The First Submission of the Year

 Yesterday I sent out my first submission of the year. It's the short story inspired by both powdered donuts and Dorothy Parker. It was a general submission and not a contest submission, so I haven't been able to check off any milestones on my professional goals so far. However, I did run into an interesting problem. 

I'm a sucker for the inside story, the path to that leads to final version. I love listening to The Beatles Anthology because I like knowing how it started. I devoured the restored edition of Sylvia Plath's Ariel because you can see the thought process that went into writing and ordering each piece for the collection. In my infinite wisdom, I wanted to someday belong to this type of story-behind-the-story. 

Ever since I first wrote the draft of this short story, I had problems with the ending. The last paragraph, sometimes just the last line, never really fit. Since that first draft, I have rewritten the ending four times. I never wrote it out by hand, so in order to preserve my process for future generations, I kept four different Word files, each with a different ending. As I was trying to submit the story yesterday, I couldn't figure out which ending I had finally settled on. I read and reread all of them, and it just didn't sound right. I knew I had one I finally liked, but I wasn't seeing it. So I tried to write a fifth version of the ending. Once I saved it on one of the files, I reopened it (because I wasn't sure which file I was working on--they all had similar file names), and like magic, appearing right under the ending I had just written, was the last one I had written just before its previous submission. I swear it was not there when I first opened it. 

Thankfully, a quick edit to get rid of the rushed new ending I wrote, I was able to submit it successfully. Does it have a shot? Maybe. I submitted it to a publication that's only on it's second issue, so we will see what happens. 

And now I have to go back and get some more work prepped to be sent out. Is 2021 my year? Probably. 

Summer and Such

We're deep into summer now. The Fourth has passed with the usual fanfare, and I got to have both a productive work day and some hot dogs. Although I didn't plan on going anywhere or doing anything typical of the holiday, I still dressed the part--I live in a small town. It's kind of a requirement. And I did end up at the store, so it wasn't a wasted fashion choice.

In terms of my work, I'm getting ready to send more out. I have a flash fiction and a regular short story that I keep peddling instead of writing more, which is really what I should be doing. I have to make a decision with the short story before I send it out again, because I think that the ending is what is killing its chances. I need to either change the last sentence because it's one of those "no duh, this is what the whole thing is about" sentences,  or I need to dump it altogether. I only have until the 12th to get it in, so I'm going to spend today looking at all different possibilities to give it a better chance at publication this time.

The flash fiction is very meta and is what it is. It's definitely not for everyone, so I just keep sending it out to see where it's going to stick.

I realized that I accidentally forgot about NaNoWriMo summer session, so I guess I won't be participating in that, but I will be over here just writing away.

The Story of a Writer

The online writing community is amazing. Lately there has been a whole new crop of writers that want to know the ins and the outs of the business, who want validation, and who want to know how to break through without letting a rejection or two (or ten) break their spirit. So here's my contribution to the conversation—rejections, acceptances, and everything in between. 

 

The first time a piece of mine was published, I was eight years old. I was published again in the same publication at ten. This set the bar high for me from the beginning.  It was a publication that didn't really exist outside of elementary school libraries, but it did have a wide distribution to proud parents (and a bad habit of publishing plagiarized poems that kids somehow were able to get past the editorial staff). 

My next acceptance didn't come until my senior year of college when two of my short scripts were accepted into a collaborative project. Unfortunately, less scripts were needed than originally thought, so one was dropped, but the second one was used for the project. This happened at the same time multiple poems and short stories of mine were being rejected by the school's undergraduate literary magazine. A short story was accepted into a senior-level literary class project with a small number of print copies distributed, but so was everyone else's work from that class. It was a requirement to pass the class. 

One of my first pieces to be accepted outside of a school setting was “Life Obscured” for the Poetry of Yoga collection. It was rejected twice before that. It was a great moment, but I needed more once I got a taste of the idea that others could find my work as interesting as I did.

As with any part of life, there are those moments that seem unreal. I submitted “Second Shadow” to only one literary journal, and it was accepted. I don't know if this will ever happen again, but it's always a shocker to get a hole in one. 

 

Time went by and the rejections kept rolling in. But I had a way to feed my need for publication without all the rejection. I started using some now-defunct websites to publish all of my lesser works, those ones I wrote in high school or the ones that simply weren't right for high-caliber literary snobbery you can run into in this business. This was easy, getting by without being rejected, but there are many pieces I've lost because I thought they would exist on the world wide web forever.

“Tuesday Morning Hangover” was rejected twice. “Our Conversation in the Garden” was rejected six times before it found a home. These may seem like small numbers, but I have a handful of works that have been submitted and rejected a dozen times each and still haven't found the right match for publication, but I love them, so I think the effort is still worth it. 

 

I admit that at the beginning, independent publishing was just another way of getting by that inevitable rejection. Haiku is not something people seek out at a bookstore often, so I could justify putting Unfolding Life out there on my own. So why did I continue on the independent route for Seeing What Develops? I don't know if it was ego or simply the fact that I couldn't wait the potential years it could have taken to query agents, find one that believed in my work, then wait to see if any publisher gave it a second glance. And if no agent was interested? I don't know if I would have been able to write anything else for a long while.

I thought I was getting back on track, finding a way in that wasn't purely independent with my Kindle Worlds novellas. After all, these works had to be accepted before being published, and they were being published by the all-mighty Amazon. Reality set in when the first novella was initially rejected—the only reason it didn't make the cut was because the specific word “Callaway” was not included in the book's description. After that, I could see through the program, knowing that acceptance really just meant meeting word counts and having required keywords for the synopsis. Acceptance didn't guarantee that a real person had read it or thought that it was of a specific caliber. It wasn't a deal breaker though, because I did write and publish two more after that.

The latest poetry collection probably could have been selected for publication by a small poetry press. Although I'm the completely biased writer of said collection, I think it was good enough. There's just something about having total control of your own work that appeals to me. I know there are areas of the publishing process that I could be doing much better or be handing off to experts. What I don't like doing the most is giving myself the time to really take a look at my options. Out of everything I could have done differently for this collection, the only regret was not giving myself enough time to submit individual pieces to literary journals before I put it out there.

That leaves me with the here and now. I'm writing more consistently, with new pieces at least on a weekly basis. I'm riding the waves of the submission cycles, hoping that some of my oldest pieces will eventually be published, maybe even alongside the newer ones. I'm finally happy with the way I react to rejections—at the beginning of all this a rejection took me out for a week. I wouldn't write, edit, or submit because I was too defeated by the whole process. Eventually the gap closed. Five years ago a rejection would ruin the day. After the writing nightmare that was 2017 where nothing seemed to go right, a rejection may get as far as ruining my morning coffee or my afternoon writing session, but it takes only a little time now to recover from what is just a part of the process. A stinging one, but only a part.

Writing, especially the vein of creative writing, is not a straight line. Nor should it be. It is every cliché you can think of: roller coasters, off those beaten paths, hills and valleys, ups and downs, vicissitudes —you get the point. It takes a suit of armor that in every other aspect of my life I simply do not have, but when it comes to pouring myself onto the paper, I can stand up to anyone who's bold enough to say it's not for them and take it elsewhere. This is what it is like to be a writer. No journey looks the same, but we all get there eventually, wherever our “there” happens to be.

Upcoming Contests and Submission Deadlines

As you know, I've been spending a lot of writing time this month submitting, rather than writing. That being said, there are plenty of publications and contests, but I just don't have the time, the right piece, or the desire to spend a lot on entry fees to submit to everything. That's why I'm giving you a heads up on some that I really want to submit to someday, but can't this time around (excluding the On Dogs and Poetry--I think I have a good piece or two for that one). Maybe another writer out there will have good luck.

North Street Book Prize - Great for self-published authors who want a chance to win $3000 and pro marketing services. Deadline: June 30th. Fee: $60 per book.

UK Kindle Storyteller Award - If you are already thinking about publishing your English-language book with KDP Select between May 1 - August 31, this is a great opportunity for exposure and a chance to win £20,000. Deadline: August 31. Fee: none.

NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge: A great way to get your writing juices flowing and win prizes for your flash fiction. 1-4 challenges throughout the latter half of 2019 (though writers may not be asked to participate in all four). Deadline: July 11. Fee: $48 (early registration)/$58 registration.

Sundress Publications: Lots of deadlines for this publication. Scroll down on the submit page to see guidelines for The Familiar Wild: On Dogs and Poetry (deadline: July 1st, no fee) and an open call for full-lenght poetry manuscripts (deadline: August 15, reading fee: $13 or qualifying purchase from their catalog). 

That's what I have for today. If you plan to enter any of these contests, let me know in the comments. 

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: May Edition

It's been a busy week on the submission front. This week brought a rejection, but it was more of a relief than a disappointment. It was one that had been held for months, so it frees up those pieces to go out again. Which is a good thing, because I don't do simultaneous subs, and I really wanted to send a specific piece out, and I forgot was still in the hands of this publication.

I would love to say that I have a new project for May like I was supposed to, but I focused on getting these subs out so I didn't start on one. I really wish I could choose a project and see it to the end, but this seems to be one of those months where I work on a different project each week. That's not a bad thing, it just means a slower rollout for any individual project. They will all get to the finish line, I promise.

So what's on the agenda for next week? Who knows! I'm trying to get myself to finish up my two public projects (Love Bites the Big Apple and Pieces), but that may take some more time because I seem to have hit a creative wall on those.

May is Here to Stay

It's May and the checkered flags are everywhere--no, seriously. It's Indiana. They are EVERYWHERE. So I guess that means I need to bring something to the finish line by the end of the month.

A new/old project is the perfect thing. I'm going to dig through the archives and find the most promising unfinished work and get it all polished up like a gleaming trophy. More about what I chose and just how far that finish line will be next week.

For me and quite a lot of others out there, I think that April was a huge success. Whether you were participating in National Poetry Month (my contribution can be found on my Patreon page) or whether you were successful in promotion with the Twitter Writing Community's newly minted #IndieApril campaign, I think we can agree we all did something to better a writer's life last month.

Speaking of the found poetry I posted last month, I have an idea to turn it into something more than just boring words on paper. I haven't worked it all out yet, but once I do, I'll let everyone know what it's going to morph into. 

In other writing news, I'm finding it harder to build a list of potential journals to submit to. It's not that there aren't plenty out there, it's just that they are all starting to charge reading fees, regardless of whether they are a paying publication. I always add to my list at the end of the month, and when I tackled this task last week, there was nothing to add. Zero. Everything had a $3 reading fee, which must be what it takes to cover the cost of Submittable on the publication end. I'm not worried--I have plenty still on my list, but if this is going to change, writers need to stop paying reading fees for exposure. Exposure doesn't pay the bills. If you pay in exposure, that's fine, but don't charge for it.

What are your writing goals for the month? What do you plan on reading?

So Close, Yet...

This has been one of those weeks where nothing seems to be getting done. The thing is, I also cannot pinpoint what is keeping me away from the things I thought I would have checked off my list. I haven't worked on my Camp NaNo project in a week. I'm not really feeling bad about that. I still won't be ready to buy my script coverage on May 1st, so I still have time to finish--though being three pages away from the end should bother me a bit more.

I don't like excuses, but I'll go ahead and blame it on the nice weather at the beginning of the week and that I may have reinstalled SimCity 3000 on my computer over the weekend. Oops.

My focus must be sharp from now on. Let's get Camp NaNo finished. Let's take a deep-dive into the stack of magazines for more found poetry. Let's get those submissions back out into circulation. And let's pick a new project for May. Maybe I'll actually get something new published. I still stand at 1/4 for the year, so I need to get on that. I guess I could find the key to the universe in an Easter egg this weekend, but it'll probably just be candy.

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: January Edition

It's been busy around here: fifteen pieces sent to five publications. One entry fee. This should help me beat the odds and continue my momentum of getting new pieces out there. If these things ever do get published, it also gives me a little more room to get them out of my mind and make way for new pieces to be created. I still have a long list of publications and an even longer list of unpublished works, so this is just a start.

Upcoming Projects

Along with submitting work, I'm still getting bigger projects ready to go. My entire focus this month is on the poetry collection If It Was New York, Summer 2009. I wanted to have all the writing done by the end of 2018, but there are still about ten poems yet to be written. I also have to really sit down and think of the book blurb/synopsis. Those are a lot easier to write for regular fiction. Poetry covers so much, even in a collection that has a major theme tying everything together.

Whenever I move onto the formatting/pre-ordering phase of my poetry collection, I will be getting back to my YA novel. It's been waiting patiently for me to return to it--at least I hope Lola hasn't stood up and walked out with her story. You never know with teens.

You're a Star, Aren't You?

According to my Patreon page, there aren't any 2019 all-stars. I know you want to be an all-star with all the perks that come with it. What are you waiting for? Sign up to be an all-star and get a crazy amount of perks and exclusives. There are only 10 spots available, so wouldn't hesitate, especially if you are interested in getting both my entire digital backlist and a digital ARC of If It Was New York, Summer 2009 two weeks before it is officially released.

The Good, The Bad and the Undetermined

After a lovely acceptance letter last week, I got another rejection. Not a big deal, but this is the one that I've been talking about because I really do think I can make it into this specific poetry publication, but the third time was certainly not a charm. I know I'm flipping the process upside down since normal writers write something, then look for a publication that fits the style of what they've already written. This is what I do with 99.9% of my work. It's just that this publication for some reason is very enticing, and I want to get in it. So I've been tailoring work towards the style of the publication. Both tactics have not worked. So, I'm giving that one a break and focusing on hundreds of other publications out there for a little while.

In freelancing news, I'm reluctantly back on Fiverr. The only gig I have available at the moment is the blog spotlight gig. The others are still in the process of being revamped so that I can ensure a higher percentage of clients who have a clear understanding of the parameters of the gig. I know I'm going to run into another jerk who doesn't read the description, but I'm not going to let issues arise due to something on my end. But the good news is that Fiverr sent out an email today saying that sellers no longer have to endure an additional Paypal fee on top of the company's 20% cut. That'll save me about $0.22 per gig, which does add up.


I'm also thinking ahead to January and what my major goals will be for the coming year. Mostly I would like to build my audience (who wouldn't?) and build it primarily on Patreon. I still haven't figured out the secret to that success, but that's not stopping me from trying. So I'm going to get back to that stack of poetry ready for revision which is the fun part of this whole wild ride.

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: December Edition

Now that it's December, it's back to work on the poetry project. There's just a few more first drafts I have to complete, but there are a lot of revisions I have to make. I want to get it right, so I'm paying extra attention to these revisions so that the collection feels cohesive. Once I get that done, it's just a matter of adding all the little details. The final cover reveal will be tomorrow on Patreon, so don't miss out!

There is also some good news from the submission trenches. I've had a poem accepted for Z Publishing's Emerging Poets series. There will be more details to come later, once the release date is announced. This means I've officially met my goal of publishing four projects this year. Yes, two of those projects are still ongoing and one is already out of print, but it still counts!

If you are interested in getting some more previews and exclusive excerpts of poems from my project, now is a great time to sign up for Patreon. Just $1 gets you in and gets you access to all all of my posts about this upcoming release, so what are you waiting for? I can't wait to see you there!

Sub Season

Most literary publications close for submissions sometime between the middle of September and the end of October for winter/spring issues. Since I'm in the thick of submission season right now, I'm trying to figure out how to package submissions so that they stand out. Because of guidelines provided by these publications, this mostly comes down to packaging the required number of poems and putting them in the right order.

Publications that are looking for poetry in particular usually have a 3-5 poem limit per submission. This gives you room to provide your different voices and techniques, but I'm beginning to think that it's also a place for a poet's potential downfall. My evidence for this is the last few rejections I've received. These were encouraging rejections, which meant there was something in there that they liked. Many of these submissions had at least one poem in common, so maybe that one is the one that impresses? This leads me to a question that probably only a poetry editor can really answer: if you like only one out of three (or five), do you still reject the submission, or do you offer to publish one and not the others?

The answer to this question could lead me to change my submission tactics. If my worst poem in the submission is keeping my best from getting published, I would definitely stop sending in the maximum amount according to guidelines. However, years ago I was reading something somewhere online (I know--totally trustworthy source, right?) where editors preferred more than one piece to really get the feel of the writer's ability. So, there's that.

This isn't the only area of a submission that could be the issue. It could be that my submissions doesn't have a cohesive theme, or that it does have a theme, and they aren't interested in that. It could be because of length--every type of writing can get canned based solely on length, so that doesn't bother me at all. Though if length is a specific issue, it should be placed in the guidelines not to send work over a certain number of lines.

I'm simply looking to find ways to make each submission count. Everything is on the table at this point as I assemble my next round of submissions. How do you approach your submissions to publications?

Good for One, Not So Much for Another

Getting outside of your head to make a decision is sometimes a difficult thing to do. In my case, I'm not sure what to think about a story I've written so that I can make a decision for what comes next.

I've talked about it before: it is the story that I sent off to The New Yorker earlier in the year. Although it got a rejection, I was happy to have tried. It's been sitting around doing nothing since April. I haven't been able to get motivated to send it someplace else, but my mind seems to be playing tricks on me. What I thought was a story that would be good for a prestigious publication now seems like it's not really good enough for any other publication. I'm not questioning whether it's the right fit for a particular publication--there are plenty of good ones out there that I think would at least consider it. It's just that I'm suddenly struck with questioning myself about the quality of it. Has this ever happened to you? If I thought it was good for one, why am I questioning the quality when it comes to another?

I know that I'm going to send it out again anyway. Today, and to a publication that does offer payment if accepted. I'm not sure why this submission feels different, but it does. I hate when people tell me this, but... I'll just have to get over it.

New Poetry Project

This is one of those weeks where I just can't sit still. I know that I have tons of half-completed projects, but a new one seems to have pushed its way to the front of the line. It's a poetry project that's contained under a very specific theme. I only have two pieces written, but it looks like its heading for something that is chapbook length. It may expand to a full manuscript, but for now, I'm only concentrating on what ideas I've already come up with.

I'm also getting back on the submission cycle. Although there is one publication that I've submitted to twice already (one regular submission, one contest), it is now the one thing I want to conquer. I know that sending in poetry to a single publication more than once is just asking for rejection, but I'm still convinced that I know what they like, and I have pieces that they'll eventually publish. The key is in finding the right combination of pieces for my next submission. One of the publication's upcoming themes is Persona, and I have a stack of poems that meet this theme (from an unpublished manuscript entitled Personas, if you can believe it), so I should have something good that they haven't seen--or they have, just as a single page in a chapbook entry.

There are also a few other places where I'm looking to submit, including places that produce broadsides, which I've always loved. 

Outside of the poetry world, I'm almost finished with chapter five of Love Bites the Big Apple, I've been working on getting the diamond thief novel to a place where I can start revising it, and I've been thinking about putting together an editorial calendar for myself, but that seems like an impossible task at the moment.

That's what's on my desk right now. What are you working on?

PS: My Melody of Love novella series won't be around much longer! Make sure to pick up your copies from Amazon before they disappear.

Taking Stock

It's wild to think about, but 2018 is nearing the halfway point. I had some writing goals to complete before the end of the year, so I'm spending a few moments to take stock to see where I am on that.

My main goal was to publish four works--it didn't matter what form it took, I just wanted to get four pieces out there. So far this year there has been a novella, a poetry collection, and a story on the Episode app. The first one is getting pulled soon, and those last two are not completed, but since the finished parts are live and available to the public, it still counts towards my goal. I just have to find one more piece to finish, submit, and find success with.

Speaking of submissions--all of those submissions I was waiting to hear back on in January all died in April. Every last one of them, including the rhyming poetry I submitted to a contest specifically for rhyming poetry in which all of the winners and finalists were not rhyming poems. That's what I get for not realizing they lumped rhyming in with "traditional" so top prizes went to those instead. My poor rhyming poem... it's been through it all, and still no one takes it seriously.

Anyway, the two submissions I was waiting to hear back from when I last wrote about it were also rejections, but specifically rejections because they had each received a record number of submissions for that submission period. Both publications pointed to being featured in Submittable's weekly emails--and of course that's where I was getting my submission leads, so apparently it's completely counterintuitive to use that weekly email. Who knew?

My next step will be getting back to finding a home for my poetry chapbook. I don't think I'll be aiming for contests anymore because they simply don't work out (and can get pricey with entry fees). I'll be targeting micro-presses instead, which may give me a better chance at getting that fourth publication before the end of the year.

March -- Yeah, It's Going to Happen.

I think this cartoon pretty much sums up what's going on in March. 

Every 1st of the

A post shared by Ruby (@rubyetc_) on Mar 1, 2018 at 3:42am PST

This month is all about writing and tons of reading, because as usual I can't say no to an ARC that sounds interesting. I won't hear back about anything I've submitted so far this year until April (which, if all goes wrong, will really be the cruelest month). April is always a huge month, with National Poetry Month celebrations and Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm spending my March writing time completing the first draft of a television script. I've got my sights on a screenwriting fellowship, and I think I have a story that will get their attention. It's for an existing show (as the application requires), so theoretically it should be a bit easier than coming up with a whole show of my own. Now I just have to figure out how to write it to mirror what it looks like in my head. Ahh, the life of a writer.

What are your writing plans for March?

What's on the Plate for February

It's February, which for writers with monthly goals means that you have to cram more words in a short amount of time. After the January I've had, I feel like it's totally doable.

The year 2018 will go down as the year I finally got back on track. I spent January releasing Melody's Valentine, finishing up the first draft of the diamond thief novel (title still TBD), launched Pieces on Wattpad, submitted a wide range of poetry and short stories to lit journals and magazines, and I even managed to finish up the first draft of a television pilot. The script is pretty terrible right now, but I'll fix that. All of this progress puts me halfway to my goal of having four works published in 2018. It's a pretty awesome place to be. 

This month I have planned to work on three separate projects. First, I'm going to finish the first draft of Avery Night, P.I. It's been a really fun story to write so far, and I already have the plot outlines for the next five books with these characters--I'm in a good place with this one.

For my revision project, 277 Miles is getting the full treatment (thanks to everyone who voted in my Patreon poll and chose this as my next revision project). Like almost every other first draft I've finished, it comes up short in the word count to be labeled a novel. The fix for that is to get into more of the character's heads and dig into their backgrounds. It'll still lead to the same conclusion, just with a wider understanding of where all the characters are coming from.

I will also be working on a brand new poetry project that I have a title for, but not much else. That's a strange place for me to be in because I almost never have titles first. I'm taking the plunge into the modern style with this collection--not what poetry professors label as modern, which is something like a century old by now, but what's going on in contemporary poetry right this minute. I know I've scoffed at it a little before, and it is taking a big hit by critics calling it consumer-driven and populist drivel. I clearly don't want to mimic a style, but instead take the same accessibility to readers that these poets have had and put my own twist on it. Simple, but deep. I guess that's what all poetry is supposed to be, but you know how taste can range.

I'm in the middle of reading some new releases of these poets, so I'll have to be careful that I'm not overly influenced by their style or subject matter. I have quite a few ideas. I'll just have to see where the pen and paper takes me.

What are you planning to work on February?

New Year, New Ideas

My writing life seems to have a predictable pattern. And I'm falling into the second half of that cycle this January. While I'm trying to focus most of my attention on finishing what I started for NaNoWriMo in November, I'm also plagued with a lot of new ideas.

I watch a lot of TV shows, but I don't make as much of a point to watch movies on a regular basis. I wanted to correct that, so I've been watching movies on Saturday nights (I know, I'm a wild child). And of course watching just one movie conjured up a big idea in my head for a movie script. I wrote out an outline and hope I don't lose steam on this one because I'm pretty intrigued to see where it goes.

An essay idea also crept up on me in the last couple of days. I think that came from reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem over the past couple of weeks. I'm also in the middle of Ariel, so who knows what kind of poetry is going to hit the paper over the course of the month. But it's all good--new ideas are always welcome. I know that with them I will never suffer writer's block.

When it comes to finished work, I'm trying to push more of those finished ideas out. That poetry chapbook is still sitting around, waiting to find a new home. I've looked at dozens of chapbook contests, and I think I've finally found one that will give me the best chance to get my work out there. The only problem? Entry fees. I have a hard time justifying spending the money just for a sliver of a chance. However, the particular contest that I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'm entering does provide a year's subscription to the journal for paying the entry fee, so I don't feel like I'm totally getting ripped off when I don't win--if I don't win. The real scary part about winning is that they provide five hundred copies of the chapbook to the author. Five hundred. That's a lot, knowing that most would sit around and collect dust.

In the midst of sorting out all of the new writing ideas and submissions, I've also added another reward tier to my Patreon page. At the $15 patron level you will get all of the great benefits that the other levels get (exclusive excerpts, digital ARCs, cover reveals, and more), plus now you can get digital copies of my entire backlist. Right now that includes one book of poetry, one novel, and three novellas--all for $15 a month. If you're interested, you can always sign up as a patron today.

That's what my January looks like. What are you working on this month? 

A Strange Dilemma

Last night I ran into quite an interesting circumstance. After my latest rejection, I was looking for another publication to send my poetry to because I think the handful of poems I picked for the last one is still a solid body of work for submissions. So, I dug into my research and found a publication where my work would be a good fit. And as usual, I did one more sweep of the publication's website for any other research information I had missed that would help me tailor the submission.

There it was, staring me down on the About the Editors page: one of the poetry editors at this newly chosen publication happens to have another job--as a poetry editor at the publication I just received the rejection from. What now? This little surprise changes my whole perception of the world of literary publications. Does this happen often? How many times have I unknowingly sent the same submission into the hands of the same editor without knowing it? And seriously, when it is a non-paying publication and these are most likely volunteer positions... how does this person have time to be an editor at two of them??

Now I'm left with a decision that I have to make quickly, if I want to meet the deadline of this new publication. I could go ahead and still submit to this publication, knowing that there's a good chance it will be rejected once again (though I wouldn't send the same poems, like I had originally intended). Both publications work on a blind submission basis, so unless I have a truly distinct literary voice, they wouldn't be able to tell it was me. Both publications also have multiple editors listed for poetry, so there's a small chance that it would never end up in the hands of the overlapping editor. Then again, I don't know if it's a collaborative decision or first come, first reject.

Or, I could just move on and find another publication. It would make it easier for me to think I had a better shot at getting accepted, but it would take more time to find the right one to submit to.

The life of a writer is certainly full of plot twists!

September Updates

I am working hard on a number of projects. I'm sure I need to be telling myself it's crunch time, but for what? Perks of being my own boss, I guess. I treat my employees like superstars. ;-)

Like any good writer, I'm also looking to diversify my business and take full advantage of my skills. Along with the current gig I have on Fiverr, I'll be adding another one soon to help with editing blog posts. That, and I'm looking to take the first step in making my presence uber-professional, so I need to complete enough gigs to pay for that logo I've been wanting. I'm also embarking on a way to focus more on my fiction work (hint: rhymes with Smatreon), but you'll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks.

I know you're wondering about the writing. It's going as well as it can be. I have poetry ready to go for submission on Friday, MoL #3 is still coming along, and I'm nearly finished with revisions on my latest short story, which I hope to be submitting somewhere by the end of the month. I've also been slowly finishing a first draft that's been taking forever, and since I've switched what project I want to try with Kindle Scout, there are more plans to be made and writing to be done.

What are you working on this week?

A Few Short Updates

I'm getting back into the swing of things, full force this time. And here's just a few updates about what I'm embarking on this summer.

Upgrading The Career

I've been freelancing for almost a decade, and for most of that time I've had a sense of pride for how little I have had to invest to live the dream (which is probably 60/40 dream/nightmare at any given time). But things are changing. I'm still committed to making money solely from writing/editing/being generally creative, which means I have to start upgrading the business. I've been making tons of lists on what I have to do to get all of this going, but really it starts with two simple things: a P.O. box and a website.

Without a business address, I've been stunted at what I can do. I can't have a mailing list through MailChimp or any other company without one, and I certainly don't want to put out email blasts with the home address. Without a website, I don't feel I can do all I need to do with communicating my writing services, my work, and everything else. That, and as good as Blogger has been to me, it just doesn't look professional to have a Blogger web address on a business card (which is another one of those pesky tasks on my list). I'm amazed I've been able to work this long without these two very important items, but that time is coming to an end.

Submissions Calling

When it comes to submissions, I'm getting back up on the proverbial (and temperamental) horse. Although I missed the deadline to send in my poetry chapbook to one particular press, the manuscript itself is not dead. I've been researching places that take chapbooks and have found quite a few that may be a good home for what I've created. I found this list of chapbook submissions particularly helpful, and maybe you will too if you have something to submit.

Unfolding Life on Playster

Draft2Digital just added a new distribution channel, Playster, and I've placed Unfolding Life on it. Honestly, I hadn't heard of it before this, but it seems similar to Kindle Unlimited where you buy a subscription rather than individual titles. So, if you're already a subscriber, please check it out. And by check it out, I mean read the whole thing, because with subscription services, I don't get paid unless the book gets read.

Those Lashes, Though

I've also been keeping up with my product testing and reviews over at Showered in Beauty. The latest review is for Revlon mega Multiplier Mascara.

That's it for my updates. What are you working on this week?