[Writingworkshop] submission attempt

[Adam Holland]

Gutsy?
I didn't see any downside, so why the hell not?

I'm very happy that he seemed to like it, and asked for more, though I don't
know what I have in me at that length. :)

On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 3:07 PM, Neale Morison <nmorison at mit.edu> wrote:

> Gutsy move, Adam. The editor sounds like he genuinely liked it, as did
> I. Thanks for letting us know about this.
> Neale
>
> Adam Holland wrote:
> >
> > Hey everyone,
> >
> > As you may know,  *Nature* opened up its "Futures" fiction feature to
> any
> > submission.
> >
> > I sent them my "Sing-song of John-Q. Post-human"
> > .
> > Joe had actually suggested I do that when I wrote it a few years ago,
> but
> > submissions were by invitation only at the time.
> >
> > It was rejected, sadly. (My guess is it wasn't "hard" enough, take a
> > look at
> > their guidelines if you want details)
> > but my correspondence with the editor was very friendly and real, and
> > encouraging.  anyone have any ideas for pieces under 1000 words?
> >
> > I include the relevant pieces of it below, mostly because I imagine that
> > anything surrounding submission for publication is the sort of thing
> > people
> > are curious about.
> >
> >
> > Best,
> > Adam
> > --
> > When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
> >
> > Dear Mr. Gee,
> >
> > Attached please find a submission for *Futures, * my story ""The
> Sing-Song
> > of John Q. Post-Human."
> >
> > I wrote this while taking a course entitled "Writing SF" with author Joe
> > Haldeman.  He enjoyed it, and given its length, encouraged me to submit
> it
> > to you for publication.
> >
> >  The story is a humorous bio-tech reimagining of Rudyard Kipling's "The
> > Singsong of Old Man Kangaroo <http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/kanga.htm
> >",
> > and I find that it has a narrative cadence that works best if it is read
> > aloud.  I hope that you enjoy it.
> >
> > I also have an accompanying poem, in the same way that Kipling's
> original
> > did, but have left it out based on the length constraints on your
> website.
> > If you'd like to see it, please let me know.
> >
> >
> > Best,
> > Adam Holland
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Adam
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks very much for your interest in Futures, and for sending us your
> > story
> > 'The Sing-Song of John Q Posthuman'. Unfortunately it's not for us.
> >
> >
> >
> > I have attached our guidelines, for your future reference.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for reading it, Henry.
> > I know you are busy, but may I ask if you personally enjoyed it, even
> > if it
> > isn't right for Nature?
> >
> > Best,
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Adam
> >
> >
> >
> > Yes, I did, more for the quality of the writing than anything else. I
> > think
> > this might work in a magazine that does SF and nothing else, as a kind
> of
> > light-relief item. For a magazine that has one SF item a week, we must
> > steer
> > fairly close to a conventional story format. As this is very hard to
> > achieve
> > in a vigntette - and vigntettes do lend themselves to non-narrative
> > forms -
> > I do stretch a point, as you have seen.
> >
> >
> >
> > Don't be discouraged. You write well.  More, please.
> > --
> > When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
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> >
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> >
>
>
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-- 
When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
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