Quick Thoughts - My 2015 Writing Statistics

So today I thought, because I've been doing a lot of looking back at 2015, and because I just announced some works in progress, I'd give a bit of a peak today behind the curtain of my writing. Admittedly, I've been a bit down in terms of production for a little while. Part of this is because of other projects but I figure as 2015 is firmly behind and I'm feeling a little better at the moment about it, I'd go ahead and look at my writing statistics from last year. Nothing too thorough, but I do love me some statistics.

2015 total submissions: 198
2015 total rejections: 196
2015 total acceptances: 7

And that seems about right as far as year over year numbers go, though acceptances were definitely up more in relation to everything else. FYI this is only what I would consider "pro SFF fiction stats," so no smut and no poetry. But it shows a bit of an increase across the board from 2014, probably because I've gotten better at timing submissions and knowing where to submit stories in what order. The second half of the year continues to see a slow-down in submissions and rejections, probably corresponding with submission hiatuses at a few places, and especially bare are September and December, when things probably get a bit more busy personally as well as run into a great many publications being closed to subs.

Of the seven acceptances, two were accepted at the first place submitted to while others hit on their sixth, seventh, eighth, eleventh, and fourteenth submissions. The professional sales account for both(!) of the first submission acceptances as well as the eighth submission acceptance. Which leads me to assume that either I'm pretty good at targeting my submissions (both the first sub acceptances came from open themed flash calls) or else my stories are more sink-or-swim when it comes to hitting at a pro market.

August was an incredible month for me, with three acceptances, plus an additional one in September. Otherwise, my acceptances were clustered at the beginning of the year, with one each in January, February, and March. Which means during those times I was feeling quite good, but also means that I saw zero acceptances at all in April to July and in October to the end of the year. Very much a feast or famine kind of year, which was both incredibly cool and incredibly suck at times. Starting out the year with three solid acceptances (two of them pro) and then not selling another for another five months was tough. There were some smut sales in there, but still…

Lifetime through 2015 I'm sitting at 535 submissions and 497 rejections (which means I passed 500 rejections early this year, so hurrah?), with 16 acceptances. Which could be much worse. My longest sale in 2015 was just over 4000 words ("Nothing" at Betwixt) and my shortest 998 ("Capital Coffee" at Electric Spec). Four of the seven stories were flash, all under 1300 words. So flash is what seems to be selling, which is probably no surprise.

Anyway, there are my 2015 in writing stats. Maybe interesting to some? Whatever the case, thanks for reading!

All the best,

Charles Payseur

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "Where We're Going We Won't Need Categories" Sippy for Excellent I'm Not Sure What in Short SFF

This is it, my friends. You've stood by as I've shipped my favorite relationships. And while I've shivered under the covers waiting desperate for dawn thanks to my favorite horror. And while I've wept enough rivers of tears to sail an armada on because of my favorite emotional stories. And even while I've revved my engine and worn my sunglasses at night in honor of my favorite ACTION! of 2015. But now we come to the final Sippy category, a category so mysterious that it defies the very nature of definitions...I think... Because the final Sippy category is--

The "Where We're Going We Won't Need Categories" Sippy

for Excellent I'm Not Sure What in Short SFF

Sometimes there are stories that just refuse to be placed into a specific box. Stories that, when looking back on them, I can't quite pick out one element that made them memorable. Not that the stories from previous categories were at all simple, but these ones feature cakes made from dead people and were-helecopters and fox spirits and just so many things that made me want to honor them for being...well, strange. And amazing. So instead of thinking of myself as lazy, I will try to think of this category as the wide net to make sure I don't let any really weird tales slip away. And the winners are...

Quick Thoughts - My Favorite Longer Reads of 2015

So I've been loving running the Sippys. Want to know my favorite stories of 2015? Check out the Sippys (which sadly end tomorrow with the fifth and final category). But what about longer works? Novels and graphic novels and poetry chapbooks and…uh…other things? I figured today I would go through my favorite reads of 2015, which is to say my five-star rated reads that made it to my Goodreads (if you want to see all my 2015 reads, feel free).

DISCLAIMER! These are not things that necessarily came out in 2015. Some of these are older but new-to-me. Keeping up on new releases while also catching up on the near-infinite number of books I haven't read is a delicate game, and one that's a bit fraught thanks to ideas of canon and all. But I have a fair balance this year of things that are brand new and things that are contemporary but not new and things that are definitely not new. Anyway anyway, to the list!

MAUS (volume 1) by ART SPIEGELMAN
I actually feel rather bad I hadn't read this one sooner, because I had intended to any number of times but…well, never did. And what the fuck was I thinking, because it is amazing. Deep and intense and troubling and this look at both a period of time in general but more than that the story of family and people and the relationship between father and son and between both men with the conspicuously absent mother/wife. And yeah, so glad that I've read this and definitely looking forward to tracking down the second volume.

RADIANCE by CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
I love the structure of this novel, the way that it's not linear and is basically a collection of texts. It's constructed with such care and mystery and power and the setting is amazing, a taste of a solar system from the dreams of the past, where each world is an unspoiled land for humans to exploit—I mean explore. The voices shine here and the different texts combine and complicate each other in an amazing and delightful fashion. One of the many books out in 2015 that I absolutely loved.

KAREN MEMORY by ELIZABETH BEAR
Speaking of 2015 books that I loved, this one came out fairly early in the year and it is amazingly fun, a bit of steam western with characters that feel real and alive and a setting that breathes a history that was and wasn't. It's great because it blends fantasy and research and it's quite surprising to find out which elements from the story are fabricated and which are pulled relatively whole from the actual past. And the plot is tight and the action amazing and it all just works.

LINE AND ORBIT by SUNNY MORAINE and LISA SOEM
I've been meaning to read this for a while and oh my GLOB! I was not disappointed. I'm a sucker for m/m romantic plots and this books weaves one into an epic science fiction with expert skill. The two leads are complex and the setting is amazing. The plot is sufficiently huge and brings up eugenics and diasporas and reconciliation and war and the supporting characters are great, too, the whole package a brilliant mix of science fiction action with character-driven moral and romantic complications. So good. I can't wait to get to the other books in the series (hopefully later this year).

THE DISPOSSESSED by URSULA K. LE GUIN
This book is amazing and the setting and the complexity and fuck I just want to read this over and over again. The way that it plays with how language shapes culture and perception and how language can be used to try and be better is just great. And yes, there are still problems but that idea that being better is a process that's never over but that things can get better, can be more just and fair, is just yes, all the yes. The story touches on politics and sexuality and a sort of socialism and I just sort of love this book for the hope inside it, and also the sense of continual revolution and resistance.

THE SUMMER PRINCE by ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON
Post apocalyptic dystopia with kickass bisexual characters sex in Brazil? Yes please! I don't think it's a surprise that some of the books on this list are typically lumped into YA, because YA is actually amazing at showing that dissatisfaction with the way things are, with being content with imperfect systems. And this novel is all about resistance and art and voice and age. It's about love and about sex and about growing up. And I love it with an unashamed passion. The setting is vibrant and the characters are great and I CRIED SO MUCH!!! Ahem. Sorry. Yes, definitely read this one.

SHADOWSHAPER by DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER
So I liked Half-Resurrection Blues but I LOVED this book. It is amazing and comes out swinging and is basically a huge middle fiction to appropriation wrapped up in a bow of generational change and just basically everything that makes YA such fun and so valuable. There's just so many amazing characters and the magic flows into the setting into the art into everything and it's a great read, combining heritage and superheroics and magic and music and art and does it all with style.

And there you have it! Most of these I have actually reviewed (sometimes multiple times) and you can find my reviews by clicking on the author's tag either on the side bar or at the bottom of this post (added bonus is you can see my reviews of their other words that I've read recently as well). Anyway, there you have it, my favorite reads of 2015! Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Charles Payseur

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action in Short SFF

Hello and welcome to everyone's favorite awards that no one asked for, the Sippys! So far I've managed to ship my favorite relationships, cower in fear at my favorite scares, and totally not cry over my favorite tragic and/or beautiful stories of 2015. And there's still two more categories of Sippys to go! This week is all about the stories that get the heart pumping, that made me lean forward in my seat and read a little faster. Because fourth up is--

The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

There are those who complain that short SFF these days are, well, boring. Too luminous, too poetic, too metaphorical. There are those who pine for the days of the pulp science fictions that prioritized action and plot over subtlety or meaning. To those people I ask: what the fuck are you reading? I have seen zero indication that stories now are any less intense or visceral than those written at any point in the past (that these people who complain about the decline of compelling short SFF often identify as fans of Lovecraft...confuses me). And stories today use action in subtle and profound ways, to entertain of course but also to challenge and to goad, to complicate and to reveal some ugly truths. And today I'm focusing on stories that bring the action, the battles big and small, that manage to take a breakneck pace and a visual flare and craft something deeply personal. And the winners are...

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "There's Something in My Eye" Sippy for Excellent Making Me Ugly-Cry in Short SFF

Obviously by now it should be clear that Sippys are going to replace all other awards as the premier short fiction award. Already I can imagine awards nights and packed convention centers with writers arriving in limos and--okay maybe I exaggerate. But hey, the award that no one wanted continues! Relationships have been shipped and the lights are all blazing lest the creatures of horror find me, so that means it's time for the next Sippy category. Third up is--

The "There's Something in My Eye" Sippy 

for Excellent Making Me Ugly-Cry in Short SFF

Maybe I cry a little too much when it comes to reading fiction. Perhaps. I know society at large is a bit focused on real men not crying or some bullshit, but good stories are good stories and there is just something about reading certain ones that just gets to me. That wrecks me. And I love that, in part because it's such a release of emotions, one part catharsis and one part just really fucking good prose. Of course, some of the stories featured elsewhere in the Sippys also made me cry, but the five below did it with the most gusto. The winners are...

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "I'm Sleeping with the Lights On" Sippy for Excellent Horror in Short SFF

And you thought maybe this was over? After just one week? Fat chance! No, Sippy is back and will continue to be back every Sunday in January. With relationships safely shipped out, it's time for the Sippy to set it's drunken gaze elsewhere. But where? Under the bed, perhaps? In the closet, where none dare tread?  Second up is--

The "I'm Sleeping with the Lights On" Sippy 

for Excellent Horror in Short SFF

I will fully admit to being a complete scaredy-cat when it comes to most things. Scary movies? Nuh-uh (couldn't even watch Ernest Scared Stupid as a kid because it was too intense). But scary stories? Yes please. There is something about a well-crafted horror story that just makes me itch for more. Maybe I'm a secret masochist, but horror has provided some of my very favorite stories of the year. Indeed, if I had to pick one stand-out publication this year it would probably be Nightmare Magazine. As the below list might highlight. In any event, let's get to the winners...

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "I'd Ship That" Sippy for Excellent Relationships in Short SFF

The Sippy Awards are upon us! Know ye excellent short fiction and despair...er, wait, no...rejoice! Yes, that's the ticket. Rejoice, for the hour of the award that no one asked for has come. I mentioned a while ago that I'd be running these, and here is the first. The format will be the same for each award. There will be five total awards, and five stories will be featured, with one "Big Sip" and four regular-sized Sippy Awards. First up is--

The "I'd Ship That" Sippy 

for Excellent Relationships in Short SFF

That's right, it's all about relationships today. I'm a sucker for a good love story, but not all of the stories below are happily-ever-afters. Indeed, a good relationship is one that's messy, that's complex. That's alive. These are stories with relationships at their hearts, and that do a damn fine job of showing people trying to find in each other a great many things: forgiveness, escape, redemption, acceptance. And these are the stories that I picked out as containing my favorite relationships.

The Top Ten Fucking Amazingest Stories I've Read This Year (so far)

Despite the Top Ten billing on this, I'm not actually ranking them in any order. That would be WAY too difficult. Already I'm having to cull out so many amazing stories. SO MANY. Think of it this way: when I do the Monthly Round, I recommend nine different stories. A month. I now have to pick out ten stories for six months. But armed with my newly updated spreadsheet I will make the attempt!

What's clear to me now is that short fiction is amazing. There is obviously too much put out for one person to really do it justice. I read what I can, but I struggle with even that. Obviously I miss some of the largest publications like Asimov's and Fantasy and Science Fiction and Analog and such. Mostly I stick to the smaller places that put their stuff up for free online because I'm not incredibly wealthy and I just don't have the time, and not reading those places means I can spotlight some smaller publications that are very good. Anyway, I'm rambling a bit and should just get on with the stories. HERE THEY ARE!

• "Descent" by Carmen Maria Machado (Nightmare) (February)

• "The Language of Knives" by Haralambi Markov (Tor) (February)

• "A Sister's Weight in Stone" by JY Yang (Apex) (May)

• "Everyone's a Clown" by Caroline M. Yoachim (Unlikely Story) (April)

• "The Heat of Us: Towards an Oral History" by Sam J. Miller (Uncanny) (January)

• "The Shape of My Name" by Nino Cipri (Tor) (March)

• "The Half-Dark Promise" by Malon Edwards (Shimmer) (January)

• "Forestspirit, Forestspirit" by Bogi Takács (Clarkesworld) (June)

• "Grandmother-nai-Leylit's Cloth of Winds" by R.B. Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) (June)

• "Documentary" by Vajra Chandrasekera (Lightspeed) (March)

I toyed around with the idea of giving little blurbs about these stories but between the original Quick Sips and then the Monthly Rounds (yes, all of these stories have...or will [spoilers!] appear in Monthly Rounds) I have already reviewed them twice and I really should just need to say that they are amazing and you should go give them a read (if you have not already).

Anyway, there is my list. Thank you all for reading!

All the best,

Charles Payseur