Writing Adventures » submission

Long Time Gone

Hydy — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:16:02 +0000

I have not been active on the blog for some months. Life is complicated and my focus has turned in other directions. Click Here for more details on that. In the writing world, I’ve had a few more rejections and made a submission today. The Old Ones was rejected by The Pedestal Magazine on April 29th, 2010. The Albino was rejected by Realms of Fantasy on June 1st, 2010. May 9th, 1999 did not win the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest this quarter. I submitted Dead Eyes to Daily Bites of Flesh on August 21st, 2010. There are a couple other anthologies I am considering as well, but my focus is more towards nonfiction writing right now, and my career path, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Back on the Wagon

Hydy — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:25:36 +0000

Today I got organized. I set up the next two months of Flash Fridays, sorry I’ve been lax about that the last couple weeks. I noticed that a lot of the upcoming flash are tagged with “dead” or “death,” so just a warning, there are not many happy stories coming.

I also prepared and submitted all currently rejected stories as follows: Submitted May 9, 1999 to L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. Submitted Twin Circles to Strange Horizons. Submitted The Albino to Realms of Fantasy. Submitted Crow Spirit to Fantasy Magazine. Submitted Dancing with Death to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Submitted Dream Child to Clarkesworld. Submitted Demon Within to Greatest Uncommon Denominator. Submitted The Old Ones to The Pedestal Magazine. I have two stories that are still out to market and recently queried the status of those, but have not yet received a response.

There is a lot going on lately, and some of my writing has taken a turn away from fantasy fiction, but this is still where my roots are. I am excited to get things moving again.

The Year Turns

Hydy — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:01:14 +0000

I made 37 submissions in 2009. 29 of them in the final three months of the year, after returning, inspired and renewed from DragonCon in Atlanta. Of the 37 submission, 29 have been rejected. I wrote a lot of new flash fiction this past year, 7 of which were submitted, and most of the rest of which are being posted here, one each Friday. Only two new short stories entered the mix for me, though. This is something that will change in 2010.

I attempted NaNoWriMo, and came up with some good ideas and some interesting characters. I will be developing some of that in the coming year, as well as a handful of stories I started, but never finished. This includes some of the flash pieces, which are really just story ideas given a few moments on paper instead of worked into real stories.

Life is constantly changing and in my struggle to keep up, I have let slide some of the things that are important to me. New things have become important to me, yes, but some of the things I fill my time with are just pointless distractions. Yes, I’m looking at you, Facebook.

2009 was a good year. 2010 will be a fantastic year.

NaNoWriMo Fail

Hydy — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:46:11 +0000

I got some interesting story bits and characters. Doa and Tio definitely beg to be written about independently. They will probably be an upcoming Friday Flash piece before they become a full fledged story. But I have failed at the writing of a novel this month. I have failed at making the necessary time to write.

I have succeeded in getting back to my journal writing. I have made some headway in blogging. I have found new markets and submitted stories and received rejections. I liked today’s rejection letter from Abyss & Apex. I nearly have a flash fiction submission ready for The Pedestal’s special issue. I will be sending that out on Tuesday.

Life is crazy, busy and hectic, but I am enjoying it very much. Thoughts once again creeping in about affiliating and book reviews…

Submission/Rejection Report

Hydy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:16:34 +0000

Since the last report, I’ve done the following:

Submitted The Albion to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Sumbitted Say Goodbye to Flash Me Magazine.

Submitted Samantha Reborn to flashquake.

Submitted Twin Circles to Cicada Magazine.

Had May 9th, 1999 rejected by Chiaroscuro.

Had The Albino rejected by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Dragon Con Panel: How To Get Rejected

Hydy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:00:33 +0000

How to Get Rejected

John C. Snider, Ginjer Buchanan, Bill Fawcett, Toni Weisskopf, Stephen H. Segal, Stacy Hague-Hill, Lou Anders

Easy Rejections:

Long cover letters

Shaped manuscripts

Pitching in costume

Submit a marketing plan

Spam submission

Inappropriate topic

Assuming familiarity

Disrespect of genre

Getting the editor’s name wrong

Not understanding the genre

Filthy submission

Strange delivery method

Txt grammar

Superfluous language

Bad translation

Deus ex Machina

Soul baring

Multiple submissions without notification

Viruses

Glitter

Plagiarism

Wrong Genre

What To Do:

Find submission guidelines

Read submission guidelines

Respect the slush/junior editors

Get an agent

Be brilliant

Read published material

Accept rejections

Misc:

If there is any doubt, there is no doubt.

Junior Editors are building their own lists.

Weird Tales wants unique stories.

Read Locus Magazine.

Submission/Rejection Report

Hydy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:06:44 +0000

I realized it had been a while since I’d mentioned where my stories were. I’ve been updating my News page, but here’s a summary of the past two weeks for the curious:

Twin Circles was submitted to and rejected by Fantasy Magazine.

Crow Spirit was submitted to Strange Horizons.

Thirsty Dagger was submitted to Weird Tales.

No Fear was submitted to and rejected by Fantasy Magazine and today submitted to Flesh & Blood.

Updates

Hydy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:20:36 +0000

Thirsty Dagger was rejected this morning by Fantasy Magazine. Tonight I submitted Twin Circles to them.

I’m debating posting updates with each submission and rejection, or just updating my news page and every now and then posting a summary here.

Turnaround

Hydy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:53:05 +0000

I got a rejection letter from The Pedestal Magazine for Dream Child on Tuesday. I sent it out to Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show today. Yay for finding new markets recently.

Have gotten some feedback on my narrative statement and some very good suggestions. Much more work to do on it.

After that, research into grad school and funding options.

The boy and the sword are stuck staring each other down at the moment, gotta make time to sit down with that very soon.

Submission

Hydy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:02:37 +0000

So, I did it. I wrote a short story in about a week, typed it up today and put it in an envelope, to be taken to the post office shortly and put in the mail to L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. It’s a strange little thing, only about 2300 words, about spirits who don’t want to move on. Not my usual fare, but sparked by a writing I did last summer and then a sentence came to mind: Don’t look into the mirror at night, the old ones are watching. I took the idea from there and ran with it. I feel like maybe it ended up a little religious at the end, but I am a PK, so it’s bound to slip in occasionally, I guess. I mean it didn’t go all God and Christianity or anything, but it is about spirits and the afterlife. Anyway, time will tell. That’s three stories out and about now.