Acceptance 8: Every Day Fiction

14 May 2012 at 15:32 · Filed under Uncategorized

Dear L. Lambert Lawson,

Congratulations! We are happy to tell you that we have decided to publish your story “The Poinsettia” in Every Day Fiction.

Comments from our editorial team will follow shortly in another email. We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,
All of us at Every Day Fiction

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Rejection 68: The Future Fire/Outlaw Bodies

14 May 2012 at 15:29 · Filed under Uncategorized

Thanks again for submitting your short story, ‘Expecting Cinder’ for consideration in Outlaw Bodies. The editors have now read your story, and after some discussion we have decided it does not fit what we are looking for in this anthology, so we will not be taking it for publication.

We’d like to thank you for thinking of us with this work, and wish you the very best with your writing in the future.

Best regards,

The editors
Lori Selke and The Future Fire

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Rejection 67: Psuedopod

23 April 2012 at 08:35 · Filed under Uncategorized

Dear L. Lambert Lawson

Thank you for sending us “Maybe This Time”. I’ve reviewed the story
and decided not to purchase it. If it’s any consolation, it was a
very near miss. I went back and forth over it – on the one hand, I
like the terse style and the central concept – the “murdered returns
to haunt the murderer” is familiar but I liked the continued
recurrence here, as the husband is emotionally torn over what he did
and what he feels. On the other hand, I thought that that internal
conflict perhaps needed to be illustrated or explored a little more
(not too much more, because as I said, I think the short length works
for the piece) and, in truth, I found some of the more deliberately
obscene and profane sections to be too much, unbalancing the
narrative.

While this story wasn’t a fit for us, please consider us for future submissions.

Thanks for submitting, and I hope my comments have been at least a
tiny bit helpful.

Sincerely,

Shawn <submit@pseudopod.org>

As always, a wonderful rejection from Shawn at Psuedopod. Onward!

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77 challenge

12 April 2012 at 22:34 · Filed under Uncategorized

@rancedenton tagged me in a challenge. You can read it here at Rance Denton Awesome Writer (great link-building, eh?), and I quote the challenge, from him, here:

The way the Lucky 7 blogfest works is this: 1) If you’re tagged in a post by an author, you can choose to take part (which I hope you do!); 2)  Go to page 7 or 77 of your current work-in-progress, go down to the 7th line, and post on your blog the next (approximately) seven lines!  It’s as simple as that. 3) Remember not to cheat!  Don’t pick a part you think will be engaging; don’t edit; just post it, show the raw, unedited truth of a writer’s first draft; and 4) Tag some of those writers you know would be wiling to show a bit of their creativity.  So who am I tagging?  Friends, fellow writers, people who I hope will take up the challenge, whether they’re writing prose or poetry!

So, here are those seven lines from page 77 (of 500) of my WIP. Really…I didn’t cheat.

With his spy-glass gaze, he climbed the mast of the fore ship and came to rest on a guidon snapping smartly in the early morning breeze. He saw a yellow eel, pulled up on the tip of its tail, seated against a light blue field. It wasn’t a sigil he recognized.

Before the Captain could ponder the strange image further, a crack of thunder split the air, and a massive iron ball hurtled toward the Corderra’s bilge. The Captain watched the ball rip open the side of his ship, gazed helplessly as St. Luke and Bull fell lifeless into the sea, saw the Corderra start to take on water.

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Shock Totem Tweets and I Reply

7 April 2012 at 09:19 · Filed under Uncategorized

I recently received a rejection from Shock Totem. It was well-deserved, as readers of my blog no doubt can ascertain. I’ve received a slew of rejections. I’m clearly, clearly doing something wrong in my writing. I’m slowly righting those wrongs, and I’m confident that one day, I’ll be posting more acceptances than rejections. Until then, I’m happy to let y’all know how much my writing presently, erm, showcases teh suxor.

Any writer who sends out stories needs to know how to deal with rejections. As for me, they’re chinks in the armor; when I finally push through, I’ll look back and know that those dings and (sometimes) crushing blows were necessary parts of the process. Even welcome parts.

Part of my process is to publish my rejections and comment (sometimes) on them. I’m quite aware my blog is public, and I’m very aware that the editors who I submit to read my blog after I write a post with their name in the headline. (I’ve received numerous, mostly positive, private emails.) However, now I’ve received a public tweet calling me a name. What fun!

Backstory:

Recently, I wrote a post about the aforementioned well-deserved rejection I received from Shock Totem. My post read thusly:

Dear L. Lambert,

Thank you for submitting “XXX XXXXXX XXXX” to SHOCK TOTEM.

Sadly, we regret to inform you that we are declining acceptance at this time. Good luck in placing this submission elsewhere.

Sincerely,
The Shock Totem Team

I don’t think I’ve yet seen a form letter written partly in the present continuous/progressive. Also: ‘at this time’? Perhaps they’ll be accepting it at a different time? Waffles and cream, my friends. Waffles and waffles.

I should make a book of found poetry out of all the rejections I’m getting, something similar to what I did with the letters from my prison pen-pal.

Re: this rejection: oh well. Fuck it. I believe in this story….

Of the many rejections I’ve received lately (many, many), it struck me as a bit odd in terms of its arrangement (which most editors probably say about my own writing ). I commented on the tense/aspect of the main sentence and the ‘at this time’ piece. [To be honest, 'at this time' is quite common. We even use it at Kazka Press: Fantasy Flash Fiction. Some stuff's just not right for the magazine as it currently stands. Coupled with the present continuous/progressive tense aspect (and yes, I teach grammar for a living), the phrase seemed...odd--and I played with the message that was actually being conveyed by the grammar.]

Shock Totem, a magazine I love to read and I respect (even now), was unhappy. They tweeted:

Google Alerts, folks. If you go on your web site and make fun of us after we’ve rejected you, we see that. And you look like an ass. =)

For the record, and you can certainly judge for yourself, I was not intending to make fun of Shock Totem. As I stated: I respect their magazine and the writing I find therein. I apologize for my post if  that comes across as malicious fun-making. I’m a little guy, a nobody in this field, and pissing off respected ‘zines is not in my best interest. From my many posting of rejections, I think it’s clear that making fun is not my intention.

My intention is to expose the wounds that so many writers carry and (often, not always) hide. I don’t take these wounds personally; I hold nothing against the editors who reject my work. As I mentioned, I edit myself. It’s a tough job. You break writers’ hearts, and you’re sad to do it, but it’s part of the game.

However, if we, as editors, hope writers will have thick skins and take the wounds as admission to the funhouse they’ll eventually, with perseverance, get in, then I offer that we, as editors, should have thick skins as well.

Waffling, oddly-worded rejections will get a bemused (but never malicious) response–on this blog at least. So will rejections that, despite their sad news, inspire and amuse. I will always strive to do so with honesty and an (often failing) attempt at wit.

As a writer, a rejection I receive is not a condemnation of me as a person. It’s a critique, in some way–even in loathed but necessary (for large ‘zines) form rejections–of my writing. But it’s not a critique of me as a person. Such is the same with my responses to these rejections. I comment on the words–not those who wield them. I recognize that this practice will not be popular with everyone (especially editors with less-than-stellar rejection letters), and I recognize the possible ruin I bring upon my head in terms of being black-listed from one (or several) publications. That’s never my goal, clearly, but peoples’ reactions to my blog are outside of my control. Transparency sometimes makes people uncomfortable, and when people are uncomfortable, they can lash out in defense–even going so far as to call someone an ass.

Anyway….

Writers have all received less-than-stellar rejections. As I intoned, it’s part of the game. As far as I’m aware, I’m the only one who makes them public–though I can likely be proven wrong with a quick Google search. And I will continue to make them public. The feedback on this practice I have received has been largely positive–even from editors I name–and I think there’s something to baring the wounds, both as catharsis and as a vicarious event for other writers.

As long as I do so without being a sore loser, without venom, without malice, I think I succeed. That’s why I regret the editor of Shock Totem felt I was making fun of the ‘zine. I don’t want to stray into that territory.

Nor will I be dragged into it.

Which brings me to my final point, blasted out into the ether: reacting to criticism by calling names is unfortunate and disappointing. You won’t see that tactic here, and I would hope I won’t see it elsewhere.

The SFF community is a warm, welcoming community.

We’re better than name-calling.

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m an ass, too? (It’s okay if you do.) Let me know in the comments.

P.S. Hi Shock Totem. You’ve probably gotten here from a Google Alert. For the record: I love your ‘zine. I love the stories you publish. I love your design. There’s nothing I dislike about your publication. However, your form rejection could use some very minor work. Just swap out the present progressive tense/aspect for simple present. Only a suggestion. [Might as well use this space/dust-up to affect some change, no?]

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Rejection 65: Nightblade

29 March 2012 at 13:37 · Filed under Uncategorized

Dear L. Lambert Lawson,

Thank you for sending us “The Last Girl Alive”. We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us but we wish you the best of luck placing it with another market.

Thanks again. Best of luck with this.

Sincerely,
Niteblade

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