A minor glimmer on the market elliptical

(I like saying elliptical. It's my new favorite word.)

In a follow-up to Well, isn't that special, I looked at the markets I had saved in my WritersMarket.com short fiction folder, and discovered one among them that actually takes novella submissions of up to 25,000 words: Fantasy & Science Fiction.

A long-shot is better than no shot at all. (Which reminds me; I bought a lottery ticket and I haven't looked up the winning numbers yet. I am probably a millionaire 48 times over right now, so why am I talking to you people?)

There is also the even longer shot of Asimov's, a mostly hard SF magazine that considers some fantasy novellas, but has a 15,000 word maximum. Since, however, I wrote the 19,250th word moments ago, and the climax and dénouement have yet to occur, I'm thinking that one is a tad unrealistic.

But, hey, there's always cutting all of those adverbs!

Adverbs, apparently, are the Devil's Tongue. (In which case, why should I not use yet more? I should pepper my paper with them until people turn purple just reading it!) Every time I see writing advice from an author, the most they seem to be able to offer is "don't use adverbs." Thanks. That must be why you're making the big bucks. (Oh, look; what's that I see on page one of your bloated, unedited piece of tripe? Adverbs!) I swear, if one more person tells me that's the key to great writing, or that only the lowest of the low ever use adverbs, I am going to tie them up and read an adverb-riddled Danielle Steele novel to them until they choke on their own vomit. (Of course, I'd probably vomit myself into oblivion long before they exhausted their own supply.)

So, back to it. Page 78 and the beginning of the carnage await.