So This Was October…

We’ve already reached the end of the tenth month of 2018.

So what’s happened so far?

SALES:- I’ve made 4 sales so far. To Third Flatiron; “The Doomsday Machine Retires” for their Monstrosities anthology, to WolfSinger Publications; “Muse” for their Cat Tails anthology, to Mythic Magazine; “Not According To Design” and most recently “The Girl On Platform Two” to Jouth Anthology.

ACCEPTANCES THAT AREN’T SALES:- I’ve also had an acceptance from Insignia for Volume7 of their up-coming flash anthology. This wasn’t a sale, there’s no money involved.

SUBMISSIONS:- I’ve already submitted 228 stories this year.

REJECTIONS:- I’ve had 208 rejections so far.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:- Insignia Volume 5 is now on sale. Mythic Magazine is also on sale. Jouth Anthology is also now on sale.

My latest credit is still to go up on ISFDB.

My total of new stories written this year so far is now 84.

I’ll apologise that this has appeared a little later than it normally would on account of how I decided to take part in NaNoWriMo in the last few weeks of October. I’m doing okay so far, I’m still a little ahead of schedule but struggling daily with motivation.

More on that in a proper post next month.

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So This Was September…

We’ve already reached the end of the ninth month of 2018.

So what’s happened so far?

SALES:- I’ve made 4 sales so far. To Third Flatiron; “The Doomsday Machine Retires” for their Monstrosities anthology, to WolfSinger Publications; “Muse” for their Cat Tails anthology, to Mythic Magazine; “Not According To Design” and most recently “The Girl On Platform Two” to Jouth Anthology.

SUBMISSIONS:- I’ve already submitted 198 stories this year.

REJECTIONS:- I’ve had 186 rejections so far.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:- Insignia Volume 5 is now on sale. Mythic Magazine is also on sale. Jouth Anthology is scheduled for release on 1st November 2018.

My latest credit is still to go up on ISFDB.

My total of new stories written this year so far is now 71.

What’s currently in submission in 2018 #8

As the last one was in August I thought I’d update you.

What’s currently out in submission?

Acceptances:- 1. Sold “The Girl On Platform Four” to Jouth Anthlogy.
Rejections:- Again, too many to count.
Publications:- Not According To Design is now out!
Withdrawals:- 1. From Kasma Magazine.

27 stories now out there.

So This Was August…

We’ve already reached the end of the eighth month of 2018.

I’ll start with an apology. There was no “So This Was July…” because I was taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo (and absolutely destroying it!) which was my only priority. I’m sorry. I was dedicating myself to hitting a new goal of 60,000 words or more which I managed. We now return you to your normally programming.

So what’s happened so far?

SALES:- I’ve made 4 sales so far, to Third Flatiron; “The Doomsday Machine Retires” for their Monstrosities anthology, to WolfSinger Publications; “Muse” for their Cat Tails anthology, to Mythic Magazine; “Not According To Design” and most recently “The Girl On Platform Two” to Jouth Anthology.

SUBMISSIONS:- I’ve already submitted 187 stories this year.

REJECTIONS:- I’ve had 169 rejections so far.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:- Insignia Volume 5 is now on sale. “Not According To Design” will appear in issue #7 of Mythic Magazine, there’s no official date on that yet. I’ll update you as soon as I hear anything.

My latest credit will go up onto ISFDB once it’s released.

My total of new stories written this year so far is now 70. (Thanks, Camp Nano!)

I’m really pleased to have made my most recent sale, I was literally on the verge of burning my entire writing career to the ground and walking away forever. I’ve been pulled back from the brink, but I got incredibly close to that abyss this time.

I Took My Drama Somewhere Else. You May Live To Regret It.

Oh my lovely followers.

Prepare for a story of rudeness. And rage.

To provide full context, I have to start at the beginning.

4 April 2011 –  I submit my 1st story to Kasma Magazine. They look good, they pay money. I’m a noob to getting paid at this point. I assume it was rejected, I’ve deleted emails from that time so I have no actual record but I know it was a no sale.

20 September 2015 –  I submit my 2nd story to Kasma Magazine.
16 December 2015 – I receive an email telling me my story arrived.
31 October 2016 – I shitlist Kasma Magazine for the first time. Over the last few months I had sent them my story a total of 5 times. Eventually I got an email telling me they’d never received it, despite telling me they had. THIS IS YOUR FIRST ALARM.
2 YEARS PASS.
15 February 2018 – I submit another story to Kasma Magazine.
6 July 2018 – I query the story via twitter. THIS IS YOUR SECOND ALARM.
2 August 2018 – I email a query to Kasma. At this point I have been nothing if patient & professional.
22 August 2018 – I tweet the following:-

2nd Sept 2018 – Kasma send me the following tweet:-

How rude, right? Not very professional at all. I decide to maintain the high ground, and send this tweet:-

I then think, this is the end of the matter. I’ve been professional, broken off contact. Later I get this back:-

That’s my response at the end.

So I was asked to take my drama elsewhere. Oh look, I did.

These are tweets from an SF site who’ve been operating for over 10 years. Over those ten years I assume they’ve had submissions from all kinds of idiots, dickheads, cunts, wankers, twats, tossers and shitheads.

And then I submitted to them. And this is how they treated me.

Now. I could have gotten angry. Could have sworn at them. I’ve checked the submission and query emails I sent them. All very professional too. I’ll happily upload those too, to demonstrate how I’ve been nothing but patient & professional with Kasma Magazine.

I am a veteran. I served through 2 wars. I wasn’t even treated this badly during hostilities! I mean, there was that time where I was made to do shredding for 14 hrs of a 15 hr shift without any breaks but that was nothing.

If you think I’ve been treated badly, I ask only this of you.

Boycott Kasma Magazine, advise everyone you know not to read it either. Don’t visit their site, don’t buy their books.

Please don’t send them hate mail, or hate tweets. I am NOT about hate. Hate is not my thing.
I do not hate Kasma Magazine. If anything, I’m disappointed at them.

If you wish to show your support, just don’t use the Kasma Magazine site.

I’ve been called a nuisance. Fine, I’ll to accept that role. This post is how much a nuisance I can be.
I’ll be honest. I haven’t even got out of first gear yet.

I was asked to take my drama elsewhere. I’ve done that.

What’s currently in submission in 2018 #7

As the last one was in early July I thought I’d update you.

What’s currently out in submission?

Acceptances: 0.
Rejections:- Again, too many to count.
Publications:- Nothing new this month.
Withdrawals:- None this month

28 stories now out there.

I’m currently waiting for Mythic Magazine to release the issue I am in. When that comes out, I’ll let you know. I’ve been chasing up another anthology I was already involved in that had fallen between the cracks. The news there is it’s still on-going, I wouldn’t expect it to come out this year.

I can announce that THIS happened though!

Mind Candy won a Silver medal in this years Florida Authors & Publishers Association awards! How cool is that?

Summing up Camp NaNo July 2018

This month I decided to set my official goal at 50,000 words, reaching it by writing various different short stories. Here’s how I got on!

Day 01 – Daily word count 4724, total word count 4724.
Day 02 – Daily word count 2120, total word count 6844.
Day 03 – Daily word count 2668, total word count 9512.
Day 04 – Daily word count 3850, total word count 13362.
Day 05 – Daily word count 5301, total word count 18663.
Day 06 – Daily word count 3253, total word count 21916.
Day 07 – Daily word count 4247, total word count 26163. Broke halfway point!
Day 08 – Daily word count 2020, total word count 28183.
Day 09 – Daily word count 1947, total word count 30130.
Day 10 – Daily word count 2670, total word count 32800.
Day 11 – Daily word count 4542, total word count 37342. Added 84 words to day 6 story.Total=37426 words.
Day 12 – Daily word count 2688, total word count 40114.
Day 13 – Daily word count 4468, total word count 44582. Added 79 words to yesterdays count.
Day 14 – Daily word count 1286, total word count 45868.
Day 15 – Daily word count 2058, total word count 47926.
Day 16 – Daily word count 3330, total word count 51256. Win on day 16!
Day 17 – Daily word count 1818, total word count 53074. Unofficial new target now 60,000 words.
Day 18 – Daily word count 1022, total word count 54096. 1 like from #Pit2Pub
Day 19 – Daily word count 1208, total word count 55384.
Day 20 – Daily word count 1600, total word count 56984. Win claimed!
Day 21 – Daily word count 1363, total word count 58347.
Day 22 – Daily word count 1498, total word count 59845.
Day 23 – Daily word count 712, total word count 60557. Unofficial goal reached!
Day 24 – Daily word count 1378, total word count 61935.

Claimed end of camp on day 25, no writing took place that day.

I wrote and completed 27 new stories. I’d stand by all bar 3 of them to be saleable.

I managed to write something every day, despite this being the hottest July on record. One of my novels is currently being read by a publisher.

I did okay this month.