by Michael Seese
Come with me, dear readers, into the WABAC machine. If you'll recall, last October, I undertook a tremendous effort. To submit something, somewhere, every day for the whole month. "Something" could be... well, anything involving words. And "somewhere" could include:
- Contests
- Literary agents
- Magazines
- Online publishers (for example, Readwave)
It did not include blogging or tweeting.
Well, October is just around the corner. And I plan to repeat this asinine and painful challenging and fulfilling effort.
Actually, I think this time around it will be easier. Specifically, because I've found three weekly flash fiction contests:
- Flash! Friday, hosted by Rebecca Postupak
- Indies Unlimited
- (one I just learned of) FINISH THAT THOUGHT, by Alissa Leonard.
So those three alone take care of 13 days. I've already got four existing short stories which I plan to submit to anthologies / contests I found on HorrorTree. I have two other stories in the works, one for another HorrorTree find, and one for MASH stories. So I'm up to 19 days.
** Since I know that I will have some days which might be crazy, I'm "allowed" to submit two "somethings" one day, and then skip the next. But I'll try not to.
To quote James Brown, I feel good.
Who's with me? Who's up for the challenge?
By Michael Seese
OK, let me get a few things out of the way up front.
1. I have never been accused (legally) of stalking.
2. I have never been accused (girlfriend to friend, mother, sister, etc.) of stalking, to my knowledge.
3. I have never been served with a restraining order.
I point these out because I want to make it clear that this story has no basis in personal history or reality. I learned of this contest on Readwave. The challenge: to write a 150-word story with the words, "if you love books and reading" embedded.
So, here for your reading enjoyment (I hope) is "If You Love Something."
"If”
It’s perhaps the cruelest word in the English language.”
“If only I had tried a little harder…”
“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts…”
“If you love something, set it free…”
I met her at the bookstore. We exchanged cautious glances. My mind flashed the word “escape.” But I found courage. I usually have trouble with women. I’m not very adept at reading the signs. But I took her mere presence as a good one. After all, who reads real books these days? Everything is online and Amazon and electronic.
But this was real. I believed she was in love. I know I was.
Still, I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t set her free.
Looking at my walls, now flecked with crimson, I wondered how something which started so beautiful could end with a police officer handcuffing me and reading me my rights.
By the way... you can go to Readwave here and like it. (HINT, HINT.)
And, what do you think?
By Michael Seese
It's been a while since I've written about writing. So let's get you all up to speed.
First, I'm sad to say that I won't be going to Paris (not yet) because Eiffel didn't make the short list at the American Library In Paris. It's a bummer, to be sure. But, I still have another novel to my credit.
Looking to shake things up a little, I'm going to try a different tack for a bit. One of the agent blogs I read is by Chuck Sambuchino. A regular feature of his posts is "How I Got My Agent." Most authors offer tales of perseverance, or luck. But last week, I read about a different approach.
Michael Poore is an author whose debut novel is Up Jumps the Devil was praised by New York Times bestselling author Patrick deWitt as, “Part fable, part warped historical travelogue."
In Poore's own words:
I didn’t get my agent the traditional way.
I tried the traditional way, of course. I sent queries, I sent chapters, I sent samples and stories and clever letters, but they didn’t work.
In the end, an agent approached me. You could say this was an accident or a gift of chance, but you’d be wrong. The fact is, I concentrated on getting my work published in smaller markets, and it got noticed. You can make this work for you, too.
Poore's fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Fiction, Talebones, Southern Review, The Pinch, and other magazines. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Fountain Award, and the Sturgeon Award.
So, I'm going to try a Poore man's version of his tack. My goal for October is to submit something, somewhere, every day.
To be honest, I really don't think I'll be able to do it.
To be certain, I do have a lot of poetry and flash fiction I can use. The challenge is finding the places to submit it. But I'm going to give it the old college try. So far, though, I'm off to a good start. Here is what I've done.
October 3: "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" (flash fiction) submitted to Pseudopod, which makes podcasts of literature they like.
October 4: I posted "Past / President / Future" (which I had submitted for an NPR contest) to Readwave. It's a website which puts your work "out there" for others to see, read, and comment on.
October 5: I submitted three haiku to Haiku Journal. Later that day, I learned one already had been accepted. And today (Monday) another was. They rejected the third. But what did Meatloaf say? "Two out of three ain't bad." Both appear in Issue 19.
October 6: "No Blues" (flash fiction) submitted to The Broken Plate.
October 7: "The Finest Life Yet" (another flash piece) submitted to 100 word story.
Yes, I'm giving myself a bye for October 1 and 2, since I didn't read about Poore until the 3rd.
Let's see how it goes...
