Scott William Carter

Got the word from my agent that I can now officially share the news . . . I sold a book!

The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, my young adult novel about two teenagers who steal their principal’s car and end up on a life-changing road trip, will be published by Simon and Schuster.  Edited by David Gale.  Expected publication date of 2010.  Kudos to my fabulous agent, Rachel Vater at Folio, who’s been great through this whole process. 

You can read more about the book here.  In the coming months, I’ll add sample chapters and other tidbits to the page.  I’ll also have some more Mutterings about this whole process down the road a bit.  But for now I just want to say one thing.

Whoo-hoo!

Astute visitors to my website may have noticed it’s undergone a change.  For years I’ve basically done all the heavy lifting for the site myself, but now the tools have gotten so good that it no longer seems efficient.  I was also never that good at it; although my day job is working as a technology trainer at a university, I’ve never been a true Web designer.  Plus you have to know so much more these days to do it well — Flash, javascript, etc.  Simple HTML is no longer enough.

I switched over to a Wordpress site, which allows me to update it from anywhere without having to use specialized web editing software.  Anywhere I can get on the Web, I can update it, and I like that.   I did some behind the scenes work to customize it a bit, and that was a fair amount of work, but it should be easy from here on out.  It’s not all that fancy, but it’s easy to use and it accomplishes the primary goal — which is to let people know about me and my work.  Whether you’re a bestseller or just someone with a few story sales, I don’t think there’s a good excuse for a writer to not have a website these days.  It’s the lowest form of soft sell advertising, and once it’s up and running, the time commitment is pretty minimal. 

I still don’t think of myself as a true blogger, and I don’t think I’ll ever be one.  I stand in awe of those who do it well (here’s one and here’s another), and I have no doubt it helps certain writers expand their audience, but I’m always trying to find ways to get myself off the Internet since I waste too much time on it as it is. 

Yet I also know that no one will ever take a writer’s career as seriously as the writer itself, and if there’s going to be information out there about me and my writing, then there should be at least one place where there’s no middle man between me and getting the word out.  Plus I wanted to have a tool that was easy to use and I think I found one. 

Either that, or I just wanted another way to avoid doing any writing, which is often the case.

Some exciting news . . . I’ll be releasing my first collection of stories with the fine folks at PS Publishing, a very prestigious press out of the UK. It won’t be until late next year, possibly even early 2009, but I’m so stoked about it that I wanted to share the news. It’ll be part of their PS Showcase series, which puts out “mini story-collections - priced as per our novellas at £10 / $20 (approx.) for the hardcover and £25 / $50 (approx.) for the signed, jacketed hardcover - from writers whom we believe are deserving of more attention.” And judging by the first one they released, they really look like they’ll be incredible books.

Tentatively titled A WEB OF BLACK WIDOWS AND OTHER TALES OF LOVE AND LOSS, the collection will most likely feature four all new tales and two reprints. The reprints, “Front Row Seats” and “The Woman Coughed Up By the Sea” appeared in the excellent online magazine Chizine several years ago, so they have never before appeared in print form. They also both received honorable mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.

The title novelette is a dark tale involving a grieving tattoo artist on a cross-country road trip to see the Pacific Ocean as a way to pay tribute to his deceased wife, who meets a pregnant woman on the run from her disturbed husband and strikes an unusual friendship. A little bit of suspense, a little bit of horror, and a little bit of magic realism thrown in for good measure — this one doesn’t fit neatly into any category, and I’m thrilled it will be the focal point of this collection.

The other tales will all involve love and loss in its various forms, all of them set in the modern world with a bit of a fantastic twist — a great purchase for a little Halloween reading. Or Valentine’s day, if you’re feeling a little blue and all the red hearts and candies aren’t doing it for you. I’ll post more details on the website as the collection comes together.

Proving once again that I’m not much of a blogger, I’ve gone too long without an update. Part of this is due to the state of my life right now — when you have a day job, two young children, all the fun stuff that makes life interesting, and the writing on top of it, it makes finding time for anything not considered Top Priority pretty tough — but it’s also because there really hasn’t been much to report. This isn’t to say I haven’t been busy. But as I’ve shifted more of my time from short stories to novels (and if you want to eventually make a living as a writer, you pretty much have no choice), there’s obviously going to be less newsworthy activity. The novels are longer, so you write fewer of them a year, hence marketing fewer of them, which means there’s less news. Of course, I hope that once I start sellling them, the news is correspondingly bigger, but we’ll have to forge that particular river when we get to it.

That said, I happily note that I’ve finished a new novel. I also finished a novella in the last few months, and that’s now out on an editor’s desk. And my story, “The World in Primary Colors,” just hit the stands in the September issue of Ellery Queen. I don’t want to give anything away, but this is one of those rare stories where the whole thing came to me all at once, as I was helping my (at the time) two-year-old daughter navigate one of those tunnel-like play structures you sometimes find at fast food joints. Often ideas need molding and shaping, coming to me like a slab of potter’s clay, but this one hit me like a punch to the gut, so much so that I actually remember sitting down for a moment, reeling from its impact.

That’s a nice feeling. I wish I could have it more often. Of course, that doesn’t always mean the story’s any good, but I think it often does. I guess you’ll have to go read the story to find out. Why, you don’t even have to subscribe. You can get an electronic copy from Fictionwise.

Now see how sly I was, working in that plug?

It seemed time to do a quick update on the writing. My wife’s broken leg back in early March threw us all for a loop, and with two young children in the house on top of things, it certainly made for a hectic and exhausting time. The writing took a backseat for a while, but I seem to be back up to nearly full speed now. I’m still not quite at the all-cylinders-firing level of productivity I’d like to be at, but that’s something I’m continuing to work on, and I’m getting there. There’s just no doubt in my mind any more that my own productivity will determine the speed at which I achieve the goals I’ve laid out for myself (goals that are so ambitious and lofty that I refrain in mentioning them, for fear of sounding arrogant to the extreme). This may seem pretty obvious (write more = do better), but it takes a while to develop confidence in your abilities and your potential so that you can fully embrace the idea that there’s really nothing holding you back but your own dedication and discipline. This isn’t to sound egotistical. I’ve got bucket loads still to learn, and always will; it’s just that I’ve come far enough, and achieved enough modest success, to know that any real obstacles to success are within me. It’s refreshing, and sometimes frustrating, when you realize this. It’s refreshing because you’re not shadowboxing with invisible villains any more. It can be frustrating when you’re not doing what you know you need to do.

Simply put, it means this: I know what I have to do to get where I want to go. Now it’s just a matter of doing it. As far as actual writing goes, I’m making good progress on the novel, but it’s a long road. If a short story is a sprint, a novel is a marathon, and I’m still getting used to the difference.

Publishing News:

• “Father Hagerman’s Dog” appeared in the June 2007 issue of Analog. A college student’s attempt to sell a robotic dog to a defrocked priest. A bit light-hearted, this one, and fun to write. (If you can’t locate an actual copy of the magazine, you can buy it electronically through Fictionwise at http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook45191.htm?cached)
• “Road Game,” a suspense story involving road rage and the power of addiction, appeared in the June 2007 issue of Ellery Queen. (If you can’t locate an actual copy of the magazine, you can buy it electronically through Fictionwise at http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook45192.htm?cached)
• “The Dinosaur Diaries,” a coming-of-age novelette that begins when a young man finds Tyrannosaurus rex tracks on his family farm in modern Iowa, will soon appear in Realms of Fantasy. It’s one of the longest and most ambitious stories I’ve sold so far. I was told the August 2007 issue, but who knows if this is true. More news when I have it.

As part of their promotional campaign, Weird Tales has put my story, “Directions to Mourning’s Deep,” online for free. It also appears in issue 344. It’s very short, and quite unusual, so if you have a few moments, give it a shot. Of course, they’d prefer that you subscribe, but I know that’s not always an option for everyone.

It’s been a couple months since I lasted posted — no surprise, I guess, me being the not-really-a-blogger that I am — so I thought I should do a quick update. Of course, there really isn’t much to update, at least not anything I can talk about in detail, but I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’ve vanished. (Well, come to think of it, maybe I would, that might create a sense of mystery, and I do love a good mystery, but I guess by making this post I’ve missed that opportunity, darn it.) My agent went to market with the fantasy novel, and there’s interest brewing from a number of publishers, which could be very good indeed, but we have to wait to see how it all shakes out. It could all end up being a lot of smoke, too, so I’m trying not to get too excited. Needless to say, there are lots of hurdles a book has to jump over, even after an editor is interested in it. Other editors in the department have to get behind it, the marketing department has to get behind it, etc, etc.

Otherwise, work on the new novel progresses, I’m working on a collaboration with another writer on a new short story, I got a rewrite request back from a magazine on another, and I’ve got a number of other stories in various stages of completion. Lots of good stuff. I like being a busy writer more than anything else.

The good news is that I think my productivity is getting back, maybe even surpassing, what it was before my son’s birth back in February. You wouldn’t think having a second child would be that big of an adjustment, but I found it a lot harder to carve out time with two children than with one. Not that I’m complaining. My kids are both a joy and a wonder to me, and I cherish every minute with them, even those minutes when I’m simultaneously changing a poopy diaper while dealing a three-year-old’s temper tantrum, but there’s been a fair amount of mental anguish while I tried to find the right balance again. So let’s put it this way: 2006 was a good year, but it wasn’t an easy year. I’m hoping 2007 is both better and easier.

Anyway, on to 2007. A belated Happy New year to everyone!

Recent Reads:

• Transgressions, edited by Ed McBain.
• Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt, by Nick Hornby

I’ve only been posting once or twice a month in this blog, but I think I’ll try to post a little more often. My reluctance to post has been for two reasons: one, I’m always afraid I’m going to get sucked into this thing when I should be spending that time writing fiction (I’m always trying to cut down my Internet time as it is), and two, I didn’t think I should post unless I really felt I had something worthwhile to say.

Well, I’ve reconsidered. The primary purpose of this blog is really to keep people who care about my work up-to-date. This doesn’t mean I won’t write essay-style posts now and then, but I’ll also include more regular, bullet-style updates. It won’t be daily, but it will probably be more than once a month. That said . . .

Writing News

I made two short story sales this week. My story, “Tommy Top Hat,” will appear in future issue of Weird Tales — who knows when, because though it’s a great magazine, they unfortunately have quite a backlog. The other sale was “Motivational Speaker,” to the DAW anthology Mystery Date, edited by Denise Little. It will probably be out late next year. I also got a rewrite request on a novelette from a Big Market that I’m quite excited about; no promises, since it’s a tough rewrite, but I’m working on it now. I liked the story before, but I think it’s coming together even better. We’ll see.

Recent Reads

• Cinnamon Skin and The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald. Amazing writer. I’ve decided to read all of his books, not just because I’m enjoying them, but because just about every professional fiction writer I know has told me that MacDonald should be on your shortlist of writers to study.
• Backstory by Robert B. Parker. I’ve only read a couple of the Spenser books, but they’re worth reading just for the witty dialog between Spenser and Hawk.
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. A great read.

Recommended Websites

• If you’re interested in writing short fantasy, check out the blogs by the first readers for Realms of Fantasy (Slushmaster) and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Slush God)
• Matt Cheney always has interesting things to say about fiction and other things, whether you agree with him or not.
• If you want see the inner workings of the mind of a writer whose career has been on the fast track, check out Jay Lake’s blog. Lots of good stuff there.

The inimitable editors at All-Star Stories, David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi, have just released their latest book, Twenty Epics. The title exactly describes the book’s contents: instead of epic fantasies that span mammoth multi-volume tomes, the editors wanted to give their readers the same feeling in ten thousand words or less. Did they succeed? You’ll have to be the judge of that, though it does appear the book is generating a lot of buzz.

As for my story, well, it doesn’t really appear in the volume. That is, I’m still working on it — it’s been quite the epic getting the story finished.

And yet, my name is on the back jacket of the book, so apparently something bearing my name appears inside.

You’ll have to buy the book, of course, to find out.

Someone once said to me that the only difference between a professional fiction writer and one who treats it as a hobby – or really, any art or craft — is the level of obsession. After treating writing as a hobby for the majority of my life, four years ago I decided to up my obsession level, and one of the ways I track my dedication is by doing a year-end review of what I’ve accomplished. I was dreading it this year, since, for various reasons I won’t go into here, the last four months of the year were pretty much lost. Here’s how it panned out:

Words of original fiction: 242,355
New stories written: 19
New novels written: 2
Story sales: 12
Novel sales: 0
Total story sales thus far: 25
Stories in the mail at the end of the year: 32
Publications this year: 6
Books read: 20
Money made in 2005: $1625.72

And in the end, I was pleasantly surprised, since the year stacks up well against the last three (in the high-obsession era). That word count is the equivalent of four novels, though half of it went to short stories. I had more sales and appearances than any other year. I was a little disappointed in the number of books read, since a writer needs to keep feeding the mind to stay fresh, but since I hardly read anything the last third of the year, it’s not too bad. Anyone who thinks there’s a lot of money in short stories probably just had their bubble burst, but you don’t write short stories for the money. You write them for the love of them, to build your skills as a writer, and to make a name for yourself if and when you go to sell your novels. I no longer track rejections, since it’s a meaningless number, and it seemed all the more meaningless after I racked up 500 of them. I learned long ago that selling a story often has more to do with connecting with the right editor at the right time than it does on the quality of the story. And since this is the case, there’s no reason to take rejection personally. Hard to do in actual practice, but reminding myself of this fact helps.

I don’t post these numbers to brag, but just as a reminder to anyone who thinks luck is a major factor in a writer’s (or any artist’s) success that it has a lot more to do with work ethic than anything else. You can overwhelm just about any run of bad luck with massive amounts of work. And if you do have some bad luck sometime during your year – I certainly did this year – all that hard work when things were going well might pleasantly surprise you – as it did me – when you add up the numbers.

Now on to 2006! I feel productive, and since I know that I’ll probably have some twists and turns during the year that’ll get in the way of the writing . . . well, I better make the most of this time while it lasts, right?

Note: Since I don’t believe I’ve mentioned it on the blog yet, a couple weeks ago I made my 25th short story sale: “The Grand Mal Reaper,” a tale of a man who suffers from seizures and another, more sinister, affliction, to Realms of Fantasy, the leading fantasy magazine.