Short Story Submissions

I've got a dozen new stories out making the rounds, and for the first time, Flash Fiction Online shortlisted my work — twice. In the past, they've always rejected my stories outright, but this fall, they actually held onto a couple. According to the editor, they made it all the way to the final round before being cut loose. So close, yet so far, but it's renewed my determination to break into FFO someday soon.

Oddly enough, over the past few months, the same two stories were also shortlisted by Daily Science Fiction only to be rejected in the end. I've been published by DSF before, and I really wouldn't mind repeating that experience. But again the same two stories, like Moses, glimpsed the promised land of publication without proceeding any further.

What do these two tales have in common? Usually, I shy away from writing "message fiction." I don't set out to grind axes, promote ideologies, or mire my fiction in temperamental politics. I want my stories to be timeless-ish, not anchored to the angst of any given day. Even so, these stories stray fairly close to "message" territory (the voting process in one, materialism in the other).

So until these stories find homes, I'll be pondering what I'm doing right/wrong. And I'll keep writing the stories I want to tell, regardless of the current zeitgeist in science fiction.