Wednesday, June 20, 2012


I think I may have picked up on a trend that more editors respond to submissions on Saturday or Sunday evenings than any other time.  After noticing this, an idea occurred to me.  Maybe most of the editors of small publishers have day jobs and do most of their publication related activities on weekends.  Does this, and as an aspiring writer I hate to say this, humanize them just a little bit?

Nothing personal against all the publishers on this site, but you are the bad guys to me.  I send you guys stories I have worked on for weeks and you won't even buy them for a stinking twenty dollars. You send out gobs of form rejections instead but I still have to kiss your butts because pleasing you is the only hope I have to ever fulfill my dream of becoming a full time writer.

But what if you guys are in a similar situation?  Maybe you are working forty hour jobs as technical writers, English teachers, and editors for other publications but dream of owning your own full time publication is really in your hearts.  Just like I'm working my forty hour week, trying to raise two teenagers, mow the lawn, keep the cars running and writing on the weekends because this is the only time I can find to chase my dream, you are spending your weekends sorting through sludge piles in hopes of finding those stories that will lift your token payment publication to the big time.  Then you, too, can quit your day jobs and do what you really want to do with your lives as well.

Somebody pinch me, because I can't believe I'm really saying this. Good luck with the pursuit of your dreams.

Monday, June 18, 2012

I've been told every writer needs a blog. Since I'm now fifty years old (okay, fifty-one) I figure it 's time to get started. Besides, writing is such an emitional experience for me it might be theraputic to express myself somewhere.

When I was in high school, one of my goals was to become the next Isaac Asimov. I figure I still have a chance to reach that goal if I live to be a hundred and twenty, get a Ph.D. in Biochemestry, write twenty hours a day and become a pompous arrogant ass. Failing that, the best writer I can become is myself.
This is my third attempt at keeping a blog going. I've tried twice before.  The first time I made a few posts and then dropped the idea.  I tried again a little more than a month ago but something happened and I couldn't sign in no matter how hard I tried. I think the host company changed something and I didn't catch it.  Anyway, here goes.