Well, another bump in the road

I got a form rejection in the mail from FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION magazine today. I'm slightly bummed, given that this one had stayed out for a little while. I thought they may have been giving it some serious consideration.

No Worries. Time to print out another copy and move on to the next market on the list.

For most new, unpublished, writers this submission process into the short story markets can be almost painful. You drop your 4000, 5000, or even 10000 word labor of love into the mail with hopeful granduer. That question popping up whenever your thoughts turn to your wayward manuscript; Is this the one? You check the mailbox with the same wide-eyed anticipation of a 5 year old on Christmas morning back when the toys took the kids outside to play and show off to the other kids in the neighborhood. (I never did get that Knight Rider big wheel, dammit)

The lesson we all have to learn at this stage in the game is the same that has been applied to so much modern military missle technology. FIRE AND FORGET. Write your story. FIRE it off into the mail and FORGET about it. Write the next story, rinse and repeat. I'm still learning this. Its not second nature yet. Each rejection that comes back is still a bit of a downer, but if there's still a market available, I'm sending the story back out. I may give it the once over checking for mispellings and things like that, just in case. But sure as shit, its going back out.

So I push ahead with the novel, still in the developmental stage. The production goal is set at 1000 words a day, projecting 80,000 words. When it's finished, I move on to that next stage in a writer's development; the query.

^JR^