Another Story Finds A Home.

I had another acceptance last week, a few days after Aurealis bought one of my stories.

That was kind of nice, receiving two in the one week. I'm very happy about it, and I will certainly let you know more details when I feel I'm more able. Like when the contracts arrive. There are still a couple of other stories out in the wildwoods I'm waiting on. One in particular would be a really encouraging sale at this point of my development. And although I'm not sweating or checking my email every thirty seconds, I am becoming a little more anxious as time passes.

Is it taking longer than others because they're holding it and on the verge of accepting it? Or have they simply not reached that far down in the slushpile yet.

Rejectomancy is an evil area in which to venture. For now, No News is No News.

Six Out.

It's been a long while since I've had this many out at once.

Yep, I currently have six stories out on submission, with one of those on hold, one of those still under consideration longer than others I know who submitted, and a couple more I have some confidence in.

Add to this another five stories congealing on my desk, waiting for a bit of distance and space before I have another look at them and send them out.

I also have at least three more publications in the next few months, and I'll be relieved when I'm given the green light to mention them. Plus a couple of stories underway.

However, it's been a while since I've received an acceptance email. Even just one would be great. Six would be better.

Editors, are you reading this? You know you want to buy my stories. Come on, do it!

No News Is No News.

No real news on the writing front this week, apart from the announcement of After Death's TOC.

I have quite a few other stories out in the wilderness - some of which I have high hopes for. Of course I love all my stories, and generally have hopes for them, but I have really good feelings about some of these stories with these particular markets.

At least I haven't heard anything back from them yet. Several of my stories are still with editors, while other stories (from other writers) which were submitted more recently have already been rejected, according to Duotrope.

This, of course, bodes well, doesn't it?  It means the stories are still being considered, and appear to have made it past some arbitrary first round. Or maybe they're not being read in order, and will be rejected any moment now.

There is always the danger of reading too much into Duotrope's figures. You can't read anything into silence. As an online friend of mine, Martin L. Shoemaker, is wont to say, No News Is No News.

We wait.

I've had a good week's writing.

I finished my short story for the Jack Dann writing course I'm currently attending. I wrote it for the course when we first started, and had plans last week to write a second draft, but I just didn't have time. In the end I glanced over it, changed a couple of words and subbed it. Of course there's part of me that is looking forward to the critiquing, and a part of me that's completely terrified by the prospect.

When I was in Sri Lanka in January, I had a short story idea which I duly wrote down in my notebook. It was a basic premise, and needed a lot more to be developed before it was story-worthy.  Last week I realised that the premise fit an anthology to which I had hoped to submit. Of course the deadline was approaching faster than I'd thought, and so I had to work hard to get the story up and running. I still didn't know where it was going to go - even as I wrote the first three hundred words. And then a beautiful thing happened. As I kept writing, the whole plot and narrative fell into place.

I was able to turn out a clean first draft and send it to my writing buddy, David McDonald, for an emergency crit. I literally sent it seconds after I wrote the final word and hadn't reviewed any of the story myself.  David kindly read the story for me, making notes, and sent it straight back. From there I reworked parts of the story, tightened other aspects and subbed it with an hour to spare on the deadline.

Usually I leave stories for a while so I can go back in with a fresh mind and viewpoint and see all the little problems you don't notice when you're too close to it.

I just hope this story is as good as I believe it to be.

But now it's subbed and the market usually has a quick turnaround. I'm also waiting on news about a bunch of other stories that are out at the moment. I anticipate hearing on most of these in the next week or so.

And for now we just wait, wait, wait.

Waiting.

So you write some stories, polish them up until you're happy, then send them off alone into the wide world. Sometimes you hear back within a week or so that it's "not suited to our needs at the moment." Other times you hear nothing back for months.

My longest wait was 7 months for a rejection, not counting the one where the editor still hasn't gotten back to me after several polite enquiries. I suspect that 2 years and a week is now long enough to class it as a rejection. My longest wait for an acceptance has been four weeks, from the close of a reading period. But it did have a hold on it for about three months before that. There was another that had a rewrite request, but once again the request and then the acceptance were just on four weeks from submission.

But I still find waiting the hardest part. And yes, I listen to everyone's advice and go off and write more stuff in the meantime and send it out and so on. It's just that I'd love to find a home for some of these lost strays, but if they are out for 4 to 7 months at a time before being rejected, they can only be sent out maybe twice a year. And then it can be up to 18 months before they are published once they are accepted.

Sigh.

I guess it's all worthwhile when you finally get to hold the printed word in your hands. I might even admit to performing the odd little Snoopy happy dance, much like Alan Baxter does. I just don't know if I'll ever get used to the slow turning cogs of the publishing industry.