well, for the longest time I have had this idea for a couple of vampire stories that were the “what if?” consequences of a book like Salem’s Lot. In that story, they take over a town. But what if it went further than that?

Something sorta kinda like Richard Matheson’s classic I Am Legend, but not.

Ever read a story or book and you were just loving it and then it went places that made you disappointed or think “WTF?” Why did s/he do that?

So this story was years and years coming with lots of different influences. The love child of Richard Matheson and Stephen King and God knows what/who else.

Anyway, I got ready to send it out the other night — finally, damned did I work and re-work and RE-work that story! — and when I went to the site for Freaky Fountain, I couldn’t find any books. It looked like they were taking submissions, but weren’t publishing anything! And how could the story sell if they weren’t selling any books?

Finally, an LJer by the name of pointed out what I had stupidly been missing, and that is that Freaky Fountain is a new company and their first books won’t be out until spring of next year. And I guess their books will be available in all major e-book formats, Kindle, and print!!

Hurray! A print book!

*does the happy dance*

I could actually sign my very first autograph ON a story!

So here I am, sending out my next creation into the Universe in good faith that this is just one more step for me and my stories. I am quite excited. This could be great!!

And remember!
It is never too late to pursue your dreams!
I did it!
Namasté,
BG

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Another Submission!

So two things…

One: I finished up my final edits to the galley of All Snug and sent them off to Dreamspinner Press just awhile ago. Made a few changes, mostly technical. I hope I don’t have to read it again for a long while! LOL!

I adore the story and it makes me very very proud, but I have read it too many times! Hopefully I am finally done with it.

I can’t wait for it to see “print!”

Two: I just sent a submission to a publisher I have never submitted to before; Silver Publishing. They seem to be a pretty reputable house and I am very excited by the idea of selling them a story.

A dear friend, , suggested that I get my stories sold to as many houses as possible as it looks good as an author resume. She didn’t use those exact words, and maybe she will comment here, but you get the idea.

It looks good to show that multiple houses think you are worthy of publishing.

This story is called A Secret Valentine and I am submitting it to their anthology Never Say Never.

This is what they are looking for:

Any subgenre will be accepted, but must follow a Valentine’s Day theme.

This anthology will feature M/M couples celebrating Valentine’s Day!

We’d love to see something off the beaten path. What have you got for us? An alien being introduced to the customs of Valentine’s Day? Non-human creatures affected by the magic of the holiday? A secret admirer revealed? An ex back in the picture? A wish fulfilled in a new and interesting way? We want to see your best sensual or erotic romance Valentine’s Day story.

Now there are no aliens in this story. It is more like a “A secret admirer revealed,” and I think it is very sweet and romantic with a fearsome HOT love scene. Let’s hope they agree.

Silver Publishing was also accepting Halloween and Christmas stories and wound up closing their submissions weeks (almost two month respectively) early. So even though the deadline wasn’t until January 8, 2011, I wasn’t taking any chances!

I love this little story and I hope they do as well!

And now to bed and tomorrow it will be working on a second draft of my vampire story!

Good night all, and pleasant dreams!
BG

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A Secret Valentine

An interesting thing about writing is how long a period there is between writing a piece, and when it comes out.

This becomes especially “interesting” when writing a holiday piece. Trying to get into the Christmas spirit in July so that a story can be written and then submitted, and then hopefully bought, then edited and re-edited, etc etc on its way to publication.

So today or tomorrow I will be sending off a Valentine’s Day story. The good thing about this one is all I had to do was think “romantic” and that is easy for me to do! *G*

I am submitting this one like three months at least before the deadline because it will go to the company that keeps closing their submission call at least a month and a half early. It is a bitch writing something thinking you have until a certain deadline, and then finding that company closes their call as soon as they have received enough stories they like for their purposes.

How are you supposed to know whether to bother?

I think this is a good story. Sweet, romantic and finally HOT as hell.

I look forward to seeing what happens. It would be wonderful to sell to yet anther company.

Wish me luck!

And of course, special thanks once again to my amazing betas, , , and . As always, you guys are the BEST!

BG