Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It is turning green around here

It was nasty just to the south and west of my location last night but here it was sort of calm. Just a lot of wind and a little rain. No tornadoes in the immediate area. I love to go out storm chasing but I don't get to do it very often.

I have managed very little writing in the last two days. I got a little done on Sunday and a little less yesterday. I blame the vacuum. Mostly because the one we had been using for the last 10 years died while I was running it on Sunday. Completely dead. My wife went out on Sunday to look for a new one but came up empty handed. Her absence and my boy's short nap did allow me to get about 500 words onto paper that day. Yesterday was a bust, except for the page I wrote while he was still sleeping in the morning. In the afternoon we had to go get a new vacuum, which we did and it works great. The carpet in the bedroom hasn't looked that good in quite a while.

Yesterday, I mentioned this on a twitter feed, that I found out that Tin House had rejected a story of mine. I didn't get an e-mail about it, but instead had to look a the submission manager. I am assuming that the rejection was lost in cyberspace. If it wasn't, that was a really crappy way of finding out they didn't want a story.

I am hoping to get more done today. Lots to do and only 24 hours in a day. I have to start crawling out of bed at 1 in the morning. Think of the things I could get done in a sleep deprived stupor.

15 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

I'm afraid more and more publications will be cease sending rejections, expecting writers to "find out for themselves". How hard is it to send an email, really?

Jamie Eyberg said...

I think that was the last of the literary markets I had stories out to right now so I don't have to worry about looking it up, at least for awhile. I find genre markets to be much friendlier than their literary counterparts.

K.C. Shaw said...

I second what Jamie said, genre markets seem to be a lot more friendly to authors than "literary" markets, maybe because genre writers are a big chunk of the readers too. Too bad about the rejection, but at least now you can send the story out to someplace that will appreciate it!

K.C. Shaw said...

Um, I am an idiot and forgot whose blog I was reading. So I was actually agreeing with your comment and didn't mean to address you as if you were two people. :p

Jamie Eyberg said...

I understand completely. :)

Fox Lee said...

I hate when that happens : (
The last time, the story I sent had been rejected for MONTHS.

Jamie Eyberg said...

That really sucks.

BT said...

Lots of these 'literary' type places are going that way, but a few genre markets are looking into it as well. I hope it doesn't take hold.

Sorry to hear about the rejection but KC's right, now you can send it to more appreciative markets.

Send it this way if you want someone to give it a once over at any time.

Jamie Eyberg said...

Thanks BT. I shipped it off to Crimespree last night. We'll see what they do with it first. (I have seen there response times and it could be months and months before I hear back from them.)

Jameson T. Caine said...

I'm with Aaron. How hard can it be to send a quick, to the point email? Sheesh. There's some place I found through Ralan's (I think it was Horror Garage or something like that) that stated in their GL's that they don't even send out rejections. You'll only hear from them if they accept you. So how the hell do you know when to sub the piece to another market?

BT said...

You're right JT. One of the reason's I don't sub to Horror Garage.

Jamie Eyberg said...

I won't sub to them either. I did sub to an anthology that said they were only going to send out responses in case of acceptance, but then I received a nice form letter saying they were all filled up and had contacted those involved. I thought that was nice of them. At least with the antho they will have a ToC eventually you can go by.

Danielle Birch said...

I found out about rejection the same way late last year. I know they probably get a billion submissions but I agree with Aaron - how hard is it to send an email? They're usually formulated anyway.

Carrie Harris said...

That rejection thing is so bleeping annoying.

Oh, and if you like storm chasing, just hang around with me. I've been through three tornadoes. It's like I'm the incarnation of Dorothy or something.

Jamie Eyberg said...

Carrie- I was running out of Randolph, IA (you might have heard of their cat problem) on a motorcycle when tornado ripped the place apart in '91.