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Claw & Quill report
Yes, it's comin' along, in slogging fashion. If I haven't gotten back to you yet with a submission, that's only a condemnation of my speed, not your work -- it may be a sign I'm waffling over whether I want to ask for changes, but it's not an "I am afraid to give you bad news" sign.
Something I should have expected (but didn't) is how many people read fantastic animal stories and think fables, even though I explicitly avoided mentioning Aesop. I also explicitly avoided the word furry, which is probably a double-edged sword. It avoids people immediately pegging the 'zine with media-bred stereotypes, but bizarrely, not mentioning it seems to be limiting what people who aren't familiar with the fandom are thinking of as appropriate material. (It also opens up me up to the charge of "you're hiding from the word 'furry,'" although I did cite "Steve Gallacci's comics" as an example of the sort of storytelling I'm looking for.)
Something else I should have expected is that people would ask to be paid some way other than Paypal. Yeah yeah, Paypal is evil, but darn, it's convenient--I wanted to use the Paypal account as a sort of de facto account for the 'zine. As it is, right now people who want to be paid in some other fashion are going to have to get either a money order or a personal check. This thing's my hobby--no, at this point, it's just a hobby-to-be, right?--and I hadn't thought about making it "real" unless circumstances dictate it really needs a real account and other such fun stuff. This would add a whole level of suck I'd rather not deal with.
Of course, I hadn't expected to ever get a "cover letter" for one of these short fables which began: Some of my stories have won the Nebula, the Stoker, and the Pushcart Prize.
...so "real" may prove to be in the eye of the beholder.
(Eek, I say, eek.)
Something I should have expected (but didn't) is how many people read fantastic animal stories and think fables, even though I explicitly avoided mentioning Aesop. I also explicitly avoided the word furry, which is probably a double-edged sword. It avoids people immediately pegging the 'zine with media-bred stereotypes, but bizarrely, not mentioning it seems to be limiting what people who aren't familiar with the fandom are thinking of as appropriate material. (It also opens up me up to the charge of "you're hiding from the word 'furry,'" although I did cite "Steve Gallacci's comics" as an example of the sort of storytelling I'm looking for.)
Something else I should have expected is that people would ask to be paid some way other than Paypal. Yeah yeah, Paypal is evil, but darn, it's convenient--I wanted to use the Paypal account as a sort of de facto account for the 'zine. As it is, right now people who want to be paid in some other fashion are going to have to get either a money order or a personal check. This thing's my hobby--no, at this point, it's just a hobby-to-be, right?--and I hadn't thought about making it "real" unless circumstances dictate it really needs a real account and other such fun stuff. This would add a whole level of suck I'd rather not deal with.
Of course, I hadn't expected to ever get a "cover letter" for one of these short fables which began: Some of my stories have won the Nebula, the Stoker, and the Pushcart Prize.
...so "real" may prove to be in the eye of the beholder.
(Eek, I say, eek.)
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You have people who won the Nebula? Ok. So much for not being intimidated with this story-thing....
-- Me