reporting from the personal writerly bright side of 2020
Tue 2020-09-01 16:37:53 (in context)
- 22 words (if poetry, lines) long
- 983 words (if poetry, lines) long
Happy September all! I have a couple of things made out of words coming out where you can see/hear them this month, and I thought I should let you know.
"The Soup Witch's Funeral Dinner" - Cast of Wonders: This story, originally a Friday Fictionette, was accepted and contracted for reprint back in January. This immediately helped guaranteed that, whatever happened, my 2020 was going to have a bright side. This past weekend, I received word that the story is with its narrator and is slated for publication in a September episode.
Cast of Wonders is the leading voice in young adult speculative fiction, podcasting a new episode every week. Most recently they have been serializing "The Curious Case of Miss Clementine Nimowitz (and her Exceedingly Tiny Dog)", written by Alex Acks and narrated by Sandra Espinoza. It's up to Part 5. Part 1 is here. Go check it out!
"The Ascent of Inanna" - Dreams and Nightmares: Originally a flash fiction story entered in a Codex contest in early 2020, then whittled down to its heart and soul and reimagined as a poem. D&N accepted it back in April and scheduled it for their September 2020 issue. And now it is September 2020!
Dreams & Nightmares is a long-running print magazine of speculative poetry and flash fiction. You can buy single issue (I obviously recommend the one for September 2020) or subscribe. Subscriptions are available in two flavors: six-issue and lifetime. Lifetime sounds like a bit of a gamble until you figure that A. it's only $90 and B. the magazine's been printing issues since January 1986. The landing page of the magazine's website is a blog whereon the editor posts something tiny every day. Usually it's a tiny poem. Sometimes it's a tiny something else.
The numbers! Publishing even a small amount of stuff is largely a numbers game. Which isn't to say it's not also a matter of craft and quality. Just, the more manuscripts of craft and quality that one submits, the more chance of a manuscript happening to cross the desk of an editor inclined to purchase publication rights. Here are my numbers for 2020 so far, including a few submissions and rejections already logged for September:
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Submissions: | 10 | 10 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 78 |
| Rejections: | 8 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 70 |
| Acceptances: | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Next time: the August 2020 Friday Fictionette round-up.