OOC : A curiosity, a whine.
Mar. 12th, 2003 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sythyry(This is all OOC.) I don't often submit things for publication. (I dunno what, if anything, to do with the Herethroy Love Story Novel That Needs A Title, but that's a harder question.) But an ezine I heard about had an interesting theme: write a 300-word excerpt from a nonexistant work, to be published as a fragment. Inspired by the fragments of the Necronomicon and the King in Yellow, I presume. They didn't have to be fiction, or even in any extant language.
So I tossed together a bit of oddness. I should have known better: I am allergic to the very name of the ezine. Anyways, it got rejected. There's not a lot of other market for such things, so here it is... afterwards, there's an angsty little survey.
[From "Tsurallaa Sykku", a collection of traditional Vairihani advertisements with facing English translations]
KASKAUN (title): [A common name for a pet rabbit, in the optional/possible future form]
| Mihaunnu kylly chaioi | At some point in the near future, we will fail to understand |
| Atsully kyrryat 'toi. | the desired proportions of our privelege (atoi)/life (otoi) |
| Ksaksauitellen too | Neither learning more about sacred cabinet-making |
| Chero vyellenoto | Nor finding several new and brightly colored sexual partners |
| Mirri | will |
| Psirri | be able to restore all the lacking pleasures/contentments after they have been so terribly eroded by constant exposure to thick salt tears, |
| Tallasessat yoto. | as you already understand. |
| Kammenat psasella tive | There's no use |
| Rauen nirnaanat nanive | Making pilgrimages to your beloved birthplace, from which you have long departed, |
| Loipsertele hanaprissa. | For it has been delivered to your tribe's traditional enemies as weregeld for the crimes of your ancestors. |
| Koi chavenka kanvenkissa | Partial paralysis induced by eating too much underripe fruit |
| Mirri | will |
| Tirri | render futile |
| Tar tirtavattissa! | All your performances of vigorous country kissing-dances. |
| Maane mepsaakaan maelle | Drinking the hot musky words from the dry pages adorned with coiled illuminations drawn in ink or semen voided by the poetic squids of yesteryear |
| Maakenmaa psysala selle. | will not melt long-established ice glaciers of ennui into an ocean of passionate blood. |
| Vaakara raakyi raakyao | Nonetheless, a pet rabbit, small and happily furred, |
| Vaakanka Kasta takyao' | Which you can name "Kastyie", as is traditional for pet rabbits, if you so wish, |
| Mirri | will |
| Ksirri | diminish those aspects of your soul which are receptive to despair |
| Vaaktenkrastattak vao | and can be served as a side dish if, by some misfortune, it dies before it has done so. |
[OOC: Grr! This was gonna be an actual poll, but I couldn't
persuade that to work either.]
So what should I do about this?
Write more stuff like that (or other views of
alienness) and post to LiveJournal?
Try again at the allergic ezine?
Put non-Sythry stuff in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bard_bloom
account, and keep sythyry for Sythyry?
Write more Sythyry and things like that?
Apologize to the bunnies?
Stop moping and whining?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 07:12 pm (UTC)I think that if you want to submit pieces you're posting on LJ for publication elsewhere, then you should lock them as friends-only posts because a lot of places consider things that appear on websites to be published as far as "do we take reprints? no!" is concerned.
As far as what you should post where... that's also dependant entirely on you. Do you want to keep Sythyry's journal IC? If so, then keep it that way and post whatever you want in the other journal.
I would never apologize to the bunnies. Honest.
And as far as the e-zine is concerned... Roach has particular tastes and particular ideas; that can be said of most editors. Roach is also more willing, than most, to give feedback (at least she was when she was producing Jackhammer). If you want to write more pieces of fictional books, then by all means, do so. If you want to see them published somewhere, then by all means, submit them (and yes, this is a pretty limited market niche). You might hit on one that floats Roach's boat.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 07:26 pm (UTC)I read that once.
Then I went back and read it again.
Then I checked the work from which it was an excerpt again.
I am greatly entertained.
And I mean that. I am not often greatly entertained, particularly by short fiction, but that was just ... sublime. A wonderful layering of concepts of and ideas, poetic and sad and funny all at the same time. I wonder if the allergic e-zine people just weren't paying enough attention. All right, I'm going to stop waxing enthusiastic now before I overdo it. :)
I would tend to say that Sythyry should be kept for Sythyry, if only because it has been for so long. Since you're not using Bard Bloom for anything else (as far as I can tell) that seems like a good venue for non-Sythyry material.
This is contingent on your still being interested in writing more of the Great Herethroy Love Story, however. If you're pretty well tired of Sythyry by now, subsuming this journal (with its built-in audience) does make more sense than starting to write other stuff in a new one.
Beyond all that ... I wanted to answer your question, but now I'm not sure what you're asking. Do you mean 'What should I do to make MYSELF happy' or 'What should I do to make my AUDIENCE happy' or 'What should I do to gain a bigger audience' or 'What should I do to make YOU, specifically, happy'?
no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 07:35 pm (UTC)It's called Walnuts?
no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 08:23 pm (UTC)I love your writing, Bard. Do things that make you happiest, or that you most want to do. I love Sythyry's story for the alienness of it... but I don't want you to be limited by that.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-12 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 12:53 am (UTC)as for what you should do: yes... and no.
Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 04:48 am (UTC)Sythyry's journal isn't the Great Herethroy Love Story. The Great Herethroy Love Story is a novel sitting in first draft on my hard drive, simmering while a few readers might or might not give me comments. It's an actual story, with beginning, middle, end, plot, characterization, and all of those things. For publication reasons I'm not putting it up on the web. (Well, and of course it's not that different from Sythyry. Casamint and Sythyry might even get along.)
I’m not bored of Sythyry, though I was somewhat neglecting zir when other projects were getting attention.
I wonder if the allergic e-zine people just weren't paying enough attention
They said that they felt that there was an in-joke that they weren’t getting, more or less. Or at least that it gave the feeling of an in-joke, even if there wasn’t an actual one there. *shrug* I suppose that there was one, sort of, but with a pretty big in-group, of people who’ve dealt with written material from distinctly foreign cultures.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 05:00 am (UTC)I don't put anything I want to publish on the web.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 05:46 am (UTC)Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 05:50 am (UTC)Funny; Sythyry's journal often strikes me as an in-joke that I don't get. Zie feels like a real person living in a world at right angles to mine; there's all this overlap that ought to make it perfectly accessible, and yet I still find myself getting lost with my head tilted to one side. But I think it's mostly that I don't have a good grip on the names / appearances / relationships of the people who populate zir's life. Still an interesting read, though.
I liked this piece because it was all there. Yes, I had to read it a few times to absorb it all, but it's short. Reading 300 words three times isn't arduous. It's, you know, zen-like. I don't know if it'd work to keep doing the same thing -- more translations, for example; the novelty of seeing the initial concept unfold is a lot of the fun. But it's no less beautiful for that.
Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 06:15 am (UTC)It is, sort of, I suppose. It's set in
There's a lot of detail in Sythyry's journal that's not in the sourcebook of course -- Vheshrame gets a quarter-page, and that's mostly history and politics. Everything not in the sourcebook should be taken as fanfic ... um ... can you write fanfic for your own published work? Not canonical anyways.
I should make a Dramatis Personae and Glossary and file them under Memories.
Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 06:49 am (UTC)Ooh! Please do! I love reading Sythry's entries, but I can't remember the difference between Herethroy and an Orren. Or anything like that.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 07:27 am (UTC)um, probably would make more sense if i explained it.
if you want to write because you love to write, then write. write here, write there, write everywhere! (and eat green eggs and ham; they're good for you)
if you want to write and be published, that's a whole nother sack of turnips. amen to the stuff held back from general linking and to finding committed beta readers and editors instead. amen to the continual submission of pieces to various places, ad infinitum. you're reading nihilstic_kid, nes pa? he's trying to make a living off it, true, but that's the route in store for you if you want to get published. i doubt it's gonna work to lose your blood pressure over rejections.
my god, nick would have exploded into a million pieces if that was the way it went.
Richard Dansky, too - a friend and working writer - intimated a writer can't take rejections personally. you can't take criticism personally. you have to be able to listen to critiques objectively, and still write. and write some more. and yet more writing. i think Rich might be the hardest-working person i know, and i know mike.
if you just love to write, we're here to read. :) but if you want to publish, keep trying. but please don't explode into a million pieces. we'd miss you!
(plus, someone would have to clean it up...)
Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 08:25 am (UTC)Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 08:26 am (UTC)Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 09:47 am (UTC)I, too, want you to write whatever makes you happiest. However, that being said, I'd really miss reading about Sythyry!
Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 10:10 am (UTC)Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-13 11:34 am (UTC)"Walnuts" is kind of a dumb name for a zine, anyway.
Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2003-03-13 03:09 pm (UTC)Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2004-12-27 01:59 am (UTC)Re: Great Herethroy Love Story vs. Sythyry
Date: 2004-12-27 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-19 07:28 pm (UTC)And Marriage of Insects made it out!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-19 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 01:44 am (UTC)