Tag: Publishing

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 8, the one with the weird prom date

Week 8! Oddly enough, after I complained about last week’s ebb of creativity, I was struck with a story. Or rather, struck with a title and first line.

The title:

The Most Miserable Prom on Planet Earth

The first line:

My prom date is a space alien.

Despite its beginnings, it has no trace of science fiction or fantasy. Really. I scribbled down the title and that first line on Sunday, then wrote the story on Monday. I won’t say it came from nowhere, but it was unexpected. So considering how busy the week was, I got my writing and subbing in and I was quite pleased.

Writing:

  • The Most Miserable Prom on Planet Earth, ~ 2,000 words
  • Breaking the Unwritten Rules in Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction assignment: 350 words on a dialogue scene

Rejections:

  • The Madness in King’s End But! This is a rejection-plus. I didn’t win the contest I entered it in, but the story was one of two honorable mentions. This pleases me immensely, since the contest was for mystery fiction, and this story is more mysterious than mystery.

Submissions:

  • The Madness in King’s End (and yes, I sent it right back out again)
  • It Only Takes a Minute (this one too from last week)

Acceptances:

  • None

Published:

  • Payment My “it doesn’t get much shorter than this” short story went live at Literary Juice. 

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 7, the one with all the rejections

Week 7! I’m hanging in there, although I must admit, I slowed down a lot this week, got all panicky, and then topped off my week with three rejections. However, I do feel stories and words gathering in the back of my mind. With a little luck, the ebb will soon be over.

Writing:

  • Lost and Found
    • Poem of this title
    • 100-word flash fiction of this title

Yes, it’s true. I wrote two very short, but different, pieces and gave them the same title. I. Was. Inspired. (Not.) Neither one may go out, but when I made this Write 1/Sub 1 pact with myself, I defined “write 1” as something I could potentially send out, not a scene or rambling words, or whatever. But, speaking of rambling words:

  • Breaking the Unwritten Rules in Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: 1,200 words on a character sketch assignment

Rejections:

  • Just a Matter of Time
  • It Only Takes a Minute
  • One Good Turn

Submitting:

  • Just a Matter of Time, back out it goes. Bye-bye!

Acceptances:

  • None

I’ve been waiting for this week to happen, by which I mean, the week where the flood of rejections came in and my creativity was at its lowest. From looking at my submission tracker, I knew I was (over)due for this sort of rejection storm. This is what happens, of course, when you submit something every single week–they come back, sometimes all at once.

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 6, the one with Girl Scout cookies

Week 6! Despite the 200 hundred boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my living room–that need a home that isn’t my living room–I had a very good writing week. Here’s what I did:

Writing:

  • It Only Takes a Minute, 247 words, for the Flash Fiction Chronicles String of 10 contest
  • The Weight of Secrets, short story of some length. I wrote it longhand and it’s still in my notebook, so I don’t know the exact word count.

Submitting:

  • It Only Takes a Minute, since I wrote it for the contest, why not actually submit it too?
  • The Madness in King’s End, to a local mystery contest. However, my story is probably more fantasy than mystery, so I’m not holding my breath on this one.

Rejections:

  • None!

Acceptances:

  • Payment, that even shorter (25 words) version of Cash or Check received an acceptance from Literary Juice for their Pulp Fiction section, where the story must be exactly 25 words with a one word title. (Now you know why I changed the title.) Oddly enough, it’s a story with a Girl Scout cookie theme.

Published:

I also started an online class this week at The Loft Literary Center,  Breaking the Unwritten Rules in Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction. I’m all about the rule breaking. The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy, so this Write 1/Sub 1 thing may be more of a challenge. It’s like a cliffhanger–stay tuned to see if I can make it all work. 

The Burden of So Many Roses: Milestone story

Falling Roses

So today, The Burden of So Many Roses is live over on Kazka Press, where the theme this month is an undelivered valentine. My guess is (I haven’t read all the stories yet) that if you’re not a fan of gooey Valentine’s Day stories, you’ll be happy with the fare offered up this month.

At least, mine isn’t gooey.

It is, however, a milestone story for me. Here’s the breakdown:

1/3/2013: finished the draft

1/13/2013: sent to Kazka Press

1/30/2013: accepted

2/5/2013: published!

Not only is that one of the fastest turnaround times for me, submission to acceptance, it is the fastest I’ve ever drafted/revised/polished a story and sent it out. That being said, Kazka Press has a list of prompts on their submission page, and I had that undelivered valentine fermenting in the back of my mind for the entire month of December. That probably helped.

One of my goals this year is to figure out how to maintain a steady pace of writing while dealing with the ebbs in my creativity. And ebb it does. To the point where I’m all reclined on the fainting couch, hand on forehead, and despairing, I’ll never write again!

But since I always do, I’ve stopped believing myself when I get this way. This is why Write 1/Sub 1 is such a challenge. If I don’t write one, I’ll run out of things to submit. But it’s teaching me that:

  • I can write more than I think I can.
  • I have more story ideas than I think I do.
  • No one story concept is like another. Some tumble out like gifts, some I pick at, bit by bit.
  • There’s no wrong way to draft a short story.

Sometimes, to write, you simply need to get out of your own way.

Write 1/Sub 1 check in: week 5, the one with no heat and a sale

Week 5! Our furnace died on Friday. It’s also been one of the coldest weeks all winter. Clearly our appliances have a (dark) sense of humor. Yesterday was Girl Scout cookie “go” day, so since the house was cold, Kyra and I bundled up and sold cookies door-to-door. By the time we arrived back home (several boxes lighter), we had heat.

Writing:

  • Poem about the color orange. It is full of whimsy. And adjectives.

Submitting:

  • One Good Turn, (very) tongue-in-cheek science fiction story.
  • Payment, an even shorter (25 words) version of Cash or Check

Rejections:

  • None!

Acceptances:

  • The Burden of So Many Roses to Kazka Press for their undelivered valentine prompt. The story should be “live” in a few days. 

I also spent a good deal of time revising/editing two stories, One Good Turn and another that I’m set to submit in this upcoming week. 

It’s Unidentified Funny Objects anthology launch day

ufocover5001Today’s the day! Unidentified Funny Objects anthology is out in this world! Haven’t ordered your copy yet? No? That’s okay. Hop on over to the UFO Publishing landing page and grab a paperback or an e-book. The Kindle version is also live on Amazon.

Need to know more? Watch the video below or read the latest review in Tangent by Colleen Chen. Look at the nice thing she had to say about The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty:

This is a well-written modernized version of the fairy tale. It’s really short, so there’s not much to it, but it leaves a pleasant aftertaste and I would definitely have liked to read more of the princess’ adventures.

Sleeping Beauty is short (under 1,000 words). I wrote it as flash fiction and the reason I submitted it was the editor mentioned he was specifically looking for more flash for the anthology. So that’s how she ended up in there.

If you buy a copy, I hope you enjoy the stories!

Unidentified Funny Objects Table of Contents Reveal

Look at this! It’s the Unidentified Funny Objects Table of Contents reveal! Twenty nine stories will make up this 80,000 word anthology.

Even the titles have me cracking up.“The Velveteen Golem” by David Sklar? I can’t wait to read all the other stories in the anthology. It’s not too far away. Click through to pre-order your copy in paperback or e-format.

Sleeping Beauty finds a home

I’m so excited to announce that my short story The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty will be part of the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology, due out this November!

The Secret Life of Sleeping Beauty combines cell phones and swords with a really sucky sweet sixteen.

I’m positively thrilled that Sleeping Beauty was considered both funny enough and fantasy enough to be included. It’s a great way to start the week.