A Conversation
_
WC: “Do you belong to any online writer's groups? A friend gave me a list, but I confess that I'm a bit nervous because what if someone crappy reads your work, steals it, etc.?”
TK: I’m in a handful of online groups devoted to horror and speculative fiction – some interesting conversations, but marginally useful. – It’s not likely that anyone would steal your ideas. In any case, (a) There are no new ideas, and (b) What you do with the idea is what counts.
“What are your thoughts on online writer's groups for critiquing purposes?”
From all accounts, they don’t work very well. Online workshops, however, which have a strong leader and last for a limited period of time, can be quite good.
“...that baby statue...crreeeeeeppy!”
I took that photo in a sculpture garden in Salzburg (across the river from the main part of town). I have several more shots of other strange faces from the same place, but I like the “evil baby” best. I use that as my avatar when anyone asks for one.
“What made you do something separate?” [different websites for blog [terencekuch.com] and writer’s ‘tombstone’ [terencekuch.net]]
Word Press isn’t well suited for the kind of website I wanted to put up to advertise my writing, without a lot of effort. Weebly seems just right for that, and very easy to use. Separating advertising site from blog was not to keep them apart, just a matter of which software seemed to work best for each function.
“I confess that I'm just now thinking about venturing into social media at long last.”
Facebook will get you the most notice, but it doesn’t have (and doesn’t intend to have) a professional look – more blog-like. Google Plus is slicker than Facebook, but not many people are on it yet – it’s easy to be on both.
“How do you draw people if it's [your author’s website] isn’t "active"?”
It’s a place for editors to look me up when I send manuscripts – my blog isn’t as suitable, being full of cross, nutty, and irrelevant / irreverent ideas (my own).
“More and more I only have time to do any serious writing on the weekend.”
I develop a concept (one or two sentences), and then spend spare moments through the day thinking about them – ten minutes here and there, over coffee, in the car, etc. Gradually a rough plot emerges, and an idea about who the central characters are. Then, a few days later, I sit down and write. The act of writing will sharpen the ideas (don’t edit as you type, just let the fingers move.)
“That's so funny that you titled it [website] "Weird Fiction"! I think that's always what comes to mind when describing what I like to write.”
S.T. Joshi makes a good case for using “weird fiction” as the name for what I (and some others) write. It’s not quite fantasy (definitely not ‘high fantasy’), not quite sci-fi; mostly horror, but not traditional horror. You can sample his books on Amazon. He is a quirky critic with strong and unusual likes and dislikes, but quite informative.
“How do you know when you've had a "professional sale" as Jamie [Rubin] has described?”
The usual definition is five cents or more per word, paid on acceptance or at the time of publication. The best rate I ever got was for a piece of flash fiction that worked out to 13 cents/word; but that was based on a flat payment per piece.
“I churned out a tiny little ghost story, but I don't think it's good enough to submit for a contest (a contest was the original inspiration).”
If you’ll send it to me, I’ll take a look. As to contests, I pretty much ignore them, especially if they charge a fee. “Money should flow to the writer, not from the writer.” Original themed anthologies are excellent places to submit stories to, as many of them pay, and having a required theme means they may not attract as many submissions as magazines open to all themes within their genre(s).
WC: “Do you belong to any online writer's groups? A friend gave me a list, but I confess that I'm a bit nervous because what if someone crappy reads your work, steals it, etc.?”
TK: I’m in a handful of online groups devoted to horror and speculative fiction – some interesting conversations, but marginally useful. – It’s not likely that anyone would steal your ideas. In any case, (a) There are no new ideas, and (b) What you do with the idea is what counts.
“What are your thoughts on online writer's groups for critiquing purposes?”
From all accounts, they don’t work very well. Online workshops, however, which have a strong leader and last for a limited period of time, can be quite good.
“...that baby statue...crreeeeeeppy!”
I took that photo in a sculpture garden in Salzburg (across the river from the main part of town). I have several more shots of other strange faces from the same place, but I like the “evil baby” best. I use that as my avatar when anyone asks for one.
“What made you do something separate?” [different websites for blog [terencekuch.com] and writer’s ‘tombstone’ [terencekuch.net]]
Word Press isn’t well suited for the kind of website I wanted to put up to advertise my writing, without a lot of effort. Weebly seems just right for that, and very easy to use. Separating advertising site from blog was not to keep them apart, just a matter of which software seemed to work best for each function.
“I confess that I'm just now thinking about venturing into social media at long last.”
Facebook will get you the most notice, but it doesn’t have (and doesn’t intend to have) a professional look – more blog-like. Google Plus is slicker than Facebook, but not many people are on it yet – it’s easy to be on both.
“How do you draw people if it's [your author’s website] isn’t "active"?”
It’s a place for editors to look me up when I send manuscripts – my blog isn’t as suitable, being full of cross, nutty, and irrelevant / irreverent ideas (my own).
“More and more I only have time to do any serious writing on the weekend.”
I develop a concept (one or two sentences), and then spend spare moments through the day thinking about them – ten minutes here and there, over coffee, in the car, etc. Gradually a rough plot emerges, and an idea about who the central characters are. Then, a few days later, I sit down and write. The act of writing will sharpen the ideas (don’t edit as you type, just let the fingers move.)
“That's so funny that you titled it [website] "Weird Fiction"! I think that's always what comes to mind when describing what I like to write.”
S.T. Joshi makes a good case for using “weird fiction” as the name for what I (and some others) write. It’s not quite fantasy (definitely not ‘high fantasy’), not quite sci-fi; mostly horror, but not traditional horror. You can sample his books on Amazon. He is a quirky critic with strong and unusual likes and dislikes, but quite informative.
“How do you know when you've had a "professional sale" as Jamie [Rubin] has described?”
The usual definition is five cents or more per word, paid on acceptance or at the time of publication. The best rate I ever got was for a piece of flash fiction that worked out to 13 cents/word; but that was based on a flat payment per piece.
“I churned out a tiny little ghost story, but I don't think it's good enough to submit for a contest (a contest was the original inspiration).”
If you’ll send it to me, I’ll take a look. As to contests, I pretty much ignore them, especially if they charge a fee. “Money should flow to the writer, not from the writer.” Original themed anthologies are excellent places to submit stories to, as many of them pay, and having a required theme means they may not attract as many submissions as magazines open to all themes within their genre(s).
