Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain

...or November novel writing. Not that I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, mind you, but I heartily encourage and support all of you writers out there who are cranking out the words.

Me, I just finished a 640 word short-short for Tuesday's 10 Weeks, 10 Stories class where the point-of-view character is a Universal Gym. Really.

More blogging soon, but I wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen

October Already, and a Rejection with Benefits

Uh oh, it's October already, which means I haven't done no bloggin' for the past 30 days. Tempus fugit, as the old dead white dudes used to say. But it's not like I haven't been writing, or avoiding writing by doing writerly things such as hearing William Gibson read from his new book, Zero History, at the Coolidge Corner Theater (a rather boring reading from a randomly selected chapter, but great Q&A after).

And I forget to mention last post that the end of August I took a one-night Grub Street seminar with Lisa Borders, Creating Complex Characters, that helped me flesh out a character I've been struggling with for literally years now. Lisa is a great instructor if you get the chance to take a class with her, even for those of us who really don't care who's saying what about Jonathan Franzen.

Now, I'm taking 10 Weeks, 10 Stories. Again.

I'll admit that what I'm doing here is, in large part, paying Grub Street to create externally-imposed deadlines to get me to write, which I'm sure says something way too pathetic about myself to think too long about. But I am also taking the class in order to get feedback from a new group of writers, and for the experience of working with a new (to me) instructor, Adrian Van Young. Kudos, so far, to Adrian, although I have to say that many of my fellow students do not seem as... engaged... in the writing or the critiquing to the extent that I've found in other Grub offerings.

And then, there are the rejections, some with benefits, one of note in particular, coming in from August's orgy of submissions (Orgy of Submissions, now there's a title you might have seen from Beeline Books in their heyday. Not to mention Rejections With Benefits).

What's a rejection with benefits you ask? Why, any rejection that comes with a personal note. That is, of course, assuming the personal note isn't something like "NEVER, EVER submit here EVER again. We burned your manuscript and buried the ashes."

I'm talking about rejections like this one, from the Barcelona Review:

"I'm afraid the story didn't quite hit the mark with our reader though she did offer a comment, which I'll pass on for what it's worth: 'This story was going along nicely. I think the author has a gift for dialogue which kept me dialed in. But then the story takes a massive swing and a gun is whipped out and the protagonist is robbed by a girl he picked up on the subway. It's as if the author was going for a big gasping twist, and this twist left me a non-believer.' I wish you the best of luck elsewhere with this one, and welcome you to submit with us again in the future, any time.”

Damn. Thanks for the props on the dialogue, but... but...

Calm down Stephen. Look back at the beginning, and see what you can do to make the robbery 'surprisingly inevitable.' Use the feedback, they took the time and effort to provide it for you.

Thanks, Barcelona Review.

After all, they could have sent a form rejection like this: "Thank you for submitting to The Los Angeles Review. While we have read your work with interest, it does not meet our editorial needs at this time. We appreciate your efforts, and wish you all the best in placing this work elsewhere. We hope you will consider subscribing to our journal. This will help us stay afloat and enable you to more accurately gauge the type of work we publish."

Is it me, or does that last sentence sound both a little begging, and a little condescending, at the same time?

Thanks for Reading,

Stephen

Submission Accepted !!! (or, a Twinge of Writer's Remorse)

First the good news: my short story "Multiple Lacerations" has found a home, accepted by Rebecca Anne Renner at Barrier Islands Review! (Cue the Snoopy dance music, glitter confetti drop, and the popping of champagne corks.)

I'm particularly happy because I'd just about given up on this story. It's long for a piece of flash fiction, 974 words, with at least 300 of those words given over to describing a moment of violence as a moment of beauty, in graphic detail. It's been rejected by at least half a dozen journals after going through two major rewrites. And now it's been accepted. Thank you, Barrier Islands Review!

But now comes the writer's remorse, a twinge of which I feel as I'm about to write three emails of Withdrawl to the other journals where the story is currently waiting judgement. What if one of "those" publications would also have wanted "Multiple Lacerations"? Would I have been better off not submitting to Barrier Islands at all?

After all, Barrier Islands Review isn't one of the "Top Tier" literary journals, by any means. It's not a publication credit that many other editors would recognize (yet). In fact, it's a online (PDF) journal that started publishing only this year, and includes encouraging new writers among its stated objectives.

Well, guess what. I AM encouraged, and I'm happy to be a part of this new publication. Long may she live.

Thank you, Rebecca Anne Renner, and may the establishment journals be damned. Cue the Snoopy music.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen

Checking In

Checking the Submissions Log (I use an Excel spreadsheet, although I also recommend Duotrope's free submission tracker for registered users), I count exactly 29 submissions of five different stories sent out so far in August, with four rejections received already. Three of those were form rejections while one, from Necessary Fiction, came with short, but positive and helpful, comments. Soon I can sit back and wait for the rest of the rejections to come home. No, I'm not being negative, just realistic. Not to mention setting myself up to be oh-so-pleasantly surprised.

I also started a new story this evening. I'm looking forward to taking some new writing to my writer's group, as we start up again after a summer hiatus. Yes, I dare say it, brand spankin' new writing. Well, at least a new paragraph. That's what I've so far.

Still, me like.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The submission mission continues apace, and I now have five different pieces out to twenty journals since August first. So how's it going with the new writing? Well, I'd have to honestly say it's not going. At all. I mean, I understand you actually have to start before you can go anywhere.

Thankfully, it's almost September. Fall is my favorite time of the year, and the back-to-school vibes always recharge my creative batteries. Not to mention that my writing group, the Bay State Scribblers, will be back to meeting more frequently, William Gibson is going to be at the Coolidge Corner Theater September 22, and I've signed up for three more Grub Street workshops.

Those courses include one full semester course, 10 Weeks, 10 Stories (yet again), this time with an instructor I haven't had before, Adrian Van Young, and two one-nighters, Writing as Performance with Amanda Keil and Creating Complex Characters with Lisa Borders.

One whiff of New England fall air, or one more Staples Back to School ad, and I'll be ready to go. I hope.

Thanks for Reading,

Stephen

Dominance of Submissions

The one-or-more submissions a day for the month of August experiment continues, with 15 new submissions, minus two rejections, out there. (In addition to a one-day turnaround from Catalonia Review, I've also heard from the twice-as-slow to respond, i.e. two-day turnaround, elimae.)

Most journals that have an electronic submission manager, particularly ones associated with university writing programs, seem to have acquired the exact same software, probably something open source (i.e. free). Note to self -- idea for a conspiracy / sci-fi / metafiction story. Hackers take down the entire literary journal publishing industry by infilitrating the submission manager software and instituting closed reading periods. The lives of the great majority of citizens are unaffected.

The problem now is that my writing has languished. Other than the fine-tuning edits of the three pieces I'm actively submitting I haven't created much, if anything, new this month. Apparently it's a different part of my brain that's engaged when I evaluate potential markets, fill out forms and write cover letters, and make new entries in my submission log, than the part that actually creates material to send out.

Hmmm. Or maybe I'm using the submission process as yet another excuse, albeit a nobler one, not to write. Damn, my internal censor is sneaky.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen

Submitting Through the Blog, I Mean Dog, Days of Summer

August -- the dog days of summer are upon us as Sirius once again approaches the sun. Siriusly. Those days when a frozen mudslide or a tall glass of sangria on the back porch sounds like a better option for many a writer than pounding your head against the keyboard for an hour or two. Well, if you don't feel like sweating out something completely new, consider this: many journals closed for 'the summer' actually open their reading periods in August, and might be looking for something cool and refreshing in their own in-boxes.

This month I'm going to try and fill my rejection-depleted submission log back up with plenty of active, pending, possibly even (oh, to hope), accepted submissions.

I started with three stories that had recently been rejected, and gave them a critical once-over. Two survived relatively unscathed (there's always a word, or a sentence, or a paragraph or two, that can be improved), and those are now both out to a couple of journals each, with more simultaneous submissions of them to go out as the month progresses. The third needs significant work on the beginning, but I hope will be going out later in the month as well.

At least one submission a day is my goal; 31 new outstanding entries in the log for the month. Hmm, that last bit means that for at least one day in August I'm going to have to send out at least two stories. You see, Catalonia Review rejected my story in one (count it, that's o-n-e, one) day, with the ever-helpful polite rejection note ("Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for letting us consider this work, but we will pass this time.") Not a record -- I've had a piece rejected on the same day that I sent it out -- but still pretty damn quick.

I'll survive. In the heat of summer I thrive.

Now how are we fixed for stamps?

Thanks for reading,

Stephen