Editing

As mentioned last week, my story "To Wade Alone" came in second place in the On the Premises "First" contest. Thursday of this week, I got the edits from the editor, Tarl Roger Kudrick. I'm not sure if he is the one who actually did the edits or not. They were spot on, though. As a writer who would like to someday do this as a living, I have adopted the philosophy that I will pretty much do whatever the editors ask of me, simply because, in a sesnse, they've bought the story, and I see no reason not to customize it for their market. They are going to know what their readers want, after all. They are the ones that will have to field the fan mail or hate mail when the issue comes out. And of course, for the most part, I want to work with the editors again, so it helps to create a sense of cooperation rather than one of opposition.

On the other hand, since I work as an editor too, I always grit my teeth when I open a file to see what's been done to one of my stories. I worry that The Chicago Manual of Style may not have such a prominent place on their desks as it does on mine. It's always a great relief to find a copy edited as competently, if not more so, as I could have done for someone else.

As for current work, I've had a stroke of inspiration for an upcoming anthology from Rymfire Books. They don't pay very well, but the themes they've come up with are quite inspiring. The first story I'm writing for one of their books is for the heavy metal horror anth. Thanks to Brett Schultz for his guidance in all things Scandinavian and metal.

I don't write much horror, not since "Behind the Yellow Wallpaper," really. And that only released in my copy of The Deconstruction Quarterly, which had a circulation of about five. I see this as quite an entertaining challenge, really, to try something new in a genre so populated with pat plot twists and archetypes.