Jamie's Writing Life

http://atomjackmagazine.com/2009/current.html

My story "The Ghost Under the Ice" leads off this issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly!  

Also yay!

Rejections from Shimmer, Bards and Sages Quarterly, Flash Fiction Online, Tweet the Meat, Brain Harvest, and Strange Horizons. 

Acceptance from Whortleberry Press.  My story "Halloween Party" will be appearing in It was a Dark and Stormy Halloween, which is due out sometime in August. 

Also, I'm going to be teaching a session of a creative writing workshop tomorrow at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  Here's the description. 

On the Trail with Your Pen: Creative Writing Adventures (new!)
CRW 102 - Level: All               
SUMMER SESSION: 4 Sundays, 2:00 - 5:00 pm, June 28 - August 2, no class July 5 and July 12
Join us as we hit the trail, walk by the river, visit the park, meander in the garden and stroll in a museum in this creative writing workshop surely to get you outside your known writing practice. Creative exercises that correspond to several fun activities will offer you new directions for your writing this summer. Fresh settings create opportunities for new ideas. A supportive atmosphere of discussion will guide our group experiences as we practice writing tools for fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, journaling and memoir. Open to beginning through advanced writers.$125 members, $150 non-members

Got a rejection the other day that was so vitriolic and mean spirited that it convinced me to ban myself from their market.  The insults weren't solely directed at my story.  A few were backhanded  personal shots.  I figure not submitting to them again will help everyone's mental state in the long run.  The wording was hurtful and made me angry, but I know any response from me would be unprofessional.  So no more submissions to that market to avoid future frictions. 

What I don't understand is if the editor hated my story so much (which is DEFINITELY the case) why bother reading the whole thing?  The rejection made it obvious that the editor not only spent time finishing my story, but also put time into crafting the response.  If I'd been reading a submission that I hated that much, I wouldn't have put myself through the whole thing. 

I should also mention that Neil Clarke, the guy who runs Clarkesworld Magazine (where I read slush, in case anyone out there doesn't know that) sent us slush readers a present.  It's a BOOK!  I like books.  ^_^  (If you hate links, it's Tides from the New Worlds by Tobias Buckell.  It's a beautiful hardcover copy, signed and lettered.  Even if you hate links you should click on that one because the cover art really is stunning.) So far I've read the first few stories, and I've enjoyed them immensely. If anyone is looking to pick up a new short story collection to add to their shelves, this is a good one.  

My story "Toast" has been accepted by The Drabblecast!  Yay!  It should be up sometime soonish, I'll post a link when that happens.  

Three rejections to report, one each from Shimmer, Tweet the Meat, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 

Shimmer and Beneath Ceaseless Skies both do a really great job on personal rejections.  They get characters names right, they encourage future submissions and I feel like they mean it, they give actual reasons why they're passing.   

Two to report, one from Shimmer and one from Tweet the Meat. 

My 200 word story "Taking Root" will appear in Bards and Sages in January 2010! 

This week is awesome!

Rejection from Fantasy.  

I'm so far behind on the podcasts that I listen to that it isn't even funny.  I'm also behind on everything else I used to read regularly.  I read a couple stories in Fantasy Magazine today at work.  Enjoyed both.  I'm going to make it a goal to get caught up.  I should be able to read online stories at work.  I could probably even listen to podcasts at work, but the idea makes me uneasy.  

I just sent out a dozen stories.  Wish me luck. 

I vastly prefer markets that take electronic submissions.  I can't even send postal ones right now because I'm out of paper.  Also it's raining and who wants to walk to the post office in the rain. 

I also like places that want manuscripts in standard manuscript format.  I hate when I have to go through a story and change something little, like denoting section breaks  with *** instead of # or not indenting paragraphs and double spacing between them.  I understand why editors ask for stuff like that--at least I think I do.  It's probably mostly because they don't want to have to do it themselves.  It might also be something of a test to see if submitters can follow directions.  I can follow directions, but if there are too many silly changes I give up and look for someplace else to send my story to.  Of course that also might be what the editors are going for. 

My story "Seasons of Friendship" will be appearing in Silver Blade sometime soon!  Like the end of May soon.  Very exciting. 

Also, my super hero story "If You Weren't Murdering My Wife" has been passed up the ladder at Neo-Opsis Science Fiction. 

Since my last update, I have been rejected by Fantasy Magazine, Shimmer, Electric Spec, and A Fly in the Amber. 

I sold my flash piece "A Ghost Under the Ice" to Bards and Sages Quarterly.  It will be coming out in their October issue.  I get $.01 per word (so $2) and a free PDF copy.  I'm totally buying a print copy when it comes out, which will cost more than I'm getting paid, but still.  EXCITING! 

I also got a very nice personal rejection from Strange Horizons.  They actually gave me some useful feedback.  I really appreciate it.  ^_^  I'm going to edit the story they rejected and get it back out. 

One day rejection from Podcastle.  Very impressive.  Much better turn around time than Escape Pod.  

I've got a few rejections since I last posted, and I've been sending stuff out over the past couple of days.  It's the first time I've done much since the latest Duotrope update, and I have to say I'm liking the new features.  

Professional analysis, criticism, and comments are available at affordable prices. Email xxxxxxxxx at xxxxx for details.

To me, this sounds like if f I want to know if they accepted me I have to wait till November, and check.  It sounds like they don't intend to even send out rejections or acceptances.  And if submitters have to check and find out if this market wants to run their story, do they also have to email them for a contract? 

And the wording at the end seems pretty shady to me.  "I can't critique you for free, but if you follow this link down here, you can pay me for one."  It doesn't all that long to do a personalized rejection.  It takes even less time to do a form, but it seems like this market doesn't even have time for that. 

Bizarre.  

I just got an automated response to my query thanking me for my story and asking me to wait five months before querying. 

I also sent out another story.

Yesterday I submitted six stories, and today I sent out query letters to Escape Pod, Aberrant Dreams, Coyote Wild, and From the Asylum.  I figure 245, 266, 246, and 281 days is long enough to wait to send a query without seeming pushy.  I know at least two of them actually got my stories because they sent confirmations.  From the Asylum doesn't seem to be letting me send my query.  It keeps bouncing.  First it just bounced, but then I got something telling me to try another address.  And then that bounced.  As did the one I sent to their main editorial address. Lots of bounced emails.  Is a little frustrating.  

Thank you for submitting your manuscript, Journal of an Artist. 
While  the subject matter is of interest to our readers and the 
story is well  written, the story itself does not fit in well 
with our current releases.
 
Thank you again for your interest, we hope you will submit again in  
the future.

Also....

Thanks for your submission.  Unfortunately, we cannot accept your story at this time.  We appreciate the time and effort put into this story, and we hope that you will not hesitate to submit more work.  We are glad that you're enjoying xxxxxxxx, and we hope that we will be able to feature some more of your work in the future. Once again, thank you, and please keep listening!

 

Awkwardly,

This one you could probably figure out who they are if you think about
it, so don't.  

Both of these are perfectly fine rejection slips.  The first one 
frustrates me a little bit more, because it makes me feel like 
the universe hates me.  The second one is actually growing on 
me.  I'd worried that the story I sent them might be a bit too 
dark, and if that is the case I wish they'd told me so.  The 
awkwardly thing as their signature was a bit weird.  They don't 
need to apologize to mefor not taking it.  I'd rather they told 
me why.  

I'm not happy.  There's no explanation on their website, just options for what to do with your remaining subscription. 

Damn.  I really enjoyed Realms of Fantasy. 

Boring openings.  People waking up aren't interesting.  People complaining about how boring their lives are aren't interesting.  Opening with blocks of setting description or back story isn't interesting.  I want characters and I want action in the hook. 

Pretension.  If someone has a nosebleed, call it a nosebleed, don't talk about the twin red flags running down their chin.  Don't have characters using words that you wouldn't use.  Don't over describe stuff, and if you're going to use words that stand out as not being common, make them count for something.  I'm not saying to go crazy limiting your vocabulary, and good words can be powerful, but don't use a big word when a shorter one would be clearer. 

No hint of a speculative element within the first page or two. 

Anything that has something sexual in the first or second paragraph.  It squicks me out. I'm okay with sex in stories, if it's appropriate, but not in the opening.  I don't know these characters yet, I'm not ready to be that close to them.  Sexual action is not the sort I was talking about. 

Things that get boring and drag on in the middle.  Cut things that don't move the story along.  I'm serious.  If it's not interesting, I'm not going to read it.  I don't care if your opening is good and your ending is brilliant, if the middle is like wading through a swamp, I'm not going to keep going.   

Things with lame endings.  I really hate when I get all of the way through something and then the end makes me feel like I wasted my time.

Vampires.  I don't like vampires.  I'm not huge on zombies, either.  I'd like to like both of them, but I haven't seen any that were really well done.  Not even in things that have been published.  Pseudopod sometimes picks up things with zombies or vampires that I just can't stand. 

That leads me into twists that I see coming.  And that I don't want to happen.  If I'm reading something and saying "Please don't let this be a vampire (or zombie) story" and then it is, I'm not happy.

That's all for now.  I might come up with more later. 

 

I've got a lot of rejection slips since my last post.  Most of them are nothing special.  There is one I want to talk about, though. 

I submitted a story to Warrior Wisewoman and got a reply that it had made it through the first reading, and to be patient.  Then I waited for over 150 days without hearing a thing.  So I finally sent a query, which Roby James responded to quickly and politely, and my story was still under consideration. 

This made me very happy, since I bought their last issue and really enjoyed it.  I really wanted to be a part of this year's.  I really respect the market and their focus and the quality of their product. 

That was not to be.  I got a rejection slip saying that they'd like to see the story again next year if I hadn't placed it.  Which is nice... but it's not at the same time.  This one really got my hopes up, and when that happens I inevitably end up crying over my rejection slip.  It seems to me that they had to essentially choose between my story and another one, and I lost.  I want to know why I wasn't good enough, but the rejection wasn't personal.   

These near-misses are getting to me.  I feel like I'm just not good enough, and that I'll never be good enough, no matter how hard I work or how long I try.  My friends and my husband assure me that I'm wrong. 

But I don't believe them.  And the universe seems to be backing me up on this.  Maybe the problem is my attitude.  Maybe I need to be more positive and repeat things like, "I will make a professional sale in 2009," over and over again.  It worked for Ellen.  She got George Cloony on her show today.  (Yes, I watch daytime tv at work.)  But I can't.  Hope hurts me every time.  I can't embrace it. 

Maybe I shouldn't be airing my insecurities and the fact that I cry over rejection slips on a public forum.  I should be ashamed of my weakness, I suppose.  But I said that I was writing this blog for people in my position so that they don't feel alone.  So, I'm letting the internet know that sometimes I cry over my rejection slips.  I'm bitter and angry and disillusioned.  The only reason that I don't give up is because I'm too fucking stubborn.  I have no faith that I will ever make it anywhere with my writing.  None.  Zero.  Sometimes I have a little hope, but that never ends well.

I was thinking that a workshop might help get my writing up to the next level, but that's not a possibility.  Even if I did get in (which I doubt) I couldn't actually go.  Even if miracles happened and I ended up getting scholarship money/aid stuff, I couldn't leave my job for six weeks.  I wouldn't have a job to come back to.  There are a ton of massage therapists in Pittsburgh.  Most of them would love my job.  It's an awesome job.  And since I'm an independent contractor instead of an employee, there's no reason for them to not have a therapist around for six weeks.  And even if they would, I couldn't afford to not work for six weeks.  Maybe if Paul found a full time job.  Maybe.  But with the economy the way it is, we're lucky to both have jobs at all.  

On a completely different note, Triangulation submissions have opened again, and I've spent the past few Saturdays reading submissions.  You can read fun updates about that on Joseph's and Pete's blogs.  As Pete mentions, he's started sharing the rejection slip duty.  We did get another negative response to a rejection.  Of course it was one I wrote so I feel like it's a personal attack, which is completely ridiculous.  I know that.  It doesn't stop it from stinging, though.  This guy wasn't nearly as out of line as the guy we banned, which actually sort of makes it worse.  I can't just fall back on the dude being a whacko.   

Clarkesworld reopened too, so I'm back to reading slush there, and I'm also reading stories for Flashing Swords.

It's amazing that I'm working on three publications and I'm honored to be a part of each of them.  

I think I'm going to end this post on that high note.  Some things are good.  It's just hard to see them through the tears and the pain.  Maybe that should be my mantra for 2009.  "Focus on the good things." 

"Awesome character, awesome setting, and awesome twist at the end. I love how the story makes it unclear whether she's actually experiencing any of the climax, or has gone completely insane. She's a nice enough girl, though, so the reader actually feels for her and hopes that she managed to escape."  That's from my rejection slip.  That's nicer than most acceptances that I've received.  To be fair, it was a comment from a reader, not from the guy writing my rejection slip--he didn't indicate that he'd actually read the piece.  He might have.  I have no idea. 

 Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine rejected me after 223 days because they hadn't found a place for my piece and it's not their policy to hold on to a piece indefinitely. 

I can't be too shocked about this whole debacle because my friend Pete had a similar experience with them some time ago, though his piece that the couldn't find space for was only 400 words.  I don't know how long they held on to it before they just gave up the effort of finding space for it. 

On the bright side, though, I got to hear about how awesome I am.  That's never a bad thing. 

I'm really behind on my chart.  O_o

I sent one of my flash pieces to Flash Me Magazine.  We'll see if anything comes of that.

I've neglected posting on several rejections.  I received mailed forms from both Analog and Highlights this week.  Highlights was a little more personal--note at the bottom saying "Thanks for thinking of us" and a reason checked why I didn't make the cut. 

Email rejections from Fantasy (form) and Allegory (personal, and very nice, if not very helpful.)  Need to update my chart, will do that eventually. 

Wrote a new story yesterday, first new one for a while.  I hadn't done much since before the wedding, not counting my aborted Nanowrimo attempt, which I don't count since it's not done.  Well, it is and it really isn't, both at the same time.  I have a beginning, middle, and end, but I need to go though and add sections from a second point of view and fill in a lot of detail and make it better.  The biggest problem is I finished it just over 14,000 words in.  That's a total Nanowrimo fail, but it is almost three times longer than anything else I've written, so as an exercise it wasn't a total waste of time.  And I'll probably go back to it someday.  Maybe. 

Very personal rejection from expanded horizons. 

Very personal. 

*sigh*

Yeah, I'm going to do Nanowrimo this year.  Since I'm unemployed, hopefully I'll manage it.  Even if I fail, if I break 5000 words and end up with something that I can so anything with it'll be my longest piece.  My stuff keeps getting shorter and shorter, and while I like that, I want to see if I can push myself in the other direction, too. 

I sent out everything that wasn't out already.  Three postal and eight electronic submissions. 

I sent "Protection From the Darkness" out for the first time this morning.  It got its first rejection before noon--a personal one from Cat Tales.  I also sent out a query to Les Bonnes Fees because it's day 150 since I sent them "Sleeping Beauty."  

Check this out. 

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/staff/

It's official now. 

Form from RoF.

So, I got married and went on a 10 day honeymoon, and before that my best friend from college was in town for a week to help me get ready, and before that I got laid off.  I have been stressed and busy and not reading or writing or submitting anything.  O_o  I read two Clarkesworld stories yesterday.  Today, I should read some more, plus I have two stories to go over for WorD on Tuesday, plus I have a gazillion stories that need sent out, plus I haven't written a single word in like three weeks, which hasn't happened pretty much since I joing WorD.  I also am hideously behind in my podcasts, I haven't even opened the latest Realms of Fantasy, and to top it all off, I still have a cold. 

Also, I need to stop wasting time on Facebook.  And get my house cleaned.  And call about jobs and massage stuff and study for the NCBTMB and get up to my parents' house to get the stuff I left after the wedding and get the stuff for goodwill out of the hallway and oh shit my head is just going to explode.  O_o  

While I was gone, one of the other slush readers sent out an email and everyone started introducing themselves.  ^_^  My reply was horribly short, but I have so much to do today--unpacking, getting the mail started back up, going through the fridge to throw out the bad food, hanging up our new art, finalizing the photopass stuff, and I'm sure more things that I'm not even thinking of right now.  

I'm leaving for my honeymoon on Sunday, and I'm busy till then with parties, rehearsals, and ceremonies, so I emailed Neil Clarke about not being able to do much slush reading for the next two weeks, and he sent me back an email telling me to take as much time as I need, which is awesome of him. 

Reading slush for Clarkesworld is going really well.  I'm enjoying it, even though nothing I've read has been accepted yet.  It's hard to come up with things to say about really terrible pieces.  It's much easier to give details for near misses.  I mean, I can't just say, "This is terrible and made my eyes bleed."  That's terrible.  And mean.  So I try to find things to say about everything.  And I've made it a point to read the whole story, which is sometimes pretty painful.  I have to admit, I've skimmed once or twice, but I do get to the end. 

Another rejection for "Seasons of Friendship," this one a form from Fantasy Magazine.

Personal rejection from Strange Horizons for "If You Weren't Murdering My Wife." 

Sent "The Other Side" out to Realms of Fantasy.

Form from Ballista for "Tiffany and the Unicorns."

Got a personal rejection from Beneath Ceaseless Skies for "Fox-Woman"

Clarkesworld reopened to submissions this weekend, so I started reading slush.  So far, it's going pretty well.  My only complaint is that I feel pretty isolated from the other readers.  I have never met any of them--I've never even emailed them.  And when one of them claims a story it vanishes completely from my account, so I can't see what kind of things that they are saying about the stories they are reading.  It makes me really miss sitting around the table at Pete's house with him, Bill, and Joseph reading things and talking about them.  I am so thankful for all of the experience I have with Triangulation and with Write or Die, because it's boosted my confidence in myself to the point where I can actually go through a story and decide to reject or reccomend it. 

Also, the Drabblecast discussion forum isn't terribly active, but most of the responses to my story have been positive.  Only one person really didn't like it.  Of course, that one is the respoinse that sticks with me, which is completely stupid and I'm trying not to let it bother me. 

I sent my story to The Drabblecast last Wednesday.  Today, it is up. 

Check it out!  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  Norm Sherman's reading is superb, the sound effects and music are fun, and it's just awesome.  It's the perfect venue for my over-the-top story. 

I just got an acceptance from The Drabblecast.  They're hoping to run "Snuffles" this week!  

I just sent "Seasons of Friendships" to Fantasy Magazine. 

You know what I hate?  I hate when editors use the word "alas" in my rejection slip.  It just irritates the crap out of me.  It's not necessary, and it's not true.  Skip it.  If I ever use the word "alas" in a rejection slip, I hope someone calls me on it because it's bullshit. 

I wrote another drabble and sent it in to the Sam's Dot Drabble Contest run by The Drabbler.  I also found a contest from Hightlight's for Children (which I read as a child) that will be open during January 2009.  I've requested a sample copy of the magazine to see how much has changed since I read it as a kid, and I'm hoping that I can write a few stories for them, and then send something in for the contest.  They do buy all rights, but they also pay $150+ for 500-800 word stories. 

Today I got word back from both Realms of Fantasy and Fantasy and Science Fiction.  Both sent me personal rejections.  This is the first time I've had a personal rejection from either, though I did get the hopeful yellow rejection slip from RoF the last time I sent them something.  This time, Douglas Cohen wrote me a note on the bottom, which is very cool of him.  My Fantasy and Science Fiction rejection was actually signed by Gordon Van Gelder, which is new.  Overall, while I'd of course be happier with acceptances, these are the best sort of rejections.  

Sent "Snuffles" to The Drabblecast.  I also finally managed to write a drabble (a 100 word story) that I will probably send to them after I get a response to this submission.  

I'm going to be a slush reader for Clarkesworld! 

Can you believe it???  I'm not sure I can. 

Woot!

Got a rejection for "Fox-Woman" from Fantasy Magazine, sent it back out to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 

I worry that my stuff isn't weird enough, because I have been reading a lot lately, and most of it is pretty out there.  I like most of it, but it's really nothing like what I write.  People apparently don't publish stuff like the stuff I write. 

I'm scared that I'll never make it.  I work so hard, I send stories out over and over again...sometimes it feels like it's really for nothing.  I'm scared that it's for nothing.  I really want it to not be for nothing, and that's what makes it so scary.  But I have to keep trying.  It's all I can do.

Sent "The Other Side" out to Fantasy and Science Fiction.

I'm skipping my writers meeting tonight for chocolate covered strawberries.  I love chocolate covered strawberries. 

Clarkesworld Magazine is looking for slush readers, so I sent them an application.  They're a pretty prestigious market, so being affiliated with them would be awesome.  I also probably have like no chance at all.  But what the hell.  I filled it out and sent it. 

I should be starting to get to work reading slush for Mike pretty soon. 

Wish me luck.

I got a personal rejection from Apex Digest for "Three Grams."  

This year I had the privilege of working on Triangulation: Taking Flight with Pete Butler, Joseph Benedetto, and Bill Moran.  The magazine is put out every year by PARSEC and it debuts at their convention. 

I really enjoy working as an editor.  I love reading slush.  Good, bad, great, horrible, I enjoy it all.  And I learn from all of it, too.  I worked on my college's literary magazine during all four years of my college career, and I was really missing it before I got involved with Triangulation.  I'm going to get to work on it next year, too, and I'm am stoked. 

I'm also getting the opportunity to work on Flashing Swords Magazine with another member of our writing group, Michael Brendan.  I should be getting to work reading slush for him at the end of the month. 

So, all of that is quite exciting. 

Got quick and pleasant personal rejections for both "Journal of an Artist" from Cat Tales and "Lullaby to Loneliness" from Beneath Ceaseless Skies.  

I've been falling behind on getting things sent back out, so today I hit that problem hard. 

I got "Seasons of Friendship" ready to mail to ROF, and I sent out five other stories via email.  "If You Weren't Murdering My Wife" went to Strange Horizons, "Journal of an Artist" went to Cat Tales, "Tiffany and the Unicorns" went to Ballista, "Three Grams" went to Apex Digest, and "Larva Mother" went out to Warrior Wisewoman. 

The only thing I have left to send is "Shadow Under the Barn" and I'm hoping to send it to the 2009 Pagan Fiction Award Contest, because when I sent it to NewWitch the woman in charge of the contest sent me an email telling me that she thought it would do well.  Details were supposed to be out in their May issue of Pan Gaia, but I'm having problems finding details about it. 

The August/September issue of AlienSkin Magazine is out, and I'm in it!  

My story "Rapunzel Station" has passed through the second round of readings at Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and they want to hold on to it for a few months to decide if they want to run it or not.  

Got a form rejection in the mail from Asimov's today.  It's a nice enough form.  I also did not win the Chi Short Story Contest.  I haven't received notification yet, but the winners are posted on their site, and since I'm not on that list, that leaves me as a loser.  I also got a nice personal rejection from Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. 

Got yet another rejection for "Tiffany and the Unicorns."  I'm running out of places to send it.  

Got a rejection for my 200 word piece, "The Ghost Under the Ice."  The rejection was also quite short. 

"Alas, this is not what I seek."

That's it.  Seriously. 

Sent "Fox-Woman" off to Fantasy magazine.  

For some reason, the form rejection I got from Cricket for "Seasons of Friendship" just makes me happy.  I think it's them thanking me for sending them my manuscript(s).  And that they looked it over carefully.  And that they mailed it back even though it says it's disposable.  Yeah.  They looked it over REEEEEALLLY carefully.  ^_^ 

Why does it make me happy that I feel like they didn't even bother reading it?  I have no idea.  It doesn't make sense.  Whatever.  Maybe I'm still protected from feeling disappointment from the insane number of cookies I ate yesterday.  Maybe it's because it's the complete opposite of yesterday's rejection, while still being a form. 

Who knows!  Now I have two stories that I have to send out.  I need to get on that. 

I am no longer sad.  I ate an entire box of Samoas (seriously, the whole damn box, I'm a pig) and drank some peppermint tea and watched A Walk to Remember and cried.  Sad movies rock.  Also, I am not dying of cancer.  

Just got my form rejection from Realms of Fantasy. 

I haven't been this disappointed about anything in a long time.  That's what I get for getting my hopes up.  Damn, that sounds really bitter and horrible.  I don't feel bitter and horrible.  I just feel...sad.  Really, really sad. 

My stimulus check came in the mail yesterday.  I'm putting it in the bank tomorrow.  Since I first heard about these checks, I've been thinking about what to do with my free money.  Mostly, my answer is split between my saving account and bills, but I do want to use at least a little of the money to actually stimulate the economy. 

So, I'm stimulating the part I care about most.  I already paid for my Realms of Fantasy subscription.  I just got myself a subscription to Shimmer and I'm donating $5 to each Podcastle, Pseudopod, and Escape Pod. I know that's not much, but I'm struggling to keep my ends meeting, and at least it's something.  And Alasdair Stuart tells me that every cent is appreciated every single time I listen to Pseudopod, so I'm going to feel good about it. 

Douglas Cohen got back to me, and I have to say I'm impressed by how quickly he did.  I'm really glad I already got a subscription to the magazine, because the more I interact with them the more I like them.  He told me that RoF has a pretty full inventory and are taking their time before they commit to buying anything new.  You know what that means?  That means that Shawna McCarthy read my story and liked it enough to keep thinking about it. 

I am having a good day. 

Douglas Cohen responded to my query approximately 30 seconds after I sent it to let me know he'd look into it.  How awesome is that.

AND EVEN MORE AWESOME---also in my inbox was a response from AlienSkin Magazine.  My ACCEPTANCE.   They're going to print "Crossing" in their August/September issue and pay me $5 for it.  WOOT. 

Today is a good day for my writing.  ^_^

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is passing "Rapunzel Station" on to second round readers!  Yay! 

Also got a personal rejection from Kaleidotrope for "The Journal of an Artist."

Still nothing from RoF.  Today is the deadline I set for myself to send a query, because today marks half again their listed max response time.  O_o  So, I'm going to send one. 

I edited my story "Prohibited Comfort," which is the one the WorD group work shopped last night.  Wrote a new flash piece at work, too. 

Tonight we work shopped a novel opening and my new flash piece.  Overall, the response to my piece was positive, which makes me feel pretty good about myself.  But now I have to edit it and the suggestions I got were all over the place.  O_o 

One of my fellow group members rungs his own website and makes money with it.  He suggested that I write 200+ more flash pieces and then put them up on the internet every weekday for a year for people with desk jobs to read while they're trapped at work. 

I am terrified and intrigued by this idea.  I have a feeling that he's much more computer savvy than I am, but I do have friends who could help me set up a website in the way he suggested, and I also have the capacity to learn new things.  And I write a lot.  Maybe I could do 260 flash pieces.  That's not too many words, really, if I keep them to around 150 words.  It'll be a challenge, but I like challenges.  Really the scary thing is coming up with that many ideas. 

The mailbox remains my enemy. 

I sent Lullaby to Loneliness to Neo-Opsis Science Fiction.  They're Canadian. 

Still waiting on RoF.  I get butterflies every single time I open the mailbox.  It's getting old. 

I don't save paper rejection slips, but I do save electronic ones. They take up less space, I guess.

Here's my official vote for worst form rejection received so far.

Thank you for submitting your story to --------------, unfortunately your story was unsuccessful on this occasion. We encourage you to continue submitting stories, don't let this failure discourage you.

It's really the word "failure" that got to me. How did I fail? By writing the story? By sending it to this market? Or are they apologizing for their failure? I don't know, but it pissed me off. I know I shouldn't get mad at rejections, especially form ones, but still. -_-

This next one is pretty standard, but nice.

Thank you for your patience and for giving me the opportunity to read your manuscript. Sorry, but I will have to pass on this one as it's not quite what I'm looking for. I appreciate your interest in ---------- and hope that you will keep me in mind for future submissions.

I like rejections like that. Maybe they mean it, maybe they don't, but at least they're being nice.

Here are some nice personal things.

I have to confess the image of the toasts jumping up and down on the dance pads cracked me up! Unfortunately, I just didn't think there was enough of a story here for this piece to be really successful.

I have to say I don't see nearly enough badger-based fiction. But for me, the scientific unlikeliness, and the unpleasant female protagonist, outweighed its badgerly charms. I hope you're able to find a good home for it soon.

Those are both from the same market. I submit to them a lot. They are pretty amazingly nice. They are also fast, which is awesome.

Here are a couple harsher personal rejection quotes.

We are looking for the new, and aggressive bread products are certainly unusual, but we're afraid toast and muffins just don't make for fascinating monsters. We also felt Elayne seemed almost simple-minded, with an interior life not sufficiently complex to make her an effective narrative voice. The action also felt clumsy in places,

Your brief tale of a giant radioactive mutant badger disturbed in its lair by a UN team tried to be amusing but never really delivered on the humor.

Also from the same place, and actually about the same stories. I didn't plan that, but it's actually pretty cool. I submit to this market because if he can't break me and get me to stop submitting stuff, no one can.

One more, from the same place.

Thanks, but not for us. You're surely aware of the risk in writing in a unicorn story in 2007, as you even write in the story "She felt like a cliché." Sadly, she was a cliché: the cliché of a character waiting in a bar (we get a couple of those each day) and, as a female, contemplating her own appearance so that the reader can know what she looks like (the oldest trick in the book, even if she simply remembers what she looks like in a mirror instead of just looking in a mirror). Really, the first four grafs can be sliced off without any loss to the story at all. Now, I did kind of like the idea of unicorns causing golf course wrecks and cancer and all that -- it was funny and I get the joke -- but there was just too much other stuff and not enough of the paranoia. Also, the bit where the unicorns kill her falls flat. I hope I'd be thinking something more visceral and interesting if unicorns ever stabbed me to death.

I'm not saying that he's not right. He probably is. And maybe it could be useful if it didn't seem so mean and get me instantly on the defensive. I don't know. I don't ever expect this market to print me, I just keep on sending stuff to toughen myself up. Also, to make him read it, because I feel like he hates me and my stuff and I'm petty.

I use Duotope to track my submissions and to find places to submit to.  I like it very much.  So far I have tracked 81 submissions.  Two of them are from before I even joined the site, because I had the information about the submissions in my email.  Of those 81 submissions, I've received 61 rejections and 1 acceptance (In Trail of Indiscretion #8).  To be fair to me, I also took second place in a contest (the PARSEC short story contest), but I couldn't enter that into Duotrope because I wasn't sure about dates and things. 

Anyway, if anyone else that I know has received over 61 rejections in the past year plus a few months, feel free to tell me so. 

I've been waiting to hear back from Realms of Fantasy for 129 days now.  I got an email from their slush reader to tell me he was passing my story up the ladder.  I was very happy.  I'm still happy about it, but I really want to know if they're printing it or not.  I'm tired of waiting.  At the same time I don't want to get an answer because then I won't be able to hope anymore, and I want them to print me sooooooooo bad.  It's such a nice magazine.  I've got a subscription and everything.  Because it's nice. 

I have 19 stories out on the market right now.  One of them is creative nonficiton.  The rest are science fiction, fantasy, or horror, though the horror are really just dark science fiction or fantasy.  I have 6 stories that are finished, but need more work before I can send them out. 

I have stories out at Realms of Fantasy, Ploughshares, Beyond Centauri, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, From the Asylum, Kaleidotrope, AlienSkin Magazine, Les Bonnes Fees, Aberrant Dreams, Asimov's Science Fiction, Cricket, The Town Drunk, Dreams & Nightmares, Coyote Wild, Escape Pod, Chizine, Horror Garage, and Pseudopod. 

Well, my other blog is about my life in general, and this one is going to be about my writing.  I'm going to track of my writing and my submitting.  And also my getting rejected.  Look forward to highlights from the worst form rejections as well as the best.  I'll share nice personal things people mention as well as harsh stuff.  Generally, I don't think I'm going to mention who said what, just because people don't usually mean for their rejection slips to go up on the internet. 

I write a lot, and I submit a lot.  A lot.  More than anyone else I know, I think.  I know that I have claimed more rejection prizes from my writing group than anyone else. 

My writing group is awesome.  I'm a member of Write or Die.  They keep me motivated to write, they give great advice, and they're all around great people and I enjoy spending time with them.