Thursday, May 22, 2008

5/22/2008

For those who have continued to read my blog, you have come to expect my personal insights to the writing craft, mostly things I learn from reading. Today’s posting is just some personal mumbo-jumbo.

Every couple of months, Writer’s Digest Magazine invites writers to submit stories based upon the same prompt. Upon receiving all the submissions, the WD Staff sifts through the pile, selects five and then asks its Forum Members to cast votes. It had been a while since I submitted a story, and this time I was hopefully optimistic. The results were released this morning and…

Five other writers made the cut.

Oh well, that’s the way it goes. When the WD Staff has to sort through at least five hundred submissions, I only had a one percent chance of success. It would have been nice, but now I have the opportunity to submit the story elsewhere. So, submit I did, first thing after finding my name wasn’t included as a finalist in the WD Your Story competition. My fingers are crossed, and I am once again hopefully optimistic.

In the meantime, I will continue to write more short fiction, edit the ones I already have, and slowly grind out my novel. Yes, Greta, you and I both know that the polar ice caps will probably melt, and the world will flood, before I finish that novel. I will also take this holiday weekend to enjoy camping with the family, maybe take in an hour or two to go fishing, and probably take some time to read my latest collection from Elmore Leonard (so far, La Brava has proven to be funny and entertaining). What more can a red-blooded American boy want?

For all of you out there, I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

2 comments:

  1. Stephen, you'll get that novel done. It just takes time.

    Glad to hear you're sending out your WD Your Story entry. I did the same thing with my reject yesterday. Take heart--my reject from last month was just published. Yours will find a home, too.

    Have a s'more for me, buddy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the encouraging words, Greta.

    On the short story, my fingers are crossed. We'll see.

    ReplyDelete