Writing Wednesday – Ideas!

For those playing the home game, I didn’t make it through to the last round of the NYCMidnight Flash Fiction contest, but it ended up feeling as much as a relief as it did a disappointment. I did make an honorable mention for my queer Ganymede re-telling of a Greek myth as a mystery, but it went a bit too far off the mark for some of the judges, who felt it wasn’t traditional a mystery enough. That also didn’t feel like a loss, really: I knew I was taking a risk, and I wanted to still write something the way I like to write, which is to say to add some magic, psychic, or other.

Also? I don’t have to madly scramble to write a flash fiction piece over the weekend, and that’s kind of awesome.

But it did put me in mind for ideas. And wow, do I have about a million ideas. In my notebook of potential “next things,” I ended up scribbling the following:

• Faux-Ho-Ho (Fake relationship holiday romance).
• Triad Magic (Third paranormal novel in the series). This is absolutely the next thing I’ll be pitching as a novel to my publisher.
• Triad Tales (Triad short fiction anthology—and yes, anthology not collection—because I know a few people who I’d love to ask to contribute). This is basically a pipe-dream, but.
• The Village Series (Novella series, starting with A Little Village Magic, five of them, a wee bit of magic in a contemporary romance, all set in a fictionalized version of the gay village here). I’ve finished two of five thus far, and I want all five to be done before I release.
• Ringmaker (SF Novella, Earth’s first colony on another world, wormhole gates, a bit of politics, also kissy stuff). This would let me write something closer to hard SF, which I’ve never really done.
• Plus One (Vague idea for a 1NS novella centred around needing someone for a wedding date). I’m starting to think it could be Kevin needing a date for Ru and Nick’s wedding, actually.
• That tooth/mafia caper romance story (I tried to write a short story for Anthony that got way too long and needed to be a novella where the guy gets an envelope of teeth in lieu of roses and it goes off the rails from there).
• Silver & Blue (Ian simon novella, a psychic mystery set on the train from BC to Ontario). With Ian about to appear in three novellas in Of Echoes Born, I keep thinking about him.
• Flame (sequel to Light; a pyrokinetic starts torching bigots). Also? Pregnant Karen.
• Key (YA, a boy finds a key that lets him use any door to enter a strange home that seems to have rooms in all sorts of different time periods). This is a re-write of a three day novel writing contest I did.
• Love by the Book (Paranormal rom-com, a guy ends up with one of the books from the library of Alexandria and it turns out reading it can change reality. So far he’s figured out how to make things cerulean blue).
• Demon Interruptus (The first in a demon-hunter paranormal series, Arcana Major, with tarot-card based witches fighting demons; think Charmed only really gay). The first one of this series is all but written. I should get on that.
• Third’s a Charm (Erotica collection of paranormal/magical/psychic threesomes, because apparently I write/wrote a bunch of those).
• A reunion themed romance (where a guy goes to his high school reunion a great success, a date on his arm, and though money has changed hands, it’s not what you think).
• Served Cold (a proximity romance between a guy dodging some legal trouble for all the right reasons and the man who is hired to serve him with papers).
• LeFou (A queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast).
• Oh! A recent online chat had a bunch of us discussing some sort of geek gamer nerd novella romance series that begins with the setting up of a tabletop board game shop/cafe, and then moves through all sorts of geeky games.

Also, more Fuca stories, a novella with Jace and Matt from the Triad series (and maybe another with Mackenzie), and and and and and…

Yeah. Ideas. You gotta love ’em.

---

Open Calls for Submission

Writing Wednesdays are supposed to be the days I track open calls for submission I’m keeping an eye on, as well as keeping honest with how the year in submitting things for publication myself has gone.

Previously this year: January was: 6 submissions (4 reprints, 2 new), with 1 acceptance (new) and three acceptances (three reprints); in February was bare minimum: 1 submission (1 new); March brought 1 rejection, and 1 submission (new); April saw 1 submission (new) and 1 acceptance; May: 1 submission (new), 1 acceptance. June: BUZZ! (Let’s not talk about that). July: 1 submission (1 new). August: 1 submission (1 new). September and October: 2 submissions (2 new), and 1 acceptance. November: 1 submission (1 new). December has been 2 submissions (1 new, 1 reprint) and 1 acceptance. So, I officially managed to submit something at least twelve times this year, but not quite at once-a-month pace near the end there.

And now, the open calls:

• Chicken Soup for the Soul—Various titles, various themes, various deadlines, 1,200 word count limit.
• Mischief Corner Books—Open to submissions for various themes, including Legendary Love, Everyday Heroes, Cowboys and Space; these are open rolling calls, so no deadline.
• NineStar Press—Open to submissions for various length prose, paranormal, science fiction, fantasy and horror; Click “Currently Seeking” header for details; word count limit variable.
• Spectrum Lit—This is an ongoing patreon flash fic provider, 1,500 hard word count limit; LGBTQ+ #ownvoice only; ongoing call.
• Best Gay Erotica for the Year, Volume 4—Cleis Press; 2,500-5,000 word count limit. Original stories strongly preferred; deadline January 5th, 2018 (but the earlier the better).
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to F*** Them—Circlet Press; Erotic short stories with magical beasts and shapeshifter tropes; 3,000 to 7,000 word count limit; deadline February 1st, 2018.
• Lost—NineStar Press. LGBTQIA+ romantic pairing. Both HEA and HFN are acceptable, Click “Lost” header for the theme. 30k-120k word count limit; deadline April 30th, 2018.
• Happiness in Numbers—Less than Three Press; Polyamorous LGBTQIA+ anthology, non-erotic polyamorous stories that explore the idea of “Family”; 10k to 20k word count limit; deadline April 30th, 2018.
• MLR Press—Quite a few different themes are open; 10k to 40k word count limit; deadlines vary, but the earliest right now is April 30th, 2018.