Welcome to the blog of science fiction author Eileen Rhoadarmer--where science fiction and Mommyhood collide!


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Analog Now Accepts Electronic Submissions!

Apparently it's been a few years since I submitted to Analog, but I have looked at their submission guidelines from time to time when deciding which market to hit up next.  I've tended not to send much to them because it's so much easier for me to submit electronically.  However, I decided it was time to send one of my stories to them, and much to my surprise I found that they now have an electronic submission form!

http://analog.magazinesubmissions.com/

I think this is excellent, and it meant that I got my story back out tonight rather than gathering everything together and then seeing what day would be best for a trip to the post office this week.  Now the only big market I submit to regularly that doesn't accept electronic submissions is Fantasy and Science Fiction.  I imagine they'll probably jump on the bandwagon sooner or later.  Any bets as to how long it will take?


In other news, I finished the book that I found so unsatisfying (blogged about here) last night, and the ending did NOT make everything better.  The protagonist continued to passively observe through most of the narrative, and even when he was active it was usually at another's insistence.  But then the end... ick...
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If you have any desire to read The Box of Delights by John Masefield, don't read the rest
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It's a spoiler, after all
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It turned out to be a friggin' dream!  I mean, c'mon!  Talk about jumping the shark!  Now again, it was written in 1935 so it predated jumping the shark, but still!  Now, waking up didn't get the protagonist out of trouble or anything; the author at least wrapped the plot up--tritely and coincidentally, but it was wrapped up--but still!  Urgh!  I suppose that might explain why people weren't reacting to the wondrous things going on around them.  Wacky stuff can happen in dreams and we accept it as a matter of course.  However, when that happens in fiction--and goes unexplained for nearly 300 friggin' pages--it's very unsatisfactory.

Okay, rant is over.  Suffice it to say, I do not recommend the book.

I did have to laugh at the author's bio in the back, though:
"The Box of Delights is now an established Christmas favourite and as much a part of the season as Dickens's A Christmas Carol."
Hardly.  It hasn't been rewritten and retold hundreds of times, starring everyone from Patrick Stewart to Kermit the Frog, so I don't think it's quite as much a part of Christmas.  Probably because few people put up with it long enough to reach the disappointing ending.

Okay, sorry, I said the rant was over.

2 comments:

Ben Godby said...

So happy about Analog. Now it's just up to F&SF to stop being major nerdlingers and take electronic subs, too.

Charlie N. Holmberg said...

Ha ha, that sucks. But that's great about analog--electronic submissions are always easier (and require less TLC. What is the world coming to?)