October, 2009

...now browsing by month

 

Six weeks

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

It turns out that it takes about six weeks to find out your story has been rejected by your better e-zines. Three came back, so it’s time to turn them around and get them back out. I’m confident that the stories are pretty good, but I’ve been sending them to the toughest markets. I use Dutrope’s to search markets, along with SpecFic World. Need to dig into Ralan’s as well.

I hesitate to send a story that could be accepted by a more selective market to one where I have a better chance to get picked up. Patience has never been my strong point. Time for a little more research and then some submissions.

It’s the end of the second six weeks grading period and the end of my coaching season (career?). A sense of relief has settled in and I’ll gain 25-30 hours of usable time a week. Now I’ve got to to use my increased time effectively.

Posted in Blog Posts | No Responses »
Tags: , ,

Positives and Negatives

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

I sent my latest story to science fiction author Cory Doctorow (even though I assumed he’d never read it) because the central speculative idea of the story, a ‘printer’ that uses nanotech to convert matter at a molecular level, appears in a couple of his stories.

Cory actually read it, sent me a very encouraging note calling the story “absolutely delightful” and “fantastic work”, and made some suggestions. Very exciting.

So, of course, today it got rejected by Futurismic, but with a positive personal note, and the ezine is one of Duotrope’s 25 Most Challenging Markets. No problem, I’ll simply figure out where to send it next. And so it goes.

Posted in Blog Posts | 1 Response »
Tags: , ,

First Blood

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

My one-sentence story was published at the e-zine 50 to 1 in the October 18th edition. I’m excited. It’s a very small piece in a cool, new market. I may continue on the flash front at some other markets for a bit and try to get a few more accepted while I read up for the next 5000-word story. If you can hear the sound of my voice, go check out “50 to 1“. Yes!

Posted in Blog Posts | No Responses »
Tags: , , ,

Moving along

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Alchemy was not picked up by Fantasy, as expected, and it’s too long for ClarkesWorld so I sent it to Futurismic. Another tough market, but I think it fits their description: “a strong emphasis on characters confronting or embracing imminent cultural, social, technological, and scientific changes…Near-future, Earth-based science fiction is our primary focus.” I’ve got the six pieces all submitted to top, appropriate markets and I’m fooling around with sending stuff to smaller flash-type markets to get something, anything, actually published so I can put it in my “Sad Panda” cover letters.

Posted in Blog Posts | 1 Response »
Tags: ,

Enough, already

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Got positive feedback from my reader on “Alchemy”. I edited it for a week, nit-picking. Today I just quit it and sent the story off to Fantasy Magazine to be rejected. I’m girding myself for writing a new story. I started reading the Wastelands anthology finally and I’m also reading Storyteller by Kate Wilhelm.

Posted in Blog Posts | No Responses »
Tags: , ,

« Older Entries