Submission updates and writers’ conferences
“Finnegan’s Pig” has made it past round 1 of reading at ASIM. They said I should be hearing from them in about three weeks – that was about three weeks ago. They recently temporarily closed to submissions, so I’m sure they’re beyond swamped! I’ll wait at least another couple of weeks before I inquire. I’m excited to see whether they’ll take it. It sounds like it’s perfect for their format. So far, this one has been the favorite among my family members (who never pass up an opportunity to chuckle at the image of a huge pig eating Jesus – we’re a blasphemous lot, what can I say?).
Haven’t heard a peep from IGMS about “The Conductor,” which is to be expected. They gave a 3-month turnaround time for submissions! I’m being patient.
I wrote a very interesting flash for the annual flash contest at LH. Other forum members and I are on pins and needles waiting to read all the submissions. The trigger was excellent – “Schiamachy: Fighting with a shadow or an imaginary opponent.” Intriguing! That should have produced some juicy tidbits from the LH crew. Part of the fun in this challenge is that some readers for Flash Fiction Online are going to read all the entries – so we all get to bypass the slush pile. If the FFO readers don’t bite on my story, I’ll have another to send out next week. 
In other news, I finished a 9-page working outline for my novel, jokingly working-titled Walk Like an Egyptian. I completely redid the beginning of the story and came up with a creative twist that should entertain fiction readers and piss off every Egyptologist and Egyptology nerd on the planet. It can’t be helped – art before truth. Ha ha.
I’m hammering away at a minimum of 3 pages per day on the new and improved Walk Like an Egyptian. It’s coming together fairly well so far. Soon I’ll be sending the first couple of chapters off to Marianna, my super-excellent reader. She gets to read everything I write before anybody else does because she’s got an amazing brain and a degree in creative writing. And lots of time on her hands, and she gets bored frequently and needs stuff to do. It’s a great arrangement. Hopefully she will like the opening and I won’t have to revise the hook any more. I hate writing hooks – I suck at it, or so I think.
I’ve started compiling lists of conferences to attend next year. I will definitely be going to the Willamette Writers’ Conference in Portland next August. I’m blocking off the dates on my calendar after I finish this post. An agent, Paige Wheeler, will be there accepting pitches. She is on the top of my list for this novel. From what it says on her site, it should be a good fit, so as long as she likes my writing I’m hopeful that she might be interested. Being able to pitch to her in person is appealing. And there are other agents who are going to attend, as well. I’ll definitely pick a few others to toss the idea at. Somebody out there has got to think it’s interesting!
Woot! My first rejection ever!
I’ve fantasized, all starry-eyed, about getting my first rejection ever since I was a kid. Now at last it has happened! Heliotrope has turned down “The Conductor,” but gave me a very friendly personal rejection note. 18 days. I’m so pleased with getting a nice personal note that I’m taking my camera to the zoo today and having a glut of critter-photography to celebrate. I know it sounds weird, but getting my first rejection is this huge step in my life. I’ve known it was going to come ever since I started seriously considering trying to get my work published, around the age of 10 or so. I mean, has ANY writer ever been accepted on their first try? Sheesh, I doubt it! Rejection #1 is a milestone. I’m thrilled! Here’s to many more, and hopefully some accepted manuscripts, too.
“The Conductor” is off again to the IGMS. They have a three-month turnaround time, so it could be a long wait. I’d better write more short stories so I have more stuff to do in the meantime!
NaNoWriMo and a new submission
Finnegan’s Pig, a folk-taley kind of thing, is off to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. So far, my goal of submitting one short story per week is holding out (over the course of two weeks, ha ha!). If I am able to maintain this momentum during the fall and winter, I’m sure I won’t be able to once my work picks back up again in the spring so I’ll try to get as much written and sent out as is humanly possible over the next several weeks.
Well, it’s NaNo time again. I think I’ll give it a whirl this year. I tried last year but ended up getting pretty nastily sick, which put me behind by a week and with a wedding in November I couldn’t catch up. Oh, well! The idea I hatched for last year’s NaNo needed another year to mature anyway. But now I’ve got a rockin’ outline for that story and I’m ready to give it another shot at coming to life. Or perhaps I’ll work on Walk Like an Egyptian for NaNo. I’ve got a few chapters written already but I sort of hate them passionately and would like to completely re-do them. This would be non-cheating, I suppose.
Today is our three-year anniversary. We’re not going to do much today, but last night we went out to dinner at Palisade. It was great, as always. I love Palisade. <3
I did it! I did it!
First. Submission. Ever. I’m SO EXCITED!
Okay, I do have one thing published already, but it’s a nonfiction article in a hobby manual. It was fun to write, but it’s not fiction. I loves me some fiction.
I submitted “The Conductor” (about 1550 words) to Heliotrope. We’ll see how it goes! Their response time is 30 days, so by November 22 I’ll have news, good or bad. It’s so thrilling!
WOOT!!!
It’s about that time…
We didn’t lose power for too terribly long with the wind storm that came through Thursday night. Last winter we had an absolutely terrible one and our block was without power for three days. It was miserable. Kind of scary how much we take technology for granted, isn’t it? I have a feeling that global climate change will turn Seattle into the next “Windy City.” The wind has been outrageous the last few years.
Will and I went to Julia Sweeney’s one-woman show, “Letting Go of God,” last night as part of our anniversary celebration. It was a really fantastic show – touching and funny at the same time. Julia is an amazing actress – one of the best at timing and emotion that I’ve ever seen, I must say. You wouldn’t think of her that way if your only taste of her talents comes from her many comedy gigs. She is very funny, but wow – many times throughout the show her words and delivery gave me chills and moved me to tears. The show was beautifully written and beautifully performed. It was also a strange and exhilarating experience to be in a theater packed with people who mostly must have been atheists. Sure, there were undoubtedly some who were not, but judging by the way the audience laughed at the same jokes it was clear that atheists were at least in the majority. I’ve never been to any kind of meeting of atheists or a similar event, so knowing that I was not the despised minority in a large, full room for once filled me with warmth. And the rest of the crowd seemed to feel the same way – everybody was smiling at each other and strangers were chatting as if they were old friends. A very nice sense of community.
Anyhow, if you get a chance to see “Letting Go of God,” please do. It’s beautifully affirming for atheists but also treats religion with respect and sympathy – I think that any reasonably secure religious person would thoroughly enjoy it just for the excellent writing and acting. And Julia Sweeney is so cute. She is in her mid-forties and is already greying, and has opted not to dye her hair to cover it up. I thought she was just gorgeous with her cute steel-grey pixie cut. I wanted to hug her.
So it’s about time for me to try submitting a story for publication. We’ll see how it goes. I made another edit to The Conductor and I think I might have cleared up all the major issues readers had with understanding the story. I posted it on LH for critiquing and am looking forward to hearing whether I was successful in making my story clearer. If I pulled it off, I’ll be handing it over to Will for a final read-through and then I’ll be poring over Duotrope to figure out my best bet for submissions. This is a super exciting time!!
Next weekend I’ll be in Oregon with my friends for a model horse show. It will be nice to go play for a while. I’ve been pushing myself very hard to get through my commission backlog this winter, while I’ve got some down time from photography obligations, but in the process I’ve absolutely destroyed my right hand. I flared up my radial neuritis so badly I’ve been strapped into my splints and chowing down Naproxen 24/7. 
Need a break!!
Check it out!
We got a new car last night! We got just an unbelievable deal on it…really way too good to pass up. It only added $60/month to our expenditures and it’s SO much safer than our last car. It’s even slightly more fuel efficient. We’re considering this our anniversary gift to each other.
I’ve got to get back on my writing! I’ve been so busy the last couple of days cleaning the apartment and fiddling around learning about small SUVs to buy. 
Now I’m shutting off the ‘puter since we’ve got a two-day windstorm coming in. I’m going to go clean and organize my studio, then paint some model horses while I watch Star Trek. Hopefully the power won’t go out.
Grr…yrrrrg…
Must…take…pictures! So apparently a down side of the off season is that I don’t get to pick up my camera much. Well – I don’t HAVE to pick up my camera much. I realized this morning that I can if I want to, and I definitely want to. It’s been about 10 days since I photographed anything, and I’m getting all itchy, especially since the leaves are so stunning right now. I haven’t seen fall color this nice in the Seattle area in many, many years. I wonder what the magic equation is for awesome leaves.
I’m heading to the zoo today to spend a few hours shooting. It has a real purpose, too, beyond just being fun. I really NEED to get my butt in gear and get my notecard sets together and up on Etsy so I can make some scratch this winter. If I’m lucky I might sell a single story for less than $200.00, but otherwise I have virtually no income this winter (although I might get to shoot promotional pics for a cherry juice company! That ought to be fun! We haven’t even gotten to pay negotiations, though, so who knows if it will pan out). So notecards it is!
Then after the zoo I’ll be back to polish up The Conductor. I had my husband read it last night and I have to admit that the sincere enthusiasm in his voice when he gave me his feedback made me feel all girly and special. My heart beat a little faster to think that I can make a real impression on him. There’s nothing like impressing the guy you’ve got a crush on, is there? <3<3<3<3<3 I’m the luckiest girl in the world. My husband is the best.
Back soon with pics of animals and leaves.
