I saw this comment from an anonymous poster earlier today:
What is your reaction to
Trent Zelazny and Warren Lapine's Indiegogo Anthology project? Feel like
taking a swing at a less than perfectly executed story's milieu? Or
prefer to look at the popular ones for new angles?
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/282106
And I clicked over, hoping it was real, but thinking it was some kind of bizarrely specific spam. But, it does appear to be exactly what it says it is, a kickstarter-esque project for a Roger Zelazny tribute, featuring stories set in any of his worlds (save Amber, which he very explicitly said he did not other people writing). It looks incredible. There's a short video from Trent Zelazny explaining his purpose for the project and a longer summary than I've provided here.
So, please, check it out, and throw a little money their way if you can.
The link: Shadows and Reflections
I'd feel more comfortable contributing to this if I knew which friends were being invited to write stories and how this would be different and/or superior to Lord of the Fantastic, which did a fine job, I thought.
ReplyDeleteYour own review of LotF was less than completely effusive. Surely you'd want to know who's doing the writing this time? Or do you think that since this is less a memorial and more distant from that sadness, this might be differently flavored even with the same authors?
My interpretation was that Lord of the Fantastic, published three years after his death, was primarily a tribute to Roger Zelazny as a person. (He appears or is alluded to in several of the stories.) True, I didn't enjoy all of the writing in that collection as much as I did his, but I liked the sentiments behind them and the afterwords that shared memories of a man they had loved and admired.
DeleteBecause of the focus in the Shadows and Reflections collection seems to be more about the worlds he created, I'm okay with not knowing who the contributors are at this point in the process. Also, in the video, Trent Zelazny talks about keeping Roger's memory alive through the project, and I think that's a worthwhile goal in itself.
This sounds like great fun. I loved Roger Zelazny's forays into other authors' worlds at their invitation (Itself Surprised, Mana from Heaven) and I'd love to see what others can do in his. I'd even like to give it a try myself.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your site, and am anxious to read more of your commentary on my favorite author.
I've got something that I'd like to contribute too, but the fundraising unfortunately seems stalled and I don't think they'll reach the goal they set in order to open it to unsolicited stories.
DeleteStill, I'd love to read some, even I can't be a part of it.
When I read about the anthology and saw its submission guidelines, I went right to work on a story and threw something together in a day. Then I re-read the submission guidelines and realized that Trent wasn't taking unsolicited submissions (yet).
DeleteD'oh.
Man, you write so much faster than I do. I wound up cannibalizing about 4000 words I had already written and I'm *still* not not finished.
DeleteYes, but remember: with great speed comes not-so-great writing!
DeleteAlso, my story only came out to about 2,000 words. So, there's that.
By the way, Josh--can I ask which Zelazny universe/character(s) your story uses? Or is that top-secret info?
DeleteRoadmarks. Gotta go with that. It was my first exposure to Zelazny and remains one of my favorites. It seems unlikely now that they'll meet the threshold where they'll open it to unsolicited submissions, but if they do, I'll go for it. If not, then I'll probably post it here at some point, as I'm pretty happy with it.
DeleteThat's a solid choice. Honestly, I was too intimidated to go with any characters or settings from his novels (or even novellas), because I don't think I could do them justice. So instead I wrote a story that bridges two of his lesser-known short stories together. (Stories which weren't, of course, originally intended to take place in the same setting.)
DeleteI'm not sure I'll ever do anything with the story, if submissions don't open up for this anthology; I doubt it could really sell anywhere else. =P
Oh well, I had fun writing it!
I do look forward to reading your Roadmarks story though, should it see print here or anywhere else.
Yeah, that's the thing. I'm happy with it, but it has a number of references to his other stuff, to the extent that, I hope that readers realize that it only can work as a paean to my love for Roger Zelazny's stories.
DeleteWhich setting did you go with?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like they really got some traction going in the final days, AND I see that they opened it to submissions to people who contributed, so yay!
ReplyDeleteI saw that! I nearly submitted my story today, but I made some minor modifications and decided I should sleep on it for a night before sending it in. (I made the mistake of doing the opposite recently, when I found an anthology looking for one-sentence stories; I wrote about 5 versions of the same story and sent the one I thought was best. Several hours later I realized that it was not, in fact, the best. D'oh.)
DeleteHow's your story comin' along?
Just finished it tonight. Going to sleep on it too, give it a final read through in the morning and then send it off. Woot!
DeleteMaybe I can finally start updating the blog again now that it's done!
Best of luck! If this new story is even half as good as "The Great and Groovy Game," I think I see a table of contents listing in your future.
DeleteThanks. I wish I had your confidence. I just sent it out. It took me while to get rolling, but I actually wound up having to cut stuff when I was done in order to bring the word count within the limits.
DeleteI'd like to see it in print. I am pretty happy with it, but I know there must be a lot of talented writers contributing to the collection. Still, fingers crossed!
Josh, have you heard back from the Shadows & Reflections guys yet? I sent my story almost a month ago and never even got a confirmation email, so I'm starting to wonder if maybe it got lost somewhere along the way . . .
DeleteNo. I didn`t get anything either. Last thing I saw was their Facebook page saying they were going to start reading submissions.
DeleteI didn't realize they had a Facebook page--thanks for the heads up. I'm following it now!
DeleteHere's the link, for anyone else who didn't know about it:
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/shadowsandreflectionsanthology
Possibly because I remembered your comment that you were writing a story to bridge two previously unrelated stories and possibly because I had been flipping through the Ides of Octember right before I went to sleep last night, I had a dream where I found a previously undiscovered bit of trivia in several stories that proved that the Furies, Angel, Dark Angel, Nine Statships waiting and the Keys to December all take place in the same continuity.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of thing I dream about.
That sounds like an EXCELLENT thing to dream about. I am envious of the wanderings of your unconscious mind!
DeleteLooks like Brust is on board, according to the Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteI saw that! I'm tempted to post on their Facebook page and ask if they've been sending out confirmation emails to people who have submitted. But at the same time, I don't want to be that guy who bugs the editors.
DeleteCan you do me a favor and post here when/if you hear from them? I can do the same, if you like.
Absolutely.
DeleteI read my story again for the first time since I submitted it, and, while I'm still mostly happy with it, I saw that some typos had still slipped past, despite the fact that I had several different proofreaders look at it.
I think I'd welcome the news that my original submission had been caught by a spam filter, because it would mean that I could submit a version that would hopefully be free of typos. :)
And, according to the Facebook page, they're reading submissions tonight!
DeleteI saw that! Hopefully we'll get some good news soon, eh?
DeleteUh oh. They posted something chiding a contributor for including a dead character in their story and I'm freaking out that they're talking about me!
DeleteArchie didn't *die* in Roadmarks, did he?
He was thrown off the building, but I figure that he survived and limped away, knowing that he couldn't beat Timyin Tin at his best, and certainly not after he was just tossed off a roof. It could go either way, but the the next chapter says there were no remains and no disturbances, and I figure that the recovery of a 200 pound cyborg is not something that would go unnoticed.
I didn't completely misread this, did I?!
You know, I've only read Roadmarks once (I'm a terrible excuse for a Zelazny fan, I know), so I don't actually remember if Archie died. Or even who he is.
DeleteThat being said, I imagine that if they didn't want your story (for example, because your story used a character that's no longer alive), they'd tell you. If an editor *knows* they're going to reject something, they don't sit around and wait to do it. They just send the rejection.
So if you haven't heard from them yet, I'd guess that either A) they weren't talking about your story in that Facebook post, or B) they WERE talking about your story but still think it's so good that they're considering overlooking the "previously deceased character" problem.
In short: don't freak out! At least, not until you've heard something negative back from them. As the hangman from Robin Hood: Men in Tights said, "No noose is good noose!"
Oh, for shame! Roadmarks is one of those books you should read every year!
DeleteYou know, I'm REALLY looking forward to doing a lot of Zelazny re-reads some day, but I can't justify it until I've finished reading all of his books at least once. (This is a project that's taken me a very long time, because I've always wanted to space the process out so that I could cherish his treasures, reading a new Zelazny work only every month or two.)
DeleteNever fear, though. I'm hoping to increase my Zelazny reading-rate this year so I can get through the rest of his books. 2014 will be the year of the re-reads!
(Actually, I just looked at a list to figure out which Zelazny books I have left, and it turns out that 2013 may be the year of the re-reads--because I've only got about 6 books to go. I'm really not sure how I feel about this.)
Steven Brust just announced on his Twitter that he sold his story to Shadows & Reflections. I still don't even know if mine has been received!
DeleteAnyway, his story is called "Playing God," meaning we can narrow the setting down to about 90% of Zelazny's works.
https://twitter.com/StevenBrust/status/312729860030230529
On the other hand, it doesn't sound like a Roadmarks story, so yay!
DeleteAs I know you saw (since you "liked" a comment on the Facebook post), it looks like the Shadows & Reflections boys are getting some reading done soon. I decided to take this as a cue to re-read my story, and see how it sounds six months after being written.
ReplyDeleteI hate my story.
On the one hand, I'm disappointed, because this anthology is something I'd really like to be a part of. On the other hand, at least the rejection won't sting as badly as it could, because I'm now prepared for its inevitability. =P
Well, at least one of us still has a shot. I'm rootin' for you, Josh!
Zach: As I know you saw (since you "liked" a comment on the Facebook post), it looks like the Shadows & Reflections boys are getting some reading done soon.
DeleteThat could have been anybody with my extremely distinctive last name!
Heh. In the earlier post, where he asks for everyone's favorite Zelazny short story, Warren Lapine mentions Divine Madness. I think it may be the very best short work Zelazny ever wrote, but since he said it, I didn't want to agree, because it would look like I'm kissing the editor's ass :)
Zach: On the one hand, I'm disappointed, because this anthology is something I'd really like to be a part of. On the other hand, at least the rejection won't sting as badly as it could, because I'm now prepared for its inevitability. =P
Well, at least one of us still has a shot. I'm rootin' for you, Josh!
Heh. You're very kind.
This was a learning experience for me. I love the story I wrote. Buuuuuuut, it only works as a Roadmarks story. If I were strip out those elements, I wouldn't have a story at all. There's really nowhere else to publish it than this anthology.
I read it again just now, prompted by your comment, and while an appalling number of typos snuck past, there is really nothing I would have done differently. I might change this or that, clean up something or other or make an element more clear, but I wrote the best story I could and sent it in.
So, fingers crossed for both of us.
I think you might be okay having a story that works only as a Roadmarks story. And I say that because, when I read everyone else's contributions to the Lovecraft eZine's Lonesome October issue last year, I instantly regretted the way I wrote my story.
DeleteI'd done it in a way that would (theoretically) make sense to people who hadn't read the book (which is why Wil, the pig, gives us a brief run-down of how the game works at one point). But everyone else just assumed the reader knew what was going on with the source material, and I think their stories were FAR better because of it.
So, if the editors take this same assumption with Shadows & Reflections, I think you'll be in good shape!