DOUGLAS SMITH | Writing the Fantastic

I sold a new short story in November, one I'd written at the start of the pandemic and, aside from a flash piece in late 2019, the first new short story I'd written in a long, long time, since I moved to novels.

"Gypsy Biker's Coming Home," based on the Springsteen song of the same name, will appear in an upcoming issue of the excellent, multi-award winning, and long-running Canadian speculative fiction magazine, On Spec.

The story is set in my Merged Corporate Entity universe, the same setting for many of my other SF stories, including "Scream Angel," "Enlightenment," "Memories of the Dead Man," and "Jigsaw." Those stories garnered three award nominations and one Aurora Award win, so fingers crossed for this one.

This is a long story, almost 10,000 words, and stories at that length are hard to sell. Most markets top-out at 6,000 words. So I was thrilled when long-time Executive Editor Diane Walton said she'd take a look at it even though it was well over their maximum word count..

This will be my fourth appearance in On Spec. Earlier appearances also resulted in two award nominations, plus another Aurora Award win for "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland" (issue's cover pictured here), so again, fingers crossed. This will also be my third Springsteen-inspired story I've had published, the others being "Going Down to Lucky Town" and "Radio Nowhere."

I'll post here when the issue comes out.

I'll be giving a workshop on the craft of short fiction via Zoom to the National Capital Region chapter of the Canadian Authors Association tomorrow, Sunday October 17, from 1:00-2:30pm.

You do not have to be a chapter or CAA member to attend, but you do need to register and there is a suggested non-member fee of $10. All the information on the workshop and registration can be found here.

I'll be focusing on how to make decisions about story structure in your short fiction. Topics covered will include crafting characters, choosing the right point-of-view, pros and cons for POV options, stories with multiple POV characters, use of flashbacks and non-linear plots, handling scene changes, POV and character voice, plotting as character decisions, openings, endings, recommended resources…and more if time allows.

I recently had my Aurora Award-winning story, "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland," reprinted in Amazing Stories. The great cover is pictured here. Mountains, forests, red-and-white spaceship with the maple leaf, robot moose...what's not to love?

The venerable genre magazine dates back to 1926 and has been published with some interruptions for over 90 years. It was resurrected a few years ago yet again, first as an online website and then, just before the pandemic, once more as a print magazine.

My first major professional sale was to Amazing back in the late 90's. That was a particular thrill because one of my favourite SF & fantasy writers, the late Roger Zelazny, got his break selling to AS in the sixties, an era that saw Amazing publish the first stories of other writers who, like Zelazny, would go on to become giants in the field: Ursula K. Le Guin, Piers Anthony, and Thomas M. Disch.

This one is an all-Canadian issue, and it's a special treat for me to appear alongside such a great lineup of Canuck authors, so many of whom are friends as well as colleagues.

On Sunday September 12, from 1:30-4:00 EDT, I'll be giving a virtual (Zoom) workshop on the craft of writing short fiction as part of the annual Open House meeting of the Writers' Community of York Region (WCYR). Details of what I'll be covering and how to register can be found here.

The workshop and the open house are both open to non-members of WCYR. There is no charge to attend, but you do have to register at the above link.

York Region (where I live) is a large community north-east of Toronto. The WCYR is "is a collective of local authors, poets, and industry professionals who endeavour to build a supportive and encouraging framework for writers and their craft."

If you're a writer, I hope you'll check out the workshop. If you're a writer in York Region, I hope you'll consider joining WCYR.

This Thursday, April 29 at 7:00-8:30pm, I will be giving a webinar on marketing and selling short fiction, jointly sponsored by the Canadian Authors Association and SF Canada.

Drawing from my writer's guide, PLAYING THE SHORT GAME: HOW TO MARKET & SELL SHORT FICTION, I'll cover rights and licensing, finding short fiction markets, a strategy for selecting markets, submission advice, key contract clauses, and leveraging second rights for such things like reprints, foreign language rights, audio markets, and publishing a collection.

This webinar is free due to COVID-19’s impact on the writing community, but space is limited to the first 100 attendees. You can register for free here. Hope you'll be able to join me.

BookBub is currently offering a great deal on The Wolf at the End of the World, my urban fantasy novel set in my Heroka universe.

Up until March 16, you can pick up the ebook edition of the novel for only $0.99 (or the equivalent in your country).

The deal is available here and is offered in Canada, US, UK, Australia, and India, via Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, and Google Play.

But it only runs until Tuesday March 16, so don't miss it!