Crunching the Million Writers Award numbers

The Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007 is now out in the world and appears to be generating a fair bit of excitement, based on website traffic and the number of blog posts about the list. In my previous post announcing the notable stories I asked people who felt like doing some number crunching on the list to send me the results. As usual, the number crunchers out there quickly responded!

Robert Laughlin responded first, noting that there were 164 notables stories this year. In addition, he analyzed the first five years of the award to do a breakdown on which magazines have had the most MWA Notable Stories. His findings: Eclectica is first with 31 notable stories selected across five years. Pindeldyboz is second with 26 while Agni, Strange Horizons and Word Riot tied for third with 16 each. Rounding out the top ten are Narrative Magazine with 15, Fiction Warehouse with 13, The King's English and Mississippi Review both with 12, and Blackbird, Blithe House Quarterly, and Storyglossia with 11 nominations each.

I then received a detailed analysis of this year's notable stories from a correspondent who prefers to stay anonymous. According to him, the 164 notable stories for 2007 came from 92 different publications. Of these selections, 67 (or 41%) were first nominated by editors while 21 (or 13%) were first nominated by readers. This means that the preliminary judges selected stories solely on their own in 82 cases (or 50% of the time). In addition, 16 stories were nominated by more than one judge. These percentages don’t add up to 100% because of overlap--about 4% of stories were nominated by both editors and readers.

This breakdown on how the stories were selected seems good to me. In fact, it highlights one reason I like the format used by the MWA--we cast a wide net for stories. Several of the judges have told me how great the reader and editors nominations are b/c they point them to stories they wouldn't otherwise have considered. Likewise, I feel having the preliminary judges go out on their own brings in stories that likewise could have been overlooked.

According to this anonymous analysis, the top publications in this year's award (producing 26% of overall notable stories) were:

• Blackbird (with 7 notable stories)
• Pindeldyboz (5)
• Subterranean (5)
• Agni (5)
• Clarkesword Magazine (4)
• Baen's Universe (4)
• Storyglossia (4)
• Word Riot (4)
• Mississippi Review (4)

This year's top authors were:

• Elizabeth Bear (with three notable stories)
• Cat Rambo (2)
• Eric D. Anderson (2)
• Elizabeth Crane (2)
• Nick Antosca (2)
• Andrea Fitzpatrick (2)
• Corey Mesler (2)
• Spencer Dew (2)
• Jeff VanderMeer (2)

According to this analysis, of the top publications' notable stories, 25 of 42 (60%), including all seven of Blackbird's, were nominated solely by judges. Similarly, 11 of 19 (58%) of the top author's notable stories were nominated solely by judges.

To close out this number crunching, I should mention the previous analysis Scott Boyan did of the MWA. Scott used the analysis to create a ranking of the best online literary magazines and journals. While the analysis doesn't incorporate this year's list of notable stories, it is still a fascinating examination of both the award and online magazines.

Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007

The Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007 have now been released. The MWA award for best overall online publication goes to Blackbird for having seven of their stories selected as notable stories of the year. The MWA for best publisher of novella-length fiction goes to Jim Baen's Universe, while the award for best new online magazine or journal goes to Farrago's Wainscot (with runner ups being Wheelhouse Magazine and Coyote Wild).

I want to thank all the readers and editors who nominated stories and the preliminary judges who screened and selected this list of notable stories. I will begin reading these stories shortly and aim to release the top ten stories--and start the public vote for the best overall story--in late May.

BTW, I was too exhausted to count up all the stories on this list, but I swear it's even bigger than last year. If someone wants to do a breakdown and analysis of the notable stories, e-mail it to me and I'll post it here.

The Final Countdown (UPDATE: The not so final final)

I'm really not trying to milk this whole notable story thing--life has been hectic and I simply haven't had the time needed to finish the job. But I'm committed to staying up as late tonight as needed to get this finished. To keep myself focused, I'll post updates on this post through the night.

UPDATE 1 (April 28, 8:40 pm): I'm plugging away at the list. Taking longer than I thought to get the programming out. Still, I should have this up before midnight!

UPDATE 2 (9:00 pm): Blackbird and Agni are looking really good this year. Lots of notable stories.

UPDATE 3 (9:41 pm): A major irritation of mine is when online journals only keep links to stories up for a year or so. I mean, this is the frickin internet. Why remove a story from a place where readers can find it?

UPDATE 4 (10:41 pm): Reality set in when I estimated how much time was required to finish formatting the list. I'm still three hours from being finished and I have to go to work in the morning, so this drama is at an end for the night. Check back tomorrow night around 9 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time.

I know what people are saying about me right now

Based on comments I made last weekend, I can assume people are cursing my name for missing another self-imposed deadline for getting those Million Writer Award notable stories up. But If it makes people want to hold off on the whole burning in effigy thing, I took my kids camping yesterday. So yes, I picked family quality time over editorial work.

But the good news is the notable stories will be up tomorrow night! Check back then.

Maps of the Bible

My short story "Maps of the Bible" has just been published over on Monsters and Critics. Set in Alabama during the early 1960s, the tale is in some ways a ghost story (although it would be more correct to place the story within the Southern Gothic genre of literature). "Maps of the Bible" also functions as a prologue to my short novel Jeremiah, which consists of the story sequence "Cold Pelts," "One Side, Two Weeks, One Bathroom," and "Water Hearts."

Locus Awards short list and questions on why this award process works so well

Per the Science Fiction Awards watch blog comes news of the top five finishers in each category for the 2008 Locus Awards. I must admit to being quite pleased with the line up. While I could quibble about certain stories or novels that made the Locus list, this definitely gives people an excellent overview of the best in SF/F from the last year.

Since this award is decided upon by the readers of Locus, who nominate their favorite stories and novels, I wonder why the Locus Awards line up looks so much better this go around than the recent Hugo and Nebula lists. After all, many of the same people who nominate for the Locus Awards also help pick the Hugos and Nebulas. My guess would be a difference in the actual award process, with the Locus Awards able to avoid many of the group dynamics and infighting which sometimes plague the Hugos and Nebulas. If anyone has an alternate theory on why the Locus Awards consistently produce such high quality nominees and winners, I hope they'll drop me a line and let me know the reason.

Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas

I have been negligent in mentioning that my novelette "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas" is forthcoming in issue two of Tales of Moreauvia. TOM is a new magazine edited by Pete S. Allen which will feature fiction andarticles around alternate histories and what-ifs. According to Allen, the inaugural issue is at the printer right now and will be available shortly.

Still working on Million Writers Award notable stories list

By the traffic this blog is receiving from the storySouth 2008 Million Writers Award page, its obvious that people are eagerly awaiting our release of the list of notable stories of the year. Unfortunately, between the demands of work and life I was unable to finish coding the list for upload today. If all goes well, the notable stories will be released next Sunday. If I don't make that deadline, I give the readers, writers and editors of the world permission to both burn me in effigy and slander me at will on the literary blogs of their choosing.

As always, a big thanks goes to the Edit Red Writing Community for sponsoring the contest, which means there is a $300 prize for the overall winner. I should also note that the Edit Red community has nothing to do with me taking too long to compile this year's lists of notable stories.

Into the world of really bad submission guidelines

Over on the Analog Science Fiction and Fact discussion board, Greg Ellis mentions the "egregious submission and contract terms" found in the role playing game industry. For example, if you plan to submit a story to the Amarillo Design Bureau, publisher of a number of games based around the Star Trek universe, you should first read this paragraph in their guidelines:

"All submissions of new material are accepted ONLY under the following terms unless specifically agreed otherwise in writing in advance by ADB: All materials submitted immediately become the property of Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. and may be used, modified, expanded, or changed as ADB, Inc., in its sole judgment, sees fit. (It is not sufficient to claim an exemption to these rules within a submission; you must obtain an exemption first.) All materials used will be credited to the original author to the extent of his original submission. All claims of copyrights to material created from or for use with this product are invalid as they are 'derivative' copyrights requiring our permission."

Personally, I wouldn't submit to any place that had such a statement in their submission guidelines. But that said, I also understand their point of view. First off, they don't have to allow unsolicited submissions. Second, since these are submissions to an already created fantasy and SF world (and in the case of Star Trek, one of the most famous SF worlds in existance), it's more than likely that there will be similarities both among different submissions and with stories already being produced but not yet published. Finally, already created worlds like Star Trek are covered by copyright, meaning anyone wanting to write in that world has to abide by their rules (despite the wishes of the Organization for Transformative Works, which believes that fan fiction is transformative and legitimate, a view I don't agree with). As ADB's guidelines state, works written within these gaming world are "derivative" and based on my experience with copyright law that's something which might hold up in court.

When I worked as a senior editor at a book publisher, I saw cases where authors submitted very similar stories merely because they were working with specific guidelines within a particular fantasy world. This likely happens even more in the gaming industry and so they put this statement up to protect themselves. But again, I personally wouldn't submit to anywhere that had such a requirement. But since these fantasy gaming worlds are these companies own personal sandboxes, if a writer wants to play in them they have to abide by the companies' rules.

Is the Short Fiction Market in Trouble? Hell no!

SF Signal, which has become the web's most essential SF/F blog, has a fascinating discussion up titled "Is the Short Fiction Market in Trouble?" Personally, I agree with Charles Coleman Finlay's comment that "This is the Golden Age of the short story in science fiction." As he states, yes, few people can make money merely by writing short fiction these days. But the only reason there's a debate on whether SF short fiction is dying is "because people are fixated on the old paradigm." Amen to that. I love short fiction. I read tons of short fiction, both in print and online, and I know there are many others out there just like me.

Just because people aren't buying short fiction magazines the way they did 30 years ago doesn't mean there's no interest in short fiction. After all, people don't buy record albums or CDs the way they did even a decade ago, but that doesn't mean people aren't listening to music. Instead, people are finding new ways to listen to music such as through iPods, iTunes, and other digital delivery systems. The same goes for short fiction. As I finish compiling the notable story selections for this year's Million Writers Award for best online short story, I'm constantly amazed at how many top-notch online magazines there are. While the professional SF magazines may have had larger circulations a few decades ago, there were no where near as many people writing, editing, and promoting short fiction as there are these days.

As Finlay states, the paradigm is changing and that scares some people and excites others. Speaking for myself, I prefer to embrace the excitement instead of the fear.

Review: May 2008 Fantasy and Science Fiction

I've been on a business trip for the last few days (hence my lack of posts). But while flying has lots of irritations--the delays, the security checks, the long waits--one upside is that I had lots of time at the airport and during the flight to catch up on my SF/F reading.

One magazine I read from cover to cover during my flight was the May 2008 Fantasy and Science Fiction. F&SF has been on a roll lately, publishing two stories--"Five Thrillers" by Robert Reed and "The Overseer" by Albert E. Cowdrey--which were so amazingly good I selected them as my stories of the week. This top-notch run continues in the new issue.

Both Reed and Cowdrey return with stories which, while not at the level of their earlier mentioned works, are still very good. Reed's "The Reunion" concerns a high school reunion where half of the class have gone on to achieve world-class results, a statistical outcome no one can explain until the daughter of a dead classmate begins to dig a little deeper. Unfortunately, Reed doesn't pull together the threads on this story as well as he did with "Five Thrillers," leaving me feeling a bit disappointed at the end. Still, this is a very good tale.

Like his earlier story, Cowdrey's "Thrilling Wonder Stories" is set in a Southern Gothic derived New Orleans, only this time during the 1950s. A young teenager named Farley has recently discovered that he is a bastard child--that the man who raised him isn't his true father. With Farley's imagination stoked by the pulp magazines of his era (hence the story's title), he imagines his true father as being from Mars. But when the truth rears its ugly head, he discovers that there could be another explanation--or perhaps an alternate life to be lived--inside an alligator in a dank, dark sewage pipe. This is a wonderful, horrifying, and ultimately haunting story.

My favorite story of the issue was "Firooz and His Brother" by Alex Jeffers. This fantasy, set on the ancient caravan routes of the Middle East, involves a man who finds a baby in the wilderness and raises the child as his brother. Well written and emotionally gripping, this story left me with a smile as a result of the story's tenderness and understanding of the human condition. Another story which left me with a warm feeling was "Rebecca's Locket" by S. L. Gilbow, which is an light-hearted and disturbingly funny tale of human technology and change. While the story isn't up to the standards of Gilbow's earlier stories--most notably the excellent "Red Card" from last year--this is a solid tale which makes one think about how far humans will go to avoid death.

I also loved "Circle" by George Tucker. Set during the south Florida real estate boom of recent years, the story focuses on Billy Black, a Seminole Shaman who works as a carpenter's assistant second class on the construction of a new high rise condo. But the construction has disturbed some ancient relics, leading to the typical curse and inevitable conflict with a greedy developer. But just when you think the story is going to embrace every stereotype of its genre, Tucker takes the characters and plot in new directions. After all, why shouldn't everyone--including the angry spirit--benefit during booming economic times! A fun, fun read featuring some very realized and fascinating characters (in the full sense of that word).

The magazine's final two stories are also very good, although I did have issues with both of them.  "Traitor" by M. Rickert is ripped from recent political headlines surrounding terrorism. While the story is well written, it was too forced for my tastes, almost as if the author was desperate to convince the reader to do a bit of societal soul-searching. Unfortunately, any story which applies its moral with the force of a sledgehammer inevitably turns me off.

This was also the problem with "Immortal Snake" by Rachel Pollack. This novelet is an excellent read for 95% of the story, as Pollack explores a fantasy future world where the leader of a nation is both ever-living and constantly facing eminent death. Both fast-paced and emotionally gripping, the story features amazing characters and storytelling--so impressive, in fact, that as I read the story I was certain I'd be selecting it as a story of the week. However, the story falls apart at the end as Pollack, like Rickert, applies the story's message to the reader's brain with the force of a not-so-subtle hammer. As if this hammering away at the message isn't enough, she even includes an author's note telling how the story was inspired by the history and recent events in Darfur. While this doesn't take away from the stength of "Immortal Snake," the ending keeps this story from reaching the level of a classic fantasy work, which is a shame.

So in short, this is a great issue of F&SF. While many of the major SF/F magazines have published excellent stories during the first four months of this year,  F&SF is leading the pack in both quality and the number of great and very good stories in each issue. If this keeps up, editor Gordon Van Gelder will be the leading candidate to receive next year's Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form.

Million Writers Award update

Most of the preliminary judges have turned in their selections for the Million Writers Award. As soon as the remaining judges turn in their selections, and I combine these selections into the official list of notable stories, I will post the information onto the storySouth site. I'm aiming to have all this done by the end of next weekend.

2008 Hugo Award nominees now online

SF Signal has created a listing of all the 2008 Hugo Award nominees and the amazing thing is that almost all of the stories are now available online to read. This is not only a smart way to generate votes for the nominees, its also a great way to people to read the best SF/F of the last year. The Denvention site also lists the links to the nominated stories, but the novels are only available for WorldCon members to read online.

The mysterious Star Trek singing curse

SF Signal has the clip of George Takei of Star Trek fame singing "On the Road Again." While the clip from "Secret Talents of the Stars" is already making the rounds because of Takei's, err, unique take on Willie Nelson's classic song, the good news is that the song helped kill this horrid reality show after only one episode. And in even better news, this performance means Takei can take his place alongside his more famous Star Trek stars. After all, who can forget the classic musical album "Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner." Perhaps the three of them should do a concert tour.

Tobias Buckell on when to trunk your stories

Tobias Buckell has some excellent advice about when an author should stop submitting (or trunk) a story:

I use a couple things to figure out when to retire a story. As a writer ... you should obviously be growing enough each year that you look back at something you wrote a year ago and see flaws. If you're not looking back on even earlier writing and seeing how much better you are now, then you are not growing as a writer. You should be able to see how much your earlier efforts suck, but also, you should also be able to spot bits of polish and neatness. So the earlier work is easy for me to spot what's out of sorts.

If I don't obviously see why the work sucks so bad it shouldn't be submitted, the next metric I use is: has a work has exhausted all the markets I submit to? If so, then I retire it.

Tobias also mentions that of the 130 short stories he's written, he's published just over 30 of them and has trunked about 95. That gets us back to the best advice for any writer--keep writing. Some stories are simply going to fail. But what you learn from those failures will help you succeed in a new story further down the line.

Big Interzone news

Issue 215 of Interzone arrived in my mailbox this week and my name is listed on page two under the "coming soon: stories by ..." section. According to Interzone editor Andy Cox, my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" is tentatively slated for issue 217. Vincent Chong is also illustrating the story, which is amazing news because I'm a big fan of his artwork. You can see samples of his work here.

In even more exciting news, Andy e-mailed me today to say that a second story of mine, "When Thorns Are The Tips Of Trees," has just been accepted by Interzone. I'd like to publicly thank Andy, Jetse de Vries, and all the editors of Interzone for the faith and support they've shown my writing.

The reports of the death of the novella are greatly exaggerated

There's a fascinating conversation on the state of the SF/F novella on the Asimov's discussion board. While Fabrice Doublet bemoans the lack of good novellas nominated for the Hugo Award, editor Rich Horton notes that a number of strong novellas have been published lately. Gardner Dozois says that while there are "never a whole lot of novellas published per year, ... science fiction is one of the few genres in which any are published at all."

Personally, I'm glad that the SF/F genre remains receptive to novellas. As Dozois states, "Sometimes working under restrictions and limitations is actually good for art." I totally agree. There are a great many famous novellas--such as The Old Man and the Sea, to give a "literary" example--which would have been bloated and weak if the story had been fleshed out to novel length. 

Story of the week: "An Alien Heresy" by S.P. Somtow

I first heard about S.P. Somtow back when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand. During in-country training, one of my first dates with my future wife--who was also training to become a PCV--was to invite her to a showing of the Thai SF film Kawow tee Bangpleng. The movie isn't a classic of the genre and is remembered mainly for the scene in which a massive UFO visits a Thai village and impregnates the local women. The day after seeing the movie I fell into a discussion about science fiction with one of my Peace Corps language trainers, who mentioned Somtow as a famous Thai SF author. However, when I asked what he'd written, she preceded to describe his work as a musician. Because my Thai was so poor, I assumed she'd misspoken about his being a science fiction writer.

Nope. Turns out I was merely limited in understanding all that a man like Somtow could do. Somtow is a throwback to the 18th century ideal of a renaissance man and is an accomplished musician, composer, film director, and author. Somtow's writings have won a number of high profile awards, including a World Fantasy Award for his novella "The Bird Catcher." A past president of the Horror Writers Association, Somtow also wrote a moving semi-autobiographical novel set in Thailand in the 1960s called Jasmine Nights. George Axelrod, Oscar-winning writer of Breakfast at Tiffany's, so loved this wonderful book that he called Somtow the "J.D. Salinger of Siam." However, in recent years Somtow has written very little as he's focused on musical compositions and his work with the Bangkok Opera. But now, after a seven year fiction drought, he returns to SF with the amazing novelette "An Alien Heresy" (published in the April/May 2008 issue of Asimov's).

"An Alien Heresy" is the story of Lenclud, a young official in the Catholic church during the dark years of the European Inquisition. A few years back, Lenclud lead an inquisition against the royal leader of the area called Tiffauges, who had been sexually assaulting and killing the children under his protection. While this should have been a high point in Lenclud's life, he also gave in to lust with a local woman. Ever since he's regretted his lack of true faith and piety while also fearing that his sin will be discovered. Now Lenclud is sent back to Tiffauges to examine reports of a captured demon. If the creature is indeed a demon, he will lead a new inquisition. But instead of a demon, Lenclud encounters both an alien explorer who crash landed in the area and a son he never knew he had. Both encounters test his faith--and his views of his faith--in ways he never could have expected.

This story of how religious faith can be perverted to justify almost any horror is a deeply disturbing story. But it is also an amazing tale, crafted with the atmospheric prose and attention to character that are Somtow's specialties. "An Alien Heresy" is highly recommended.

Starbuck says science fiction has little to do with Battlestar Galactica's success

Actress Katee Sackhoff, who plays Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel television show Battlestar Galactica, has this to say on why this show is the best thing on TV:

"We never relied on the science fiction of the show. Most science fiction shows rely way too much on the bells and whistles. It kind of opened doors in science fiction to realize . . . it's just a setting. . . . It's not, (and) it should never have been what the show is."

Sackhoff is correct that the show's amazing character development is a major factor in why BG is so successful, but she's wrong to imply that the show's setting is irrelevant to this success. If Battlestar Galactica had been set in present day America, the show would have simply been an over-wrought soap opera. Instead, the space setting, combined with the desparate race for survival by this last group of human survivors, allows the show to explore complex issues with a depth and resonance that other TV dramas lack. Yes, the characters make the show great. But without the setting, no one would care about any of that character drama. Great science fiction is a merging of setting and drama and character. And it takes all three of those legs to support a great story like Battlestar Galactica.

Million Writers Award nomination summary

The editor and reader nomination period of the 2008 Million Writers Award for best online short story is now closed. The complete list of editor nominations can be seen here, while reader nominations are on this page.

A "mysterious, anonymous benefactor with an obsession for spreadsheets" (in his words) sent me a wonderful analysis of the nominations so far. According to his analysis, there are 537 nominated stories by 458 authors from 189 different publications. The publications with most nominations are:

• Eclectica Magazine, 31 nominations
• Storyglossia, 20
• MendaCity Review, 9
• Thieves Jargon, 9
• Word Riot, 9
• Helix, 8
• Pindeldyboz, 8
• Clarkesworld Magazine, 7
• FRiGG Magazine, 7
• Night Train, 7
• Thuglit, 7
• AGNI Online, 6
• Narrative Magazine, 6
• Underground Voices Magazine, 6

The preliminary judges have been screening these nominations, along with looking for stories which may have escaped the notice of nominating readers and editors. These preliminary editors will compile the list of notable stories, which will be released in a few weeks. I will then select the top ten stories of the year from this notable list; the public vote for the top story will occur shortly after that.

I want to thank everyone who took part in this nominating period. And, as always, a big thanks goes to the Edit Red Writing Community for sponsoring the contest, which means there is a $300 prize for the overall winner.