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Category: Thoughts and Muses

Thoughts and muses on movies, music, books, TV, and any other form of entertainment that enters our minds.

Another Submission (And Rejection)

Rejection in writing is a fact of life. I have a short story that I worked on for the first few months of the year. It was originally written for a Writer’s Digest short story competition, but unfortunately, it didn’t win anything. Oh well, it was worth a shot. I revised (and expanded) the story, with a lot of feedback from Jim Bird, a friend who is also doesn’t pull punches when it comes to reviews. I submitted the story to Clarkesworld, but they didn’t accept it for publication. My latest submission was with Asimov, but unfortunately, they also said ‘no’. The next step is to submit it to another Writer’s Digest competition, and we’ll see how that goes.

Not Among The Finalists

I got my email today from Writer’s Digest, informing me that I was not among the finalists for the short story competition. I would have been pleasantly surprised if I had been. The story I wrote was put together pretty quickly, and I didn’t have time for an outside editor to look at it. There are changes I’m going to make to the story, and I will get someone else to look it over. I’m considering trying to submit it to Clarkesworld, but they’ve closed submissions for now. They were flooded with “stories” cranked out using things like ChatGPT. If nothing else, I’ll post the story here.

Submitted My First Story

I’ve submitted a short story to the Writer’s Digest Annual Short Story Competition. It was something I wrote over the past week, and I probably rushed it. But all I have to lose is the entry fee, and it’s a start. The top 10 stories get published in Writer’s Digest, and that’s the main draw for me. Several of the top positions get prize money, and first overall gets a trip to their annual writer’s conference in New York and an opportunity to pitch work to editors and publishers.

Once I know the outcome, and if I’m not among those selected to be published, then I’ll post a copy of the story here. It’s a science fiction story, and set nominally in my Unimanse fictional universe. It was also an experiment: I chained together a series of drabbles (100-word microfiction stories) to form a larger story. It was fun trying to make it work, keep the plot focused, and make each 100-word section a story of its own.

Yup, I Have Been Quiet

I haven’t posted much because I haven’t been doing much. We had a death in the family (my father, after a long illness), so that and the holidays aren’t doing much to inspire creativity right now. However, I’m not worried. This too shall pass, and I know I will be back at it.

Writing Has Slowed

My “output” or writing production has slowed. Unfortunately, it’s not because I’ve hit some kind of roadblock in the story. It’s because of some personal things, specifically with my Dad, who is in hospital, and won’t be coming home. Needless to say, the focus is on family at the moment. The story, though, is getting into a more exciting part as we approach the final conflict and the resolution. I’m pretty sure I know how it’s going to turn out, but I can surprise even myself at times.