Adding Value

[erastes]

Charlie Cochrane has posted a very interesting Blog Post on The Macaronis about “People who Add Value to a Project.”

Or Not…

I have to say, that it might be because The Last Gasp was for novellas rather than short stories, but I was a lot luckier in this regard and all the contributions I got, even the ones I rejected, were excellent and none of the authors thought that the rules didn’t apply to them.  I do get a lot of that kind of thing with the Erotic Authors Membership though, I have to say!  Things like: “you must be published to join” but then I get “I’m not published but you can read my free fiction at…” and then there’s “Please supply links to your work.” and I get “You can find all you need on my webpage including my contact details.”  Then these same people are positively shocked when they are rejected.  I wonder if they are as partisan with publishers and agents, and whether they are still as shocked when they get rejected there.

The “rules” are there for reasons—not to piss you off, but simply to make the editors and agents less cranky and to save their eyes. It’s also to encourage writers to be professional—and it staggers me when authors simply aren’t.  I wasn’t involved in the “I DO” anthology this year (simply because I felt my head would explode if I took on another project) but the first year we had a couple of people whose sense of entitlement was startling.  I’ve never once replied to a rejection (I think actually I once did – to Clarkesworld – because a critique rejection from Nick is as good as an acceptance, and that was just to thank him for taking the time) but the number of authors who go “why? why? WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY STORY???? HMMMMMM????” amazes me.

Today I managed to get my word count done, and there is travel with over-fresh horses and a sulking hussar. I've been doing a bit of research too (or a bit MORE) and I think the regiment I've picked on (5th Brandenburg overseen by Generalleutenant von Tumpling) is an INFANTARY regiment. I know that 99 percent of my readers won't know or notice, but if a history buff gets hold of it... So I need to find a hussar regiment in the battle of Gitschin.. or perhaps move the whole thing to the battle of Dresden. That might be easier. ho hum. What larks, Pip!

Comments

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Your hussars and their frogging (nearly wrote frotting, it's been a long week) - next time you're in the library, look out Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-Princess (may not be the exact title, long week again). Real send up of the mystery genre and lots of frogging. No frottage.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I heart Simon Brett, and I hadn't heard of Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter until now.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

You might find this book helpful--it's called The Campaign of 1866 in Germany by Col. von Wright and Capt. H.M. Hozier, and it details exactly what regiments and which Hussars were under whose command, and what battles they fought in, and so on. (You'll have to be careful, since there were Prussian and Austrian Hussars in the same battle.)

The overthrow of the Germanic confederation by Prussia in 1866 by Sir Alexander Malet is useful in that it describes what the areas around the battles looked like, what the weather was like, and even what times some battles were fought.

The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's war with Prussia and Italy in 1866 by Geoffrey Wawro, is more modern but it still looks quite helpful.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

von Tumpling? Oh, the pet names that spring to mind...

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

MWAH. /random

[erastes.livejournal.com]

My library only has the 3rd one, but I've put that on reserve. Seems that the battle of dresden was on 3rd July (and the battle they'd just been in in Gitschin was 29th June) so it's likely there'd be more troops than them on the road. However it's about 200 miles, so they aren't likely to get there in time - I think.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Sadly we only see him for one scene, but yes, Rudolph's batman does use a nickname for him. :)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Get to work.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I have reserved a copy!