Janner Kohl presses on
Filed under Writing Journal on March 20, 2007
Tagged: Relvan's Rescue, submissions
I did one more polish pass and incorporated your wonderful comments into a new hook for “Relvan’s Rescue”. Then I spent the morning browsing Ralan’s website for potential markets. There are five likely candidates, and I sent the story off to two of them via their online submission forms. I’ll mail a hardcopy to a third market later this week (I’m out of paper for the printer). Of the last two markets, one does not accept simultaneous submissions, so I’ll save that one for last. The other recommends purchasing a sample issue of the magazine before submitting, which I’ll do.
There were some additional markets that are currently closed for submission, so I put them on my “B” list. With an average of 1-2 months return time, I expect this process could go through the summer. For those interested, I’ve listed the markets I’m submitting to below:
- Intergalactic Medicine Show
- Strange Horizons
- Realms of Fantasy
- Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Aeon Speculative Fiction
- Jim Baen’s Universe (closed to submissions until July 2007)
March 20th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I sent my pirate story to Realms this week. Great minds and all that. lol
I figured it was sitting on my harddrive, I figured I might as well send it in… I need to build up my stack of rejections anyway.
Good luck on your submissions!
March 21st, 2007 at 9:36 am
Do we get to read your polished version? I’m curious as to what changes you made from the original.
March 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Sure. Here’s the one I sent to IGMS:
Captain Janner Kohl takes pride in his discipline and his philosophy of no regret. He strives to be the model of a professional soldier. However, when the commander of his mercenary guild orders him to rescue the kidnapped son of old flame from pirates, Janner wonders if he really has lived without regret–at least in regard to his feelings for her. Sea monsters and betrayal to the pirates by one of the men in the squad keeps Janner from dwelling on his private concerns. Forced to flee their sinking ship, the mercenary captain and his second-in-command must rely upon the aid of an old shaman to infiltrate the pirate camp and free the boy. During the attempt, Janner learns the pirates are really mercenaries from rival guild trying to start a war, and he must decide if he can honor his promise to his former love or sacrifice the success of the mission to unmask the plot.
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:48 am
Nice job, Kam. Very tight, and it gets across the conflict, characters and drama much better.
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 am
Nice, I like this one a lot better. Something still seems a little off to me with the flow, maybe it’s the odd shift to “Sea monsters and betrayal…” Maybe if you switched the sentence around, “Janner is kept from dwelling on these private concerns by betrayal to the pirates by one of his men.” Hmm, I don’t really like that either though.
Oh, one other thing I noticed, I think you missed putting in the word “an” here:
“orders him to rescue the kidnapped son of old flame from pirates”
“orders him to rescue the kidnapped son of an old flame from pirates”
Anyway, I hope you have success in getting this picked up and published!
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:41 am
Yeah, I also missed an “a” in “the pirates are really mercenaries from rival guild”