Submission History

I have written and submitted 17 short stories since this little project of mine began late last November. Seven of those stories have since been accepted for publication. A few of them are even paying gigs. Here are the stories that have been accepted for publication:

Tinni and the Chain -- Absent Willow Review (accepted, appeared in January)
Leaping -- Bewildering Stories (accepted, appears sometime in late March)
Planet Feast -- Big Pulp (accepted, appears May 19)
Grandfather’s Room -- The Nautilus Engine (accepted, appeared in February)
Companion -- Dark Fire (accepted, appears in Issue 47)
Panorama of Failure - Realms Magazine (accepted, appears later in the year)
Seeing Through Doors - Absent Willow Review (accepted, appears March 16)

Current Submission History

As of January 20, 2010,


Story Title -- Submitted To (Response):

Tinni and the Chain -- Absent Willow Review (accepted, appeared January 16, 2010)
Feeding the Grong -- Silver Thought
Robo and the Little Door -- Weird Tales
Leaping -- Bewildering Stories
Planet Feast -- Big Pulp (received, not yet accepted or rejected)
Grandfather’s Room -- The Nautilus Engine (accepted, appears February)
Profaning the Leistra -- Anotherealm
Heart Case -- Twisted Tongue
Attached -- Dark Fire (received, not yet accepted or rejected)
Panorama of Failure - Realms Magazine
Seeing Through Doors - Absent Willow Review

Another Story

"Grandfather's Room" will appear in the online magazine The Nautilus Engine in February. It is a non-paying magazine, but getting stories out there is the real goal here, not money. The one thing I learned from submitting my novel all over the place is that it is vital to have some sort of reputation if you want anybody to pay attention to you.

Now, the downside is that I have also had a few rejections along the way. In fact, "Grandfather's Room" was previously rejected by another magazine, so I just sent it to someone else. "Attached" has been rejected twice, but I did a little more work on it and sent it out a third time. We'll see what happens.

And, actually, the second magazine that rejected it had this to say: "Many thanks for sending 'Attached' my way. I found the story to be very well-written with an interesting concept and a good build-up. I thought that you did an admirable job building up some suspense as the mysterious creature is revealed, and as the humanoid's interactions with its new owner escalate, I was truly horrified. The story had a wonderful 'Weird Tales' vibe to it." Unfortunately, he went on to say, "All-in-all, I enjoyed the story; it's just not for us." His magazine is more gore oriented than what I sent him. Oh well, strike two. On it goes to magazine number three.

Rejections are going to happen. I just have to keep plugging away, and I shall. I just finished a new story called "Seeing Through Doors" and it has already been submitted.

jeff

Story is Online

Tinni and the Chain is online at http://absentwillowreview.com/archives/tinni-and-the-chain

Hey Ho Let's Go

Haven't posted on here in a while, but let's not allow Zen or Gaming or the combination thereof to fade into the terrible night like so much scattered "papel higiénico."

Writing. What has become of my writing? I have been writing short stories like Stephen King's gimp cousin, Arnold. Writing short stories and submitting them to magazines. In the last two months, I have submitted the following stories:

Tinni and the Chain to the Absent Willow Review
Feeding the Grong to Silver Thought
Robo and the Little Door to Weird Tales
Leaping to Intergalactic Medicine Show
Planet Feast to Big Pulp
Grandfather’s Room to The Nautilus Engine
Profaning the Leistra to Anotherealm
Heart Case to Twisted Tongue
Attached to Absent Willow Review

Of those submissions, Tinni and the Chain has been accepted for publication and will appear in Absent Willow Review on January 16. Planet Feast has been "received" but a decision to accept or reject will not be determined until sometime around January 31. I am waiting for responses to the others.

What sort of stories are they?

Tinni and the Chain - about a slave chained to a post by a wizard
Robo and the Little Door - about a boy who lives in a big creepy empty house with a sentient robot toy
Leaping - about people having to make a choice between definitely dying or maybe dying
Planet Feast - about people eating a planet. A truly weird story. Maybe too weird.
Grandfather's Room - about a boy who is not permitted to open the door to his grandfather's room
Profaning the Leistra - about a girl who learns the true meaning of an ancient ritual that she has always taken for granted and disliked
Heart Case - about the real cost of employment at a job one doesn't like
Attached - about people who buy hideous pets and get strangely attached to them

There you go. Brief synopses of each story. Lisa says my stories tend to be "bleak," which is odd because I don't consider myself a bleak person. They also tend to be a blend of fantasy/science fiction/horror. I might be getting better as I write them. At least, I am getting more comfortable with my prose. Some of the stories I particularly like, such as Attached, Heart Case, Planet Feast and Leaping. Some are not my favorite (I'm looking at you, Profaning the Leistra). But it feels good to write, to complete stories, to send them off. I feel like part of my purpose in life is not being squandered, so I will continue.

I just started a new story. It's only a couple of paragraphs. The working title is "The Panorama of Failure." It'll be nice and bleak. Lisa will love it.

--jeffrey

Dead compy!

So, my compy died over a month ago now and I think I like things better this way.

I've been running a Scion game (which is fun) and I've got some rough bits and pieces of children's books floating around on paper and on laptops.

Also, I've been TRYING to write here: http://dreampath.carlburgers.com/

More to come soon.

Did I mention 2 baby girls? Edith and Franny are hard work, but they are awesome.

The Work is Never Done

I am almost done with the ninth draft of Mindy Lightbearer. Yes, the ninth draft. I recently discovered a whole other world of young adult book publishers out there that I didn't even know about, companies like Echelon and Diversion. I knew about all the major fiction publishers, and most of them have been contacted. Some sent rejections, others I never heard back from. What I am looking for is a small press publisher of young adult fantasy. Once the ninth draft is complete, I will blanket the earth with a million centuries of propaganda. And by "earth" I mean "list of small press publishers of young adult fiction." And by "a million centuries of propaganda," I mean, "dozens of queries." And if the small press won't love it, then I will turn to the print-on-demand market, places like xlibris, lulu, and iUniverse, and I will make one of them love me and my money. Then I will have the unutterable joy of marketing and publicizing my own novel and trying to get local bookstores to carry copies. Come on, small press, don't make me resort to that. The ninth draft is good enough for you. For crying out loud, I made the changes you wanted, didn't I? Mindy no longer murders anybody, just like you asked, small press.

It Endeth Never

Rewrite number six is halfway done. Whilst I was in Lubbock for 12 days for my father's brain surgery, I began a sixth major revision of Mindy Lightbearer. I am at chapter eighteen. Some chapters have remained pretty much intact, with a few minor revisions, some editing, and lots of adverbs and unnecessary things being removed. I fiddled a lot with the first page again. I have never been satisfied with the first few paragraphs of the novel. Finally, I think I am mostly okay with them. Major story revisions are coming in this sixth draft toward the end. A minor character is being systematically removed, and another character put in his place during the climax. As a result of these changes, the ending of the novel will, I hope, feel more complete and satisfying. Also, the exploding doorknob has received several new spell effects and a DoT, though I lowered the damage bonus coefficient due to the reduced casting time.

Congrats and Happy Birthday!

to amber!!

NaNoWriMo

With November approaching (Nation Novel Writing Month) I find myself facing three options:

1) Continue writing the van Hunks story, adding 50k words in a month (the number is higher than in years past).

2) Write "Glamor," a story I had conceived prior to the van Hunks projection involving elves and vampires.

3) Do not take part in NaNoWriMo.

I am thinking more and more about starting a new book (or an old book, if you think about it). I have no momentum with the van Hunks project, so it would not be much effort to start a new book.

On the other hand, I have been doing lots of reading for my van Hunks story. I bought some books about Maritime legends and practices to get myself in the know about the Pirate Round and the way pirates worked in the Indian ocean.

Luckily there is no shortage of parallels between various cultures' sea stories. Dwarf pirates kidnap Sindbad and give him to their Cyclopean master. Sindbad escapes by driving hot metal bars into the giant's eye. Anyway, I am learning a lot about sailors in the olden days.

Regardless, my NaNoWriMo profile is available HERE

--Carl Out.