More rejections, more submissions, more short shorts. I am looking forward to getting my sci-fi story done so I can run it by people in my writing group, "Let's Publish!" I also have a couple more poems I am working with to group with Memento Mori as sci-fi poetry. Once we get past Christmas, I should have time for something more than the short stuff, but it is entertaining for now.


Current status: 41 items in 57 submissions. Four new markets attempted, Raving Dove, 50 to 1, Fifty-Two Stitches and Six Sentences
 

No, I don't mean that sort of short shorts (although Heidi Montag does look good in them, doesn't she?) but rather very short writing, even shorter than what is normally known as "flash fiction". Hiw short? There are venues that have 100 word stories, such as The Drabbler  , venues that have some specific speciality such as Six Sentences   (I bet you can guess their rules), and a few venues that focus on the Twitter and SMS markets with 140 character limits, such as Nanoism   or Tweet the Meat  .

Not exactly the way to get famous, but good for a coffee break while you let your novel percolate in the back of your brain. I tried the 100 word variety, but they say the average response is 111 days, so don't expect to hear anything back too soon.


Current status: 35 items in 50 submissions. One new market attempted, The Drabbler.
 

I thought I'd include a few links to published stories by friends I have here on WDC. Since everybody has their own right to privacy, I won't associate usernames with real names, but these three stories are well worth reading:

Remember  

The Happy Frog  

Hexe  


Current status: 34 items in 49 submissions. No new markets/submissions.
 

For those who noticed my handle change, my Dad is having surgery today. He is almost 75, and having a kidney removed due to cancer. He has always been very healthy, and it seems a fairly safe procedure, but a son worries.

Update: He is out of surgery, and all seems to have gone fine. Lots of biopsies which they will have results for just before Christmas, which sounds like so much fun, but at least we have gotten through this step.
 

Titles on poems
When I review poems or stories, I often comment on the title. Story authors tend to accept the comments, but some poets object, saying that titles aren't important or part of the poem, and that in books of poetry, poems are often untitled.

I can only say that the world changes. Back when Edna St. Vincent Millay was writing poetry (early 1900s), she could get away with Sonnet V:

         Sonnet V

         IF I should learn, in some quite casual way,
            That you were gone, not to return again—
         Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
            Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
         How at the corner of this avenue
            And such a street (so are the papers filled)
         A hurrying man—who happened to be you—
            At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
         I should not cry aloud—I could not cry
            Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—
         I should but watch the station lights rush by
            With a more careful interest on my face,
         Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
         Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.

A lovely poem indeed, but it is not the early 1900s anymore. Many poems are read on-line, and often in quick bites over lunchtime or during the kids' nap. The title sets the stage, attracts the eye and motivates the reader. Sonnet V doesn't cut it, and modern poems are seldom referred to by first line, as they once were. So, poems should have titles, and the titles they have should be considered as part of the impact of the poem. Some magazines even favor certain types of titles. In reading a review of Dreams & Nightmares on a separate site, the reviewer commented that the magazine favors long, intriguing and campy titles to their poems.

So, if you want to write poems for your own enjoyment, title them or not as you please. If you would like to get noticed and read in an increasingly on-line world, give your poems titles, preferably ones with punch and interest.


Current status: 34 items in 49 submissions. 1 new market attempted, Dreams & Nightmares
 

I find it fascinating how humor and horror tend to go together. There is just something about that uncomfortable feeling you get when reading horror that tickles your skin and makes you laugh nervously. Horror movies, especially for teens, tend to embrace at least a bit of that silliness. I guess it makes it clear that they are not taking themselves too seriously.

This comes up in my mind because I am working on a horror poem with a subtly humorous twist. Not silly pseudo-horror Monster Mash stuff, but Lovecraftian over-the-top horror, which is almost silly by its very existence. Anybody else tried writing Lovecraftian horror, which is quite different than most of the horror on WDC?


Current status: 31 items in 46 submissions. 4 new markets attempted, Halfway Down the Stairs, The Foghorn, The Missippi Review and Monday Night
 

I am intrigued by the ways different people react to prompts. By "prompts", I mean the themes or phrases or images stated by a contest or magazine issue. Some people hate prompts, wanting to write what is on their minds and not be constrained. Some people love prompts, as it gives them an inspiration or tells them what to write about.

Supernatural flash fiction about a tortoise starting with the phrase "My duck left me, but I got over it."

The first group says "Ugh!" The second group says "Got it. Here I go to write a story about..." Reluctantly, I must admit I am in the second group. But even within that group, there are differences. A fair number of people see the prompt as the goal. I think of the prompt the way Ender thinks of the opposing wall in Ender's Game (see how I cleverly brought up Orson Scott Card? See my second post on this blog)... anyway, I think of the prompt the way Ender thinks of the opposing wall in Ender's Game, not as a destination, but as a place to bounce off of in an unexpected direction. I want to follow the rules, but with a story or poem that nobody else would possibly think of for that prompt. If the prompt phrase sounds happy and light, I want to be dark and serious. If the prompt image is of a lovely park bench with autumn leaves around it, I want to write of the bum who sleeps there at night. It is just my nature, twisted.

How about you? What do you think of prompts?


Current status: 27 items in 40 submissions. 1 new market attempted, errant parent
 

I was browsing around Duotrope, a site I heartily recommend for those seeking to get published, and I stumbled across a magazine called errant parent   which accepts all sorts of writing, poetry, art, etc. related to parenting humor.

I have a few odd poems that might work, but this seems an interesting prospect for a fair amount of the family-oriented material I see on WDC. Might be worthwhile checking it out. They even pay well (although they seem to be out of budget for 2009).

Duotrope's page   says:

A fellow writer, upon reading my first day's worth of entries, asked if I was planning on tracking rejections as well as acceptances. I don't plan to do so. It would be a depressing task, as like most writers, I get more rejections than acceptances. On the other hand, there is a certain honesty and perspective provided by accepting that there is failure and rejection ass well as success.

With that in mind, I am planning on a new strategy. For each acceptance of a story or poem that has been previously rejected, I will include a humility count of the number of rejections that piece has received before being accepted. This could also be seen as a persistance reminder for those who are unduly impressed by acceptances.

I will go back through and add the humility count to the acceptances already listed, just so they all share this. I also plan to add a "Current status" entry on the first post for each day.


Current status: 23 items in 36 submissions. 2 new markets attempted, Poetry Magazine and Bastards and Whores
 

Accepted December 8, 2009

Magazine: Strong Verse