I was excited by my first rejection but must admit that my first acceptance was a lot sweeter. It came yesterday. I’m pleased as punch but will keep the details under wraps until all the paperwork’s done. Just in case, you know?
But I wanted to say YAY!
I’m still waiting to hear whether some of my stories have made it or not. I know that it can take a very long time before you find out. Duotrope has lists of markets that are slow and swift. Response times range from a from a super-swift average of 0.4 days for a response, to a deathly slow 392.2 days.
392.2 days. That’s a year and a month.
The places I’ve submitted to won’t make me wait that long, I know it. Still, I look for a response every day. Even for the one that has over a month before the deadline ends.
I think it might take a while before I get used to waiting to hear.
A second of my stories are walking the world, waiting to be liked or discarded. This one wasn’t sent by email but by regular mail. It was strangely disconcerting. This particular paper submission needed to be printed single-sided, stapeled in the top left-hand corner and accompanied with three important items:
The last one almost had me stumped. You can’t buy postcards in Gorgie, it turns out. I was running around, dressed for winter on a day of sweltering and unexpected September heat, looking for a postcard. You know the kind of thing: it has a picture on one side and space for your own message and an address on the other. I could find all kinds of gift and event cards, but that wasn’t what I needed.
In the end, I found one at home. It was black and white and featured at cat in sunglasses. Not quite the image I wanted but it had to do. I’m now waiting eagerly for it to come back to me.
Here, puss, puss, puss, come here.