Back of the Envelope

The latest Christian Carnival, number 115, is now up at The Secret Life of Gary.

When I seriously set out to get published this year, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Oh, sure, in my daydreams, this was the year I made it and made it big. Every story I submitted was published on the first try. The more cynical part of me knew I'd be rejected. A lot. Boy, was it right! I have four stories in circulation right now, which I'm actively submitting to print magazines. Three of them have already been rejected, two of them three times. The fourth is a long shot. I don't plan to give up, but I'll admit the rejection gets to me. When I get another rejection, especially one which is a standard form letter without any indication that the story had any redeeming qualities, I wonder whether I'm good enough. I know I'm a decent writer. I don't think I'm a great writer, but I think I might be a good one. That doesn't mean that I'm good enough to get published, though. I'm hoping I am, but every time I get a rejection, I wonder.

Sometimes a rejection is encouraging, with a handwritten note by the editor saying he really liked the story but it wasn't a good fit for his magazine. He could be lying through his teeth just to be nice, but when I receive one of those, I'm encouraged enough to send the story elsewhere, and if I have another story that might work for that magazine, it's the first place I'll send it to.

Sometimes the rejection letter will contain specific criticism which leaves me wondering whether the editor read the story right. Like the one I received Monday, saying that the story feels like part of something much larger, and that the character was an archetype and not a fully-realized character. To the first part, I said, well, yes. When the genre is fantasy, I can't just write a story without creating a whole world, with history and societies and larger conflicts of which I'm only showing a piece. The story itself is just a snapshot of that--there's always more going on, issues that aren't going to be resolved in those six thousand words. I just hoped what I did write was self-contained, stating a conflict and resolving it even if there were some tantalizing bits left open. As for the second, let's just say I didn't see it. True, my character is not morally complex, and I made no attempt to make him sympathetic, but I thought the only reason the editor called him an archetype was because I refused to name him, only giving him a title. Then, once my indignation cools, I remind myself that writing is about communicating. There will always be someone who doesn't get it, but when that someone is the editor of a magazine which publishes hundreds of stories of that genre, I have to wonder if I might have failed to communicate. Maybe I don't need to have those unresolved tantalizing bits in there at all, and maybe I could at least name that unsympathetic character. Then again, maybe not. I'm pretty sure I'll submit that story elsewhere with no changes.

And then there are the most promising and infuriating rejections of all, the ones that invite me to rework and resubmit the piece. I've only ever received one of these, two weeks ago, which said that the story was good but just not ready, and that it needed about 500-800 words cut. Which is frustrating for a story which I consider my most polished work, and which I struggled to find words I could cut just to get it under a wordcount of 6,000. But there was some specific advice included on what to cut, and even if it's stuff I would prefer to keep, I'll do my best to do what the editor wants. Of course, even after I do all that, there's no guarantee the editor will accept the revised piece, but given how rare second chances are, I intend to do my best.

So, after all this, am I discouraged? Sure I am. Maybe I'm not good enough. But, for some reason, I'm still confident. I believe I will get published this year. I don't yet know what story will succeed, or who will accept it, but I think it will happen.

The latest Storyblogging Carnival is online at Zeroth Order Approximation. There are seven stories for your reading pleasure.

Sluggy Freelance — Zoe's not happy at work, nor is Gwynn. Schlock and Riff are getting along pretty well, though, roleplaying selling alien DNA to evil corporate goons, apparently to get it out of Schlock's system. Sunday's is the best, though, when Schlock takes advantage of his blow up decoys.

Day by Day — Damon somehow convinces Jan to join him, Sam, and Zed at the shooting range. She doesn't seem to be getting along well there, what with casings in her shirt and hassling the military guys. But how do the military folks know Zed?

Scary Go Round — The minotaur becomes a local hero, but Tim and company are worried he'll eventually go crazy, so they arrange a meeting with the envoy from Robotania, resulting in a fried minotaur. That's really a pretty evil plot.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — It's back! The Roomies have arrived, and the girls are just now finding out how rich Mike is, leaving Dave feeling inadequate as usual. Marsha's suffering from sea hair, and April intends to outshine her. Well, it's not really that evil.

General Protection Fault — Evil Nick tries to trick good Nick to help in his plans, by telling him that he is leading the world in its fight against the aliens. Nick isn't buying it, but he can't let evil Nick kill Ki, even if it isn't his Ki.

Schlock Mercenary — Schlock helps steal some nanocameras. Meanwhile, Massey is short selling rising stock, and losing a fortune unless their plan works out.

If you've taken a look at some of the latest parts of Fire, you might have seen that the quotes turn up as odd characters. For some reason they looked fine a few weeks ago when I put them up, but they've gone all crazy since then. This comes from font problems, which I've been fixing by replacing the curved quotes with simpler straight ones. It doesn't look as pretty as the curved quotes when they actually work, but it's better than the ugly character combinations you get when they don't. Be sure to point out any other posts with problems in my comments.

I've mentioned before that I'm in a service small group at Park Street Church, where the idea is to spend some time in prayer and Bible study, then to go out on the Boston Common and serve the homeless. Last night was our first night out there, and it went pretty well. I didn't take a headcount, but my impression was that there were about twenty homeless visitors, which is a good number for us, as there are twenty or so in our "small" group. We gave them muffins and coffee, but more importantly, we spent some time talking with them, often one on one, but more often in small groups of three or four. About seven of us went out on the common to look for other people to bring to our service. I spent the first half-hour or so with this group, and the next half-hour with the stationary one. I had anticipated that the roaming group would have the harder job, walking up to strangers, but there really weren't that many homeless on the Common who hadn't found the stationary group already. After the time we spent talking, sometimes just lending an ear, sometimes helping with difficulties, finding shelters and transportation, we had a short worship service, with singing, a homily, and prayer at the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed it.

The latest Christian Carnival is up at All Kinds of Time. Have a look.

A Martyr in Afghanistan?

We realized that when we toppled the Taliban and replaced it with a democratically elected government in Afghanistan that they weren't ready to fully embrace Western values. We might even argue whether or not doing so is a good thing. However, I would have hoped that they would more fully embrace freedom of religion than this:

An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman is charged with rejecting Islam and could face the death sentence under Sharia law unless he recants.

He converted 16 years ago as an aid worker helping refugees in Pakistan. His estranged family denounced him in a custody dispute over his two children.

It is thought to be Afghanistan's first such trial, reflecting tensions between conservative clerics and reformists.

Conservatives still dominate the Afghan judiciary four years after the Taleban were overthrown.

The BBC's Mike Donkin in Kabul says reformists, like the government under President Hamid Karzai, want a more liberal, secular legal system but under the present constitution it is hard for them to intervene.

It's unlikely that we could have convinced the government of Afghanistan to include an establishment clause in their constitution, especially since they can see how thoroughly it's managed to drive religion from the public square in the US. However, the right to convert is central to what it means to allow freedom of religion, and if Afghanistan can't manage that, then they are not a modern civilized country, no matter how democratically their government is selected. Joe Carter and National Review have more on this, but the real question is what can we do about it.

Well, if we allow Afghanistan to have its sovereignty, then obviously we cannot simply say, "No, you're not allowed." However, considering how dependent their country is on us, they may want to think twice about offending the US. We shouldn't leave completely, since we're still hunting terrorists in Afghanistan, but there's something to be said for our support of the country, financial and military, being dependent on the degree to which they embrace fundamental human rights.

The next Storyblogging Carnival will be hosted by Ben over at Zeroth Order Approximation. If you have a story send the following information to Ben at schumacherb-at-kenyon-dot-com:

• Title of story
• URL of story
• Name of author (optional)
• Name of blog
• URL of blog
• Word count
• Rating (like R, PG, etc.)
• short blurb describing the story

Entries are due by Saturday, March 25th, at 11:59 pm.

Sluggy Freelance — Torg and Bun-bun meet, predictably leaving Torg unconscious. The only surprising thing is that he managed to avoid Bun-bun's attack, although he hit his head against the wall doing so. Who's that weird chick in his dream? I say there's a decent chance it's Alt-Zoe's ghost, but it's not certain yet. In other news, Schlock's presence is explained--he's helping Aylee in return for some tech exchange with Riff. And just when Torg wakes up, Bun-bun's stealing his car, but Torg manages to come along for the ride.

Day by Day — A lot of fun interactions between Zed and Sam, followed by some fun interactions between Jan and Damon. Of course, there's still room for some politics, including Kelo, Glenn Reynolds's book, and Lauren Weiner. "Who?" you ask. She's the one who illegally acquired Lt. Governor Steele's credit report.

Scary Go Round — Shelley and her journalist colleague discover the minotaur from the labyrinth hiding in their barn. After a few pictures, they intend to call pest control, hopefully without getting mauled.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Maritza still hasn't restarted. Well, she did have an eye operation, so I can hardly blame her for resting her eyes.

General Protection Fault — Nick sees through the false Ki, and his alternate self tries to convince him to help save the world. Of course, we all know that his counterpart is really evil, but will Nick figure it out. He is more suspicious these days, so I'm guessing he will.

Schlock Mercenary — Kevyn analyzes Massey's plan and declares it good, although he'll need some help from some Ennesby and Thurl, who'll do some hacking, and Schlock will have to help the inside man do some theft.

No blogging. At least this time I have an excuse.

David over at Faith in Fiction has been blogging about what it takes to establish a career as a writer. So far, he's mentioned three steps:

1. Complete a book.
2. Figure out what kind of writer you are.
3. Study the market.

Some people do these things in exact opposite order. Some only reverse one and two. I think David makes a good argument that this is the correct order. You won't really know what type of writer you are until you finish a book, and you can't figure out where your work fits in the market until you've done that.

I'm still not sure where I fit, but then, I'm not sure I've finished a book. I've completed a couple of novellas, and I'm in the process of expanding one of them, Eyes in the Shadow, into a novel, hopefully without filling it with fluff. Fire, meanwhile, is only part one of a book, and while I have part two written, it's still a rough draft. Even when part two is as highly polished as Fire, and Fire gets an additional polish in the process, they'll still only form the first book of a trilogy, not a complete story in themselves. Which is a roundabout way of saying that I've sort of written two books, but I'm still not sure what type of author I am. I don't write Romance, that's for certain. Fire is straightforward epic fantasy, while Eyes is Christian horror. What links the two of them is my faith, which shows through even when it's not central, and a taste for the supernatural. I'm not sure I need the supernatural, though, and I have a couple of ideas for some straightforward historical fiction stories, only one of which involves demons. Okay, so maybe that one isn't straightforward historical fiction.

I haven't been too good at linking to the Christian Carnival recently, but the latest one is up at Light along the Journey. It's number one hundred and thirteen.

Given all the brouhaha over the Danish cartoons, the Palestinian elections, and the sectarian struggles (still well short of a Civil War) in Iraq, many on the Right are starting to question their assumptions. We have argued for a while that there is nothing barbaric about Muslims or Islam, that the vast majority want to live in peace and let us do the same. The main difficulty is not the religion, but the totalitarian regimes under which they live, which squelch their political will and radicalize their religion in service to the despot. We still want to believe this, and indeed, Dean Esmay will argue for it quite emphatically. But quietly, many on the Right, Left, and Middle, including millions of voters who don't identify themselves with any of those groups, are beginning to wonder whether we can really peacefully co-exist with the Muslim Middle East. The cartoon controversy put things in stark relief, forcing us to realize that many Muslims don't accept a live and let live mentality, but they want to force their way of life on us. It's that realization, along with the spectacle of watching Western politicians and media elites tripping over each other in their rush to knuckle under, which set off a backlash that sank the Dubai port deal. Are these Muslims who threatened violence in order to silence us representative? I pray that they aren't. So where are the moderate Muslims who are supposed to be the majority. Mark Steyn offers a theory (reg required):

Meanwhile, we prattle on about "moderate Muslims," telling ourselves that the "vast majority" of Muslims aren't terrorists, don't support terrorists, etc. Okay, why don't we hear from them then?

Because they live in communities where the ideological bullies set the pace, where the price of speaking out is too high, and so they find it easier to say nothing, keep their heads down. And why would we expect them to do any differently when the mighty BBC and CNN do the same? If there is such a thing as a "moderate Muslim," he's surely thinking, "Well, if the CBC and the Toronto Star have to knuckle under to the imams, there's no point me tossing in my two bits."

That is my second most preferred theory--that they're out there but afraid to speak up given their oppressive communities, especially when no one in the West has the courage to back them. My first most preferred theory is that they did speak up, but the BBC and CNN were so busy not offending the radical Muslims that they didn't have time for those who were offended by the violence. The third theory, the one I hope and pray is wrong, is that there really aren't that many "moderate Muslims" after all.

The latest Storyblogging Carnival is online at DesertLight Journal. It's pretty small, with five entries, and it's the first one I didn't have an entry for, but there's still some good stuff there. Check it out.

Sluggy Freelance — Bun-bun's home, and he's causing his usual trouble. Zoe rushes home from her hateful job to confront him, and he has fun with the opportunity to beat up their new roommate: Dr. Schlock. Schlock moved in since Torg moved out. Which leaves the real question: where is Torg? What's he doing? This'll be good once we find out.

Day by Day — Murtha, the media attitude towards classified documents, and Cindy Sheehan get some love this week. Well, for decidedly masochistic definitions of the word, anyway. Maybe I should just call it skewered by Muir. Of course, there's plenty left over for the Dubai ports deal and, of all things, candlelit dinners.

Scary Go Round — Esther and Erin use Sattelite images to find the center of a labyrinth, where they meet a minotaur. Since there are always minotaurs at the center of labyrinths, I guess. I'm wondering why images good enough to lead them to the center of the labyrinth didn't show the minotaur. Or did he show up as a fuzzy dot? Anyway, the minotaur doesn't seem too violent, but I wonder what they plan to do with him.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Maritza takes a week off, so no updates this week.

General Protection Fault — Ooh, there are Greys in this comic too. They're spies on Emperor Nick, but they have a really bad reaction to Persephone. I wonder why. Meanwhile, Nick's being interrogated by the false Ki. I wonder what she's after.

Schlock Mercenary — The plan to take down a television network is coming together, with a dead drop arranged for the inside man, and a completely incomprehensible plan on Massey's part taking care of the network's insurance. Meanwhile, Kevyn's pretty sure he can bring down the building with some anti-matter cutting charges.

Warren at View from the Pew has started a Weekly Webcomic Wrapup. Aside from better alliteration than my own Weekly Webcomic Update, Warren will be covering different comics. Curiously enough, there are all comics I don't read myself, which will make it interesting for me as well. Go check it out.

I've been way behind this week, partly due to my trip west, and partly due to sheer laziness. In any case, the next Storyblogging Carnival will be hosted at DesertLight Journal, on Monday, March 13th. To enter, send the following information about your story to twschuett-at-peoplepc-dot-com:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• A word count
• A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A short blurb describing the story

Entries are due on Friday, March 10th (Today!), by 11:59 pm.

I'm out-of-town for a few days, so you can expect even less blogging than usual until the end of the week. Meanwhile, Trudy Schuett will be hosting the next Storyblogging Carnival. I'll post you more information once I get it from her.

Sluggy Freelance — And Oceans Unmoving finally comes to the end. I didn't care for Oceans Unmoving overall, but it got much better once Bun-bun left. Bun-bun is more destructive than constructive, and without him, Calix became the Pirate King and Kada his queen and captain of his flag ship, the Greys his lieutenants, and we leave them on the verge of war as he leads his armada against the forces of John Jacobs. It turns out that Calix, Kada, and BA did rescue Face and Murdock, and they're telling their tale just as a matter of historical record. It's a cool ending, even if it took much too long to get there.

Day by Day — Muir sends some love to Mad Mikey, a blogger who's recovering from a stroke, proposes a counter to the "Why Mommy is a Democrat" children's book (which I discussed myself earlier), and takes on the Zogby poll and ranting high school teachers.

Scary Go Round — We leave Shelley under the mind control of an earwig and we visit Mayor Tim, who is receiving an ambassador from Robotania, which might work out better if Amy had not finagled her way into being Tim's assistant and then taken charge of the reception for the ambassador.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Dave is finally reunited with Chester, and while the girls deal with their own clothing problems he tries to convince them to hide Chester under their shirts so they can sneak out the suspected terrorist cat.

General Protection Fault — On the flip side, Ki and the gang meet the "good" counterparts of their enemies, including the CRUDE gang, a brain-damaged Yoshi, and some aliens.

Schlock Mercenary — Determined to take down a whole television (it's not called television anymore, though, is it?) network, the mercenary company decides to explore some alternative methods, assigning their lawyer to figure out how to uninsure the network, and one of their soldiers to infiltrate the company.

Eric Gustafson, who does the conservative comic Winger, is facing eviction unless he can raise some cash quickly. Go visit and donate to his fund.

Mark Steyn's been talking about demography for a while now, and he's been one to point out the inherent inconsistencies between multicultural pieties and the real world, which he does in this column (registration required):

"Stressing 'the multicultural nature of Canadian society,' Bailey claims that Canada has an urgent practical need for more Muslim immigrants. If Canada can just 'expand the pool of applicants,' says Bailey, it just may win 'the global competition for highly skilled immigrants.'"

What a hop and a skip from one flimsy lily pad to another: does Canada really have an "urgent" need for more Muslim immigrants? And, if it does, do polygamy and "high skills" correlate in any way?

But let's say Ms. Bailey gets her way and legal polygamy succeeds in attracting more skilled Muslim men and their legions of wives to Canada. What proportion of the population has to be Muslim before Nicole Langlois notices that "the rising tide of cultural acceptance for gays" is beginning to recede?
...
[A description of some events in Briatin.]
...
Got that? If a Muslim says that Islam is opposed to homosexuality, he can be investigated for homophobia; but if a gay says that Islam is opposed to homosexuality, he can be investigated for Islamophobia. As someone who's routinely called Islamophobic and homophobic every day of the week, I feel a bit like the former U.S. secretary of state James Baker did about the Balkan civil war: I don't have a dog in this fight. Actually, it would be truer to say I have both dogs in this fight. "Hate crimes" are thought crimes, a concept more pernicious and harmful than whatever offence is caused by any particular statement. So I'm in favour of everybody suing everybody else over every imaginable phobia until the whole system collapses.

I've been hoping for a long time that Mark Steyn is wrong about the demography thing, but I'm afraid that he's not.

I had a post that was supposed to go up today, but I messed up the scheduling, so it'll go up tomorrow. I've been very busy at work recently, and I'm not finding a lot of time for things like blogging, writing, eating, or sleeping. Hopefully things will slow down in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I'll try to manage something each day, although in cases like today, just barely.

I grew up on Petra, a Christian rock band that's been around a few years longer than I have. Ironically, they were not my introduction to Christian music, but they were my introduction to modern rock. I had previously listened to Christian pop artists such as Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, but I initially found Petra too hard edged, although I liked some of their soft songs. It wasn't until I used one of their tapes in my alarm clock and woke up to "You Are My Rock" from the album This Means War!, a song I had heard before but which struck me as particularly beautiful as it woke me up that morning, that I really decided that I loved their music. I was a teenager living in Virginia at the time, and by the time I went to one of their concerts, the album was Beyond Belief. To this day, I consider it their best album, although Beat the System and This Means War! came close. I eagerly bought their next album, Unseen Power, but I was disappointed. There were some songs that I liked, but none that I really loved and several that I strongly disliked. Their next album, Wake Up Call, was no better, and thereafter I no longer bought their new albums, although I did start collecting some earlier stuff, such as Back to the Street and Not of this World, which were both great. I had decided that Petra's music had drifted away from the stuff I liked, which was fine, but I had lost interest.

However, if I had known they were doing their farewell tour over a year ago, I would have made every effort to attend. Unfortunately, I don't follow the music news that closely, and I missed it. Still, I bought the album, and I'm glad I did. Farewell is a concert album, recording a live performance--their final one, I think. It contains a lot of the old stuff I really loved, and a lot of new stuff as well. To my surprise and pleasure, I found that I really liked some of the new songs, especially "Test of Time," but also "Jekyll and Hyde" and their rendition of "Amazing Grace." I don't know whether my taste has changed, or their music just swung back around to the style I loved. There are also some great old songs on it, including performances of "Creed" and "Beyond Belief," "Graverobber," and two medleys, one of older songs such as "It is Finished" (one of my favorites), "This Means War!", and "I Am On the Rock," and an acoustic guitar set with guest singer Greg Volz (the former lead singer), which includes "Love", "Road to Zion", "No Doubt", and "More Power to Ya".

Overall, I'm really enjoying the CD, and it's encouraged me to check out some of the albums I skipped.