If you’ve been following this thread, then you know I’m in the midst (the final stretch) of a 20 Days of Submissions self-challenge. Today is Day 15, so it’s time for another update. Another exciting five days, I tell ya — plus a harrowing Election Day 2016 (my thoughts on that, if you’re interested).

Day 11: Rough day. I’d planned on sending off a superhero story I like quite a bit, or this horror piece I wrote in response to a Shock Totem prompt, but I ran into existential angst over the plots, presentation, and execution involved. In the end, I think I have decided to re-write the horror piece from scratch to build the tension and the, y’know, horror; while for the superhero piece, well, my superhero may need a new name and she definitely needs a different or modified ending. Work will be involved in both stories and that’s not really what I’m going for here with the 20 Days, so I didn’t submit either of them. In fact, I didn’t submit anything at all. Does this mean I’ve broken my rules? Yes. Does it mean I’ll stop submitting now that I’ve “failed.” Erm…no?

Day 12: More (continued) angst over those two pieces and what to submit next. Everything reads like crap to me when I look it over. No submission for today. Maybe I won’t continue on after all. In addition, I withdrew the poem I’d sent to PULP Literature magazine (for the reasons discussed in Days 6-10). This made me sad, because I like the story of the poem considerably. But I may turn it into a novel or novella. Meanwhile, I did get some writing done on a new short story. Yay!

Day 13: I’ve been sending out genre fiction (and poetry) — horror, fantasy, some science fiction (sorta), but I have some more literary-like pieces in the catalog, too. So on Day 13 (Election Day), I sent out “The Red Speckled Gecko” and “Contemplations Over a Dinner of Lamb” — the first rather surreal, the second based loosely on a visit I had to Crete. Both went to EVENT Magazine (Fun Fact: a lot of literary magazines are based in Canada. Who knew?), since EVENT allows multiple submissions (two). Does this make up for one of my missed days? Well, according to my rules, it doesn’t. But in my head, it does. So there. Phhbbbbt.

Day 14: Post-Election Day angst. But I work my way through it (and about a gazillion posts on various Social Media sites) and somehow also send out “On Cold Water,” another ‘literary’ piece, to Gray’s Sporting Journal. I know, weird, right? But, check this out, if you’ve got a piece of fiction about hunting or fishing or something related, consider sending it to this magazine. The pay scale is excellent. Also today, Shimmer rejected the older version of “Of Father’s and Unicorns” I sent (See Day 9). But it shall find a home. Durn it.

Day 15: I was planning on sending out “Red Speckled Gecko” and “Contemplations Over a Dinner of Lamb” again, since EVENT allows simultaneous submissions. But I just wasn’t happy with the options I’ve found for them yet. If I had, my head would have counted it as having completely made up for Day 11’s and Day 12’s lack of submissions, despite the rules (who makes these crazy rules up, anyway? Oh yeah, me. Heh). Instead, the correct and updated “Of Father’s and Unicorns” goes off to see what happens at Metaphorosis. I was going to submit to a top-tier pro-paying market, but Asimov’s submission site wouldn’t load today, so I’ll have to send them something else later, possibly even after I’ve finished this challenge.

Only five more days left in the challenge. My intention is that at least one of those submissions is a novel query to either an agent or directly to a publisher. Find out which I choose in the next post!