A Writer's Paradise

Reality Check

I had one of those moments of clarity today about my submissions process: "You can't sell anything if you don't submit anything."

So. I spent my lunch hour digging out the things I'd been sitting on and sent them off. Including managing to send something to a market that had already rejected it. WHOOPS. But I withdrew it immediately and sent it on to a market that hadn't already seen my story.

That's the first time I've ever done that in 176 submissions, so you know? I don't feel completely terrible. I daresay that's quite possibly my first real submissions mistake. Objectively speaking.

I also queried on a rewrite request and discovered a new (Sniplets) podcast market and otherwise enjoyed the heck out of myself. Overall, this only resulted in a net gain of three submissions today, but it sure feels like lots more.

Rejection Junction

A super-speedy 21-day rejection from Asimov's... not only super-speedy, but also super-nice. ("The Girl-Prince": too much of a fairy tale for Asimov's but it was well-written, etc. Which I knew going in (too much of a fairy tale), but I thought, maybe, just maybe there were enough space-suits and super-viscous fluids, so I thought I'd let the editor reject me instead of doing it myself.)

I was pondering the next market and as I opened up Duotrope to report the rejection, the random magazine listing was... Realms of Fantasy. Thanks, Duotrope! Your suggestions are golden. It's absolutely the market I would have come up with after some searching, some dithering, and some weighing of the pros and cons.

In other news, I saw "ACCEPTANCE" in my inbox today and got very excited. Then I realized that it was just a response for a meeting someone agreed to come to. Stupid Microsoft Office...

Phew. I feel like a real writer again.

By taking "The Girl-Prince" out to the post office on my break, I am back up to having six items in circulation. Even though two of them are reprints, I at least feel like I'm back in the saddle.

I have pulled the following stories from circulation (as of, like, last autumn) for rewrite or possible trunking:

• "Lawncare in the Afterlife"
  
• "The Lonesome Dark"
  
• "Sticks and Bones"
  

Hm. It's actually a shorter list than I thought. I have no significantly large sellable inventory anymore! Which is a pity, because I always sell something when I have thirteen or more stories in my inventory. No lie. I mean, I occasionally sell when I don't, but once I hit thirteen, I inevitably sell one in short order.

A very little update on my circulating items

Did you know...

• I failed to submit anything at all in the month of December?
• I have since sent out and received the rejection for "The Girl-Prince?"
• I am, for no good reason, dithering on what market to send "The Girl-Prince" to next?
• I did not send GP to Asimov's as planned, but to Warrior Wisewoman?
• I don't think I write the right kind of stories for Sword and Sorceress (or its space companion WW), in spite of the fact that I cut my genre reading teeth on Sword and Sorceress stories?
• I have only three submissions out right now?
• One has been at Interzone for 166 days, sub'd by snail mail; and when I asked Jetse de Vries during the email period for Interzone if I could send another, I was told "Yes, send it on..." and now I have two subs there?
• Jetse just emailed to say that the second sub was getting passed out of the slush?
• (Talk about your eggs all in one basket.)
• One submission has been at IGMS for 289 days, handily beating the 250 days "The Lonesome Dark" spent at Baen's?

No, I just bet you didn't.

I wish this lack of activity on the short story front meant something more positive on the novel front.