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Posts tagged ‘Publishing’

Sep 30

End of September 2015 – Accepted!

Well I guess when you put it out into the world, you get your answers.

Submissions: 11
Acceptances: 1
Rejections: 24

Yep, I got an acceptance e-mail for one of my stories. I’m excited to see it in print. I’m not going to give any details now, because I think it is better to announce when people have a book or a link to follow. Me announcing it doesn’t have any benefit to you or me. So, stay tuned. As soon as there is something to see, I’ll let you know.

As for my other challenge – I failed. No sugar coating this one. I didn’t get thirty stories. Honestly, I am surprised I got into the double digits. Thirteen was the grand total.

Hey, it’s thirteen more than I had at the beginning of the month.

Since my goal at the beginning of the year was to write two stories a month, for a grand total of twenty-four for the year, I think I have made good progress so far. I have one more quarter of the year to go. To tally up where I am at with my goals from the beginning of the year:
I have 14 stories completed this year (I wrote one earlier in the year.)
I started my novella.
I have 24 out of 100 rejections.
I haven’t designed a cover or tried to self-pub anything.

That last goal is something I’ve been thinking about over the last few weeks. I had forgotten all about it, but now that I have quite a few stories, my thinking wheels are turning. Not going to say too much, because I haven’t thought it all the way through. I’m still putting a plan together.

Over all, I think I’ve done pretty well for the three fourths of the year. I sometimes forget that for the first four and a half months of it, I had thesis class and finished out my degree. So really, I didn’t get things moving until June or so. And in June, I went on vacation and generally took a brain break to recharge.

That means July, August, and September were months that I was really trying. Where I was really focused.

Not too bad.

My plan for this last quarter is very simple. Finish, finish, finish. Submit, submit, submit. Repeat.

As Jack Sparrow said, “Simple. Easy to remember.”

Sep 15

3 Comments

Mid-September Post 2015 – Two Challenges at Once!

Mid month update. No movement on the submissions, except I got one more rejection. But, I mailed that story right back out. The rest are still out in the world.

Here’s the numbers:

Submissions: 12
Acceptances: 0
Rejections: 24

We are ¾ of the way through the year, so I’m sure I’m not going to get a hundred rejections, but maybe I’ll get 30 or 40? Maybe I’ll get at least one acceptance? One can hope.

My other challenge isn’t going so well. I started off strong, but somewhere around September 10, I fell behind. It’s not the writing that is hard, it’s the finishing. So now I have two unfinished stories sitting on my table. I opted to keep working on those rather than start yet another story. I suppose I could write a couple of flash fiction under five hundred words to catch up, but I’d rather finish up these two stories that I really like and am excited about.

What ever happens I’m glad I decided to do this. Like I said in my earlier post, there is something satisfying about finishing. I will have more new stories and I can submit those and add them to my challenge.

I would count the stories, but it’s getting late. I think I have 12(?) right now. Not too bad. Just a few stories behind.

A nice break from the longer story. In October, I will get back to that.

Jan 30

January Round Up 2015

Just a quick post here to update my writing challenge.

Rejections: 6

Acceptances: 0

Submissions: 10

I have two more pending for submission, but one still needs to be typed up and for the other, I am waiting until February 1 for the market to open. I think things are coming along nicely so far, but if I want to hit 100 rejections, I need to submit more.

My writing took a hit this month. A few days ago, classes started up and I am now in full swing for my final class for my degree. I spent most of my time this month working on my stories for class. New material had to be put aside. That’s a bummer, but I don’t think I would’ve changed things. I am learning there are times when you just need to focus on the tasks at hand and not worry about the perfect situation. In a perfect world, I would have time for everything… but we all know that doesn’t exist. So I get done, what I get done.

And the next day, I try again.

Nov 10

The Anthology is Now Available to Buy

A winter cold sidelined me for the post on the 5th. Tis the season for bad heath, right? Luckily, it was mild with only a stuffed up nose and nothing more serious like the flu. (I did get my flu shot, so all in all, not too bad.)

But, some big developments have happened in the first ten days of November. The biggest is that the anthology I’m in is now available for purchase. You can buy it here. Feel free to browse the “look inside” feature and read the sample stories. Kelly did a fantastic job on the book and I am very proud to be a part of it with all the other talented writers.

Other big news concerns my graduate school status. On November 3rd, I registered for my thesis class. I’m coming to the end of my time at JHU. This fall semester has flown by and now I have just a little over a month left. Come January, I will be at the beginning of the end. In a strange coincidence, by the time I graduate from JHU, it will be exactly 20 years after I graduated from high school.

I would make some joke here about being old, but in this day and age, everybody is going back to school. Age is just a number. The mind always wants to learn.

Sep 30

End Point – Short Story September 2014

It’s the end of September and the last day of my personal challenge to finish four stories this month. Technically I did, although one story was a creative piece for class. I am also ¾ of the way from finishing one more story, but since I wanted to post today, as of now, it is not finished. Still the day is not over and I will probably knock it out tonight in between watching NCIS and Person of Interest.

You may have also noticed a more consistent posting schedule. I’ve decided to try to post every 5th day and see how well I stay consistent. So far, it is not too hard and more importantly, easy to remember. In the past, I honestly forgot about this blog and when I did remember to post months had gone by. Not good.

Speaking of not good, right now I am on a furlough from my job. It happened at the last-minute and caught me off guard. For the next two weeks, I’ll have no day job to work on. In a way it is an unexpected gift. What would you do, if someone said, “Here you go. Have a couple of weeks off to just live your life.” Me, I think I’ll work on more writing. For once, I’ll be able to see what a full-time devotion to writing will look like.

Still, I don’t want this to be permanent. I kinda need my day job for stuff like rent and food.

Finally, you may have noticed a few changes in some other pages on this blog. Earlier this month, I got my first acceptance letter. My story “The Blind Woman and Her Spiders” was accepted for publication in the anthology Magical: An Anthology of Fantasy, Fairy Tales, and Other Fiction For Adults. I will now be a published writer by the end of the year.

I have a lot of thoughts (and emotions) about this moment in my writing career. Last winter, I got a really harsh rejection letter that bothered me for months. I think I will post in the future about that experience, but for now I want to focus on the enjoyment of having that moment when the conversation changes. Most writers know what I’m talking about. The conversation usually goes went like this:

Other person: So you are a writer? Can I read some of your work?

Me: Well, I’m not published yet.

Now the conversation goes like this:

Other person: So you are a writer? Can I read some of your work?

Me: Yes, I have a story out (insert name of publication here).

And that, folks, feels pretty damn good.

Jun 4

The Bradbury Effect

In my last post, I wrote how much I wished I could be as productive as Ray Bradbury.  For some reason, I just didn’t think that I could work like that, churning out a story every week. This past May proved me wrong.

I decided I would try and so far I have finished a piece every week.  I start on Monday and by Sunday, I try and finish something, whether it is a short story, flash fiction, blog post, or the end of a longer piece.  The sense of accomplishment feels very good.  I feel productive.  It spurs me on to get to the next story.  I still have a ton to rewrite and a million other writing ideas to get down into cohesive stories, but for now I am happy to be stacking up the work.  After all, the more you write the better you get.  Not all of these stories are going to be good, but some of them have the potential to be good.  I’m a believer of this idea now.

Good thing too, because I signed up for a summer session at JHU.  Spring classes ended around the first week of May and
now, four short weeks later, I am gearing up for another workshop class.  That means, more writing and critiquing
are in my future.  Last semester was a good group of writers.  I learned a lot about myself (my confusing pronoun usage, my tendency for groups of three, needing deeper character development, etc.).  I’m sure this next class will help me along too.

In other news, I got into a car accident last week.  The insult was that it happened five minutes from my house! Thank God no one was hurt.  The accident was very minor and the only thing damaged were the cars.  For the past few days, while my car is being repaired I’ve been driving a rental.  A 2013 Altima.  It has a push start, something I have never driven.  It’s not my style of car, but I’m marveling at all the bells and whistles.  There is even a feature on the dash that tells you what song you are listening to on the radio.  Modern technology!  I’m used to my older car where you have to work for everything. LOL!

I also came across another gem of a book.  A signed copy of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.  The best part?  I bought it from the thrift store when they had a 50% Memorial Day sale.  I love the spring/summer season.  People give away the best stuff now.  Along with the Franzen book, I got a copy of If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace.  I’ll get to them soon, but right now I’m reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  Interesting so far.  It’s one of those Big books many people read, and since I never read it, I thought I should join the club.

And yes, I did get around to reading 50 Shades of Grey.

All I will say about that book, is that I didn’t like it, don’t understand the people who do, and will go back to reading Harold Robbins the next time I feel the urge to read something trashy.  Now that man could tell a story and write some great sex scenes!

I did like Karen Russell, though.  Her stories were inventive, sometimes fun, sometimes heartbreaking, original, and ambitious.  I have Swamplandia! on my “to be read shelf” too.

There are so many great stories to be read.  So many yet to be written (hopefully one or two by yours truly).  I haven’t forgotten my New Year’s resolution.  You know the one where I wanted to be published.  So along with writing, I’ve got to start submitting again.

I just have to start one story at a time.

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