In which a writer tests Bradbury's promise that one cannot write 52 bad short stories in a row.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Revision and submission

Just did a thorough revision/rewrite of an earlier story that didn't find a home. Hoping it will now. Also, submitted to another free-to-submit paying journal - the online extension of Tin House,  Friday Flash.

Monday, October 1, 2018

More submissions

I've discovered that several paying markets feature free submissions at the beginning of the month - likely because Submittable allows journals a certain number of free submissions through their system until a cap is reached. Given that the sweet spot for submissions is free submission and pay for work, I will make sure that I submit to those markets early in the month.
Today, October 1, I submitted two of my new works - the flash I'm calling HALLELUIAH and the more conventional short story I am calling Games of Chance. 

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Story Number Two

Finished the second weekly story of the new 51 bad short stories countdown. I'll begin submitting it during Week Number 3 along with submitting the first weekly story to additional markets.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

More submissions

Submitted Games of Chance to an additional two markets today - Gettysburg Review and Georgia Review. Since I did manage to have a previous story out of this experimental batch be nominated for a Pushcart and a Best of the Net prize, I see no reason not to reach high. And given how many now charge a submission fee to Submittable, I'm concentrating on paying markets while bearing in mind that the object of my project is to create a credible short story collection to interest an agent and a publisher.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Starting over again

It is time to get more stories written and circulated after a long and challenging hiatus - illness, death, birth, more death - in other words, life.  Let's call this new story Week One. It's a hybrid fiction/nonfiction piece that's long by my standards - clocking in at 2100 words - titled "Games of Chance." As before, the goal is to write one story per week, and keep each story moving on the literary magazine circuit until they find homes.