kiya: (writing)
kiya ([personal profile] kiya) wrote2009-05-23 04:16 am
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Today, I wish I understood what a genre is.

I have written a ... thing. Currently working on revising it so that it works better, but it is effectively done. I wasn't planning on "doing something" with it, entirely, but enough people have asked me that I'm now sort of staring at it in a "If I wanted to submit you somewhere, where would you go?" kind of way.

It's not suitable to the standard SF/F markets, I think, because I'm pretty sure it's only SF/F by my standards, and my standards weren't aware that there was anything other than SF/F until I was in my teens, because it was all strange people in odd situations to me. (As you might imagine, this gives me tremendous rupture problems in any conversation in which a distinction between genre and non-genre is particularly significant.)

What it is is ... guh. An archetype-exploration of a particular variant of a particular type of hero's journey with extensive symbolism largely drawn from Celtic myth. 4500 words, ish.

In second person future.

I'm pretty sure that it's only actually suitable to some kind of literary publication, even without taking into account the fact that it's second person future. It has other subtextual stuff -- it's as much a religious and sexual exploration as anything else -- but it's written in such a way that that is likely only clearly apparent to a tiny fraction of even people I know, and thus subcultural publications appropriate to the subtexts would likely treat the thing with a generalised, "Buh?"

I found Duotrope searching the web for literary fiction markets; does anyone have any better ideas for what to do with the damn thing if I decide I do want to submit it somewhere other than go through the plausible places there (and on other similar sites) and check submission guidelines for things that look worth exploring?

Does anyone know of a publication that really, really needs to read 4500 words of second person future instruction in the nature of the sacred mysteries of achieving rulership?
ext_28673: (Default)

[identity profile] lisaquestions.livejournal.com 2009-05-23 09:27 am (UTC)(link)
Is the main character queer or POC? If so, Verb Noire might be an option.

Check out Crossed Genres. This month's theme is anthropomorphism and the next is alternate history.
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[identity profile] hobbitblue.livejournal.com 2009-05-23 10:18 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like SF in the sense of Speculative Fiction, and Canticle for Leibowitz was pretty out there with its religious elements, so the genre can be stretched quite a bit... I'm intrigued, personally.
ardaniel: photo of Ard in her green hat (Default)

[personal profile] ardaniel 2009-05-23 10:20 am (UTC)(link)
Electric Velocipede is closed to submissions until 2010. Polu Texni is closed until further notice (and pays three to five cents a word when they're open). ChiZine is seven cents a word, specifies "dark" material with no qualifiers as to what the hell they mean by that, and is closed until Sept. 1, 2009. Heliotrope's currently closed and pays ten cents a word.

Cabinet des Fees pays one cent a word, but they are a fairytale-oriented zine.

Lone Star Stories pays flat $20 for two-month non-exclusive online-only. No real guideline as to what they want other than "read all our other stuff and figure it out."

I haven't the brain to run through the entire SF Crow's Nest zine listing right now. (Ah, work, how you continue to be work.) But there it is if you've got the brain.
Edited 2009-05-23 10:22 (UTC)
ardaniel: Jason Statham holding a gun, caption "not a tourist" (not a tourist)

[personal profile] ardaniel 2009-05-23 10:27 am (UTC)(link)
Also, I think SF&F editors should occasionally have to eat something that doesn't resemble their comfort zones. It's good for them.
mindways: (Default)

[personal profile] mindways 2009-05-23 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Agreed. :)

(And such things do have the advantage of feeling quite different from all the other SF&F out there.)

[identity profile] xiphias.livejournal.com 2009-05-23 12:25 pm (UTC)(link)
New Yorker?

Worth a shot, anyway.

[identity profile] pariyal.livejournal.com 2009-05-23 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to read it!

[identity profile] aureantes.livejournal.com 2009-05-24 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
Outside of SF/F, I think it might have some good market potential in the Pagan/Esoteric category, as being a fictional journey/meditation with that level of symbolic content. Not to say it wouldn't still be SF/F, but it might be a lot easier to find a publisher and get it out in the public eye that way. Especially if it reads better and is more intelligent than that cackhanded pseudo-"real life" monstrosity The Celestine Prophecy et al.