Vampire Family Story Done

I'm done revising Vampire Family Story, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Unfortunately, it also ballooned up to 6,000 words, which limits some of my publishing options. It's no Hugo Winner, but it's a good story, and I think I improved it to the point where many people will be pleased. I wondered, as I was revising, whether I was trying to please everyone. I tried to only fix problems that multiple people complained about. But even multiple people can be wrong (and make me pump the story to too many words. That's the double-edged sword with getting a lot of critiques. Too many cooks can spoil the soup. And I think its important that the reader dictate the story he/she wants to tell, even in the view of a hundred naysayers.

That's it for the thre "open-door" drafts. After I read through Vampire Family story one more time, it will be suitable for publishing. Fairy Kingdom is already being submitted places (still waiting on word from Flash Fiction Online, almost up to the magazine's min response date), but I want to put White Mage Story through the Critters wringer one more time. Its changed drastically from its first incarnation, much like Avatar, and I think it could be served by another run-through.

Next up is to revise the "closed door" drafts - ones that aren't ready to be seen by eyes other than me - to make them "open door". Only two - Kaiju Story and Old Dragonslayer Story. Of them, I'm most worried about Kaiju Story. A lot of times, I thought I should have scratched it, but it seemed like such a good beginning, I couldn't waste it. But the ending is shaky. I was trying too hard to be original, because most Kaiju stories I've heard don't have any kaiju in them. They're about the surrounding circumstances. So I was trying to be different.

Lastly, I don't have it on the sidebar, but I'm reading through the Nebula nominees - at least the ones I can read online for free. So far I've read "The Button Bin" and "Baby Doll", and based on those - Jesus Christ, are the Nebulas all about the disturbing? One was about drug use, rape, and buttons (and not in the childlike Coraline sense), and the other was about 8 year olds with boob implants and modeling lingerie and watching boy bands named "Stick That Dick". Maybe this wouldn't have affected me as much if I didn't have a daughter, but all I wanted to do when I read it was hug her and tell her she doesn't have to be anything that she doesn't want to be.

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