Double Bummer

Well, the month is not shaping up as I had hoped. I got two rejection letters this week. Main Street Rag said "no" to Udopia, and Allegory Magazine turned down my short story "Tarantulas On Leashes." 

The former offered no feedback, which they are not obligated to do. But the folks at Allegory said: "First exchange of dialogue with Sybil may have been a way of showing social ineptness but it didn’t add much to the story." That was the purpose of that bit of dialog, so I think I want to keep it. But I'll take their comment into consideration. Perhaps I can make it more relevant. They also said, "Some adverbs could’ve been eliminated or replaced with descriptive phrases." I definitely will heed that advice.

On the bright side, I just finished Nightmares. 65,000 words, which is perfect for YA fiction. It's the first run-through, of course, so I have some editing to do. If I had to guess, I'd say I'll probably add 5,000 words. Not that I'm trying; it's just what I think. We'll see how close I come. But I believe I'll be able to wrap it up by December.

Of course, to put it in perspective, a very good friend of mine just lost her Dad. So in the grand scheme of things, I really can't complain about my week.

Write on!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered #2

Fresh on the heels of submitting Udopia to the Main Street Rag ...

 I sent "Tarantulas On Leashes," a 2,500-word short story, to Allegory Magazine. Their current submission period runs until 10/31. The publication date will be 1/1/2012. The competition is fierce. Per their website, they receive 150 unsolicited manuscripts per month, and accept eight per issue.

Though I'd like to think it was a Herculean effort--Wow, you completed a novella and a short story over the span of two days??-- the truth is that "Tarantulas" has been finished for quite some time now. I even had a chance to give the once-over. But I wanted to focus on getting the novella to Main Street before thinking about any other submissions. Now, maybe I'll try to get some poems published...

I posted about half of "Tarantulas" on my "In Progress Stuff" page. Stop by, give it a read, and let me know what you think.