This piece was accepted back in December 2011, and A&A wasn't kidding when they said they were backlogged. Then I naively waited a year for a contract, as that was before I realized you need to get after editors, because they will let things slide. I can't emphasize that last part enough.
As for the story itself, it was inspired by a shirt--no joke. Threadless has lots of neat, artsy shirts; and when looking at this shirt, because I was looking for an idea for a flash story for the Earthbound flash contest, and thought a Japanese Medusa-esque woman would be pretty cool.
A big thanks to Rez for smoothing out the tense in this story. Present-tense is inherently choppy--and you can disagree, but that might speak of your tin-ears--so I don't recommend it, especially with 3rd-person narrative. With 1st-person, it can sound pretty natural, so that works; but I have rarely encountered present-tense sounding natural in 3rd-person. That's not saying you can't do it, it's just a lot more work if you do.
And why yes, I did draw that picture (click on it for full size), with some crappy Crayola colored-pencils. Did you know that they got rid of red-violet? Haven't drawn in ages, but feels nice, if not obsessive (I was up till 3am erasing smudges in mspaint).
I'm liking the Crayola art -- and WOW, what a story. Seriously, it might be my favorite of yours so far. Anything with a katana, and I'm a fan. You're right about editors; what, do they all have day jobs or something? =]
ReplyDeleteHeh, then you might like my rogue samurai stories...if I can ever get them published.
DeleteI understand editors have lives outside of editing, but at the same time, it is their responsibility to care for the magazine, which entails being timely with responses. I now know that if I don't receive a contract within 3 months of acceptance, then I have every right pester the editor. Waiting too long may actually risk getting your story dropped, as was the case for one unfortunate writer.