Another Submission Ready!

At last I have another story ready for submitting!  Catkin is still making the rounds, but now The Amulet of Aranos is ready for its final formatting and then submission.  It is a bit longer – almost 10,000 words – which limits me somewhat to where I can submit it.  I am going to begin with Beneath Ceaseless Skies (which wants under 10,000 words, so The Amulet just qualifies) and move on from there.  I also received my workshop assignment for Norwescon the other day.  I am excited about that, both for the opportunity to participate and because when it is finished, I will be able to start submitting The Silvered Swords as well.  Some days everything seems to be dragging and then some days you suddenly realize there has been. . . progress!  (It could also be the latte I drank.  Sometimes caffeine feels like progress.)

Last Call for the Amber Grimoire

The Amber Grimoire is accepting submissions for another week, until Mar 1.
For more information on submitting poetry, prose or artwork, go to the Submissions Page. The theme of this issue is "Dreams."

Call for Submissions to the Amber Grimoire

Calling Wordsmiths and Artists


There is still time to submit to the next issue of The Amber Grimoire.  
Submissions of mythopoeic fiction, poetry and art are due by Mar 1.
For more information go to the Submissions Page.

Goals for 2012

Inspired by Rachel Stark at Trak Changes my first post of the New Year is going to be a list of goals for 2012.  However, I want to begin by briefly looking back over 2011.

Last year, I completed four short stories and got one of them to the point where I am submitting it to online and print markets.  I held three launch parties for Fjallind, Eonia and Tav’uran, as well as working on the Idhuan religion. In April, I attended Norwescon and starting in September I began attending the North Seattle Science Fiction and Fantasy Meetup group.    My fellow editors and I published the second issue of the Amber Grimoire in November.  I am amazed and pleased by the amount I have accomplished last year and am excited for the coming year.

My writing goals for 2012 are as follows:

  Write 4+ short stories
  Edit 4+ short stories to the point where I am submitting them
  Have 2+ short stories published, at least 1 in a qualifying market for SWFA
  Hold 4 launch parties, get 2+ new guests at one or more of the parties

  Publish The Amber Grimoire twice as was our original intent
  Attend at least 2 fantasy/writing conventions
  Improve my networking skills by:
    Read 1+ good books on online/otherwise networking
    Hand out business cards at conventions, etc.
    Add people to my Facebook and Google+ circles
    Find ways to promote my blog

I am excited about the coming year – I feel that it will be a good one.
What do you think?  What are your goals for 2012?

Progress

I heard back from Abyss and Apex today.  They didn't accept "Catkin," so now I have my first rejection letter.  I would, of course, have been more excited if they had accepted it, but I am still excited to have received a rejection letter - it's a mark of progress.  In addition, it was a very kind rejection letter and they encouraged me to submit again.  While it's quite possible that it is a stock letter, nonetheless, as these things go, it was a very nice one to get as my first.

Anyway, I turned around and submitted the story to another magazine - Beneath Ceaseless Skies.  I once attended a motivational type workshop where we did an exercise in which the hundred or so people in the room milled around asking each other for something.  The something didn't matter, the rule was that as you were asked for things - a flower, a date, a job, an autograph - you said "no" to nine people, then "yes" to the tenth.  The point of the exercise was to remind us that if we didn't ask we wouldn't get to that "yes;" that the "yes" could seem arbitrary to us; but also that the "yes" was out there if we were persistent.  So here's to persistence and all the "no's" before the eventual "yes."

Submissions!

I have finally crossed a line and begun to submit things!  I have submitted two short stories – on to the online magazine Abyss and Apex, and the other to the publisher World Wisdom.  Whatever the response may be, I will be excited to get a response as it means that I am starting the process of asking.  If you never ask, there will be no answer at all.  A “no” is preferable to nothing.  I was invited to submit something to World Wisdom, but I am really not sure if my work fits the expansion into YA fantasy/adventure they are considering.  I also submitted to the Fairwood Writer’s Workshop at Norwescon, which I submitted to last year.  It’s kind of amazing when I consider how far I have come in that year.  How many words I have written, how many critiques I have attended, and now I am finally ramping it up and trying to get published!

I would like to take a picture of my submission and pin it to the wall:  "Look, I have started putting my work into the world - here is the manilla envelope to prove it!"  Sadly for me, though better for the environment I suppose, so far I have submit electronically.  I must content myself with having made a new label color in my Gmail folders to indicate correspondence regarding submissions:

Submitting Short Stories

As my efforts to write short stories begin to yield some drafts that are nearing finished, I have been gathering a list of places to submit them.  Yesterday, I was very excited to discover Duotrope.  This website is a free resource for writers, which has a searchable database of markets for fiction and poetry.  By entering terms such as “High Fantasy” and “short story” I came up with a list of places to submit, most of which I had not found in my poking around on the web.  I found Duotrope through the website of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which is another very useful website in its own right.  I have been keeping an eye on their blogs, as there are useful articles on both the writing and the business side of things.

Submissions for The Amber Grimoire

Back in February, I solicited submissions for The Amber Grimoire.  The May issue did not receive enough submissions to be published, so we are trying again.  Our theme is still "The Wild Wood," and submissions of poetry, short fiction, reviews and art work are requested by September 1, 2011 for publication in November.  Visit the submissions page for more information.

Submit to The Amber Grimoire

The online Fantasy Journal, which I started last year with my writing group and some other friends, is looking for submissions for our next issue.  The deadline is March 1 and the theme for the Summer Issue is “The Wild Wood.”  We are looking for poetry, short stories, art and book reviews.  Go to Submissions for more information or check out our first issue "Genesis."