The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Sorry about cribbing Tom Petty; if it's any consolation, I'll have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

The good news is that my story "A Fairy for Bin Laden," is *still* under consideration at Apex. I have to take that as a good sign, and not imagine that the editor reading the story picked up before he left for vacation last Friday . . . not thinking about that, not thinking . . .

I have another story up for critique on Critters.org, but haven't received any useful feedback yet. Hopefully, I'll get some ideas on how to revamp what I've come to view as a story that needs a kick in the ass.

I'm still cranking on the novel. I read of a writing tool called Scrivener, and downloaded a demo; it's great for drafting and organization. A side benefit is that you can view stats and sections in parts or as a whole; what really floored me is that I'm at 52,000 words, and don't feel it's half done. I can't believe I've made it this far.

I can only echo the advice I've read many, many times at this point: keep putting black on white, every day. Cheers.

Dare I Hope?

I received notice yesterday that an editor at Apex had read my story "A Fairy for Bin Laden." I didn't immediately receive a rejection, like I had in the past with similar submissions, so I have cause for hope.

I checked the status this morning, and saw it was "under consideration." Dare I hope?

I've tried to put submissions out of my mind until they have been processed. Lately, I've been banging away on pieces of my fantasy novel; I can't say for sure how good the pieces are in first draft, but banging out a thousand words at at time of decent quality seems to be coming easier and easier, as I imagine it would.

Now if only that pesky first sale would come . . .

Persistence

"A Fairy for Bin Laden" was rejected by Clarkesworld magazine; I spent a few days editing and cut a few hundred words, and submitted to Apex.

Interestingly, I joined Critters.org, a SF & H critique group, (I sent in "O'Reilly's Sacrifice", since I seem to have a blind spot on that story's flaws), which somehow led to me dusting off that old fantasy novel I was writing last year. I banged out 2,000 words in two days, including nearly 600 just on the train ride home last night.

I keep coming across advice regarding persistence and "keep putting black on white."

Good advice.