I neglected to mention this last month when it happened, but after approximately nine months of contact, I finally made a successful pitch to the books editor at Paste Magazine! This is going to be my first paid writing gig and it will be a review of humorist Bill Bryson's forthcoming memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. This will be appearing in the October issue of Paste, which has over a quarter million readers! Hopefully there will be other assignments to follow. This is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

I submitted a short story to this international competition on June 30th.
 

I submitted a short memoir to The Writer Magazine's Short Memoir contest on June 30th.
 

On 3-24-06 I submitted a poem to this contest which seeks to reward the worst poem that is sent on to a vanity contest and then told it is worthy of being published, put up for awards, etc.

*****UPDATED***** Yet another contest I failed to win any prizes for. :P
 

I just finished sending a query to the editor of Relevant Magazine's print publication about doing a piece on MySpace.com. We'll see what develops.


*****UPDATE*****
Like the others, I have heard nothing back about this one, so I assume it is a lost cause. I guess positive stories don't make news, even in a publication that is supposed to be geared towards the positive rather than the negative.
 

I submitted an inspirational piece to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on February 1st, but have heard nothing back since then...rejected again, perhaps...?


*****UPDATE***** I have not heard anything from them, so I have given up on this one.
 

I submitted material to Tau Publishing on January 31st, hoping to have the submission made into an inspirational greeting card of sorts. Some six weeks have passed and there has been no response, so I am thinking this submission was a no-go.
 

I submitted a review of Ian McEwan's Saturday to the California Literary Review last week and received a rejection on Saturday. Woohoo!!! Another one bites the dust.
 

On November 23, 2005, I submitted an essay to RandomHouse's "Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers" Contest. The grand prize winner gets $20,000, but RH will publish this one essay with as many as 28 other essays in a book, so even though the other published works won't receive payment, the writers will receive exposure. I am hoping to win of course, but it would be fantastic just to be one of the essays picked. Time will tell...


*****UPDATE*****
Rejections - 10,000
Brian -- 0
 

I just sent off a review (8/18/05) of Michael Chabon's novel, Wonder Boys, to the California Literary Review (www.calitreview.com). This would be my first paid publication if accepted, so I am hopeful.



***This was rejected on August 22nd.***

 

I just submitted my story Un/Clouded Memory to Glimmer Train Press's Fiction Open Competition. Results will be announced October 15th, but maybe they'll tell the winners a wee bit in advance? Anyhow. It's out of my hands now, so I need to start working on another story, ha ha!


***UPDATE***
I learned yesterday that my submission was rejected. Go me.
 

On June 1st I submitted a short story and a poem to this massive contest the magazine is having, just barely making the late deadline since I didn't even learn about the contest until after the initial deadline had passed!


*****UPDATE***** Neither of my entries won the contests they were entered in. Not only that, neither one even placed in the top 100 in their respective categories.
 

Today was the first time I submitted a query about writing an article for a publication. I chose to submit to Writer Magazine about potentially doing a feature article on my writing life in the six months since I quit my job in July of '04.

I also queried about possibly doing a more general article on the writer's life. I felt pretty good about it, but then again, I am inexperienced at this so I have no way of knowing it was really any good or not.

Had a person read it and make suggestions before I submitted it, so we shall see what comes from it.

***UPDATE*** Forgot to mention that the query was rejected on January 18th. On to the next one!