Screenshot from the Superversive Scribe blog
Every Sunday, author and editor Richard Paolinelli spotlights a different writer in a one-on-one interview. Last week he even turned the focus on himself.
This coming Sunday, November 22nd, the interview will be with me.
Promotional announcement for the Zombie Pirate Publishing anthology, “Raygun Retro”
As my regular readers know, my short story “Buried in the Sands of Time” is being featured in the Zombie Pirate Publishing SciFi anthology RAYGUN RETRO: A Science Fiction Anthology.
I was recently interviewed as one of the contributors to “Raygun,” and that interview has since been published on ZPP’s Facebook page. Here’s an excerpt:
– Hi, what is your name and where are you from?
James Pyles. If you mean where was I born, that would be Omaha, Nebraska, USA. If you mean, where do I live, after quite a bit of wandering, my family and I settled near Boise, Idaho.
– Tell us about your story. What inspired the idea?
Guy Fawkes Mask
It’s too late for me to use this option (probably), but an incident (two, actually) occurred last week that got me to thinking.
I’ve already considered the idea that breaking into science fiction and fantasy as a conservative, religious, white, married, cisgender old man (and if you exist at a particular social and political extreme, all of that means I’m “evil”) might be a waste of time considering how the publishing industry in particular, and entertainment in general seems fairly prejudiced against creators who aren’t leftists and atheists (although I know some leftists who are religious). In science fiction in particular, this was played out in previous years by the Sad Puppies phenomenon, and not too long ago by the Comicsgate movement, which also seems to have gone by the wayside.
But as I mentioned, last week, a person responded to two of my missives on Facebook rather negatively. Normally, I take these things in stride, since “outrage” is something you get used to if you’re not following a popular social media narrative, but this time the person in question was in a position to significantly inhibit my future as an author, at least within a certain realm.
I won’t provide the specifics of this, but I will confess to having my anxiety level rise quite a bit and losing some sleep over it.
Found at “The Zweig Letter” – no image credit listed
Hi, James,
[Story Title] was well received here, but we have decided it’s not quite what we’re looking for in the [name of publication/anthology]. Thanks for submitting it to us, and best of luck with finding a good market for it.
[Name of Editor]
Dear James,
Thank you for sending us [Story Title]. We appreciate the chance to review it. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us. Best of luck finding it a home elsewhere.
Things you might consider: The character is nice. The concept is familiar, but here there’s no real explanation of what happens. The backstory comes as something of an infodump.
Sincerely
[Name of Editor]
I’ve submitted eight short stories to various anthologies and periodicals during the month of April. The two quotes from above were emails I received from two separate sources rejecting…the same story.
That’s right. The same exact story was rejected twice within 24 hours.
To be fair, after I submitted it the first time, I waited weeks, and the response was actually very timely. I was waiting for a rejection of something. If you’re an author and you are sending in stories in response to an open submission, either it will be accepted or rejected. Rejection is inevitable.
poweredbyrobots.com 