Stats

Everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn’t I? There are quite a few reasons. For one thing, I like to accentuate the positive, and counting rejection notices isn’t a whole lot of fun. But thankfully, I’ve got a nifty spreadsheet that organizes everything for me, so here’s my year of writing in review:

• Total number of short stories written this year: 14

• Total number of short stories submitted to paying markets this year: 27

• Total number of rejections for these 27 stories: 118 (38 "warm")

• Total number of acceptances from paying markets: 8 (short stories + flash fiction) and counting

• Total number of acceptances from nonpaying markets: 7 (microfiction)

• Fastest positive response: 1 hour acceptance for “Suburban Legend” from 10Flash Quarterly

• Fastest rejection: 2 days (Fantasy is usually good about not making me wait)

• Total queries sent to agents for my manuscript Waiting for You: 23 (with two requests for partials, but I haven’t heard from the agents since)

• Word count of current novel-in-progress Progeny: 82,000

Next year at this time, thanks to Write1Sub1, I plan to have 52 more short stories submitted for publication. If I get lazy, I might have to write and submit some microfiction, but my goal is a 1K or longer story every week.

This month has been the best as far as acceptances go. And yesterday may have taken the proverbial cake. As you probably already know, my story ”Soul Smuggler” will appear in the final issue of Flash Me Magazine, due to hit the web in PDF format on December 31st. Yesterday, editor Jennifer Dawson informed me that "Soul Smuggler" was selected to be their FEATURE STORY, and that the vote among the editors had been unanimous. I was floored.

Merry Christmas, everyone! 
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