Acceptance: Neptune's Treasure

I know that I have been a little frustrated and down the last few times I blogged, but today I am extremely happy. My short story "Neptune's Treasure" was accepted by Wyvern Publications for their Mertales anthology. Mertales is a print anthology that should be out in Fall 2010. I will let you know more details as I know them.

I had submitted "Neptune's Treasure" yesterday, so the response time was phenomenal. I did have to do some rewrites before the story was accepted.

Yesterday, I also submitted "Soul Survivor" to Abandoned Towers. They are a print (paying) and online (exposure) magazine. I wish that the story could be accepted in print, but they are already filled up through summer of next year, so I said it was fine to consider my story for the online magazine. I believe that exposure for "Soul Survivor" might be the best I can hope for concerning that story.

On Sunday, I received a rejection letter for "Hounded" that I sent to The Beast Within 2: The Beast Unleashed. The rejection email was quite short and your typical form letter:

Hi Cherie, Just finished up with Hounded.  I am going to pass though.  Thanks for your interest. Regards, Scott

Another friend submitted to them as well, so we obviously have no clue what they are looking for. I think "Hounded" can find another home though, so I'll be looking.

I still haven't heard from Wolfsinger Publications about my story "Hell Has No Fury" for their All About Eve anthology. Their deadline was August 31, so it has been well over a month. I'm not alone in not hearing back from them, so I'm going to email the editor today and see if I can get a response that way.

I haven't heard back from the few other things out there either, including Dead Bells anthology.

I would like to write some more short stories this month, if I get a chance. I am considering doing NaNoWriMo next month, if I get a laptop by November 1. NaNoWriMo is where you write a novel (50,000 words) in one month. I believe I could do it as long as I have a good idea and a laptop. I have the idea, but we'll have to see about the laptop. If I do it, then I'll have to push working on The Phoenix Prophetess rewrites and writing Moonlight Murders back. We'll have to see.

The main thing is that I finally have another story accepted. YAY!

UPDATE: I heard back from Dead Bells today as well. "Wishes" was short listed. I will know if it makes the final cut after October 15. 

It feels like a break up.

I received another rejection email today. This time it was about "Soul Survivor." Here is what was said:

Thank you for your recent submission to Pill Hill Press' The Bitter End: Tales of Nautical Terror anthology. 

After careful consideration, I have decided to pass on your story.  This is not a reflection of the quality of your writing, I just didn't think the story was a good fit for The Bitter End.

I hope you continue to submit your work to Pill Hill Press in the future.

Best Wishes,
Jessy Roberts

Frankly, it felt like a glorified break up. "It's not you, it's me." *rolls eyes* It is nice that they think my writing is decent, but I'm getting to the point rather I would rather something be wrong with my writing and that I'm just not what they are looking for but nice story, by the way. *sighs* I suppose I am just getting tired of not getting a single story accepted. I just want one. Is that so much to ask for? I think if I could just get one story published that it would be the boost I need. Oh, I'm not giving up. No, I can't do that. I'm just frustrated and ranting a bit. That's all.

In other news, I finished writing "Neptune's Treasure" tonight. I hope to submit it to Mertales anthology that my friend Aubrie told me about. I sent it to my critique buddies, so I likely won't be able to send it out until Monday.

I also added up my work count for September. I wrote 18,563 words of original work. It is almost 3,000 more than last month. I hope to increase the number every month or at least match it.

I have some other works in progress. I am in the editing/rewriting stages for THE PHOENIX PROPHETESS. I'm going to work on MOONLIGHT MURDERS soon, and I have a lot of plans for it, including creating a new first chapter for it. I also have a few short stories that I wish to write for various anthologies.

I still haven't heard back from the All About Eve anthology, Dead Bells anthology, Sorcerous Signals, Wild Child Publishing, and The Beast Within 2 anthology.