submissions – The Cat's Cradle : On Hiatus!

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As you probably guessed from the title, this entry is a mixed bag of news.

(CAUTION: This entry also contains strong language!)
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THE GOOD:

I’ve been derping around with the Submission Grinder, a wonderful tool created by Diabolical Plots to help writers weed through the mountain of online magazines without having to check every single one on the net personally. Just fill in some parameters for the story you are trying to sell and BOOM! There’s a good chance something will come up that will be useful to you. I’m still playing round robin with my pair of short stories, and while I know I should be writing more, nothing has really come to mind. However, I stumbled across a book called The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction. I’d seen the term pop up before, but hadn’t really looked into it. (It’s possible that “flash fiction” sounded too much like “slash fic” for me.) Apparently, flash fiction is a term for “short short stories.” Although the lengths vary from publication to publication, flash fiction is usually less than 2,000 words. So, I decided to try my hand at it, since there is apparently a huge market for it. It’ll be an interesting challenge, but I actually already wrote down a rough draft for an idea and will work on refining it. Wish me luck!
Continue reading “The Good (Short Fiction), the Bad (YouTube), and the Ugly (Editing Process)” →

…there’s always another Star Destroyer. The battle is never-ending. A victory for the Rebel Alliance, no matter how epic, doesn’t mean the end of the war. That’s a bit how I feel right now after finishing my 10,000-word submission for the Jim Henson Dark Crystal Author Quest. I feel like those cheering Rebels on Hoth right after they hear the announcement: “The first transport is away! The first transport is away!”

Yes, the first one made it through. And that feeling of victory when facing impossible odds is euphoric. But they have to try to get the rest through the blockade as well. And even if they make it off Hoth, the rest of the Empire is still out there, waiting for them.

This might not seem like a victory. After all, I’m just one among many. I have no idea what is going to happen next. Will my entry be considered? Accepted? Ultimately win or be rejected? I have no way of knowing. But I started writing my Dark Crystal entry 5 months ago. July 1, 2013, I used Camp NaNoWriMo to pound out half the novel. I kept writing all the way through September. October was sporadic writing followed by editing, then November was dedicated to my wonderful beta readers. Their feedback helped me chose what portion of the novel to send as my submission. I hit the “Submit Your Entry” button on November 30, exactly five months after starting this project.

Continue reading “Sending a submission is like fighting the Empire…” →