This is fascinating if you watch all the way through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weq_sHxghcg
 

I'm burning the candle at all three ends this month. Besides high-brow literary stuff and esoteric literary analysis, I have been writing about the end of the world, zombies, vampires, wizards, ghosts, aliens and missionaries. I have stories and poems out in a few different magazines. I'll try to update the links on my published page.


Current status: 60 items in 69 submissions. One new market attempted, Zombidays: Festivities of the Flesheaters.
 

I could go in a lot of directions with a title like that, but I mean it as "Should I bother?" Of course, I don't really mean "Should I bother publishing poetry?" but rather "Should I bother getting poetry published elsewhere, or just self-publish?" I love poetry, but I love it for the sake of writing it, reading it, sharing it. I can do that on Writing.com or in a dedicated poetry blog or on Twitter or Facebook. I don't really need to seek out poetry magazines, and since I don't read them myself, I hesitate to ask my readers to do so.

I like the game, of course. It is fun to send off something and see if I can guess what they'll like. With sixteen published poems since October, I can get things published if I like, and if I were to be less selective, I could get more published. But why? Why not just write poems and share them freely? Besides, my dad is fighting cancer and my wife is dealing with health issues, and I could spend time with them.

For those who are reading with bated breath, wondering at my conclusion, I am sorry. No conclusion. I just don't know.


Current status: 62 items in 70 submissions. One new markets attempted, Dark Discoveries.
 

Ironically, after posting my post about optimism vs. the odds (below), I got a note letting me know I had at least made it into that "Hold" pile rather than the "Reject" pile. Still a long shot, but perhaps a Hail Mary pass with your eyes open rather than a Hail Mary pass with your eyes closed. At least the football is traveling toward the other endzone, rather than intercepted and taken the other way.

Of course, I also received a rejection from the other anthology, but with a nice note saying that the horror was pychological horror, and they needed more speculative horror. I'm OK with that sort of rejection, as it was my mistake not matching their needs as closely as I could have.
 

I've been submitting stories to a number of anthologies recently, and it is definitely an exercise in optimism. This is not to express a lack of confidence in my writing; I write reasonably well and have plenty of published stories. It is more a reflection of what the numbers the editors face. For example, two anthologies I have recently submitted to are "Terminal Earth" and "Triangulation: End of the Rainbow."

Terminal Earth, with a final deadline of March 15, periodically gives the stats on its slushpile. On March 8th, with one week to go, they list:

Stories Received: 92
Stories Accepted: 5
Stories Held: 30
Stories Rejected: 52
Undecided: 5

92 stories so far, with 5 accepted. Granted, another 35 are either Held or Undecided (whatever the difference is). Let's assume they need 15 stories total, although they don't say. Let's assume they get an additional 40-50 stories in the last week, which seems consistent with what I have heard. Even if they reject a little over half out of hand, that leaves 35 held/undecided plus an additional probably 20 held/undecided. So, even if my story gets past the out of hand rejection, it would be in a pool of about 45 stories of which 10 will be accepted, even though all are essentially suitable (assuming that the out of hand rejections were either just too poorly written or too far off topic). It feels quite a bit like applying to Harvard or one of the other Ivy League schools. The question is no longer whether you are good enough, it is whether you are lucky enough to fit exactly what they need at that moment. Maybe you wrote an angle that is too close to the angle used by another accepted story. Maybe they need a tuba player and you play only saxaphone.

So, your fallback school is Yale, or in this case, the Triangulation anthology. The stats on that are much more simple as of Feb. 28,:

Submissions: 211
Rejected: 201
Accepted: 10

Optimism vs. the odds: like cheering for the Cubs to win the World Series.


Current status: 62 items in 71 submissions. Three new markets attempted, Foetus Fatale: Fubar'd Noir, Terminal Earth Anthology and Big Pulp.
 

Rotten Leaves Magazine Issue #2 has been released, and with it my story. You are welcome to stop by, read and even leave a comment if you like. See Missing You  
 

My poem is up today at Every Day Poets. If you stop by, you are welcome to leave a comment or at least rate it (no registration necessary). See God's Work  .


Current status: 62 items in 72 submissions. Two new markets attempted, Triangulation Anthology Series and Every Day Fiction.
 

Wow! Three days of March NoWriMo down, and I don't think I've ever written so much in three days in my life, except possibly in college (and maybe not then).

I've already switched around anthologies some. I have written 1050 words of an action/assasin story I submitted to Emerald Tales, 2700 words toward the "Terminal Earth Anthology" (End-of-world scenarios, although mine is mostly literary), 300 toward a Ghost story for Drollerie Press, 2200 toward the "FOETUS FATALE: FUBAR’D NOIR" (H.P.Lovecraftian Noir--OMG Weird!) and a short literary piece for Broadsided. Roughly speaking, that is 6545 words, not counting some rewriting and such I have done.

I plan to finish the Terminal Earth story (due March 15), finish the ghost story (due March 31), rework and finish the FUBAR'D NOIR, then take on "Music for Another World" (Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy) and "The Way of the Wizard" (Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy)

Onward and upward. Happy March NoWriMo!


Current status: 63 items in 74 submissions. Three new markets attempted, Emerald Tales, Broadsided and Pear Noir! (gotta love that name).
 

Rather than just work on a novel, I am using the March NoWriMo for the purpose of learning to write longer pieces. I am pretty good at stories up to 2000 words, but I have a lot of trouble breaking that barrier, and lots of my stories are under 1000 words.

With that goal in mind, I am picking anthologies to write for, and going for three different 5000+ word stories. In addition, I am working on my missionary noir story (which is at a miraculous-for-me 7500 words), and trying to add 20000 words to see if I can make it a full novel. (No, 27500 is not a full novel, but it is enough that I can decide if I am realistic about the prospect. I would be aiming for 60000+ as a full novel.)

Right now, the three anthologies I am looking at are: "Music for Another World" (Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy), "The Way of the Wizard" (Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy) and either "FOETUS FATALE: FUBAR’D NOIR" (H.P.Lovecraftian Noir--OMG Weird!) or "Anywhere But Earth Anthology" (Sci-Fi) or possibly "Zombiality: A Queer Bent On The Undead" (need I say more?). I will also be polishing up my Zombidays story, but since that is mostly rewriting, I won't count it for this.

Phew! I better go write some more. Happy March NoWriMo!


Current status: 62 items in 73 submissions. Three new markets attempted, Tarpaulin Sky Literary Journal, Welter and Electric Literature.
 

I'm excited to be trying out March NoWriMo 2010 . What's stopping you from joining in as well?


Current status: 61 items in 70 submissions. Two new markets attempted, Inch and Grey Sparrow Press. One market attempted again, A Public Space. A market I thought I tried a couple of days ago, IOU, said that they made a mistake and were not open to poetry submissions..