An Author’s Rite of Passage

An Author’s Rite of Passage

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
I was selling some of my books at a local book fair when a cheerful woman walked over, scanned my table, waved her hand over my display then asked, "But do you self-publish these stories or did someone else publish them?""Both."With a squint and a head tilt, she asked me to elaborate. I explained that I publish some small books on my own, and they're a mix of things that have been published in various places and some that haven't.She nodded. "That's good."She clearly wasn't keen on self-published books. That's cool. I'm all for self-publishing, obviously, but don't disagree with her. Stories need to go through a gauntlet. So do their writers. I want control over everything, but I also crave the validation that comes from having my stories go through a gatekeeper. I like to mix it up. I don't want people telling me what to do. But I do want them to validate me. I want criticism and...
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When Editors Attack or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love My Writing

When Editors Attack or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love My Writing

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
"Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia." -Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction"As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward." -Augusten Burroughs. Everything that I'm about to tell you is completely true, except for the parts that aren't, but there aren't any of those, so let's just get to it. Many writers, as you may or may not know, tend to suffer from a puzzling paradox of a fragile ego combined with a righteous arrogance.  We constantly battle fear & self doubt, yet we still manage to believe in ourselves & our words to the very end.  Day to day, depending on the weather, intensity of hangover, or how we feel about other people that day, we may feel rather insecure...
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