Sale! “In The Unlikely Event,” To Daily Science Fiction

In a rare example of “One shot, one kill,” after boarding a plane and listening to the pre-flight announcement that cheerfully listed every terrible thing that could happen to us, I mused on how much worse a pre-space-flight announcement would be. By the end of the flight, I had a 650-word story, and within 30 days I had a sale to Daily Science Fiction.

I’m particularly pleased to be in DSF, because they’re one of the better things to happen to speculative short fiction in a while; a place that buys 260 stories a year and has a nice fat mailing list full of SF fans is a win-win on every side.  I’m not quite sure how they’re making money, but I want them to stay in business forever.

…well, actually I might have an idea on how they’re making buck.  Though I am being paid at my highest-ever per-word rate ever, a scant 641 words means that I am making $51.28 off of this sale. Flash fiction is a joy to read, but it ain’t gonna pay the bills, which means they can keep expenses down.  And provide lots of eyeballs to look at some nice flashfic.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

A Request For Psychiatric Help, Or: My Muse Is Killin’ Me

I require your help because my S&M Muse hates me.

Which is to say that while others have a delicate muse that leads them gently to poetic fields covered in dew, I have a muse who grabs me by the ear and then jumps up and down on my stomach until I vomit out a story.

I’d like to tell you I have a choice in which tale I write next, but I really don’t.  My muse, subconsciously, has a knack for finding my weakest spot and forcing me to write a story that hinges on precisely that weakness.  Am I bad at characterization?  Write a story with next to no plot.  Bad at theme?  Write a story that doesn’t make any sense without the underlying theme to glue it together.  Bad at prose?  Here’s a tale that won’t work at all unless the ending is poetic and vivid.

In this case, my muse is kicking me firmly in the balls, because my weakest point overall as a writer?

My loathing of research.

I think that’s why I write fantasy and SF, because who’s to say I’m wrong?  Physics?  Oh, don’t get on me about physics, as long as the characters are compelling nobody will care if the physics are gobbledegook.  And magic’s just magic, you can’t correct me on that. I just wanna write, man, and Wikipedia’s right here, so why do I have to look anything up?

Except what I woke up with this morning was a horror novel about a psychiatric ward.  My muse wants me to do this.  And for this to work, I have to have that Stephen King-ish attention to detail where all the little bits are well-researched and fall out right.

I’m actually going to have to read books to do this one… which is where you come in.  Hopefully.

What I need are books on what it’s like as a psychiatric student in residence – preferably memoirs, so I can get not just what it’s like to learn to become a therapist/psychiatrist/psychologist who deals with patients.  I’m looking for books with not just a focus on dealing with the patients, but the experience of what it’s like to be with your fellow students as you take this journey – that pressure-cooker experience of “This is my life, starting” and the types of folks you run into along the way.  I’ve read tons of books like this about surgeons and nurses, but none in the mental health field.

So anything you can recommend to me on the topic would be good.  I’d be grateful.  Intensely grateful.  And maybe my muse would stop elbowing me in the back of the skull.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.