Today marks the release of the November/December 2018 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. This is not particularly special, as F&SF has been going strong since 1949. But it is special to me, as my story “The Lady of Butterflies” is featured in this issue. Reviews are coming in, including this one from Tangent which gave “The Lady of Butterflies” a recommended rating.
(They say not to read reviews, but I’m still in the honeymoon period where any review delights me, good or bad.)
Everything you need to know about the issue, including how to buy it, can be found on F&SF‘s Editor’s Note. If you live in the US, you can find the issue in most Barnes & Noble stores. If you’re based outside the US, you can buy the issue from F&SF‘s website, or get a digital copy via Amazon or Weightless Books.
I’ve already waxed lyrical about what this means to me over on another post. In short, it’s my dream market. Back in high school, I mailed paper subs to F&SF, stuffing pricey International Reply Coupons into the envelopes.
About the most interesting part of the submission process was the long (but understandable) wait, during which I penned a bemused poem about response times. (Is there a more writerly way to vent frustration?) After 200+ days, I saw the acceptance while committing a minor student felony: checking my email during class.
The Story’s Inspiration: Malls, Butterflies, and Reusable Empires
It’s early January 2017. I walk through the poshest mall in Toronto; I have a seasonal job there, though the commute takes me an hour and a half. I write on the subway rides, and that winter I finish “The Palace of the Silver Dragon,” a story I’ll eventually sell to Strange Horizons.
In that mall corridor an image comes to me: a woman, her body disintegrating into butterflies. She mouths six words: “You think you can save me?”
Those words never make it into the story, but that’s not the point.
A few weeks later, I watch a video about how caterpillars become butterflies. I’ll leave the description to Morieth, the titular “Lady of Butterflies”:
“It’s not a simple matter of growing wings. A curious man once poked open a chrysalis, and out spilled green and white liquid. The caterpillar’s tissues had melted, disintegrated—but from that broth eventually emerges a butterfly.”
The plot begins to form. As it does, I realize the conflicts, atmosphere, and imagery of the story fit quite well with a pre-existing land I’ve built: the Empire of Keja, home to a powerful warrior class called the Swordbearers. I initially crafted this world for an incredibly complicated visual novel that is nowhere near completion, but realized it serves as the perfect setting for “The Lady of Butterflies.”
An image, a piece of science, a pre-built world. I guess this is what many writers would call combining different ideas. This is unusual for me, as most of my ideas come to me whole, plot-first, often with built-in ending.
What did you think about the issue, and the story? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter!
Kevin Denelsbeck November 11, 2018
Hi YM,
First, hearty congrats on being published in F&SF. I’ve been trying since mid-summer and am up to 3 rejections so far, though all were encouraging and one had notes.
I got the latest F&SF today and headed straight to your story. Not because it was listed first in the ToC but because of an interesting recent coincidence. I was at World Fantasy Convention a week ago in Baltimore, getting to meet CC Finlay and many other luminaries, but not really hanging out with anyone at meals or in the bar since it’s a bit cliquey and I’m not in any of the cliques. So what do I do after most of the panels are over?
I bring my laptop down to the bar and write with the swirl of hobnobbing going on around me. I decide to draft out a story idea I had rediscovered recently in a notebook. It was inspired by seeing a blog post from an author friend who is taking the 100 Mountain challenge in Japan. In one of her posts, she remarked on the great number and variety of butterflies that were present at one of the shrines she stopped at. Inspiration struck me about why butterflies might be at someone’s shrine, so I spent one noisy evening at WFC speed-drafting the beginning of a narrative about it. It was starting to gel rather quickly and I had the notion it might make a good F&SF submission. (The fact that Mr. Finlay wasn’t too far away probably contributed to that confidence 🙂 )
Imagine my surprise the next day (!) when I saw your tweet about your story now appearing in F&SF and available on newsstands :). I read your blog entry on it and knew I had been, for all publishing intents and purposes, scooped. Oh well, as they say. At least it was good writing practice! 🙂
I finally got an F&SF today and read your story, and it’s lovely, with a fine eye for atmospheric detail without sludging the pace, and a charming take on one variety of collective intelligence. Bravo! 🙂 My story idea, while also Asian in its flavor, takes a very different route throughout and is closer to horror than to the alt-folklore tale that you spin. So maybe I can find a place for it, but not right away, and probably never at F&SF :/. Rest assured, I’m not the least bit angry at you, I just found it interesting that I would hatch an idea about a woman and butterflies while a similarly-troped story from someone else was also active in the ether:).
Best wishes to you on your continued career, I look forward to reading more stories!
admin November 14, 2018
Dear Kevin,
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed my story.
I’d be the last one to judge you on bringing out your laptop and writing while hobnobbing goes on around you. For one of my local writing groups, there’s an optional dinner afterward. On the few occasions I went, I ended up writing at the restaurant table. Except my implements are more primitive than yours–looseleaf paper and pencil.
Cliche as it sounds: keep writing, keep submitting. In a way, finishing a story and sending it out is the accomplishment. When, where, and whether it gets accepted is out of your control. F&SF is a competitive market, but new writers appear every issue. On the other hand, old pros can still get rejected (former editor and now publisher Gordon Van Gelder once rejected Ray Bradbury. Yes, Ray Bradbury). It’s all about whether one particular story works for one particular editor.
I wouldn’t write off (ha) your story as nothing but writing practice. Heck, I wouldn’t even say it has no chance in F&SF. Keep in mind that there is a turnaround period between submission, acceptance, and publication. For instance, I submitted my story on June 13th, 2017. It was accepted March 9th, 2018. And published November 2018. Now, I did have an abnormally long wait time between submission and acceptance, but a ~90-day wait isn’t uncommon. So if you submit a story now and it gets accepted, it likely won’t appear in print until 8-12 months later. So I doubt my story’s existence will affect yours.
And hey, during the last 1.5 years, I can recall at least three autonomous vehicle stories in F&SF. And I’d like to think that’s a more specialized topic than “butterflies.” Not to mention, your story sounds quite different from mine. (Some initial ideas for “The Lady of Butterflies” had a darker bent, but I ultimately took it in a different direction.)
Good luck to you as well! I look forward to seeing your work, in F&SF or elsewhere.
–YM