Tag: Publishing

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 46 the one with a seaside ghost

Week 46! I was going to start this off with the phrase: another busy week, but yeah. I’ve used that. More than once. That being said, there was plenty in my inbox, on my screen, and in my notebook to keep me busy.

I worked on a couple rewrite requests, fought a mighty battle with a seaside ghost, and found a home for my flash piece A Measure of Sorrow, which will be in issue 16 of Luna Station Quarterly.

Yes, I got my write 1 in for the week, and 3,400 words of it no less. However, this story wants to be so much more, maybe even a whole novel. So … I ponder. For now. And the only reason I call it Seaside Ghost is it’s about a ghost and takes place at … wait for it … the seaside. Yeah. Not one of my more creative titles.

Writing:

  • Seaside Ghost ~ 3,400 words

Submissions:

  • What Little Remains
  • The Perfect Canvas

Rejections:

  • What Little Remains

Acceptances:

Publications:

  • Elvis Has Left the Building ~ shhhh, it’s not officially up on the Untreed Reads site yet, but if you want to grab a copy of Elvis Has Left the Building, you can get it for Kindle or Nook.

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 45 the one with boots

Week 45! A busy week since we were gearing up for a software release at work. Even so, I did write a flash fiction story and worked on summaries for Just a Matter of Time and Elvis Has Left the Building.

Plus, Timeless Tales has accepted the retelling of Puss in Boots that I wrote for their call for submissions. So, yes, A Most Marvelous Pair of Boots will have a home.

Writing:

  • Doreen’s Muse ~ 1,000 words

Submissions:

  • The Perfect Canvas
  • Breakfast in the Desert

Rejections:

  • Rules for Visiting Hades

Acceptances:

  • A Most Marvelous Pair of Boots ~ Puss in Boots retelling

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 44 the one where I keep time

Week 44! This was a busy writing week. My big goal was to complete a story for the Flash Fiction Challenge. The night before, I had a dream about the challenge and the topic assignment.

My “dream” topic?

Family outing / An  outdoor concert / a tennis ball

And yes, I realize “family outing” is not a literary genre. Even so, in my dream-state, I was brainstorming and drafting a story for this. It had something to do with Nazi Germany. Yes, a natural extension of the topic. Although it makes more sense when you consider that I’ve been reading Operation Mincemeat this week.

So imagine my relief when I woke up to find this as my assignment:

Horror / A tattoo parlor / High heels

Now that’s more like it. Unlike the last round, this suggested many story ideas almost immediately. While I don’t think the final story is scary enough for horror, I had too much fun to really care. Plus, if I don’t earn enough points to push me into the next round, I won’t have to worry about those crazy dreams about the challenge.

Even better, if I ever want to get a tattoo, I’m set.

Also this week, I doubled the word count on another short story, wrote a short poem/micro-fiction thingy, and received e-galleys for the coffee anthology and the proofed copy of my short story Elvis Has Left the Building.

And, of course, my story Keeping Time is live at Kazka Press. Click on through to read all seven stories this month.

Writing:

  • The Perfect Canvas ~ 1,000 words
  • Hurry Up and Wait ~ 100 words
  • Inside Out ~ 2,300 words added

Submissions:

  • Five to Freedom
  • The Maze
  • What Little Remains

Rejections:

  • Five to Freedom
  • What Little Remains
  • Two Hammers

Acceptances:

  • None

Published:

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 40 the one with yet another quiet week

Week 40! Another quiet week here, at least as far as the writing goes. The kid stuff however? That’s getting busy. All sorts of scout stuff and conferences and so on. And there’s more of the same coming up.

This is where the power of write 1/sub 1 comes in. Nine months in and it’s pretty much a habit now, like exercise.

Writing:

  • The Maze ~ 6,000 words

Submissions:

  • Playing Soldier
  • The Girl with the Piccolo ~ audio market

Rejections:

  • Straying from the Path

Acceptances:

  • None

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 39 the one with the end-of-summer colds

Week 39! A quiet week to end September, and I’m grateful for that. The whole house (all of us, minus the pets) had some form of end-of-summer cold, to varying degrees.

I’m so glad the Flash Fiction Challenge was last week. I had an automatic submission for this week and plenty of time to peck my way through a new story.

This week I played around with a Puss in Boots retelling for a call for submissions I discovered. By doing so, I filled up the last pages of my notebook. My daughter was paging through it, somewhat amazed that I had filled in every single page, and asked: “How do you think of so many stories to write?”

I told her I didn’t know. And actually, my best writing happens when I don’t think, or at least, not too hard.

Writing:

  • Puss in Boots retelling ~ 2,000 words

Submissions:

  • Five to Freedom

Rejections:

  • Alliance

Acceptances:

  • None

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 38 the one with more milestones

Week 38! Well, September is shaping up rather nicely. Two milestone acceptances this week. Two! I know, it’s crazy times around here.

First, I sold audio/reprint rights for The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty to Cast of Wonders. I can’t wait to hear what they do with the story.

Then, the next day, I find out that my poem (yes, poem) Land of the Free (Haircuts) will be part of Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, Volume 2. The anthology is a partnership between the Missouri Humanities Council, Warriors Arts Alliance, and Southeast Missouri State University Press.

Like I said, crazy times.

My write 1 for the week was the Flash Fiction Challenge. What did I end up with? Take a look:

Comedy / a rain forest / water balloon

My first draft ended up at 999 words. I played around with it a bit, then put it away to compost overnight. I’ll take a last look later today, proof it, and send it off. I don’t know how funny it is. I think, at most, it’s lightly humorous (and that’s a stretch). But! It’s done! I did it! And it was fun to write. And really, you can’t ask for more than that.

Since that was my write 1 for the week, I spent time getting stories from my notebook into electronic form. I now have three more to shape up and send off in the near future. Plus, I started a longer short story.

All in all, not a bad week.

Writing:

  • Five to Freedom ~ 999 words

Submissions:

  • Just a Matter of Time
  • Filling the Space

Rejections:

  • The Patron Saint of Lost Things ~ the editors mentioned that this did make their short list, so that was nice.

Acceptances:

  • The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty
  •  Land of the Free (Haircuts)

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 37 the one with a big cup of ghostly coffee

Week 37! More big news this week. Ghost in the Coffee Machine will be part of the COFFEE: Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic anthology, due out later this year (in time for the holidays)!

My write 1 for the week was another flash challenge assignment, which was:

Open/ A rooftop / press-on fingernails

I came in at 2,000 words or so. Not quite a flash, and I’m thinking this story needs a bit more, but I really like where it ended up, press-on fingernails and all, so there’s that.

In fact, I counted up the number of draft stories I have and it came out to nine. Nine! This does not include the story with the glass eye. Yeah, that one probably isn’t making it out of my notebook.

I have four draft stories in electronic form and five still in my (paper) notebook. I need to carve out a little time and get the rest of those stories into electronic form so I can start sending them out.

Writing:

  • What Little Remains ~ 2,000 words

Submissions:

  • Alliance
  • Straying from the Path
  • Rules for Visiting Hades ~ an old story submitted to a journal doing a “resurrection issue”. They want stories from defunct markets that are not currently archived online. This story fit the bill (in those terms–it may not be to the journal’s taste).  

Rejections:

  • Straying from the Path ~ an “almost for us” rejection from Daily Science Fiction. Oh, so close! Back out it goes.  
  • Filling the Space

Acceptances:

  • Ghost in the Coffee Machine ~ will be published in COFFEE: Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic. Out later this year! Pre-order early! Pre-order often! 

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 36 the one with the Mad Scientist

Week 36! My big news: I sold another story. The Short Sweet Life of My Invisible Prom Date will be published in an upcoming issue of Mad Scientist Journal.

It’s such a quirky little story that I’m very pleased it managed to find a home.

My write 1 for the week was another flash challenge assignment, which was:

Comedy/ A space station/ Onion rings

Again, while I don’t plan to ever look a gift story in the mouth, this one came in at about 3,000 words (you’ll note the trend–longer, not shorter) and it in no way resembles a comedy (despite those onion rings). This upcoming week I hope to write an actual piece of flash fiction. We’ll see how that goes.

Writing:

  • The Ways of Goodbye ~ 3,000 words, I’m not overly fond of this title, but the only other one I can think of is: Onion Ring Story.

Submissions:

  • Playing Soldier

Rejections:

  • Alliance

Acceptances:

  • The Short Sweet Life of My Invisible Prom Date ~ will be published in Mad Scientist Journal: Winter 2014, in early April 2014.

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 35 the one with the August wrap up

Week 35! I was a submitting fool this week again, catching a few markets before they closed at the end of August. Total for August? Nine stories submitted and I wrote five. Not a bad way to wrap up the summer.

I also got my write 1 in for the week, another flash challenge assignment, which was:

Sci Fi / A luxury spa / a wig

This actually gave me more to work with–maybe too much more, since it came in at ~ 2,000 words. But I really liked where the story was going and I’m not one to look a gift story in the mouth.

No rejections or acceptances this week, but one of the stories I sent out did make the first round cut for an anthology. Now it’s simply a matter of waiting. Fortunately, that was one of the skills I perfected in the Army.

Writing:

  • Inside Out ~ 2,000 words

Submissions:

  • Ghost in the Coffee Machine ~ short listed
  • Straying from the Path
  • The Patron Saint of Lost Things

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None