Patiently Waiting...or Not.

I like to think I'm fairly patient at waiting, but there are days when it is very difficult. Today is one of those days. I have four submissions out there in submission world. Yes, yes, I need to get back to some old stories and send them out, but I haven't gotten around to it lately. Maybe I will in July, if I can make all the changes I need to and become more motivated. Anyway, I have these four submissions out there.

I submitted "Soul Survivor" to Abandoned Towers on October 5, 2009. I've had two rewrite requests since then, and I should hear back by the end of August about the story. Yes, I'll hear about the story almost a year from submission.

Then, there is "Defying Gravity" which I submitted to Pill Hill Press's Fire & Ice anthology. I submitted the story on January 4, 2010. It's been short listed, and I could find out any time if it is rejected, but I won't find out if it is accepted until after the deadline of December 31, 2010. Again, almost a year after I submitted the story.

The next story submitted is "Eat Your Heart Out". I submitted it to Dark Discoveries on January 15, 2010 and resubmitted it on May 17, 2010 after I didn't hear back from them for four months. I did hear back after I submitted in May, and they told me they were backlogged and would soon be getting to my story. Hopefully.
Last but not least, I submitted "The Golden Staff" to Aoife's Kiss on March 3, 2010. I resubmitted it in June to query its status, since it had been over three months from submission. I still haven't heard anything back from them from the first submission or my query of my submission.

So, you might be able to see why it's driving me crazy on waiting. I just want to know...one way or the other, so I can determine what to do next with the stories. If "Defying Gravity" and "The Golden Staff" are rejected, I plan to lengthen them  a bit and submit them to someplace as possible ebooks. As for the short stories, I have a place in mind for "Eat Your Heart Out," but I think I'm going to 'retire' "Soul Survivor" if Abandoned Towers doesn't accept it. I'll likely just use it as a story for Raven and the Writing Desk eventually, if that is the case.

In other news, I edited "Soul Drinker" again, improving the flow of the story, I hope. It sounded a bit choppy when I read back through it, so it's better. I plan to submit it to the Golden Nib contest (just for members of the Virginia Writers Club) tomorrow at my Valley Writers' meeting. I don't expect much from my first entry there, but I thought I would try.

I also finished my first flash piece for "Flash Fiction Fridays." Be on the look out for it this Friday on the blog. I have an idea for the next one too.

Now, I'm off to think up my part three of "Griffon Wing" for the three-part story on Raven and the Writing Desk this week. Check out parts one and two there.