One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch....

[j_cheney]

Oh, no! I'm quoting Jackson 5 lyrics! (I feel old now)

Yep, that critique from Critters that was totally bizarre (the 'this piece isn't really fantasy because it has guns' argument)....the author was going for a MPC award (and got it, BTW). In other words, she had to crit 10 pieces in a week, and reach 300 words on each critique in order to advance her own work in the queue more quickly. If the misuse of the system is especially egregious, one can report that author to the crit-herder, who then sends them a stiffish admonishment or, if they hear enough complaints, drop the offender from the system. I have only done that once (in the case of the guy who padded his critique with song lyrics).

Anyway, I got 3 more critiques this morning, bringing me up to a total of 18, only one of which was goofy. 17 decent critiques is not bad. In skimming, most of them seem to find AMOD well-written, but missing something. (I rather knew that, which is why I ran it through Critters, not Baen's Bar). I haven't had time yet to see if any of them know what that missing part is. ;o) Perhaps there's a real diamond in all those critiques. (I hope.)

Some confusion continues on the FenCon submissions as people are posting theirs on the Yahoo group board, to the submission e-mail, and both or neither. Hey, I followed the instructions..the FIRST set of instructions. (I find disorganization somewhat troubling.)

August 1 crept up on me, and I totally missed the mass onslaught of people dumping submissions over at Clockwork Phoenix. I must fix that today. I was rather hoping Black Gate would open yesterday as well, but it still says closed. At least they're back to reading now. ::fingers crossed::

I hope, by the end of the week to have at least 3 more stories out, taking me up to a grand total of 4. ::anticlimactic woot::

Comments

Keeping

[namelessarchon.livejournal.com]

Keeping up with you is harder than chasing my son! Congrats on having so much out there J, I hope they all find great success.

Re: Keeping

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Only 4...tlmorganfield said the other day that she had somethng like 26 stories out.

Re: Keeping

[tchernabyelo.livejournal.com]

She did?

Darn. I'm only at 21. Must... try... harder...

Re: Keeping

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Drat....I was typing along asking myself whether it was you or her....might have been you. Now I'm not certain.

Anyway, you guys ALL have way more out than I do.

Re: Keeping

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

I definitely don't have 26 out. I have 13 right now and would like to make it 14 soon if I can fix one story I'm holding back from submitting after getting some good advice about it from Nick Mamatas. Someday I'll actually break the 15 sub barrier that's been holding me back for so long. :)

Re: Keeping

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Then it was tchernobyelo. I couldn't remember which of you two said it...sorry for misquoting you!

My sub max is 6, 15 is mind-boggling for me.

Perhaps someday. ;o)

Re: Keeping

[tchernabyelo.livejournal.com]

20 was the barrier for me. Every time I kept getting close I had something rejected that was really tough to find a new market for. As I'm currently concentrating on a novel, I'm guesing I'll be hanging around the 20 mark for a while (unless I sudenly sell loads of stories - ha! hah! hahhahahah!)

Re: Keeping

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

OOh, now that would be a cool problem to have. ;o)

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

I wanted to send something to that Clockwork Phoenix antho too, but everything I would it currently out to market.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

The guidelines are a tad vague....so it's kind of hard to know if what I have is even applicable. We'll see, I suppose.

[namelessarchon.livejournal.com]

I feel like such a scrub! ^_^

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I skimmed the story in question on Critters but didn't leave a critique there (kinda backing out of Critters). I found the second half of the story (in the tavern) confusing. There were too many characters, and I never got a good picture of the physical layout of the place. I hope that helps.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Thanks...that makes 18 useful ones....

It really needs work, or else I wouldn't have put it there, but I'm not sure I'm going to touch it for a while...perhpas leaving it to simmer for another 6 months will help...

[kara-gnome.livejournal.com]

Good luck with everything, and I think three stories by the end of the week is marvelous! I vote that if you accomplish that, you get taken out to a nice dinner, preferably with candles :)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'll forward that to husband.... ;o)

[dream-wind.livejournal.com]

If you wanna send the story to a lapsed Critter, I'm at clawrie1 at bigpond dot net dot au.

The one time I posted a story on Critters, the least helpful crits were ones written by people going for a MPC. It looks like they just skim the story without actually taking it in, although in one way, we should be grateful to them - if the story totally sucked, they'd skip it entirely (I often did that if there was too much wrong with a story :) ).

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I've noticed the same thing about MPC people. Now, I don't want to make a broad statement and say they're all scamming, because I did it once (not the skimming part, though.)

I needed something through the queue fast, so I bit down and did 10 for an MPC, and I'd like to think that there were 10 useful crits there (I did two a day until I hit 10). But if a story did stink, you're right...I wouldn't bother.

Thanks for the offer, I'm far more likely to take you up on it AFTER I do the re-write. ;o)