Don Pizarro's Manual of the Seven Wudan Tiger Shaolin Monkey Kung-Fu Style o' Death
Pathetic, I know. This is what happens when I allow finals, work, and holidays to interfere.
I’ve got a list of markets that have opened up and some “You Gonna Publish My Story, Or What?” emails to send. This’ll actually be a good week to get cracking on those.
The subs period for a few of the mags I like to try closed last month. Now, I need to figure out a whole new set of shells to play the submission shell-game for the stories I’m (not) writing. Luckily, I got a couple of rejections in time to sneak them in on the last day of the month.
I gotta get these numbers up.
This past October will be the month I’ll always remember as having my first bonafide “I’m no good at this writing shit, so why the fuck do I even bother?” meltdown. Of course, when you send out a bunch of stories at the same time, the rejections tend to come back at the same time. I’d learned to handle the rejection that comes in once a month. But 4 in as many days?
Still, I’ve learned to keep a Nietschian attitude toward it.
Now, on to write some more…
Bet you thought you’d never see these again, huh? Neither did I, for awhile. But last month, I started a slow turnaround. Hopefully these numbers–well, the acceptance and publication numbers–go up.
*I reset the count on these, because a couple of the markets I submitted stories to ages ago either never responded or have apparently folded.
Despite the Tweet, I made the Sign of the Cross and sent out my first story in months. The summer was just so crazy, what with cramming for the GRE and having to quickly formulate and reformulate my grad school aspirations about twelve or so times. I had to cram in the editing time I could. I think I’ve lost count of just how many stories I have in the trunk to revise–three or four. Well, at least I got one down.
I seriously forgot how hard it is to just let a piece go. I had to make myself do it! Just like that first swim in the summertime when you’re a kid, and you’re dreading how cold that water is, no matter how many times you’ve already jumped into the damn pool. Finally, your only options are to walk away or just say “Fuck it…”
…is more or less the same as the June scorecard for different, but related reasons. That changes this month. You’ll see.
Um, there is no June Scorecard. I’d spent the month studying for the GRE and finally underwent the ordeal yesterday.
I guess I need to update the Trading Card in the menu bar–I know what program I want to go for next.
Anyway, the program I want to apply for** at the local Big Red school on the Hill doesn’t state their minimum GRE requirements. My scores can only be described in one word: Meh. But I know from my Intarweb research of other programs that my scores are more than good enough.
On the other hand, I’m still waiting to see my latest story go live. Why don’t you keep an eye out and read what’s already there while you’re waiting. You won’t regret it!
**There’s a story here, but I’m not gonna tell it until certain things become definite.
The best birthday presents a writer can get, and I got them both today: a new 600-page leather journal from the wife and a contract for the story I mentioned a little while back.
And it’s not even 9:00 AM yet.
I’m waiting on some non-writerly news as well, though it could impact my writing. You’ll know when I (and my wife, and several of my friends) know.
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Edited to add: Sent the contract back and I gots the money!
Perhaps there was a deeper, more subconscious reason I haven’t blogged in weeks…
I thought the unusually lengthy response time from a particular flash market might’ve been due to a piece being shortlisted. But when I queried last week, I got…
Thanks for following up. We’ve been having some problems with a few email providers marking our emails as spam. We’re trying to fix that, but in the meantime, some responses are getting lost. Unfortunately, we decided to pass on “Civic Responsibility.”
Ain’t no thing, though. Off to the next one.