There's a general rule of publishing: Money flows to the writer. Anything else is usually a scam or vanity press. However, almost everything one can easily find on the internet has reading fees, or contests with entry fees, or some other combination thereof. There are agents a plenty who are trolling the internet desperately seeking new writers who are suckers so that they can get reading fees, editing fees, etc, out of these people who don't do their research. Really, when it comes to getting published, even with short fiction, everything is just as much of a pain in the ass as trying to get a novel published.
Fortunately I don't make decisions lightly, so before I get to the point of sending off my short stories somewhere, I research the website. So far I haven't found any legitimate, or at least "reading fee" free sites on my own. I've been sent to a few places that actually have reasonable submission guidelines and no fees, but they're usually not specifically after my typical writing style, modern fantasy, so I don't want to waste their time or mine with submissions that will just be rejected. So I'ma keep looking.
As always, I'm open to suggestions.
September 30, 2008
September 22, 2008
September 11, 2008
Era over
With a surprising lack of drama, I have quit my kungfu school. There are many reasons, but the main one was the lack of kungfu. Say what? I went to the school in the interest of learning kungfu, Hung Gar kungfu specifically, and for a while I did. Recently, however, the emphasis in even the supposed kungfu classes changed to a more modernized kungfu style rather than the traditional. I understand the changes, I just don't like them. With these changes my career at my old school ended as I was only ever interested in kungfu. So now it's time to find something new to try.
And found it I have: Capoeira! Examples are here, here, and here. Brazilian breakdance fighting? Fuck yes! I've been interested in capoeira for years, but now I think I'm finally going to get around to actually taking some classes and see how I do at it. Really what I'm looking to do is something different. Years of karate left me strong, fast, capable, but very different in style from kungfu or taiji. Years of both kungfu and taiji have left me flexible, fluid, and confident, but with a strong grounding in keeping my feet on the ground. Capoeira, being mostly kicks, acrobatics, and basically like breakdancing, will make me more fluid, more flexible, and even stronger. I can't wait to try my first class.
Failing finding available capoeira classes, I have two other schools suggested to me by my last instructor. One is a true Wong Fei Hung lineage Hung Gar kungfu school which is, I must admit, very tempting. The other is the school of an instructor that used to teach at the school I just left, and his school is very tempting as well as he was one of the best teachers I've ever had. Even as I leave my school, I leave with wonderful options before me. I look forward to what my new martial arts career has to offer me.
And found it I have: Capoeira! Examples are here, here, and here. Brazilian breakdance fighting? Fuck yes! I've been interested in capoeira for years, but now I think I'm finally going to get around to actually taking some classes and see how I do at it. Really what I'm looking to do is something different. Years of karate left me strong, fast, capable, but very different in style from kungfu or taiji. Years of both kungfu and taiji have left me flexible, fluid, and confident, but with a strong grounding in keeping my feet on the ground. Capoeira, being mostly kicks, acrobatics, and basically like breakdancing, will make me more fluid, more flexible, and even stronger. I can't wait to try my first class.
Failing finding available capoeira classes, I have two other schools suggested to me by my last instructor. One is a true Wong Fei Hung lineage Hung Gar kungfu school which is, I must admit, very tempting. The other is the school of an instructor that used to teach at the school I just left, and his school is very tempting as well as he was one of the best teachers I've ever had. Even as I leave my school, I leave with wonderful options before me. I look forward to what my new martial arts career has to offer me.
September 4, 2008
My frickin' neck hurts
Though my title does leave the door open for many, many a gay joke, the real reason I'm complaining is that my neck is legitimately the sorest it's been in recent memory, and it's all thanks to a crazy new exercise at kungfu. We're doing rolls, i.e. somersaults, and rolling for a few minutes can get you very dizzy. But that's not why my neck hurts. Rolling is easy. Break falls, not so easy.
A break fall is when you drop to the ground (or at my level, hurl yourself at the ground) and twist to one side or another and slap the ground in timing with your landing to that the impact is spread across more area and does less damage. This sounds weird, but it does work well and I have years of being tossed around like a rag doll as experience to prove it. Another important detail it to keep your head from hitting the ground, so you carefully keep your neck tense to avoid clunking into the ground with your skull. Fun. So what do break falls have to do with rolls?
Simple: our new exercise routine is to roll up and back down our mat many times to get good and dizzy. Then we roll once then break fall and repeat on both sides. And there's more than one kind of break fall: there's side, back, and front break falls. Each of them is difficult in its own way, but when you combine them with rolling it gets more complicated. For my low level kungfu class, this is less of a concern because I get a nice break in between roll sets. For my advanced kungfu class, which typically consists of just me, I get to roll and break fall for about eight to ten solid minutes. That many breakfalls and rolling leads directly to neck pain.
So my neck hurts. I get dizzy a lot in class. At least it's entertaining!
A break fall is when you drop to the ground (or at my level, hurl yourself at the ground) and twist to one side or another and slap the ground in timing with your landing to that the impact is spread across more area and does less damage. This sounds weird, but it does work well and I have years of being tossed around like a rag doll as experience to prove it. Another important detail it to keep your head from hitting the ground, so you carefully keep your neck tense to avoid clunking into the ground with your skull. Fun. So what do break falls have to do with rolls?
Simple: our new exercise routine is to roll up and back down our mat many times to get good and dizzy. Then we roll once then break fall and repeat on both sides. And there's more than one kind of break fall: there's side, back, and front break falls. Each of them is difficult in its own way, but when you combine them with rolling it gets more complicated. For my low level kungfu class, this is less of a concern because I get a nice break in between roll sets. For my advanced kungfu class, which typically consists of just me, I get to roll and break fall for about eight to ten solid minutes. That many breakfalls and rolling leads directly to neck pain.
So my neck hurts. I get dizzy a lot in class. At least it's entertaining!
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