A Visit to the Carving Room

Posted on August 11, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

I enjoy carousels enough that I’ve written a story about them (“The Last Horse,” which appeared in the September 2012 of Aoife’s Kiss), and I like to visit historical ones when I get the chance.  Yesterday, I visited the Historic Carousel and Museum in Albany, Oregon.  Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother mentioning that here, but what makes this carousel different from others is that it’s not finished; it’s not actually a carousel.  Yet.

For over a decade, a dedicated team of volunteers have been building the carousel from scratch using the traditional carving methods.  The museum isn’t really a museum, either; it’s the craft room, where you can see the animals in all stages of production, from design drawings, to rough blocks of wood, to the initial stages of carving, to the finishing detail carving, to the painting.  You can talk with the carvers and the sanders and the painters and they’re working.  I had a long conversation with a carver as he worked on a bulldog.  I didn’t get his name (unfortunately), but he told me about what he was doing and how he got started working on the carousel.  Apparently he had never carved before until he volunteered about ten years ago.  You wouldn’t be able to tell that based on the work he was doing yesterday.

I enjoyed seeing the construction of the animals, especially after the process was such an important part of “The Last Horse.”  I got to see all of the stages of production, instead of just trying to imagine what the process must have looked like based on my reading.  It was particularly gratifying the see that I got a lot of it right.  If you’re ever in the Albany, Oregon area,  I recommend stopping by the Historic Carousel and Museum.  It’s a one of a kind experience, even if you’re not all that interested in carousels.

Posted in Inspiration | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Inspiration: Portaits from the Shadow

Posted on August 6, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Inspiration is an odd thing.  Sometimes I know where it comes from; other times I don’t.  In the case of “Portraits from the Shadow,” published this month in InterGalactic Medicine Show, I don’t really know what inspired this story.  While its inspiration may elude me, I can think of three things that were in my mind as I wrote it and certainly played a role in the final product.

Some time ago, a member of my writing group Hopefull Monsters posted a story for critique about a woman whose paintings became the reality for her world.  It was a wonderful story and an even more wonderful idea.  That story didn’t inspire “Portraits from the Shadow,” but I suspect it played some part in the process.

Many years ago (wow, quite a few now that I think about it), I traveled to Papua-New Guinea and spent six weeks exploring its coral reefs and highlands.  I spent two weeks in the highlands, among some of the most diverse cultures I’ve ever seen.  Before going, we were advised to refrain from photographing people we saw for a couple of reason: (1) it’s rude to just take someone’s picture without asking, and (2) some of the cultures believed creating an image of them would steal their soul.  This experience also didn’t inspire “Portraits from the Shadow,” but I thought about it a lot after I started writing because it seemed relevant.

My father fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars.  He never talked about his experiences in either, and I never asked.  I figured these were likely not the best years of his life, and based on the stories I heard from soldiers who fought in Vietnam, these were likely memories best left unvisited.  My father passed away several years ago, and as part of his memorial, we assembled a slide show of his life, including several pictures from his time in Korea and Vietnam.  Those pictures really moved me; he was so young (much younger than I am now) and had already seen things I could never imagine and which I hope to never see.  Those events shaped who he was, even if he never spoke of them, and for the first time, I thought I understood my father better than ever before.  I knew then that the Vietnam War had to be an important event in “Portraits from the Shadow.”

While none of these things directly inspired “Portraits from the Shadow,” they all helped shape it after I had started writing it.  Regardless of where this story came from, this one is among my favorites for very personal reasons.  It’s a story about sacrifice, love, and family, and I hope you enjoy it.

Posted in Inspiration, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Portraits from the Shadow” Featured in IGMS Podcast

Posted on August 2, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

When I posted my announcement yesterday about “Portraits from the Shadow,” I didn’t notice that my story was the featured podcast for this issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show.  I’m honored that my story was picked for reading, and I can’t wait to listen to it.  (I’ve been on the road, so I haven’t had the time.)

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Quick Announcement from the Shores of Lake Michigan

Posted on August 1, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

I’ve been in Chicago this week for the day job, so I haven’t been keeping up with my semi-regular posting (but I have been keeping up with my daily writing).  I have a few minutes this morning online, so I thought I’d post a quick announcement.

“Portraits from the Shadow” is now available in the latest issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show.  You can read a short preview of the story here, but to get the entire tale, you’ll need to buy the issue.  This one is among my favorite stories, so I think it’s well worth the investment—but then again, I’m likely not the most objective person.  I hope you enjoy.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Another Universe” Finds a Home at Stupefying Stories

Posted on July 27, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Stupefying Stories, a market I’ve had my eye on for while, has bought my flash fiction piece “Another Universe.”  This story has had quite a saga that maybe I’ll go into later, but I’m excited that it has finally landed at a good place, and I appreciate the patience and efforts of editor Bruce Bethke throughout the process.

I’ve been told my story will likely appear in their new e-zine showcase, which means it will be available online for free reading on their website, and may appear in a future Stupefying Stories ebook.  If you’re not familiar with this publication, I suggest you check it out.

On a slightly different note, this story marks a milestone of sorts for me.  It’s my 25th short story sold (not my 25th sale—I’ve sold a few stories multiple times), and hopefully one of many more to come.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

“The Negotiation” is Available

Posted on July 24, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

Last Wednesday, my story “The Negotiation” emailed to Daily Science Fiction subscribers.  Today it went online at the DSF website for free reading.

If you missed my story the first time around, head over and check it out today.  It’s a flash piece, so it should only take a few minutes of your time.  When you’re done with that, check out my thoughts on the story here.  I hope you enjoy it.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Finally, I’ve Started the Novel Editing!

Posted on July 22, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

So I’ve finally started to revise my Novel In Progress—I know it’s about time, considering it was a 2012 goal!  Over the past few days I’ve been re-reading the manuscript—just reading it, not actually editing it—and thinking about the notes I took during drafting and contemplating the larger issues.  I’m scribbling notes in the margins of the NIP, just the big variety kind: “This part sucks,” “This section doesn’t make sense here,” “Need to add foreshadowing of X here,” etc.  I’m half way through, and so far, I’ve noticed two things.  (1) The beginning is pretty good, but could be stronger, and (2) the middle is lousy so far, but I see why, and it’s fixable.  Not terrible news, so that’s encouraging.

I knew going in that first half of the middle section of my NIP was weak; when I was writing the draft, I wasn’t sure what needed to be there.  I think I found my way again in the last half of the middle, which I will soon confirm (or not) because I’m just now getting to that part in my re-reading.  Knowing specifically what happens in the last half of the book has been a real help for figuring out where the problem are.

Even if they don’t realize it, I’ve gotten a lot of help from my writing group, Hopefull Monsters.  We’re reviewing a novel by another member, and just the act of reading and thinking about that novel at the structural level has been helpful as I begin my own edits.  (It also helps that my novel is suppose to be next for critique.)  I’ve been looking at why I think parts of that novel do or don’t work, and I’m taking that experience and putting it to use with my own NIP.  Only time will tell, but hopefully my manuscript will be stronger for it.

Posted in Writing | Tagged | 3 Comments

Inspiration: The Negotiation

Posted on July 17, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

My flash story “The Negotiation” emailed to Daily Science Fiction subscribers today.  Regular readers of my site know I like to write a little about the inspiration for each of my published stories, so I thought today might be a good time to do that.  Sometimes a story’s inspiration is clear and strong, and I can pinpoint it with ease.  Other times it’s not so easy.

For the “The Negotiation,” it was easy.  This story was inspired by a writing prompt through the Codex writing group.  Each year the group does a series of weekend writing prompts, where a handful of prompts are given on Friday and a finished story is submitted (anonymously) on Monday.  The submitted stories are then read and ranked by group members, and weekly “winner” is crowned (but really everyone who finishes a story is a winner).  Unfortunately I don’t write stories that quickly, so I’ve never managed to submit a weekend story.

“The Negotiation” was inspired by this weekend writing prompt: write about someone who failed in a previous profession, but now has some success in a new one.  I brainstormed possible jobs, starting much too mundane and getting progressively more interesting until I finally hit one I liked (I won’t give it away for those who have yet to read the story yet).  From there, the pieces began to fall into place: a failed bank robbery, a whimpering hostage, a tense negotiation, and the story was born.  I wrote this one in a single sitting, with a wordy first draft that came in at nearly twice its final length.  Two revisions later, I had the final story, clocking in at a fairly tight and respectable 850 words.

If you aren’t a DSF subscriber (shame on you), you’ll have wait another week to read it free online.  If you’ve read it already, I hope you enjoyed it, and will check out some of my other fiction.

Posted in Inspiration, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“The Negotiation” Emails Tomorrow

Posted on July 16, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

My story “The Negotiation” will email tomorrow to Daily Science Fiction subscribers.  If you haven’t subscribed to DSF, you’re missing out on a good speculative fiction story arriving in your inbox every day, Monday through Friday.  It’s free to subscribe and takes only a few seconds, so what are you waiting for?

If you sign up today, you’ll get my story tomorrow.  Otherwise you’ll have to wait with the rest of the rabble an extra week to read “The Negotiation” on the DSF website.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Data from the Slush

Posted on July 15, 2013 by D. Thomas Minton

In my day job I do science, and something I’ve learned in my years is that our perceptions of the world around us don’t always correspond with what is actually happening.  I always try not to determine “truth” based on my anecdotal observations alone—I want to see hard data.

This perspective was proven correct yet again when I looked back at response times for my submissions.  I’ve been feeling for a while that my stories had been languishing in slush piles (I mentioned it here).  This feeling was also reinforced by some fellow writers who expressed similar thoughts.  So I decided to look at the actual data over the weekend, and it turns out that I was wr-wr-wr—not as perceptive as I would hope.

I track all of my submissions using The Grinder (and Duotrope, before they decided to become a pay-to-play site), so I have data on every story submission I’ve made back to the middle of 2009.  I compiled the response times by submission date and plotted them:

Response TimesObviously there’s a lot of variability in response time, but most responses are under the ~50 day mark, which is I think is reasonable.  The other apparent thing is the response time is not trending up at all as I had thought (I ran a few formal statistics, too, and they also support no change in response time).  In fact, looking at the data per quarter, response times for stories submitted in the first two quarters of 2013 (average of 10 and 30 days, respectively, not including pending submissions) have, on average been lower than for stories submitted in the last half of 2012.  The third and fourth quarters of 2012 produced slow response times (average of 54 and 59 days respectively, the highest for any quarter back to 2009), which likely explains my current perception of long waits in 2013.  The slow responses from stories submitted in 2012 were lingering into this year and finally getting resolving 4, 5, and 6 months after they were submitted.  Since January 2013, only two of my submission have gone longer than 100 days, and both are still pending (but one will get resolved soon if I don’t hear back on my second query….grrr).

So I guess my perception of longer responses times in 2013 was not correct, but was an artifact of longer waits from submissions made in the second half of 2012.  Since January, my response times have been less than the last half of 2012, and otherwise not different from other quarters.  Hopefully 2012 was only a blip, and my submissions will continue to move through the slush in a timely manner.

Posted in Writing | Tagged | 1 Comment