4 posts tagged “rejection”

There's a knitting magazine I like that has a blog (updated daily, usually with a pattern or tip). Last month they had a contest: use their magnetic poetry kit to create a poem. Second place was a subscription to the magazine, which I aimed for. I didn't take it seriously as a submission since, hey, it's magnetic poetry. But I did spend time on it.

They suggested taking a photo of your magnetic poem but since purchase of the kit wasn't required, it was necessary (and when I look at the rules now, it no longer says optional; when I submitted and triple-checked to make sure, it was). I submitted my "poem" and said that if an image was needed, I would create one but since it was optional and I don't own the kit, I only included text.

Yesterday they announced the winners. I am not among them. All three winners had an image. Hrm. And one of the prizes was for the "best presentation." That tells me where the focus of the contest was: visual. And doesn't that put the visually impaired at a disadvantage (not that I am but I think of these things)? So anyway, my heart was not broken but I can't help feeling a little gypped on the "image optional" part. I think it was actually "image not required but if you want to win, we want a pretty picture to post when announcing the winners."

This was my "poem:"

I want pleasure,
soft edges, color

He felt you must stitch, weave, hook, knit
count, swell, spin,

play the fringe friend for me.
Get rhythm.

Trying is easy;
to do, luscious

Theryn said it was probably too risque for the knitting magazine. Hey, it's their kit. I was just pleased to find a selection of verbs and to be able to create some semblance of structure. Silly me for concentrating on the poem instead of finding a way to take an attractive picture of it. That'll learn me to submit to non-writing writing contests.

I think I'll go write some calendar prompts. I thought May's were done and when I checked the calendar yesterday, they weren't. I already sent out a sub today and researched some markets. Mentally composing a 150 words story about sand dunes for a contest. I think my writing -centric quota for the day is finished.

I finished the first draft of a story for the Apex anthology Mari invited me to write for. I grabbed a copy of the latest Apex from my local B&N and haven't read it yet. I need to know if I'm going to have to shoehorn some SF into this story. I think that, up to a point, horror writing is fantasy writing. Sure not if the horror is something grounded and real but once you start throwing in supernatural creatures, otherwordly occurrences, etc. you have fantasy elements.

Now I don't know how you move from horror to SF, the marriage of which is the backbone of Apex. Thing is, the story has to be (1) set in rural Kentucky and (2) horror. That's great. I can handle that. But how do I get SF in there? I think what I have is going to have to be SF enough (which is zero).

I'm going to rearrange some things and I think I need to expand some of the end. Then I have to go back and cut it. First draft is pushing 8k and Mari said they want it around 5k. No worries. I cut "Jacqueleine" from 10k to 5k.

It was weird writing something that has such an unbelievable key element (the horor/supernatural part). I tried to base it in reality and I mixed it with a little mystery so I think that, with a built-in audience already suspending disbelief b/c of the nature of the stories, I won't need to explain or justify the unusual elements. I admit that horror is not my thing but I write a great deal about horribleness and the real-world horrible things that people do. Plus if you write well and tell a good story, your goal is met. I think once I get this cleaned up and polished, I'll have met that goal.

I also got a rejection on my Cole story but it was a "not this but send us more of your stuff" rejection, which is good. So I submitted the Cole story to a print journal. And my query for RFM is still out there (still never heard from Dude #1).

Next thing to do is to write the May AB article (it's about writing communities; I've been joining a bunch so I can spy). Then I might either do a quick run-through of RFM or start working on Nine again. The Apex-antho story isn't due until about next March. What can I say? I like to have a nice cushion before a deadline,

I currently only have one active query out there and it's in Dream Agent's hands (or more accurately, his inbox). As I said before, I don't query far & wide. I research carefully and look at who's a good fit for what I write.

The rejection on the partial includes this: "Though I found your material to be unique and intriguing, unfortunately I've decided this project is not right for me. As a reader, I did not connect to your narrative enough to take on the project." Then he said he was sorry it wasn't a good fit and it was signed.

So that's a pretty good rejection. I know the story isn't for everyone and it's going to take a certain agent with a certain level of chutzpah to say "Yeah, I'd like to shop this around to publishers." More than WS would take, I know.

What else I take from the letter (and maybe I'm reading into it) is that it's the story he didn't dig, not the writing. Thing is, as an editor you can help fix up bad writing. You can't really change the story and if you don't like it, there's not much that can be done to remedy that.

But I was waiting to hear from this guy b/c I sent out this ms (land mail) on the same day I got the "yeah send me a full via e-mail" from Dream Agent. So I'm hoping that's a sign that I'll hear from DA sooner rather than later. He never responded to my nudge but I'll give him until March before I nudge him again.