Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
What ELFY is About
Today’s subject is simple: what is my book, ELFY, about?
ELFY is about Bruno (né Jon), a young, rather confused person from a parallel universe which houses the Elfy Realm. The reason for his confusion is that the Elfy High Council, which is afraid of Bruno’s potential power, has had him intentionally mis-trained, to the point where Bruno feels he has no power at all. He gets sent to our version of Earth, ostensibly to study the aberrant mage currents coming out of Northern California, and is promptly captured by two people who mean him no good: the parents of his love interest, Sarah. They are protegés of a charismatic minister who is masquerading as a human, but isn’t; instead, he’s a Dark Elf, who’s intent on corrupting as many humans (and Elfys) he can get his hands on, and has started with Sarah’s parents. When Bruno’s mentor, Roberto, tries to save Bruno, he instead gets captured by Sarah’s parents (which allows Sarah to hide Bruno), upping the drama and complexity immediately.
Because Bruno’s been lied to about everything, including his age, how much power he has, who and what he is, etc., he doesn’t think he has a thing to offer anyone, and he doesn’t know how he’s going to fight that Dark Elf. But he’s wrong about the former, as Sarah shows him from the start, and in the process of ELFY he figures out how to successfully defeat the Dark Elf, save his mentor, forge an unusual yet powerful romance with Sarah, and return to the Elfy Realm in triumph. Bruno learns that no matter how screwed up things are, life as we know it is worth fighting for, love is worth fighting for, and becoming yourself is the most powerful gift of all.
As for how ELFY starts, it’s as follows: Bruno (né Jon) is a prisoner who’s listening to two adult humans fight. These are the two people who’ve captured him; they are the parents of his love-interest, Sarah (née Daisy — kind of). Within the first two pages Bruno actually hits the man (Sarah’s father, who hasn’t told Bruno his name and won’t, though he eventually finds it out via other means) across the back. Bruno is a short person — he’s three feet tall — and that’s as close as he could get to hitting Sarah’s father upside the head.
When that doesn’t work, he goes into the kitchen to feed himself because Sarah’s parents don’t think he needs to eat ’cause he’s magical (being an Elfy); that’s garbage, and Bruno knows it, but they won’t listen to him.
Fortunately, that’s when he meets Sarah, their daughter, who’s also been badly treated by her parents, and they go to discuss an immediate alliance so they may escape her parents’ clutches forever.
All of the complexities that follow are due to a 240,000 word plotline — and the complexities include: why is Sarah’s house haunted? What is that Dark Elf doing on Earth, as they are deadly enemies to humans and Elfys? Why doesn’t Bruno remember more about his parents? And why won’t everyone stop telling Bruno about the facts of life, ’cause whenever they do, he faints?
ELFY is a comic urban fantasy/mystery/romance, folks. It’s tough to sum up a big, fat fantasy (or BFF) of this nature in a short blog post/article like this one. But it’s a fun book, an interesting book, and a deeply romantic book, all in its satirical way; I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it. I know that I am proud of writing it, and also proud that I completed it while Michael was still alive to enjoy it, too.
Hoping this helps — and that the formatting will work this time,
Barb Caffrey, who writes the Elfyverse — and all points west.
The Quest for Publication (which may not be as difficult as the Quest for Fire, but it’s close)
Today’s blog post is about the quest for publication, which shouldn’t be as difficult as the quest for fire — but it’s close.
So, how are you supposed to keep your motivation, when you know it’s going to likely take months to years before you see any of your stories or novels in print?
I don’t have the answer to that, other than inner fortitude (which seems like a cop-out), and of course to keep working on your writing. However, I do have at least a partial answer about the search for markets and agents.
One of the hardest parts of being a working writer is trying to get your works into print. There’s a different process for short stories and novels, which I’ll explain as quickly as I can. (Most of my writer-friends already know this stuff, but to those new to this business, maybe it’ll be of some use to you.)
For a short story, you finish the story, check it over for spelling and syntax errors, and preferably have someone else read it and give you comments (changing anything that you agree needs to be changed) before you send it out. Various markets need different things, and the best places to research your markets are Ralan.com and Duotrope.com — both are free, and both are extremely helpful. (If you are able to donate to either, please do — especially Ralan Conley, who runs Ralan.com, as he’s been doing this for at least eight years as a public service.)
So, you research your markets, and you start with the highest paying markets first. Yes, these are also the ones which have the most competition, and yes, these are the ones you’ll have the least likelihood of actually making a sale — but you don’t know until you try. The highest paying markets for short fiction right now are Strange Horizons, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Analog, the new Redstone SF, and many others. Check what they’re reading for — some are vague, meaning they’ll accept just about anything if they believe the writing is good enough and it fits their needs, while others are very specific (Redstone SF, for example, seems to want hard SF of the type written by Charlie Stross or Cory Doctorow, though they’ll look at anything that’s explicitly science fiction and/or has a hard SF base even without the terminology). Then, send your MS on its way.
In my case, I write mostly fantasy, which means Redstone SF is out; Lightspeed, which wants SF only, is out. So I tend to start with the others and work from there.
The key to keeping your short fiction alive is to keep it going; unless you get specific commentary from a professional market that you agree with, keep that story out there until it sells. This is what I’ve heard over and over again from people with far more short story sales than myself — it’s the best way to get things done. (As the saying goes, “You won’t sell your story if it’s tucked away in the drawer.” Or, in our modern age, locked away on the computer.)
As for novels — there you have two choices. You can find an agent — which is preferred — or you can submit your completed novel to various markets yourself. The reason the agent is preferred is because agents know what various publishers are most likely to want, so they cut down on the work you have to do as an author. (This is what you’re paying for with regards to agent representation.)
The main problem with submitting your novel to various publishers yourself is that it’s time-consuming, but it’s worth if it you are willing to remember that ultimately, you need to keep your manuscript out there and going strong. Keep the maxim above — that you can’t sell it if it’s not available to be viewed — alive, and try to check your ego at the door, because the process is long, arduous, and if you’re thin-skinned, you’re unlikely to make it to the finish line.
At any rate, the keys to your publisher search are at Ralan.com and Duotrope.com; the keys to your agent search are at Preditors and Editors, Writer Beware at SFWA.org, AgentQuery.com and QueryTracker.net — these are the fastest and easiest way to find agents who are available, and what other people think of them. And the best part about all of these sites is, they’re free.
Good luck!
Barb Caffrey, who writes the Elfyverse — and everywhere in between.
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