Wednesday, June 6, 2018

IWSG - Spend a Little Time With Your Friends & Links

It's the first Wednesday of June, which means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, created by Alex J. Cavanaugh!


Before we hop into the IWSG, a quick notice that, due to the American holiday 4th of July, the next IWSG posting date will be TUESDAY, JULY 3 instead of Wednesday, July 4. We'll return to the first Wednesday of the month in August.



Announcing the genre for the next IWSG anthology! We'll be looking for stories under Young Adult Romance. The theme will be announced in September, with submissions open September 4 to November 4.




Onto the event itself! Our co-hosts this month are

The optional question of the month: What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?

I don't typically have an issue with character names, though I do have a tendency to give women "S" names and men "B" names for no good reason, and I try to monitor myself on that. Titles are a different beast. We're not friends. I think titles are a definite weakness for me.



For my insecurity this month, I want to address something I talked about on Facebook briefly. In the last few months I've been to memorials for two local writing friends. I regret not having had better conversations with them while they were alive, and the fact that I learned things at their memorials I feel like I should have learned while they were alive. So I'm going to quote myself here: 

"It's a reminder to slow down sometimes and meet for coffee/tea/wine and pick each other's brains. Or skip a session at a convention/conference to cob a squat in the lobby of the hotel or convention center and chat. Or go out for dinner with a small group of people where you can hear each other talking and have some great conversations. I'd rather learn neat things about my friends while they're here on Earth than learn them at their memorials. I want to laugh WITH them about their funny stories, not after the fact."

When you're at conferences and events, give yourself permission to slow down and sit down with a friend or acquaintance to talk. I know it's hard, especially when you're maybe also a speaker or event volunteer, but you're not going to regret taking that time. You may very well regret not doing so.



Before I post this month's submission stats, I was interviewed over at Horror Tree by Selene MacLeod. Horror Tree is a great resource for markets seeking horror submissions, too! Check out my interview to learn a bit more about my writing and my recent horror collection, Blue Sludge Blues. She asked some different questions than I'm used to, which was fun, as I'm often answering the same general questions.




Now for my May stats. I post the previous month's submission stats on IWSG to keep myself accountable and make sure I'm working the business.

Short Stories
6 submissions
1 shortlisting
4 rejections
11 currently on submission

Novels
5 queries sent
1 ask for first 50 pages
3 rejections



And, finally, time for some links! Bear in mind I'm not endorsing these, merely passing them along. Always do your own due diligence before submitting.

Accepting Submissions:

Electric Lit is seeking short stories for Recommended Reading. 2000 to 10,000 words. Pays $300. Submission window only open June 18-24. They are also seeking poetry and flash as of today. I didn't see an end date, but it looks like it will be a narrow window. For everything they're seeking, see their page.

Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores is seeking science fiction, fantasy, fairy tales, and related short stories. 1000+ words. Pays $.06/words. Deadline June 28.

Splickety Magazine is seeking pieces with the theme of Senioritis. 300 to 1000 words. Pays $.02/word. Deadline June 29.

Three Penny Review is seeking stories, articles, and poems. Word restrictions depend upon submission type. Pays $200 to $400. Deadline June 30.

Allegory is seeking speculative fiction short stories. Preference is given to stories between 1000 and 5000 words, but they'll consider shorter or longer works. Pays $15. Deadline June 30.

Less Than Three Press is seeking novelettes about the holidays (ALL the holidays) that are LGBTQIA+ focused. Any sub-genre. 15,000 to 40,000 words. Pays royalties. Deadline June 30.

Furplanet is seeking anthropomorphic short stories for The Rabbit Dies First. And, you guessed it, the rabbit must die first. All genres. 2000 to 12,000 words. Pays $.01/word. Deadline June 30.

Alban Lake Publishing is seeking stories about Antarctica and the things that hide there for City in the Ice. 3000 to 10,000 words. Pays $25. Deadline June 30.

**Flourish One, Horizontal Clip Art by OCAL, clker.com**

Do you intend to enter the IWSG contest? What are your insecurities? Do you take time at writing events to chat? Any of these links of interest? Are you submitting stories? What were your May stats? Anything to share?

May you find your Muse.

24 comments:

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

Great reminder, Shannon. Thank you.

Will have to check out the interview....

Good luck on all the subs - fingers crossed for you! :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That is a good reminder. We don't know how long we'll have with people.

Tamara Narayan said...

Great advise about spending time with people.

Chrys Fey said...

Thanks for the heads-up on the July 3rd posting! I didn't notice that announcement until your blog. :)

I just attended a book conference this past Friday and Saturday. M.J. Fifield went it, too. It was so crazy, but she found me a couple of times for a quick chat between events. Those chats really helped me.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

People are what truly matters in this life. At the Louisiana conference later this year, I have three people I plan to spend time with.

Julie Flanders said...

So sorry you've lost friends. Thanks for the reminder - I needed it!

Michelle Athy said...

What a wonderful reminder. Thanks, Shannon!

Mark said...

Lol, S & B names indeed. Hope that titles and you become friends eventually as well:)

Cherie Reich said...

I usually land on A names. It's probably because A is the first letter on baby names' sites. LOL!

Karen Baldwin said...

Great interview. It's always nice to get to know other authors better.
And I also suffer from not visiting some friends often. I fear that one day they'll be gone.

Crystal Collier said...

I tend to gravitate toward M names for men and K or C names for women. I wonder why... ;)

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Shannon - you're so right we all need to take that extra bit of time for people ... and I must get in touch with overseas friends ... which I've been failing to do ... cheers Hilary

Loni Townsend said...

Excellent reminder. I'm thankful for my critique group because we can share friendship and writing. Before them, I didn't know any other writers.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I did just that three weeks ago when I was at a conference. It was so fun and relaxing. I only see those friends in person once a year, but it is great.

Yvonne Ventresca said...

Great advice and thanks for sharing the submission info.

Gwen Gardner said...

A fitting reminder of the importance of the human connection. Thanks for that. Have a great week, Shannon!

Diane Burton said...

Great reminder, Shannon. This goes for the older members of our families, too. Old pictures need names, sometimes even relationships. Otherwise, they'll go in the trash. And that's sad. Good luck with your submissions!

Christine Rains said...

Wonderful advice and good stats for the month. I've been so busy, I've had only one submission and one rejection. I never thought about it, but I do tend to go with a lot of C and K names. Weird!

Juneta key said...

Thoughtful post. Enjoyed reading. Love the way you include accepting submissions on your blog. That is too cool. Good luck on the submissions.

Olga Godim said...

Well said, Shannon. As always, thanks for the links.

The Cynical Sailor said...

Thanks for sharing this, Shannon. It's such a good reminder about how fleeting life is.

J.H. Moncrieff said...

So true--life is definitely too short. Sorry for the loss of your friend. During conferences, my favorite part is spending time with my writing friends, and those are the moments I remember.

Michelle Wallace said...

Great reminder, Shannon. Thank you.

I read an interesting IWSG post where the author said she researches geography and culture before settling on a name. Another IWSG participant said that a name needs to also be decade-appropriate, which makes sense if one actually wants to find the best possible name for the character.
I also like the ‘sound’ of a name. But as wonderful as a name ‘sounds’, the aural appeal should ideally be secondary to the appropriateness of the name.
Lots to think about.

Cathrina Constantine said...

Shannon, Wonderful Advice!!!!!