A blog topic I keep coming back to is analyzing the first lines of my flash and short stories. As before, all this comes from the essay written by Stephen King called “Great Hookers I Have Known” in his now sadly out-of-print collection Secret… Continue Reading “The Hook Up: Yet More Fun With First Lines”
July was another good month. The third quarter is definitely looking better than the first two. July 2022 Report Card Submissions Sent: 5 Rejections: 6 No Response: 0 Acceptances: 2 Publications: 1 Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0 Slightly better than last month, but five submissions in… Continue Reading “Submission Statement: July 2022”
A few years ago, I posted the rejections I’d received from a pro market I’d been trying to crack from some time. The point of that post was to illustrate that rejections often indicate if you’re making progress with an editor/publisher and getting closer… Continue Reading “Charting Rejection Progression II”
June has come and gone, and it was one of the better months of the year for short stories. June 2022 Report Card Submissions Sent: 4 Rejections: 1 No Response: 0 Acceptances: 2 Publications: 0 Further Consideration/Shortlist: 1 Like May, June was not a… Continue Reading “Submission Statement: June 2022”
I recently received a further consideration/hold letter from an excellent pro market. This is my third story to make it through a first reader and be recommended to one of the editors for further review. Now, it can be hard to quantify exactly what… Continue Reading “Further Considering Acceptance Rates”
Submitting short stories to genre and lit magazines is a process that can be, uh, well, let’s just say discouraging. Why? Because rejections are inevitable, multiple rejections for the same story are expected, and even two or three rejections in the same day are… Continue Reading “Swings & Misses IV: Revenge of the Rejection Streak”
May is in the books, and here’s how I did. May 2022 Report Card Submissions Sent: 5 Rejections: 7 No Response: 1 Acceptances: 0 Publications: 1 Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0 Well, as you can see, I was not particularly productive in May on the shot… Continue Reading “Submission Statement: May 2022”
Well, I am more than a little behind here, so let’s catch up. Three weeks of writerly doings all at once. Words to Write By Today’s quote is from author James Lee Burke “Every rejection is an incremental payment on your dues that in… Continue Reading “Weeks of Writing: 4/25/22 to 5/15/22”
Not gonna lie, April was a tough month. Read all the gory details below. 🙂 April 2022 Report Card Submissions Sent: 9 Rejections: 10 Acceptances: 0 Publications: 0 Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0 Any month where the number of rejections eclipses the number of submissions is… Continue Reading “Submission Statement: April 2022”
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is talent. Specifically, writing talent (obvs). A lot of this comes down to my specific version of impostor syndrome, which says, “Yeah, you’re good, but you’re not good enough.” Impostor syndrome is a real asshole, huh?… Continue Reading “Good, but Not Good Enough”