5100 words on Petra last week, bringing the total to 48,800.
The work continues apace. As with last week, I had considerable difficulty overcoming a midweek hump. In fact, I notice that I follow a similar pattern in microcosm. My daily word goal is 1K. The first 500 words are very much an uphill battle, but once I get past that point, I feel this great sense of relief, of renewed confidence that I’ll make my quota again that day. Then I go through the whole thing again on the morrow.
Oh, it’s so weird, the mind games we writers play with ourselves.
Here’s another one: I constantly vacillate between feeling like I’m on the cusp of the fabled “big break,” and feeling like said break is, in the words of the immortal Plimsouls, a million miles away. I’m in the latter mode at the moment, following a brutal week of rejections and setbacks.
Speaking of which . . .
Write Club updates:
Quarter-finalist notification from WotF for “What Really Happened That Night.” Now, I know that’s a strong finish, but I couldn’t help feeling absurdly crushed. I had considerably higher hopes for this one, based on very encouraging comments from several editors. Response time, five months.
Yet another tier one rejection for “The Multiplicity Has Arrived” from F & SF, thus reaffirming my long-held belief that I’m simply not writing F & SF fiction, and that submitting to them is a waste of time and postage. Not that it stops me from trying, natch. At least they don’t waste much of my time, to wit: response time, four days.
My nicest rejection for the week came from Holy Horrors, for “Take This, and Eat.” The editor, T.M. Wright, said it was “quite well-written” but wasn’t right for the antho, and concluded by saying, “I have no doubt you’ll be able to place the story elsewhere.” Response time, 4 3/4 months.
Tier one rejection from Heliotrope for “The Judgment of Harris.” Response time, four days.
Tier one rejection from Weird Tales for the resubmission of “The Woman Who Hated Halloween.” Response time, nine days.
Oh, and just for a little variety, I may as well mention that my guest application for Dragon*Con has been “respectfully declined.” Yeah, well, who do they think they are, anyway? Some sort of huge event that draws all the big stars? Oh, wait . . .
I also got back a brutally honest crit on “Gone Black” from a friend whose opinion I trust. Once again, I’ve churned out something rather bland and predictable. Should have known. How the hell do I keep doing this? Thank goodness I haven’t sent it out yet.
And to top it all off, an item from the Dept. of the Mildly Amusing–an email from George Scithers informing me that my initial submission of “The Woman Who Hated Halloween” must have gotten lost in the mail, and asking me to resubmit. Remember how I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my first query on this story garnered no response? Well, here it is. Only took four months. In the interim, I’ve queried again, gotten a response, resubbed the story, and–as you just read a few paragraphs back–gotten a rejection.
If nothing else, at least I can honestly say I haven’t been spoiled by success. So that’s something.
