So. I read.

So I lamented my lack of reading and concentration, and then we went on an overnight trip to see family.  I bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, put my feet up on the dashboard, and read that thing aloud as we traveled.  I just finished it about half an hour ago, and although I’ll never particularly enjoy Jane Austen, this made it more palatable.   I’m not wild about zombies, either, but the two ideas were bizarre enough to catch my interest.  I’m mailing it to my brother-in-law tomorrow.

Tonight Atlas Takes Aim is playing at The Hard Rock.  I’m so there!  Unfortunately my husband can’t come because, alas, finding at babysitting at 9:30 on a Monday night is impossible.  And then my friend H. was taken ill, so I’m going on my own.  I mentally flipped through my circle of Vegas friends and realized that I had very few who would 1) be interested 2) be available 3) be fun.  Bummer.

Also, I’m training for the Calico Racing “Running With The Devil” 5k.  It says, “Most race organizers go to great lengths to ensure their races are held in ideal running conditions; 40 degrees, light breeze, overcast. Many aim to make their courses flat and fast, or even downhill to facilitate runners to smash their PR. Not this one! Held in summer in the middle of the day thru the dry Mojave Desert, athletes will be challenged to contend with extreme heat and unrelenting rolling hills as they traverse this spectacularly scenic course.”

Am I stupid?  Mmm, maybe.  I did its sister race, “Running From an Angel” last fall, and loved it.  But my favorite race of all time is the E.T. Full Moon Midnight Marathon.  I’m doing a 10K in that, as well.  It’s utterly fantastic!  Something about glowing strangers bounding around Area 51 in the middle of the night…it’s breathtaking.  And weird.  Definitely weird.  Anyway, you guys should check out these races, because they’re really cool. http://calicoracing.squarespace.com 

A query rejection and a short story rejection.  And then two more short story submissions.  I am not to be dissuaded!  Well, maybe a little.  😉

 

Pieces out: 37

Goal: 40

0 Comments on “So. I read.”

  1. I get lots of rejections and I’m easily dissuaded. Every rejection is like a knife stab. I try not to get discouraged but it’s so dang hard, don’t you think?

    1. It kind of started off being that way. My first piece that I sent out was rejected immediately, and I didn’t send anything else for for years! They tell you that everything really is subjective in this business, and I’m finding out that it’s true. Maybe my story is too ethereal/clumsy/arch for one magazine, but is just right for another. And the more that I submit, the better I get at taking rejection. So let me pull up good ole Duotrope here: I’ve had 41 acceptances, but that’s out of 218 subs. So that’s a heck of a lot of rejection. TONS of rejection. Hmm, maybe I’d better ponder that rejection a while longer. 😉

      I guess it comes down to the fact that writing is what makes me whole. I just have to do it. Every time there’s an acceptance, it kind of wipes out the rejections for the most part. I mean, there are a few rejections that particularly stung because of one reason or another, but I whined to my awesome friends and then tried to get back up and carry on. I’m not going to get published if I give up. 🙂

      1. I didn’t bother much sending out short fiction back in the day. Query-wise, I ended up with close to 400 rejections over nine novels before I finally found the agent who said yes. So, to recap, for perspective, when compared to my 400 to 1 ratio, y’all are doing pretty good.

        (Incidentally, Ethan was the fifth agent I queried for my tenth book. So for me, I finally wrote something good, and it got snapped right up)

      2. Well, I appreciate that getting rejections is the nature of the “business”. As a fairly intelligent man I’d like to believe that I do understand and do accept this. I don’t have your stats. I’ve sent 151 queries for the novel I spent three years writing, 4 asked for a partial, 3 asked for the entire manuscript (including my all-time favorite dream agent), 1 publisher seemed interested (I thought at first) but ultimately none had accepted.

        But I think what makes it doubly hard for me to penetrate is the fact that I’m not a native English speaker, living in a third world country, trying to make it as a writer in another, in a medium that a hundred million others are better at than me. Sure, there are times when that challenge makes me want to work harder but most days I don’t even know why I’m trying. It’s like swimming against the current, pardon my cliche.

      3. Ah. The only things that I have ever sold are short stories, poetry and the like. My novel? Shot down, shot down, shot down! No request for partials, nothing. That’s part of the reason I do short stories, too, besides loving them. I think I’d get terribly depressed otherwise.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *