Thursday, April 2, 2009

Various and Sundry

Mentioned recently I sent a story that had lain dormant a while to WellToldTales.Com, a market I'd never submitted to before. I logged onto Duotrope this morning and learned they have closed their doors forever.

I'm not saying my story had anything to do with it . . . but I am left to wonder.

(UPDATE: Hard to believe, but Duotrope now reports that the closing of WellToldTales was an April Fools joke. Must be an inside thing, cuz I don't get it.)

Note to self: Do not blog about markets you've submitted to before hearing anything. In addition to the above, the last two times I've mentioned not hearing anything from a submission, I received the rejection before Google even cached the post.

Most recently, it was a form rejection from the Return of the Raven Poe homage anthology. I'm surprised about this one, because I thought the story quite good. My trusted beta readers loved it. But the story itself involves some Poe ephemera (as opposed to simply being homage to his themes and style) so perhaps it was a little too "on the nose" for them. Still, I thought I hit a home run with it, or at least be credited with a triple.

'amember, how a few weeks ago, I made a holier-than-thou post about only submitting to markets that paid a decent minimum? That there was one market that was beneath me for "only paying" twelve bucks? Well, after seeing another budding writer accepted there, I did send along a submission and figured it was a slam dunk. I got this for my trouble:
While I appreciate the effort, the writing and the subject matter didn't excite me. [The subject matter did not] hold my interest, and your story lacked the high level of entertainment that I strive for.
So what, we're supposed to be entertaining now?

There's a lesson in hubris in there somewhere.

I probably won't learn it.

Things are moving quickly on the Dead Worlds: Undead Stories anthology from Living Dead Press. Happy to see at least one familiar name also included in the anthology (I'm looking at you, Aaron Polson.)

Considering the recent Permuted zombie anthology had more than 250 submissions, there's lots of good unpublished zombie tales out there, no doubt. Happy to see some of them (most especially my own) get into print. Got a sneak peek at the cover as well. Will post that here once it appears on the Living Dead website.

A review of the Malpractice anthology appeared on the Buried.Com website. Click here to read it. Have you bought your copy yet?

Rumor has it you're a moron if you haven't.

3 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Yeah, my piece was one of those 250+ submitted to The World is Dead. Glad to share a TOC!

Aaron Polson said...

Oh - Well Told Tales isn't dead, by the way. They are retooling the website and played an "April Fool's" joke. Nearly gave me a heart attack as well, 'cause I have a story due out soon.

Brendan P. Myers said...

Hey Aaron! Thanks for stopping by (and hope you don't mind the shout out.) I enjoy your blog very much and look forward to reading your story.

Yeah, I saw the Duotrope update on WTT. Not sure how I feel about the "joke." Maybe it's just me, but given that fiction outlets are closing left and right (see "From the Asylum") I don't really see the humor. Probly just me.