Sorry, I’m a bit late with the post this week. So, to get right to it: here’s a quick update on the stories I’m working on.
The Ghul of Yazd— Strangelet Journal’s first issue with my story, “The Ghul of Yazd,” and a host of stories from other new writers, is now available on Amazon Kindle.
Breakpoint—My science fiction short story, “Breakpoint” got its first rejection last week. So, what did I do? I turned it around and resubmitted it. I’m still submitting it to the pro magazines listed on Duotrope as having a less than .5% acceptance rate—that’s .5—as in less than 1% of stories sent in are accepted. 
To put that in perspective, Stanford University had an acceptance rate of 5.7% in fall 2013, making it the most selective university in the country—if not the planet. That means that top speculative fiction magazines are ten times more selective than Stanford. (Some are even 20x more selective!) I realize it’s a bit of a ham-fisted comparison—but still! Come on!
As a result, I imagine these magazines must be taking in a tsunami of stories that end up in the slush pile every day. Hats off to the slush readers and magazine editors who keep slogging through.
AFTA – Still waiting to hear back on this comedy-horror novella. It’s slowly ticking up the “days submitted” counter, recently passing 40 days with the publisher. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
X – As for my next piece, I’m not sure what I want to write next. I have a lot of great ideas, but limited time. It’s tough to decide which fruit to pluck from the tree. You look for the ripest and juiciest—but you can’t be sure until you have it in your hand.
I’ll be thinking about that in the next couple of days and then hitting it. I can’t wait to get back to writing first drafts. I’m done with this editing stuff already!
That’s all see for now. See you next week.
,Darius
Inside the Writer's Mind 