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Still More Time, Ye Scurvy Dogs!
Monday, 29 January 2007 14:15After Working All Week...
... I just submitted my science fiction pirate short story "Pirates Amongst Us" to the Pirate issue of Shimmer, edited by the Dred Pirate John Joseph Adams, first-mate o' th' Fantasy & Science Fiction, aka![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
slushgod. This one's not about making "big bucks" -- it's about the fun of getting to write a spec fic pirate story!
Since I tend to write long (no-ooo, no one ever thinks that of Dr. Phil's writing, do they?), I was of course bumping up against the 5000 word limit. Had a version at 4916 words, but when Mrs. Dr. Phil proofed it, she felt confused by some issues, so I went at it again, and ended up at 4964 words -- all counted by Microsoft Word's unreliable word count feature. All this work only to find that when I set up the final printer/RTF version, it came out as 5004 words. See, I have a tendency to use en-dashes, which when I convert to double-dashes -- for readability -- which MS Word suddenly wants to count as words.
Grumble-grumble. Time to inject some more prosaic punctuation... take it down to 4993 words. Not that it matters. Word count is very subjective, and many in the publishing world prefer the old 250 words (or whatever) to the page, in which case they'll decide I'm over anyway. (grin) Tough, I say! Man the particle beams!
It's Not Too Late!
In doing my due diligence before submitting, I of course checked the online guidelines one last time and the deadline has been extended:
Submission porthole: December 1, 2006-January 31, 2007.
Submission porthole: December 1, 2006-February 28, 2007.
So now, ye scurvy dogs, ye have no excuses fer writin' yer own pirate story!
Me? My pirates are "civilized" and don't Talk Like a Pirate at all. (grin) And am I bitter about having the deadline extended? Hell no -- I've got my story submitted and most of you don't. Ha!
Dr. Phil
... I just submitted my science fiction pirate short story "Pirates Amongst Us" to the Pirate issue of Shimmer, edited by the Dred Pirate John Joseph Adams, first-mate o' th' Fantasy & Science Fiction, aka
slushgod. This one's not about making "big bucks" -- it's about the fun of getting to write a spec fic pirate story!Since I tend to write long (no-ooo, no one ever thinks that of Dr. Phil's writing, do they?), I was of course bumping up against the 5000 word limit. Had a version at 4916 words, but when Mrs. Dr. Phil proofed it, she felt confused by some issues, so I went at it again, and ended up at 4964 words -- all counted by Microsoft Word's unreliable word count feature. All this work only to find that when I set up the final printer/RTF version, it came out as 5004 words. See, I have a tendency to use en-dashes, which when I convert to double-dashes -- for readability -- which MS Word suddenly wants to count as words.
Grumble-grumble. Time to inject some more prosaic punctuation... take it down to 4993 words. Not that it matters. Word count is very subjective, and many in the publishing world prefer the old 250 words (or whatever) to the page, in which case they'll decide I'm over anyway. (grin) Tough, I say! Man the particle beams!
It's Not Too Late!
In doing my due diligence before submitting, I of course checked the online guidelines one last time and the deadline has been extended:
Submission porthole: December 1, 2006-February 28, 2007.
So now, ye scurvy dogs, ye have no excuses fer writin' yer own pirate story!
Me? My pirates are "civilized" and don't Talk Like a Pirate at all. (grin) And am I bitter about having the deadline extended? Hell no -- I've got my story submitted and most of you don't. Ha!
Dr. Phil
