I never intended to write another Poker Boy story. Honest.
I sat down at 4:15 in the morning on Saturday, January 22nd (late Friday night) to find a title and start a new challenge story. This time I picked up the book called Bizarre Books and started to flip through it. In the back is an index of really awful character names, and the name Wolfgang Sucker caught my attention. At first I figured I’d just write a story called Wolfgang Sucker, but then decided it would be more fun to write a story with that guy as the character.
So back I went to the book, flipping through, looking for titles until on page 168 I found the book title Fighting the Fuzzy-Wuzzy by E.A. DeCosson from 1886.
The moment I saw the name and combined it with Wolfgang Sucker, I knew it had to be a Poker Boy story. But as normal, all I had was a title, so I started typing to see where the story would go.
At 5:15 in the morning I hit 1,500 words, about six pages, and stopped. Still no idea where I was headed.
Day 2, Sunday morning 3:45 (late Saturday night) I made it back to the story. I typed for three more pages, about 45 minutes and stopped, completely stuck. I mentioned to Kris the next day that it looked like I had written myself into my first challenge story corner.
Day 3, Sunday evening I had to drive to Portland to pick up Kris at 10 pm at the Portland airport. By the time we got home through fog and such, it was after one in the morning. I managed to stagger to the story at 4 a.m Monday morning and spend another hour and get another three pages, still completely stuck. Not a clue where I was going, no idea how to solve the problem I set up.
Day 4: Tuesday Morning (late Monday night) I decided I was just going to press forward on the story, so sat down at 2 a.m., early for me, and wrote like crazy until about 5. I finished the story by writing another 12-14 pages to get the story to about 6,900 words. I have no idea where I figured out the ending or how to solve this problem, it just sort of came out of my fingers while I typed and shook my head at the silliness of it all. Poker Boy stories do that to me. No one else might like them, but they entertain me while I write them.
After finishing I went to this computer and managed to find the art on the cover and have the cover done in about thirty minutes. Stunning how well that art fits this story. I couldn’t believe it when I found it. (Note: It was part of another much larger piece of art.)
It took me about an hour tonight to get them up electronically on Kindle and then get it up here. So, thankfully, I ended up not stuck on this story for more than a day and got pages done on it every night. If I had stopped writing because I thought I was stuck, this story would not have gotten finished. Ever.
Luckily I learned a long time ago to just trust the process and keep typing, even when my conscious brain has no idea what’s happening.
I hope you enjoy the story and meeting Wolfgang Sucker, another new character in the ever-growing world of Poker Boy.
TOTAL HOURS SPENT (Including writing, publishing, and cover and putting it up here and writing this post) just under 7 hours spread over five days.
Started January 22nd. Posted and published electronically early January 26th.
Word Count: About 6,900 words.
The neat thing is, I actually own the hardcover of that book by E.A. DeCosson. It’s stored safe with the rest of my old books so I can’t check it again right now, but I can say that, well: it’s not a classic, but it’s a good adventure in the Sudan.
Your take on it is also interesting, of course, but I like coincidences.
Dean,
You said as part of this challenge you wouldn’t include stories you think would be a good fit for a traditional publication. If you wrote one that was, you’d yank it and write another for the challenge.
Of the 6 challenge stories thus far, 4 of them are series stories (3 Poker Boys and 1 Jukebox). I confess I don’t know your history very well, but looking over the list of available stories you have out by WMG Publishing you’ve written a number of stories in both of those series prior to the challenge.
So here is my basic question: Why did you leave those stories as part of the challenge?
And really, there’s a whole bunch of sub-questions which go into that. Which is it, the series in general or the individual stories in particular, that you think is more suited to self-publishing? Have you sold stories out of these series to traditional publishers in the past? Will you try to again? If so, what differentiates a Poker Boy/Jukebox story you think a magazine will like from one you put up yourself?
Andrew, good questions. Let me see if I can answer them clearly on my thinking. Every writer is different remember, so this is only my thinking.
Yes, lots of stories in both series before the challenge. And yes, lots of sales of both series before the challenge. Jukebox Gifts was in F&SF back when Ed Ferman was editing and the rest were in anthologies of one type or another. And some were written but never sent out. So some of the older stories are original to electronic and WMG Publishing as well in both series.
So why did I leave these stories as part of the challenge? First off, my history with main short fiction publishers in all genres is not fantastic. In fact, Asimov’s magazine has rejected me the most, with all five editors, and since about story #5 I have gotten wonderful letters. Editors really liked my stories for the most part, just that the stories didn’t fit. My last rough count was 271 different stories rejected by Asimov’s alone and not one sale. Zero, zip, nada.
My stories (when I’m just writing “my stories” as in the challenge) are usually a half turn too far off. I’m sure I could sell them to a start-up or an internet magazine, but why not just do them myself in that case. Kris (Hugo Award winning editor) will tell me when a story of mine drifts back into main market territory. So far nothing close. (grin)
So nothing is different from these stories for the challenge than something I will pull from the challenge and send to major markets except that my wife tells me. Otherwise I write and have fun and am enjoying the hell out of this challenge so far.
Also, in pure money, this challenge is gold for me. I’ve done the math here at one point, but if you want me to show you what I mean again, I’ll be glad to.
Andrew, by the way, we started Pulphouse back in 1987 for the very reason you ask about. So many writers, me, Ray Vukcevich, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and others wrote stories that were just off the mark for main markets. Professional level and fun stories, just off main markets. Pulphouse existed for 7 years because of that, and for a decade or so when someone saw a story that was good but off market, they called it a Pulphouse story.
Problem is that writers like me (who write off market versus someone like my wife, whose stories go right down markets without her ever meaning to or trying) have to create our own markets, have to deal with a ton more rejection than most. Nothing wrong with that, but again, if you just write your own stuff, be true to yourself, you have to live with that as well.
Now understand, I am a ghost writer, a bestseller, and I used to be a media writer. I can alter my voice, my style to anything I want, and in most any author’s voice. In other words I am a mimic, a trained skill I would not suggest anyone learn. So if I wanted to write a short story that fit perfectly in Asimov’s, I could do so. It would be work, it would be a study, as I do when ghosting, but I could do it without a problem. However, it wouldn’t be MY STORY, it would be something I was writing to market. I don’t do that with my short fiction. I write MY STORIES and if the editors don’t like it, not my issue. It really is that simple. I have drawn the line with my skills at ghosting and mimic with short fiction. I do it for novels, but with short fiction, even for an assigned anthology, you get MY STORY, screwed up and sideways as it might be. (grin)
But you folks would be stunned at the names I have written novels under as a ghost writer. Very different writers, very different styles. And you might be surprised if I ever announce my thriller pen name. Also a type of writing that you would not associate with me.
But short stories you get my voice, my writing completely. It’s the only place in this business I can totally be myself and I love that.
Re: Offbeat stories–thank you for being an example that shows one can make it while still writing offbeat stories.
I too write stuff that doesn’t cleanly fit into the mainstream markets in my genre (or mainstream in other genres when I switch pen names). It can be very frustrating when I finish a story that I wanted to write, that grabbed me and demanded to put put on the page, and then go “crap, this is going to be a bitch to sell.” I’ve resisted twisting stories for markets because, frankly, I’d rather write the next story.
I can always throw it on my site for free. But one of the things that makes the new world fascinating is that I have other possibly paying options as well.
I really truly believe that there are niche audiences there that can provide income to those of us who write off-beat stories, even if they are not big enough to support publication by a larger publisher.
I agree, Camile, but until this wonderful new world came around, it took people like me starting small presses to get those niche audiences supplied. Now this is better.
Thanks for the response, Dean. I’m still experimenting with my voice and am trying to get a sense of where my writing sits most naturally. I tend to be a mimic myself, just not a purposeful (or skillful) one like yourself. But as I experiment with new things, I am usually strongly influenced by something I had read recently.
I tried a challenge story myself since I have the nasty habit of sitting around waiting for inspiration and squandering a lot of my writing time. I had a lot of fun with the story I wrote, but it’s a bit silly. I think I picked up a little zaniness from reading yours (grin). Now I’m just staring at it wondering “What in the world am I supposed to do with *this*?”
I’m going to send it off to markets, since I unfortunately lack a Hugo-winning editor to let me know what the markets will like. My personal opinion is that it won’t fly at any of them, but I really have no clue. And I have seen your post on money for these things, which is why I’m trying to get a sense of how you tell if a story has a chance. Because if it doesn’t, it seems silly to wait the year or so it takes for a story to make the rounds before putting it up.
Andrew, the gamble is worth the wait most of the time. For example, you write a 5,000 word story and put it up electronically. If you bounce along the bottom numbers I suggested and sell five copies total across all sites every month on average with your other stories, you’ll make $1.75 per month or $21.00 in a year. Sell the same 5,000 word story to a top market at at least 6 cents per word and you make not only the credits and promotion, but $300.00.
Only smart to send out stories you are not sure of to traditional markets. Smart business. You can put the story up in a year and only be out the postage and $21.00 in lost sales. Not a large gamble to take for very good returns if a story hits.
Dean, I love it when you say “I wrote three pages and was stuck and had no clue where the story was going.” Makes me feel better about my own process.