Divided Loyalties

As an erstwhile professor, I used to research and write academic papers. As a professor outside the academy, I no longer have the opportunity. My day job, however, takes me occasionally into the hallowed halls and I start to feel a little lonely for the academic publishing world.

Sure, the papers are boring and read by maybe a dozen people, but I never had the difficulty of getting them published that I do with my fiction. My non-pseudo-nym was fairly well known among colleagues and they knew, as a friend once said, “the author is as important as the story.” In the fiction realm, I’m nobody.

Recently I met with many professors. The experience divided my loyalties. Before meeting with them I had been making good progress on my latest K. Marvin Bruce project. Since meeting with them I’ve been brooding over whether to try more academical writing. So boring. So dull. Yet, I can get it published.

It sort of makes me wonder what’s wrong with the fiction-publishers’ world. Just when I think my writing sucks I get nominated for a writing award. It can’t go on my professional résumé since my professional colleagues don’t know I write fiction. They comment on how productive I am. They have no idea.

I still write serious, academic stuff. In fact, I published a book last year. Still, my heart is in fiction although, if the publishers say with Captain Ahab, “From Hell’s heart I stab at thee!” If you cut us, do we not bleed?

Different areas of a writer’s brain are activated by these different kinds of scribbling. I don’t take academic writing of others too seriously. I guess I don’t take much too seriously. The obvious exception is my writing. I write two blogs, so many fiction stories I’ve lost count, and academic papers, yet I’m left thrashing about the ocean, a man who can’t swim.

The world isn’t always a friendly place for writers. Even with my limitations, I intend to keep after the fictional beast. I’ve got something to say and even a nobody can make a difference, if somebody will really listen.

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Patterns

There’s a pattern I’m noticing. For fiction publishers. Even if you aim low you’ll find it a struggle. Part of the reason is the pattern. Lots of websites list publishers. The smaller, hungrier presses either eventually close or get to a place where they require an agent to get in. That’s the kiss of death. Although my stories have won prizes, and been nominated for prizes, I can’t get an agent interested. I’ve queried well over a hundred, so the agent route is one of diminishing returns. This too is a pattern. Back to the smaller presses. I check many lists. What I write, you see, is highly idiosyncratic. It’s literary but it’s weird. Publishers don’t know what to do with it. If a smaller press published stuff like this, I’d find it. The pattern includes writers who never get discovered. Ironically, a number of editors of fiction literary magazines (mostly online) tell me they enjoy my wor...

Creative Righting

Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world. That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week. That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press. The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor. She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher. I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions. I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor. That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it? You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify. It’s got speculative elements to it. ...

Maybe Okay

A couple pieces of encouraging news, perhaps, dear struggling writers. I had a couple short stories accepted for publication in recent weeks. As a fellow writer recently said, “You've got to keep trying. Somebody will like what you wrote.” That’s a bit of sunshine. And it’s likely true. But the stories: “The Crossing,” about two men in a boat trying to cross the Atlantic, was accepted by JayHenge Publishing. JayHenge is a small, but paying publisher. I was flattered when they wanted it for their Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe anthology. Being associated with Poe in any way feels good. The second story, “St. Spiders’ Day,” had been brewing in my mind for years—yes, this is a long game! A friend pointed me to The Creepy podcast. Since the story hadn’t been written, I followed their guidelines of what they wanted. It worked. I recently heard a successful wri...

K. Marvin Bruce

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