13 posts tagged “escape pod”

Sent it off to Podcastle. I received a comment from Rachel, the editor of Podcasle that it's okay to send it straight on to Podcastle. Just did that, am about to send Escape Pod an email to let them know, just in case.

Editors keep coming to my Vox. That's pretty awesome.

Still no word from Escape Pod, which I find a little odd, really. It's been well over two months now. Does anyone have any idea how long it takes them to answer a query? Hopefully not another 6+ weeks. I'm starting to think that I messed up the format and that they just deleted it straight away. That'd suck, but hey.

And yet I managed to send out a semi-coherent query to Escape Pod. It's been nine weeks since I submitted The Cape, and you're supposed to query after two months.

I suppose the fact that it's a fantasy story and the whole transition thing they have going on is responsible, but I'd still like to know where I stand and what exactly is going on there.

Oh my head. I hate this bloody 'flu.  

So, today I received a comment from Permuted Press' Vox (I mailed Permuted Press to make sure that it was indeed them, because I am suspicious and thourough) that the Cross-Genre Cthulhu editor is holding all stories he likes for consideration until the August deadline.

So, this is good! It means that it is indeed being held for consideration, and I won't hear anything till some time in August, probably some time round the 15th. Which is a (vaguely) set date. Which is good!

Now I just have to wait and see what EP will do. But yeah, if they haven't gotten back to me in a week today, I'll query them.

I've decided that I think that not hearing anything back on either story is most likely due to administrative things - EP is busy with that fantasy podcast spin-off, and I have no idea what's going on at PP. When I'm back in Leiden next week, I'll send out queries just to make sure.

If only I were Eugie Foster. Not only is she an amazingly good writer, she also gets her work accepted on a highly frequent basis. No worrying or being antsy for her.

I still want the certainty that only a rejection letter can give me. If I find out today that I got rejecteda month ago but they just haven't gotten round to contacting me yet, it is going to be such a relief. Right now, these things are hanging over my head and they're deceptively hard to ignore.

And no, still no word from either thingie. I had no idea how much energy is drained from you when you're nervous for more than a day at a time. Silly, really, seeing as it's just over a year ago that I had my final exams at the Norbertuscollege, and just six months from my first round of Uni exams (which were a bit of a disaster due to personal stuff).

The writer's block won't go away. I'm in the state of mind where I usually do rewrites, and I really want to get on to the rewrite of the short piece I did a few weeks ago, but of course I didn't bother to send a copy to my own email, so now I don't have access to it. I'll have to bear that in mind next time I finish something.

I'll probably have more ideas and motivation once I'm back to my usual writing surroundings. I feel weird writing here at my parent's place. When I started jotting down some snippets of a story two days ago, my parents were all curious as to what I was doing.

I had to explain to them that I'm having a go at getting published - I'd completely forgotten that the only person who actually knows me IRL and knows the full extent of my ambitions is Marijnski. I suppose Gerben knows, to some extent, but I think Marijn would be the only one who would spaz out as much as me if I were to tell him that a story of mine got accepted somewhere. Other people would just go "That's nice, dear." They would probably also look at me weird.

I doubt I'd be able to accomplish much in my current state - my 'flu is getting quite bad (a leftover from Werchter last week) so my head is stuffy and I'm constantly tired because my sleep is simply awful, plus I'm just completely drained from thinking about the EP and PP stuff. Still, taking a break doesn't seem like that bad an idea right now - I've still had no word from the job agency (ha ha) so I still have quite a lot of free time spread out in front of me. I've also got to go back to Leiden before the 16th of this month, because that's when my train pass becomes invalid for summer.

So, I'll have a few weeks of reinforced writing time, just about. So long as my shiny new DS doesn't distract me too much.

And I am going to sleep SO well tonight.

So, I had just checked my email (still no word from either EP or Permuted Press) and I was checking my flist on LJ, when it hit me.

I freaked out bigtime. I honestly wouldn't be too bothered about getting rejected now, but the idea that I could have had two rejections sitting in a small corner of my inbox while my hopes were gradually building themselves up... I don't know, but that thought made me sick to my stomach. I'm not expecting to have either story accepted, my cautious optimism is me hoping against hope while knowing that it's just me being daft.

I immediately thought that that was silly - I've received mail from Permuted Press and Escape Pod before without any problems, but I checked anyway.

My spam folder was empty, and I breathed a great sigh of relief. Then I checked my inbox again, because I'm compulsive like that.

Besides, I know that nothing is certain until I get the rejection emails in my inbox - I've received mail from both PP and EP before without a problem, so there's no reason for me not to receive the rejection letters. If there is, I'll find out when I query in a week or two.

Secretly (up until now, that is) I was hoping to get two acception letters today. Imagine that, my first two acception letters on my 20th birthday, how kickass would that be.

Alas, it was not meant to be. I'll check my mail later on tonight - compulsive etc. - so I've still got a chance... But I'm not holding my breath at all. I just don't want one of those rejections today. I've always been weird about birthdays. I think they should be special, and seeing as most people don't remember mine, I'm usually disappointed. This year I've thought, screw that! As a result, I've spent the day playing Mario Kart, talking to my Nan on the phone and watching the men's singles final of Wimbledon.

I'm sure most people would think that that is a boring way to spend your birthday, and maybe they're right, but it isn't in any way disappointing. I'd rather be bored than find out that more than half the people I invited over didn't bother to turn up, or have some kind of drama going on. It also beats paying for other people's food and drink, especially seeing as I paid for half of my DS/game/wificonnector thing, which is quite a lot for a student.

I'm going to give EP another week or two, then I'm going to query them, as their site instructs me to do. Permuted Press... well they reserved the right to hold the story as long as they want to, if they're considering, so I'm taking this as a compliment. I just wish they'd put me out of my misery already.

Still nothing back from Escape Pod or Cross-genre Cthulhu! This isn't that strange, though, given the time that has passed since I last noted this here.

Anyway, I was thinking about staying at my parents' place this weekend, and then I was reminded of the start of the children's story I'd found last time I stayed there. I don't remembe writing it, which only made reading it more enjoyable for me. I reckon I'm going to have a go at finishing it - I have no idea where I want to go with it, but the world and the premise really appeal to me.

So, I'll actually be productive again! Go Leah.

This entry will be much more structured and succinct!

I've just noticed that I sent off Subscription to Cross-genre Cthulhu merely 3 days after The Cape! And that particular anthology is supposed to have a similar turnaround to Escape Pod. So I actually have two stories I can get antsy over!

Also, if I'm getting too optimistic, or if you just want to hear more from struggling writers, please go an listen to I Should Be Writing by Mur Lafferty. It is made of awesome. Mur Lafferty was, until recently, the co-editor of Pseudopod, the awesome horror fiction podcast. She also did and does a lot of other things, but they seem irrelevant to my blog, no matter how awesome they are.

I just looked at the ads in the vox.com/compose sidebar. One is telling me that God loves me and that He has A Wonderful Plan for my life. This is only feeding my unfounded optimism, even if I am an atheist.

Well, still haven't heard anything back from Escape Pod. I'm starting to worry that they just didn't get my email.

On the other hand, The Cape is the best thing I've written, so if anything's going to get accepted, it's that. Then and again, I haven't been writing seriously for long, so the chances of me getting accepted are diddly squat anyway.

Moving on to other things. I have no idea if anyone reads this other than the people who have added me to their neighbourhood on Vox. I haven't exactly been pimping this - I include the url in my submission emails, but I've yet to receive an even slightly personalised response. I've also linked to this blog on my LiveJournal.

I remember when I just started blogging, about three years ago. I was so self-conscious about what I was writing. I had no idea how many people were reading what I was writing. After a while, I thought "Bugger it," and just wrote whatever. I figured, there are millions upon millions of blogs on ye olde Internets, why would someone want to read mine?

Then, a year or two later, you hear that half of the people you know read the blog you never told them about and you go "What the hell?"

And what if I DO get published by Escape Artists? (It won't be on Escape Pod; Mr Eley is currently working on getting the fantasy spin-off going and it seems that EP is already focusing entirely on SF.) Then the link will be on a page that is visited by lots and lots of people! But they most likely won't bother checking it out unless they actually like the story. So far I've only had positive feedback on The Cape. The constructive criticism I got has been processed and applied to the piece. But, then and again, I had, what, seven or eight people reply? And Marijnski. I really don't know what to think about the whole Escape Artists thing right now. I hope I get a rejection tomorrow, or tonight, and then that's it.

Right, getting back to this blog's exposure (sort of), is anyone reading this who currently lives in the Netherlands and is writing in English? I want to get into a writer's group.

I know there's one at my Uni, but I've already met someone who wants to join and... no. No, I do not want to be in a group with someone who writes in runes. Yes, bloody runes.

I am not much of a literary snob. I like H.P. Lovecraft, so I have no right to be. I think that many different genres have their merits.

Anything written in runes is automatically devoid of merit. This is one of those few things that I believe transcend opinion. Maybe I feel a little too strongly about this - my opinion of the person who I caught writing in runes dropped drastically as soon as I saw the offending text - but I do believe that anyone who writes in runes either needs to grow up or is going to be made of epic fail for the rest of their writing career.

Tolkien excepted, of course. Although I really don't like his writing. But he actually did a hell of a lot of work and made languages to use the runes on, instead of just writing English (or Dutch) in runes.

This is a very large, meandering entry, but that's okay. I only recently got back from Rock Werchter, about 55% of my skin is peeling and I'm all excited about tomorrow. Sunday is my 20th birthday (I will no longer be a teenager, thus taking away one of my biggest excuses for acting like a complete idiot) and I'm going to get myself a pink Nintendo DS Lite. But, seeing as my train pass is only valid on weekdays, me and Gerben (he of many blogs which never get updated anymore) are going to go up to Rotterdam with money and beer. A considerable amount of beer. All of this is making my head a bit woozy.

To sum this up, lots of stuff is playing on my mind (The Cape and the impending departure from my teen years) and you probably didn't just read me expressing that.

The Cape has been gone for almost seven weeks now... and EP is supposed to get back to you in a month to six weeks.

I'm starting to get a teensy bit hopeful. Not much - chances are they're just behind on reading the slush, but still.