If you haven’t checked out Quora yet, the best way I can describe it is as a web community at the corner of Wikipedia and crowdsourcing. It’s different than Wikipedia because it’s more a compendium of subjective knowledge (though reinforced by facts), built in the form of contributor questions and contributor answers.

Arranged by topic, questions range from the best way from A to B, the best pizza place in your town, the difference between A and B, what it feels like to have this disease or to have witnessed that world event. From the grand and abstract, to the professional, to the tiny and personal, Quora has room for it all. I’m answering questions on topics that range from how to get your book published to what it feels like to get your nose pierced.

And I’m having fun with it. There’s a lot that’s helpful, a lot that’s fascinating, a lot that’s just silly. I’m learning about cats, psychology, heroes and villains, genetics, and restaurants in my neighborhood. I’m discovering new perspectives from publishers and writers who are outside my immediate circles, and expanding my horizons and views.

If you have a question that’s never been answered to your satisfaction, search for it. If it’s not there, add it yourself. The more people join up and add their expertise and human experience to the pool, the more useful a tool it is for everyone. I’m not being compensated or sponsored by Quora, I just think this is an interesting way to share knowledge. So if it seems like it might be a useful thing for you, wander over and take a look.

For your curiosity and your consideration. I was involved in lots of great projects in 2011, with lots of great writers, editors and publishers!

As Anthologist:
When the Hero Comes Home, co-edited with Ed Greenwood (Dragon Moon Press)

As Editor/Acquiring Editor:
Eden by Phil Rossi (Dragon Moon Press) (Novella)
The Empress Sword by Paulette Jaxton (Dragon Moon Press)
Triptych by J.M. Frey (Dragon Moon Press)

As Editor:
Mind Over Mind by Karina Fabian (Dragon Moon Press)
Scimitar’s Heir by Chris Jackson (Dragon Moon Press)

As Copyeditor:
Death Match by Jason S. Ridler
Hearts of Smoke and Steam by Andrew P. Mayer (Pyr)
Lightbringer by KD McEntire (Pyr)
The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick (Pyr)
The Supernaturals by David Golemon (Seven Realms)
Sword of Fire and Sea by Erin Hoffman (Pyr)

As Writer:
“Deserter” co-written with Marie Bilodeau. In BEAST WITHIN 2, edited by Jennifer Brozek, Graveside Tales
“Keeping Time” In When the Hero Comes Home, edited by Gabrielle Harbowy & Ed Greenwood, Dragon Moon Press

Last February, I was a participant at the San Francisco Writers Conference, where I met lots and lots of people, but three people in particular: Katharine “Kit” Kerr, Alex Tillson, and Clint Talbert. Though it would probably surprise at least two of them to hear it, all three of them led me to great epiphanies about my writing this year.

For a magical hour or two, Katharine, the wonderful Philippa Ballantine, and I got an opportunity to sit down together in the quiet presenters’ lounge and talk long and passionately about writing. Technically, we were planning out what we would cover in our panel on fantasy. After the panel ended, and because she had time before the next appearance on her schedule, I invited Kit, on a lark, to come and sit with me on the editor/author 10-minute consultations I was doing. The two of us sat and evaluated first-pages of a bunch of manuscripts, encouraged a bunch of nervous authors (perhaps more nervous, for finding her there — surprise!), and we found a great synergy and bond between us as we did so. She picked out things I agreed with completely but wouldn’t have caught at a glance. Between that chat and those sessions, I think I learned even more than our authors did.

Clint Talbert is a promising writer who has become a good friend. Months later, we were talking and I mentioned that I feel selfish when I write; I have a hard time taking time away from my other work, on other people’s manuscripts which have contracts and deadlines and things, to write something of my own. He reminded me that every writer, no matter what their other work is, faces the same problem. I knew that, as an editor and advice-giver, but I hadn’t internalized it until he said it to me. You just have to make time for yourself, and write, just like everybody else. And since then, I have.

It was August, and I was musing about how to turn a particular one of my short stories into a novel, when Alex Tillson gave me possibly the simplest and most profound piece of writing advice I’ve ever received. She said, “Look at the decisions your characters have had to make [in the short story]. What can happen now that would turn those choices into the worst decisions they could have possibly made?” And that was the answer. So simple, and so brilliant. That’s where the plot was hiding. And it’s helped me craft every story since.

Happy New Year, readers!

This is the post in which I make a resolution to be more faithful about my blog posting this year. You have my apologies for my December silence, but it was a busy month. Between travel (mine), a broken arm (not mine), two sets of submissions to track, a short story due (mine), and the underlying craziness of the holiday season, I figured the blog was the most expendable. Most of you were probably too busy holidaying and dealing with your own year-end craziness to follow along here, anyway!

This is also the post in which I share the redux of the Dragon Moon Press December open submissions. What follows is a lot of completely useless but hopefully interesting stats and facts, most of which have no bearing whatsoever on which submissions might turn into requested fulls, or signed publishing deals. As you’ll already know, though, I think trends are fascinating, especially unconscious trends, so here are some trends found in the submissions this year. All percentages are rounded.

By the way, no response letters have gone out yet…so if you sent in a manuscript and haven’t heard from us, don’t worry.

General Stats

Total number of submissions received: 80
Not bad at all, considering we severely limited our genre requirements this year!

Submissions which requested “representation” by our “agency” instead of requesting publication: 6
(We know you’re nervous, so we won’t hold it against you…but in the future, check the wording on your form letter!)

Submissions referred through Miss Snark’s First Victim: 19
Submissions from authors who have submitted (different manuscripts) to DMP before: 4
Countries represented, where country was disclosed: 6
US States represented, where state was disclosed: 19

Range of word counts submitted: 35,000 – 260,000
(though most fell in the 80,000-115,000 range, with only about 4 outliers on each end)

Author Gender:

Manuscripts where author gender was identified or could be implied: 76

Manuscripts submitted by female or female-identified authors: 41 (54%)
Manuscripts submitted by male or male-identified authors: 34 (45%)
Manuscripts submitted by male/female co-author teams: 1 (1%)

Essentials:

Manuscripts which didn’t include titles: 2
Manuscripts which included samples, as requested per submissions guidelines: 73

All of the following sets of stats are based only on manuscripts which included sample pages.

Fantasy manuscripts received: 45
Urban fantasy manuscripts received: 28

Prologue or not to prologue?

Manuscripts with prologues: 13 (or, about 17.5%)

Urban Fantasy manuscripts with prologues: 4 of 28 (14%)
Fantasy manuscripts with prologues: 9 of 45 (20%)

POV and Tense

Urban Fantasy manuscripts in first person: 17
Urban Fantasy manuscripts in third person: 11

Fantasy manuscripts in first person: 5
Fantasy manuscripts in third person: 40

Manuscripts in present tense: 3 (all Urban Fantasy, all 1st person)

No manuscripts received in second person, or in future tense.

Protagonist Gender:

Manuscripts with female or female-identified protagonists: 37 (17 urban fantasy, 10 fantasy)
Manuscripts with male or male-identified protagonists: 32 (9 urban fantasy, 23 fantasy)
Manuscripts with equal female and male protagonists: 2 (both urban fantasy)

(No manuscripts were received with gender-neutral protagonists, but a few were received where the gender of the protagonist was not introduced (i.e., there was no pitch, and/or the protagonist didn’t appear in the sample))

And there you have it. A lot of information and no information at the same time. And yes, I track all this stuff in my submissions spreadsheets, not because it’s useful or relevant, but just because I’m interested in trends.

There is no information available yet about how many fulls are going to be requested, because our elite submissions team now has to convene and make some difficult decisions.

Many thanks to all who submitted manuscripts, and all who helped to spread the word!

The tree is beautiful and they call her Eden. Her branches reach for the stars. But this tree does not sprout from the dirt. Eden fills the sky, high in orbit above the blue expanse of Uranus. Eden changes humanity’s very concept of extraterrestrial life.

From the second he sets foot on Lola, Malcolm’s own future is in jeopardy. He soon finds that love, friendship, and his own mortality tremble like a leaf at the sound of Eden’s call.

EDEN, Phil Rossi’s beautifully haunting podcast, is now a beautifully haunting novella from Dragon Moon Press. Available in trade paperback, ebook (forthcoming) and collector’s edition hardcover.

“Science can’t explain what is sometimes called ‘magic.’ Magic can’t explain the wonder of EDEN.”
– Scott Sigler, New York Times best-selling author of CONTAGIOUS

Please join Phil’s Amazon Rush on December 8th. Get your copy of EDEN and help propel the celebrated author of CRESCENT up the charts.

“Low-hanging fruit” is a common metaphor you’ll hear in writing circles, in reference to coming up with ideas. The lowest-hanging fruit on any tree are the easiest ones to reach and therefore the ones that get picked first. For writers, the metaphor usually suggests that the ideas you come up with first, or most easily, are going to be ideas that other people have had.

I’ve often seen it recommended, when writing short stories targeted for anthologies with specific themes, that writers reject the first five ideas they come up with. As the thought process goes, these are going to be the most obvious, easiest choices — the “low-hanging fruit”; the story ideas that everyone else will think of, too.

But it’s also said that “low-hanging fruit is the low-hanging fruit of metaphor.” (In addition to sounding potentially, well… Follow the link.) It’s an easy metaphor to use; a simplified way to think about something that may not actually be so simple or straightforward.

People are different, and people’s minds work differently. We don’t all have the same likes and dislikes, and we don’t all follow the same trains of thought. It would be pretty boring if we did. So, I don’t entirely buy the low-hanging fruit analogy when it’s applied to story ideas. I don’t believe that all people are going to strike upon the same idea as easiest or most obvious. There are too many variables between individuals. Between general life experience, what you’ve read or seen recently, a personal association with the topic, one person’s low-hanging fruit is not necessarily the same as another’s.

I’ve read a lot of queries for novel-length manuscripts over the past three or four years. I’ve also looked at anthology submissions, and I’ve talked to other anthologists. Trends emerge in submissions. This fascinates me, because it’s not usually popular media or current events that seem to have influenced writers’ ideas. And the ideas I would think of as “most obvious” are not always the ones that are most represented.

When I target a story for a particular anthology, I do think about the approaches that I think other writers are most likely to take. But, there’s a flaw in this: Unless I seek out other writers who are preparing stories, and poll them, I have no idea what kinds of things a given topic will make other people think of. I have no way of knowing whether I’m avoiding the trend, or second-guessing myself right into the middle of it. Maybe everyone is avoiding that ripest, most obvious apple and going for the second-ripest one. Maybe the obvious one is what the editor wants; if no one else is going to go for it, maybe picking it would give you a better chance.

You see, I hope, how this line of thinking can work you into writers’ paralysis if you’re not careful.

If you’re submitting to a second (or later) volume of an anthology on a particular theme, you can read the stories in prior volumes to make sure that you don’t reinvent them. That will help somewhat; you’ll be able to see trends in the earlier stories and do something different. Sometimes editors will tell you what they don’t want to see. But that still doesn’t help you out against all the other people who’ll be submitting for the new volume right along with you.

My advice: pick the fruit that looks most appealing to you.

When Ed Greenwood and I approached writers about When the Hero Comes Home, I could almost always see it in their eyes — there would be a spark of an idea that came to mind instantly, when writers heard the theme; something within them instantly surfaced, inspired. When that happens for you, take that and nurture it; tease it out until it’s the best story, and best expression of the theme, that it can be. Think about what other writers might be reaching for, yes, but don’t let it be your consuming worry. Go with the idea that inspires you, that you can put your own personal spin on. It’s that spark of you, that twist of something different, that will make your story rise to the top, even if a dozen others attempt the same theme. If you don’t write what you feel, if you focus instead on trying to predict what will be original and what will trend, you risk boxing yourself into a corner where you can’t write anything at all, for fear it won’t be the right thing. Since you can’t know what other people are going to be writing, the most effective thing you can do is write your story in your way. Put your voice and heart into it.

When all the fruit is harvested and taken to market, no one will know the order in which it was picked.

Thanks for your patience! The December 2011 Open Submissions guidelines are now up at dragonmoonpress.com, where they will remain through the month of December.

The rules are slightly different this time around. Most notably, DMP is ONLY seeking fantasy (traditional fantasy, sword and sorcery, epic fantasy) and urban fantasy. DMP is solid on science fiction for 2012, we just need a couple more great titles to round out a great list.

As always, opening submissions in December is a risk. It’s when many publishers are closed for submissions due to the holidays. It also immediately follows NaNoWriMo. As always, DMP does not want your just-completed NaNoWriMo manuscript. Let us consider it next year, once it’s been through NaNoEdMo.

As always, send an electronic query that includes your name, contact info, title, genre and word count. Paste the first fifteen pages into the body of the email. Please do not send attachments. Submissions that haven’t consulted the guidelines will not be considered.

Check out the guidelines for more information, and spread the word. We’re looking forward to a great month!

I don’t have any children, so I’ve never been the parent of an honors child. But, I’ve been an acquiring editor for a while now, and I think the pride and joy I feel when one of my book-children does well are probably the same buzz that a parent gets when a child wins some huge accomplishment.

Publishers Weekly listed Triptych by JM Frey as one of the Best SF-Fantasy-Horror Books of 2011. In championing a book that goes outside humanity to tell a poignant, human story, I’ve come to know a wonderful friend and author, I’ve learned that my acquisitions-fu does not steer me wrong, I’ve learned a lot about how to shamelessly promote a book with queer content in non-queer spaces, and I’ve watched both story and author grow, blossom, and thrive.

To say that I could not be more proud, does not begin to express how important the experience of working with JM Frey and Triptych has been for me.

Download a sample free for Kindle | Buy on the Publisher’s website: Kindle, ePub or Print | Buy on Amazon | Buy on B&N

If you like it, please post a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Reviews help authors. Editors like happy authors. :)

Just an early heads-up for blog readers — Dragon Moon Press will again be opening its virtual gates this December.

Send no manuscripts yet! Full submissions details will be appearing soon on the DMP website. Manuscripts arriving before December 1, or which do not follow submissions guidelines, will be deleted unread. Wait for posting of this year’s submissions guidelines before submitting.

DMP will ONLY be looking for novels in specific genres to round out their 2012 list:

* Traditional/Epic Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery
* Urban Fantasy

Other genres are already well-represented in our forthcoming selection and will NOT be accepted during this submissions period. Nor will your 2011 NaNoWriMo manuscript.

Look for more details on Monday, November 7!

First, a big thank you to all 669 readers who participated in our first WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME giveaway on Goodreads!

Congrats to our winners, Gabriel and
BL834 — your copies are in the mail!

Thanks again, everyone who participated! As a reminder, the Kindle edition is only $3.99. And keep an eye out — we may do another Goodreads giveaway toward the end of the year.