Writing A New Genre: A Dialogue With My Muse

The Dialogue: Writing A New Genre

Mike and Muse stare at Mike’s laptop screen, both are clearly perplexed.

MUSE: What the hell is that?

MIKE: I don’t know

They both lean in closer.

MUSE: Is it a horror story?

MIKE: If you squint at it just right, it kind of looks like horror, the way a gyro is kind of like a sandwich.

MUSE: Maybe it’s Fantasy.

MIKE: But there are no speculative elements.

MUSE: Is it anything?

MIKE: It’s something, but I can’t figure out what. It’s just…

SIMULTANEOUS: Weird.

MUSE: Why did you write this?

MIKE: Why did you inspire me to write it?

MUSE: Don’t blame me for this. Just because I give you an idea doesn’t mean you have to use it.

MIKE: Okay, okay, sorry. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is (Mumbles) Even though it’s definitely yours. (Normal voice) What matters is what we do with it now.

MUSE: What do you do with all your other stories?

MIKE: I submit them to be published in magazines.

MUSE: Really?

MIKE: What did you think I did with them?

MUSE: I don’t know. I’m not involved with that part of the process. I was picturing you giving them to a bird who’d fly across the universe where they would become the dreams of a sleeping giant.

MIKE: No, I submit them to magazines.

MUSE: And they get published?

MIKE: A bunch of them do, yeah.

MUSE: Why don’t you do that with this one?

MIKE: Because it’s not like anything else I’ve written. It’s weird but not speculative. It’s shocking but not horror. It doesn’t neatly fit into any genre. I don’t know if any magazine will like it.

MUSE: Do you like it?

MIKE: Yeah…

MUSE: Do you think you’re the only person on the planet capable of liking it?

MIKE: Maybe….

MUSE: Do you think that 3.8 billion years of evolution and tens of thousands of years of civilization have developed you into being the only living organism who could possibly enjoy this story?

(Pause)

MUSE: Because you’re not that special, dude.

MIKE: Okay, maybe other people might like it, but I don’t know if any of them edit the publications I typically submit to.

MUSE: Then look for more publications. Find some that publish stuff that’s sort of like this and send it to them. The worse they could do is say no.

(Mike nods)

MUSE: And if that doesn’t work just give it to a bird and send it off to a sleeping giant.

In Short

Most of my stories are easy to identify: horror….sci-fi…. general speculative and therefore I’ve had a pretty easy time finding publications that might be interested. However, this past summer I wrote a short story that wasn’t so easy to classify. It wasn’t horror. There were no speculative elements. I can’t (quite) call it literary. It was weird but not weird fiction. My solution has been to submit it to a variety of publications. While I do study their guidelines and previously published stories to make sure they’d be interested, the publications I’m sending it to come in all stripes. I’ll continue to think outside the box until I find a home for the story.

Writing Stuff

My comic, The Secret Lives of Demon Hunters continues to be illustrated. I am very excited and I can’t wait for you all to eventually see the artwork.

I received feedback from the editor regarding my novel Edge Country. After a week of outlining I have started (literally this morning) making changes. It’s a lot but the story feels like it’s improving. A sign of a good editor is one who directs you closer to what you want the story to be than you would’ve gotten if you’d written it on your own.

My short story “The Thrilling and Sensational Flock Lifestyle” was recently published by New Myths magazine. You can read it here. New Myths was kind enough to put some of the quotes in a couple memes.

And my other short story “Rage and Redemption” will be published in Graveside Press’ Soul Anthology later this month.

As far as books go, I just finished listening to The Dissonance by Shaun Hamill and have started listening to The Census-Taker by China Miéville. Believe it or not this is the first work by Miéville I’ve ever read/listened to. Also, I’m going super old school and have started reading The Epic of Gilgamesh translated by Stephen Mitchell.

Life Stuff

My wife and I are still training for the Ocean City half marathon on November 2. It was going to be a full marathon (our sixth) but because of an injury we had to downgrade. The longest we’ve run this training season is 10 miles. This weekend I’m planning on doing 11, but since my wife is out of town I’ll have to do it solo, which will get monotonous.

And now, for absolutely no reason, here’s a photo of my cat (he’s sharing is opinion on strangers being inside his house all day):