Comments on: People Have a Funny Way of Remembering the Past

By: admin

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:22:33 +0000

I figured as much

By: Matt Staggs

Matt Staggs — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:04:48 +0000

Just hoping that people know that I’m quoting another person and opening up the thread for debate. It’s not actually my question or contention.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:49:30 +0000

Actually, Gay romance is huge. Esp in the indie market. Tell her to check out Soft Skull presses. They have a gay romance line.

“Numerically they seem rare to me. Or maybe I just skip over them.”

My point is, short story wise, they’ve always been sort of rare. But I only think that’s due to the fact that its such a specific sub genre, while all the other subgenres of fantasy are looser in their interpretations.

By: Sam Taylor

Sam Taylor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:45:04 +0000

Yes, I’ve seen some good ones as well. I’ve also seen some bad ones Numerically they seem rare to me. Or maybe I just skip over them.

Me, for some reason, I can only write HF as a novel. Anything shorter and it falls apart.

My wife writes modern settings, gay romance mostly (since I enjoy reading about lesbians, I suppose this is only fair.) Seems like a mostly non-existant market, though. When she gets done with her current work, I’ve suggested that she should submit it to agents as Literary.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:32:05 +0000

My wife writes Romance as well! Does she write historical? My wife writes historical, Regency romance. Which is funny, since I can use her reference books when I write steampunk. Hah.

Anyway, I love heroic fantasy, even in the short form. I think it can work, and I can list a ton of them in the last year or so. Most have been in Realms of Fantasy, Fantasy Magazine (in print more than online), a few in LCRW, a few in EV, and a whole bunch in F&SF. Also, one in Clarkesworld.

By: Sam Taylor

Sam Taylor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:27:27 +0000

I love Heroic Fantasy, but I rarely read it in short form. Novels seem the natural length for it, for some reason. Maybe it’s to do with worldbuilding and immersion. There’s a lot of work to do to get the reader to buy in, and it seems hard to do in a short story. To me, at least.

You also don’t see a lot of pure romance-genre short fiction. My wife writes some, and I was looking for romance short fiction (magazine) markets and came up with 0. Really. 0. That’s very odd considering it’s the most powerful and high-selling fiction genre of all. (I go off topic this far only so I can (hopefully) be corrected.)

But perhaps this indicates that some genres and sub-genres seem better suited to different lengths.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:26:47 +0000

I did, sort of, heh, leave this as a comment on the page (I think?).

Oh, and I’m a HUGE fan of epic fantasy and heroic fantasy. HUGE. I’m just sick of this either/or debate.

By: Matt Staggs

Matt Staggs — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:23:40 +0000

All good! I’m just glad to be able to offer this writer who wrote me an opportunity to elicit the opinions of fans, publishers and established writers. Would you mind coming back by and leaving something to this effect – even a carbon copy of this statement? I think that he would find it interesting.

For what it’s worth, I tend to be an omnivorous reader. As long as I find it entertaining I’m up for it. I’m a fan of both Jorge Luis-Borges and Robert E. Howard, eh?