Quick Update

Not much to report. Had my story The Intersection rejected from Necrotic Tissue and, in retrospect, after receiving my first issue, it wasn't right for them. Both the length and the deliberate pace I'm sure went against it.

I was surprised at the matter-of-factness of the rejection, though. Well-known for their personalized rejections, this one had a real perfunctory, dare-I-say, form rejection feel to it.

And not that I'm anything special, but I have been published in their lone anthology and have a story in their current issue, so (silly me) I suppose I expected more.

The story and its rejection brings to mind something else I've been thinking about lately, and that is when you're not very well known, I suppose it's easy for an editor to reject a fair-to-middling story (though I think this story is good) for whatever reason.

But the dream is that one day, editors will be knocking on YOUR door to contribute a story, just so your name will be on the magazine or the anthology or whatever, to help sell a few copies. And I suspect in most instances, once you've got the name, that most readers will like and enjoy your story whatever the quality, if only because YOU wrote it.

I'm thinking of that Stephen King story where the writer was staying in a hotel and, shall we say, pleasured himself each evening, leaving his essence on the sheets. Now, the maid at that hotel knew all about the famous writer and his nighttime habits, and she decided that she wanted her child to have the genes to one day be a famous writer too.

Now, I won't give it away, but the story itself (though it stuck with me) is fairly pedestrian. I suspect King slapped it together and threw it on the bottom of his pile, and then, one day, someone said "Please, Mr. King! We need a story, ANY story!" and King said, sure, yeah, okay. And this was the story he gave them.

Well, I think, as time goes on, you wind up with more than a few stories like that in the bottom drawer, and someday, somebody may just want them.

Anyway, sent The Intersection off to that Blood Bound Books Night Terrors anthology. The pay is shit, but for the three best stories they pay more. And if the contract is too restrictive, I'll simply withdraw it (on the off-chance it gets selected, that is. Don't wanna count my chickens.)

Got some excellent feedback from beta readers on Wood Work and have modified it with their thoughts in mind. Between you and me, the more I read this story, the more I like it. Thinking of sending it off to Parsec's upcoming End of the Rainbow anthology. It has a sort of quest element to it, so it might be a fit. Hell, I'll even throw in a rainbow if I think it'll make a difference. Hope to get that out today or tomorrow.

Gonna finish urder next. For some reason, I've been trying to keep that to 500 words, when most flash limits are 1000 words. Need to flesh out the creature as well. Can't leave it ALL up to the reader's imagination now, can we.

Also working on a crime flash piece that I think has a nifty twist I may send off to Big Pulp or one of those crime sites just for the hell of it. After that, I reopen my pirate novel.

Happy writing!