September 14, 2009
Transitions & Translations
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading for the past week. See the previous two posts for thoughts on the audiobooks I’ve recently enjoyed. There was a fair amount of writing as well, none of it for this blog. My Med Scholars Fellowship required I write one last short story. It unfortunately grew into a novelette. I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I’m very pleased with the tone I was able to hit and the story I was able to tell. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem terribly marketable. At 15,000 words, it’s an awkward length for most short fiction markets. Inspired by some end-of-life issues I encountered in the children’s hospital mixed together with a recent reread of The Death Of Ivan Ilyich, it’s a bit heavy. I worry that it’s too reflective for some markets, and lacking the hard science other markets require. Maybe I’m in some post-story blues. I turned it in and will let it stew for a few days before I decided if I should submit it somewhere.
On the publishing side of things, I’m very happy to report that negotiations for translation rights for SPELLWRIGHT have officially begun with both German and Dutch publishing houses. Nothings solid yet, but I’m very excited by the level of interest we’ve getting. I’ll post any updates as they come in.
Also, the page proofs for SPELLWRIGHT came through today, so I’ll be turning those around ASAP.
Also, I’ve recently held my breath, and made a down payment to get a professionally developed website. Both this blog and spellwright.com will be moving in the next month or so. I’ll be sure to point to the new destination and hopefully set up a forwarding…umm…thingy.
Behind the news website will be the Renaissance Man, Jeremy Tolbert—author, photographer, blogger, web-designer extraordinaire. Most recently, I’ve been obsessed with one of Jeremy’s posts about creative endeavors. If you do anything out of the mainstream, follow the link and read Jeremy’s commentary thereafter.
On the medical side of things, my USMLE step 1 scores came back. How exactly that’s changed me…is complicated. I’ll need a bit more time to mull it over. In fact, I think I was late posting here because I needed the time to even get this far with my understanding of it. Likely I’ll have something by tomorrow…
Science, Magic, Medicine Show 
Jack Kincaid said,
September 18, 2009 at 8:58 pm
15,000 is an awkward length, but I think you’ll have an easier time with that than you would with a novella in the 30-45K word range.