Well, my short story submissions are back up to six. I’ve sent a YA piece I’ve had kicking round for ages to Cast of Wonders, the new YA podcast from Escape Artists; “Castle” to Fantastic Stories of the Imagination; and Brother Blue to Asimov’s.
Yes, I’ve submitted a novella (albeit a short one – 18,700 words) to Asimov’s, knowing that they only take one per issue, at most, and that I’m competing with the best SF writers in the world.
It’s an act of chutzpah, but I don’t want to pre-reject my story on their behalf. I think it’s some of my best work so far.
An excessively pessimistic view of marriage here, but great story fodder in this list of 100 marriages of different social classes (followed by 12 more in depth). Via The Public Domain Review.
When I review books, the ones that earn five stars have both fresh, interesting ideas and excellent execution. One or the other gets four stars, unless the weaker one is especially weak.
This is basically what Rachel Aaron is talking about, from a writer’s perspective, in this post, using the metaphor of the Great British Bakeoff.
Originally shared by Rachel Aaron
Writing Wednesday: Flavor vs. Bake
First up, if you’re at all interested in the self publishing business, go and check out the latest Author Earnings Report . It’s one of their better ones and paints an amazing picture of the current Amazon book market (which is pretty much the #1 most impor…
From standoutbooks, a simple formula for effective blurb writing:
1. Hook (context; why this story is interesting, usually because of a setting or character).
2. Conflict (what goes wrong).
3. Teaser of how the story might develop, the possibilities for triumph and disaster.
4. An indication of how the story might make the reader feel.
5. Involve the reader with the word “you”.
The post makes the point that structuring a blurb this way gives the potential buyer the experience of already reading the book and wanting to read more.
I would warn, though, especially for indie books, if you praise your own book too much in step 4 (“a stunning triumph of literature such as you’ve never read before”), it’s more likely to repel readers than attract them. Use that step like a restaurant sign: this is the kind of experience the book offers. In other words, give genre clues, so the potential purchaser can decide whether that’s the experience they want today.
In connection with my day job, I just listened to this online interview series about the Internet of Things.
There were a few points that interested me as someone who likes to think about, and write fiction set in, the future:
– Industry will need different kinds of workers (more flexible, participating in lifetime learning, good at working in teams, doing more decisionmaking).
– Therefore, a different approach to education and a different education system will be needed.
– Who owns the data produced by the things you own? The manufacturer? You? The government?
– Resilience of the system is important as complexity increases – ability to “reboot” in an acceptable timeframe, or otherwise deal with failure in a way that doesn’t cascade into other, linked systems.
I also came up with a story idea: in a world of automated machines which cooperate according to their digital model of the world, a person is voluntarily or involuntarily excluded from that world, and therefore at risk as well as free – the machines can’t “see” the person.
Here’s how things are looking for the Makers of Magic themed single-author collection that I talked about the other day.
Of course, my editor may come back to me and say that the three stories I have with her are no good, or the market may not want them. But all going well, you should see this collection around the middle of next year.
1. Delivering Genes Across the Blood Brain Barrier
Using high-throughput screening techniques combined with methods of directed evolution, researchers screened millions of viral variants to create a novel, modified adeno-associated virus that is able to efficiently get past the blood-brain-barrier and deliver genes and genetic engineering tools to neurons and other cells of the brain http://www.caltech.edu/news/delivering-genes-across-blood-brain-barrier-49679. This obviates the need to drill a hole through the skull to inject these vectors and provides a far more elegant tool that can be used for CRISPR-powered modifications. In related news rats have been cured of a genetic liver disorder with a more effective CRISPR-delivery system involving a different adeno-associated virus carrying guide RNA and repaired-gene-insert and lipid nanoparticles carrying Cas9 mRNA instructions http://news.mit.edu/2016/crispr-curing-disease-repairing-faulty-genes-0201; 6% of liver cell transformations are sufficient for disease curing, which is 15 times more effective than other methods, but the group hope to boost this % in future.
2. Better DNA Aptamer Technology
DNA aptamers can be artificially engineered to target and bind any molecular target in the body – proteins, viruses, bacteria, cells, tumours – but are limited by poorer binding-efficiency and instability due to enzymatic digestion. These two limiting factors have now been addressed http://www.a-star.edu.sg/Media/News/Press-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4496.aspx with (i) the inclusion of an artificial base into the DNA that boosted binding ability by 100 times compared to existing aptamers, and (ii) the inclusion of a DNA-mini-hairpin structure that serves to restrict enzymatic digestion and boost lifetime in the body from hours to days. DNA aptamers like these could in theory be used instead of antibodies for therapeutic and diagnostic applications but are cheaper, quicker, and simpler to produce and obviate potential inflammatory side effects.
3. Developing a Light-Effect-Transistor
Prototype light effect transistors have been developed with the aim of replacing standard field effect transistors in future chip designs https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600702/the-nanodevice-aiming-to-replace-the-field-effect-transistor/. A light effect transistor comprises a wire that conducts electricity when exposed to light and insulates when it is dark; a light-controlled switch in which light functions like a gate and with benefits including no reliance on dopant atoms and the ability to achieve smaller size dimensions to continue Moore’s Law. The demonstrations include semiconducting nanowires whose conduction changes by six orders of magnitude when switched, and can also function as an optical amplifier that performs logic operations when two or more laser beams are used. But the biggest unsolved question is how a chip would accurately address more than a billion nanowires with light?
4. Rejuvenation via Senescent Cell & Amyloid Clearance
Structural DNA technology can self-assemble nanoparticles into diamond-shaped crystal lattices https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11810. The DNA forms the rigid frame of the material, while complementary DNA binding ensures the nanoparticles bind in specific locations, leading to a diamond lattice about 100 times larger than conventional diamond; interesting platform for novel materials development. Bacteria produce self-assembled microcompartments to concentrate enzymatic production of certain molecules, and these compartments are being used as templates to engineer variants with novel functions and molecular production capabilities https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2016/02/04/toward-nanoscale-chemical-factories/, slowly building a platform of contained molecular production machinery that might one day be introduced inside human cells for exmample.
6. NASAs Integrated Photonics Modem
NASA is building the first fully integrated photonics modem, simplifying optical on-chip systems design, and reducing the size of the large prototype down to conventional system-on-chip scales http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-engineers-tapped-to-build-first-integrated-photonics-modem. The chip uses lasers to encode and transmit data at 10 – 100 times faster than equipment available today. While testing of the device in space won’t begin until 2020 we might see commercial applications of this earlier, particularly in data centers and Internet backbone lines.
7. Electronic Nematicity Key in Superconductivity
New studies indicate that the phenomenon of electronic nematicity, in which electron clouds in a material snap into an aligned and directional order, is a generic property common to high-temperature superconductors https://uwaterloo.ca/stories/waterloo-physicists-discover-new-properties. The electrons involved in superconductivity form patterns that exhibit different symmetries that preferentially align in one direction and which can compete with, co-exist, or enhance superconductivity. Hopefully this understanding allows for the future design of higher-temperature superconductors.
8. Dedicated Deep Learning Chips on Smartphones
Eyeriss is a newly designed and developed dedicated deep learning chip for use in smartphones and other low-power applications http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/processors/a-deep-learning-ai-chip-for-your-phone. The chip is designed to allow these devices to run computationally demanding neural network algorithms quickly and efficiently on the device without offloading to the cloud, and using only one tenth of the energy of a typical mobile GPU. Agnostic to the type of neural network being run the chip can process image, sound, and other types of data as needed and might also find deployment in autonomous platforms such as cars and drones. In related news Google’s DeepMind game-playing AI can now also navigate environments in first-person-shooters https://www.newscientist.com/article/2076552-google-deepmind-ai-navigates-a-doom-like-3d-maze-just-by-looking/ and I wonder if this can be transferred to robots to help in realworld environments, perhaps by using these dedicated chips.
A new material dubbed flexiramics is being developed and commercialised by a company called Eurekite http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/dutch-researchers-have-created-flexiramics-flexible-ceramics-for-circuit-boards/. Flexiramics appear to be a new class of materials that possess the mechanical properties of paper or thin textiles in being thin, foldable, and flexible while also exhibiting the properties of ceramics in being fireproof and nonconducting. The fabrics withstand 1,200 degrees Celsius for 24 hours without burning or melting. Printed PCBs will be the first application apparently but the possibilities are endless.
I’ve just recorded my hundredth submission in The Submission Grinder (thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com). There were a few submissions I made prior to using it that I didn’t transfer across, so the real total is a little higher.
Out of those, I’ve so far made 12 sales. My sense is that I’m beating the industry average there.
If you’ve made two or three short story submissions and got form rejections, and are wondering if you should stop, think about these figures for a bit.
I have a long-term project, a single-author themed collection of magic-user stories. I call it Makers of Magic. The plan is to include 13 stories, each about a different kind of magic user.
I just checked and updated the spreadsheet that I use to track progress on this project. I’ve sold six out of the thirteen stories, and the latest that the rights revert is at the end of April next year (which means that the collection won’t come out before May 2017 at the earliest).
Two more are on submission currently, three are waiting for rewrites, one is in progress, and the final one is incomplete (meaning I’ve written up to the middle and haven’t thought of an ending yet).
I’m finding it motivational to work towards this collection. And since two of the stories have turned out a lot longer than I expected, it’ll be a decent length (in excess of 60,000 words). I’ll keep you posted.
