Not one but TWO rejections today, one for the urban fantasy novel and one for a traditional fantasy short story. Sadly enough, it's the story I had accepted by a magazine that went under before publishing it, so it's the story I've always felt had the most hope.

*sigh* The novel "didn't resonate". Sometimes I wonder if anything I write really resonates. Or maybe I just need to learn to resonate when talking about what I write...

*sigh* Another rejection letter, this one for "Warleader". I'm getting discouraged. I know it will pass, but every time I get a rejection letter, I think, "Maybe the one acceptance I got was a fluke. Maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing at all."

It doesn't help that I haven't felt the mental energy to do much original writing lately. Most of my writing has been done via RPG.

*sigh* Another rejection letter, this one for "Warleader". I'm getting discouraged. I know it will pass, but every time I get a rejection letter, I think, "Maybe the one acceptance I got was a fluke. Maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing at all."

It doesn't help that I haven't felt the mental energy to do much original writing lately. Most of my writing has been done via RPG.

*sigh* Another rejection letter, this one for "Warleader". I'm getting discouraged. I know it will pass, but every time I get a rejection letter, I think, "Maybe the one acceptance I got was a fluke. Maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing at all."

It doesn't help that I haven't felt the mental energy to do much original writing lately. Most of my writing has been done via RPG.

Letter from F&SF in the mail today about "Trade All My Tomorrows". "I'm going to pass on it. This tale didn't grab my interest, I'm afraid." And that from the market I was feeling good about, considering the editorial essay about how fiction needed more gay characters who were gay without the story being about them being gay. Oh well, a 10-day response time is pretty good.

So what market next for TAMT?
It's just over the limit for Chiaroscuro, but it's possible I could edit it down a bit.
Maybe Strange Horizons, which wants stories "from diverse perspectives and backgrounds". Is it fair of me to consider it that when I'm a straight white woman, just because it's about two gay men?


In other news, I've got "A Delicate Balance" (the story that was once accepted for publication before the magazine went under) in with Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show as of today. I do like it when they have specific ways to submit to them online. Makes the process a whole lot easier (not to mention less expensive!).

Finally about twenty minutes ago got my "dear writer, we didn't pick you" letter from Amazon. The day after I was supposed to be notified, but whatever. Perhaps this is sour grapes speaking, but frankly, I think it's a crock they didn't pick 1000 semifinalists as they said they would, and I'm annoyed that they didn't email me yesterday--and that there were at least another 80 or so people in the same boat as me, last time I checked.

*shrug* Whatever. I always knew Penguin wasn't the best publishing house for a fantasy novel, anyway. Now I've got the freedom to really revise the novel the way I wanted to and market it somewhere better.

Got another rejection letter today, this one from Donald Maas Literary Agent.

Happy day before your birthday, Steph.


*bummed*

I forgot to post in this journal when TOR rejected my novel. That was about four weeks ago. I've been wavering back and forth on what to do, because looking over my list of prospective publishers and checking their submission guidelines, I have discovered that most of them don't accept unagented materials. So today I have decided to attempt to find an agent for the novel. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, NaNoWriMo is coming up at a breakneck pace. I've started thinking about the novel, but haven't gone beyond thinking to plotting yet.