TrickyBuddha Studios

From The Magazine for Bizarro Fiction:

We are Currently Seeking for Future Issues:

• Short Fiction: 100 – 6,000 words.

We are only looking for the highest quality in Bizarro fiction. If you are planning on submitting fiction you better have read both Bizarro Starter Kits (at the very least).

• What we are looking for in stories: Strong characters. Strong plot. Strange and outlandish worlds. Think classic pulp fiction but if it were written by Lynch, Cronenberg, or Jodorowsky. Only submit your very best.

• What we are not looking for: Literary experimentalism. Stories where the main character wanders around in a drugged haze. Stories that take place in mental institutions. Stories where weird shit happens just for the sake of weird shit happening. Stories about Wizards. Traditional genre fiction.

Payment is one cent per word with a hundred dollar maximum. Payment upon publication. No Multiple submissions, No Simultaneous submissions. All submissions should have subject line: SUBMISSION: “Title of Story”

The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction retains exclusive publication rights for one year. The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction is published on a quarterly basis. Issue 2 Coming October 2009!

I asked Candice for the starter kit for my birthday. (Is that bad to ask for a specific gift? I would have bought it myself but I don’t want to take away potential gift opportunities!) I plan to read the two collections, edit up one of my stories, and then submit it to the magazine for review. There is no listed deadline for submissions but I’m hoping I’ll be OK if I submit by the end of August. If not, I’ll go for the next issue.

I’m thinking/guessing my best chance for success is Recurring Dream. Any thoughts on that one?

A while back I posted the question “Am I a Commie?” not to create a yes/no scenario, but rather to propel a journey of self-discovery (magical, of course). That’s where the title above originates.

I’ve been reading a bit today on some of the “experimental” genres of fiction writing thanks to discovering a small group of publishers (with such awesome names as Eraserhead Press, Afterbirth Books, and Raw Dog Screaming Press). And while I feel like things on the classification front are moving, the details of these sub-sub-genres are more confusing than anything.

Some of it does make sense to me. For example, Carlton Mellick III posts that with classical surrealism, using the practice of automatic writing, we’re left with a product that resembles a dream. Written words mirror the subconscious. That is, I write every word that pops up in my head as it pops up. I had a writing course in high school that did this exactly (you probably did, too!). We were given 30 minutes or so to write something — without thinking about the rules of writing. And I loved it.

In fact, this is where it all started. This is where I wrote my first anything (outside of earlier efforts to use a similar thought process to create bad poetry and bad rock-song lyrics). I found it very easy to lose myself in the process, and reading back what I had written was enjoyably strange because I didn’t understand where any of it came from. (I think I’ve saved those old journals, but they’re with my dad. I should track them down.) It’s similar to how I write today (though I like to think I’ve evolved and refined the process substantially), and probably explains why I later fell in love with filmmakers like David Lynch and, specifically, the Salvador Dali/Luis Buñuel movie Un chien andalou.

But then Mellick dives into other classifications (like Irrealism and Bizarro) and that’s where he loses me. The stuff is hard to explain, so I’m not blaming him. And a lot of it strikes me as saying that this writing is like that writing, which is where that other writing over there comes from. If you don’t have a starting point, comparative language isn’t helpful. Finding free, on-line versions of their cited sources has been a little tricky, too; of course, I don’t want to buy a few dozen bad stories because I hope there might be some helpful connection in one of them, but I may, after a little more research, go in that direction.

All in all, at this point, I think figuring out some of these basics might be besides the point. I feel like finding this group has been the first step. They’ve been there and understand this. It gives me a point to jump from and figure this stuff out. I’ve been digging through their suggested resources. Once I finish that off, I’ll try posting at their forum to see what I can learn.

Occasionally (very rarely), I look at some of the stuff I’ve written, think it’s not so bad, and get curious about publishing.

When I’ve spoken to someone in the past about the topic, I’ve been told to find magazines and books similar to my writing, find out who publishes them, and then find out how to submit content to those publishers. Perfect advice for 98% of the writers out there. But that’s where my advance is halted.

I’ve never seen publications of similar writings or writing style. Tonight, I tried searching around on the web and found some sites that publish surrealist writing, but they’re generally very small productions (like, posted on a web site with a tiny readership) and/or the content really doesn’t look anything like mine.

You’d think it might be easier to find stuff like mine, but surrealism is not exactly a genre; it’s more a filter on top of the genre. That is, you can have surrealist dramas or surrealist comedies. It makes it tricky to figure out where to even start.

And this is the part where I ask myself what the appeal of publication is.

Money? No. I mean, sure. Money is nice. But how much does an amateur writer make for a short story? $20? Is it having a physical copy? No, that’s never interested me. I prefer electronic copies. What’s left? I guess it’s the idea of coming across like-minded people — reading their writings, critiquing mine, learning and growing, and getting introduced to related items. Maybe I need to start digging around for surrealist book clubs or something, instead of looking for surrealist publishers. Maybe I need to start my own club. Haha.

Anyone out there have any ideas?