Friday, January 16, 2009

Worth looking into

I sent off my story to Dead Bait and got a nice little acknowledgment letter back promptly. I thought about it a minute, checked my records and realized I didn't received any such thing for the 2012 AD story I had sent out last week. I wrote the editor and asked if he had received it. He had not. I was glad I asked. I promptly resent it and got a nice little acknowledgment letter. This is the second time this week where I have had to ask an editor the where abouts of a story and the second time I have gotten news that it was a) with an editor that was no longer with them or b) it hadn't made it there at all. What are the chances.

As I was saying. I did go over my Dead Bait piece yesterday. It read better than I thought it might. I changed a few lines, changed some words and some verb tense re-read it, changed some more things, re-read that and sent it off. I hope it doesn't suck. I really like the ending. I don't know what I will work on today. I think I have most of my short stories out of me for the moment but I am not 100 percent sure.

It made it down to -24 below last night (that is Fahrenheit) but by the time I had to take my daughter out to meet the bus it was 0. It almost felt warm. Almost. Speaking of my daughter, she lost her first tooth last night. The tooth fairy is much nicer than she was when I was a kid. I didn't realize inflation had gone up that much, either that or I got the cheap tooth fairy.

13 comments:

Rob Brooks said...

Good thing they sent out acknowledgements for Dead Bait, or you never would have known to check. I always appreciatae it when I get a notification of receipt from a market. Good luck with both anthos. I'm havne't thought of an idea for the 2012 AD antho yet.

Jamie Eyberg said...

I wouldn't have thought of it until I had received one. the 2012 was actually more fun for me to write.

Aaron Polson said...

Sending email into the ether is sort of scary. I waited 200 days on one market before querying, and they sent a response: never received.

I was the fool for wating 200 days.

K.C. Shaw said...

Good luck with the stories! I'm glad you noticed about not getting a confirmation note back. That seems to happen a lot--I'm sure a lot of markets have extremely rigid spam control settings and legit submissions don't always make it through.

It was 5 degrees here overnight. They closed the schools because it was too cold. We're such wimps here. :)

Cate Gardner said...

I didn't get a received receipt for my submissiont to Dead Bait so I've just sent a query email. Thanks, Jamie.

Anonymous said...

Best of luck on both stories. The 2012 AD one is still kicking my butt.

Jamie Eyberg said...

I think the problem is you have to physically type in anthologies@severedpress.com. If you just click on the link they give it sends it directly to the editor and gets spammed. It is a problem on their end but it is avoidable.

Jamie Eyberg said...

K.C.- five degrees? you really are wimps. My daughter came home yesterday and it was 15 below and she played in the snow for awhile before coming in.

Cate Gardner said...

Bum! I sent my query to the beelzethingy address, just resent my sub to anthologies@etc and expecting a stop harrassing us email any second.

Fox Lee said...

Mine used to leave a dollar. I remember getting so excited over paper money as a kid : )

K.C. Shaw said...

Well, people around here aren't really sure how to deal with the cold. I don't even own a real coat, just jackets of varying heavyness. Think of a bunch of little kids in thin coats waiting 20 minutes at the bus stop before it's even light out, and that's why they called off school. That and we're wimps. :)

Jeremy D Brooks said...

I almost got bit by that editor attrition thing...one editor told me he liked it and wanted to print it, but he left and his replacement put it back in slush (luckily, she liked it to, but asked for revisions that he hadn't).

I really like sites with online subs coupled with email confirmations; I was kind of miffed at Glimmer Train, because they will 're-status' your story and you never know where it's at unless you log in periodically and check--no email confirmations.

Bobbie Metevier said...

Good luck with your story! I'm considering sending somehing to Dead Bait. It's already written and needs a bit of a tweek.

Cheers!