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Rome wasn't built in a day. We all know that. I mean, it's kind of obvious, right?

I've been sharing my successes and frustrations with you enough by now for you to know that I don't give up easily. I don't expect my fiction to be accepted the same day I submit it (although that did happen once). By now, I've grown accustomed to the waiting: the submissions, the rejections, the revisions, the resubmissions. It's all part of the game.

But after two years of sending a story out into the world, and after fifteen rejections (four of them "warm"), my patience was starting to wear a little thin. "Attack of the Killer Online Social Network" eventually became "I Am FanFare" (its current title). Editors and beta readers offered suggestions, and I made changes here and there. But overall, I was determined to keep the story as it was. The tale it told was the one I wanted to tell.

In May, this story's sixteenth submission went to MindFlights, a zine whose slush readers hadn't really liked "Reverie", which I'd sent them back in January. (I'm pretty sure they hated it, judging from the disparaging comments. But The Gloaming Magazine liked it well enough to publish it in June.) The months passed, and there came no response. I considered querying, but the site's submissions page still said that "I Am FanFare" had been received; so I opted for another round of patience.

It paid off. Last week, MindFlights bought "I Am FanFare" and paid me for it the same day I signed the contract! The story will appear online next month, and I'll post a link as soon as it's available. Judging from the original title, you can probably figure out what it's about.

I guess it's kind of obvious.