That’s some good company you’re in! Congrats!
The Grinder change its logo for April Fools Day
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And another story publication today, too! In Kaleidotrope, “With Respect to the Cat”.
https://kaleidotrope.net/spring-2023/with-respect-to-the-cat-by-laurence-raphael-brothers/
Crosstime story inspired by Connie Willis’ great novel To Say Nothing of the Dog.
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I ‘liked’ your post since likes are active today! Congrats!
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Oh, nice. I didn’t even notice the likes had been turned on. I <3 your post and another. I hope to <3 a few more.
A short short of mine, “Bagged,” was published today at the site SciFiShorts.co. It’s a paywalled site but this link should get you in! Read it in two minutes!
I read it. Good story. Congrats on the publication.
Nice work. I read it too. Congratulations on the publish.
The last line is excellent
Thanks all! Appreciate the positive feedback.
Back in March I’d submitted two drabbles (100 word stories) to an open call for a drabble anthology from a small publisher, and today I found out both were accepted. Not sure when it’ll publish, but even having one accepted would have been nice!
Nice work!
You’re rolling, dude! Congrats!
It’s now been two months since I started sending out a backlog of short stories, mostly flash fiction, that had accumulated over the years. Random notes:
- I switched from the Grinder to Duotrope to track submissions and study open markets. Duotrope is $50 a year, not free, but much more up to date and I find it easier to use.
- I’ve sent out 15 pieces over the two months, ranging in length from 100 words to 3700. Most are under 1000. Since a few had quick rejections, I’ve done 21 submissions of those 15 pieces over eight weeks. All of these were pieces I’d had laying around, and previously done nothing with. The proverbial trunk.
- Most of the submissions are sf but some are general, contemporary fiction.
- So far I have five acceptances, two 1000 word stories (one of which was already published, noted upthread), and three 100 word stories (drabbles). I have no idea when the other four will appear.
- Two of the 15 pieces have been rejected three or more times. Once was later accepted on the fifth try, and the other awaits a response.
- I submitted four non-sf drabbles at once to a slick virtual magazine for mainstream lit (that permits simultaneous submissions). Two days later I received a nice acceptance email from the editor for one of the four. He praised the piece as “wonderful, clever and biting.” I was thrilled – for about two minutes. Then I started fretting that the other three had not been accepted. It’s hard to be satisfied. It’s easy to dwell on the glass-half-empty. (Though to be fair, those other three have not been rejected, at least yet).
- Through one of the sites I have joined a small Discord community where they’ll chat and do beta reading, and I’ve already received very construction feedback on a couple of stories I posted. I have also editing stories posted by others, which is helpful to sharpen my own editing skills. Finding this group may be the single biggest success for me of the past two months.
Onward!
That’s great. It’s hard to find a good writing group on the same wavelength, but it’s super helpful to find one that clicks with you.
I’d never heard of a drabble before! I’ve done flash non-fiction of 750 words or less, but 100 sounds though.
Hey that’s really cool. So what is the hope here? You build up a portfolio of acceptances and start hitting bigger markets with submissions? Is that how it works you think?
I haven’t done submissions in a while, but when I was doing it, I was mostly just thinking it would be fun to get one past an editor. I can totally relate to loving what an editor said about a submission and then like 10 minutes later fretting over something that hadn’t been acknowledged. The praise feels good and then it’s gone and I need more… Always seemed a little dysfunctional, and I always tried to just stay focused on the work, whatever I thought about the work, but of course, it’s tough.
I think when you write and edit your writing, you are always very tough on yourself. When I had things published decades ago when I was active with this stuff, I really couldn’t even read my published work. If I did I always saw stuff I wanted to edit and no longer could, so it was difficult.
I think my hope is simpler, and threefold. One, to find an audience for pieces I’ve written over the years and never sent out. Two, to use the encouragement of acceptances to write more regularly. Three, perhaps most importantly, to improve the self-image I have of myself as a writer. To stop thinking of myself as a pretender/imposter. An occasional acceptance of even a 100-word piece can help.
Sort of a writing post. My wife and I do a number of horror conventions every year. It starts this coming weekend in Dallas at Texas Frightmare at the Irving convention center. This will be my tenth year doing Frightmare.
My wife Katie just released her third book, and I just dropped my 26th. Anyway, for book authors I can’t reccomend conventions highly enough. Getting your books in front of people, and just talking to them, helps build word of mouth. Plus, she and I hate leaving our house, so it’s good to get out and about. We’ve already booked 4 cons this year.
Here we are 2 years ago in Texas.
