Ego board

[J Riff]

Fabulous. Wunnerful. Witty... yet terrifying. I can see readers trembling as they chortle.

Flash Fiction. phooie. It's a short story. If it needed 1500 wds. it would be 1500 wds. But it's the Frog Prince, how complicated can it be? Boy blows up frog, frog seeks revenge. 960 wds.
Also, the weirdness site pays by paypal only, something to make sure and look for if submitting.

Attic salt! Waggish Drollery! yet bloodcurdling!
U look pretty good in black and white.

[Mouse]

Hey, my frog story is 5k words!

[J Riff]

So, it's probably good enough for 5k. What mine is - is succinct*
It has similar action so maybe best not to submit it to the same anthofrogology.
'Smoking bits of frog and balsa wood spiraled down into the pool. Billy clamped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.'

[Mouse]

Still worth trying somewhere else.

Originally Posted by J Riff

U look pretty good in black and white.

Missed this. Pretty nice ego boost right there! Shame I look rough in colour.

[J Riff]

TaHAA. Just sent one off to the LOTLD, should fit the malpractice antho.
I think your new avatar is very horrifying yet lovely and also cute.

[Mouse]

Good luck!

[J Riff]

Oh, luck... is that your secret??

[Mouse]

Yup. You didn't think it had anything to do with talent, did you?!

[J Riff]

sNikR* I've been yakking at a few other places and should mention that tis worth emailing ahead and asking if you can submit in the format you have, .rtf or whatever...rather than re-doing the whole thing for whatever they ask for online.
Reformatting to plain .txt. or ascii or etc. is a pain, and twice they have written
back and said nah just send it or paste it in.

[Mouse]

That sounds good then.

[J Riff]

Yup. Another thing- I don't know how many people submit to these mags, online or otherwise.... and there are dozens of them if you plug away at Duotropes...
Most pay Zip, BuT: even some of the token/semi-pro pay places- it's really worth reading some of their stories first, because they can be pretty awful, which leads me to the conclusion that they don't have an real editor, or it's a bunch of friends or whatever... but I wouldn't submit to many of them, and would advise others to do the same. It's not worth being 'published' on some online archive, it just gives the freebie people more strength, a bad thing.
Yes, say their blurbs- you do it for the love! of writing... we are 'non-profit' like that's automatically a good thing?
I have no issues submitting to a place that only pays a contributor copy or two- as long as the overall standard of writing is acceptable. Unfortunately, one has to figure this out oneself- find the online issue and read the stories yourself.
I was set to send off an HPLish thing last nite- then I read the stuff they had online and couldn't make it through two paragraphs. Conclude rant.
Mouse I have 4K of plumber Wally done... there's this cleaning woman involved, and the lovely Captain... so I'm writing up these unscrupulous women, which is lots fun!

[J-WO]

Whenever I feel down about rejections and writing, I just remember the words to a song from Futurama-

'When push comes to shove/ You gotta do what you love/ Even if it's not a good idea...'

Always makes me smile and get back on the horse again, for some reason.

[Mouse]

J-Wo, I like that quote!!

J Riff, yeah always check other stories before you submit to somewhere. I only submit to paying places at the mo, but stories I have with places that don't pay are places that I've checked out first. (For example, the Horror Zine doesn't pay, but seeing as they publish people like Ramsey Campbell I think they're ok...)

As for my ego boost of the day, just got a proof copy of Blood Bound Books new anthology to look through! I've got three stories in that'n.

[J Riff]

Swell, Mighty Mouse! Wisht I could run into some of these rags, maybe they will show up at Wally's Comics here eventually, but who can afford sciFi or horror mags anymore?
Finished 50-ft. tall nonsense, also ghost story for another anthology.
13 Dead Eyeless Rats. Muahaha.

J-Wo, where would you submit anything HPLish or weird, given druthers?

[ML Hamilton]

Wow, Mouse, I so have experienced the "this is drivel" over and over again. I go through periods of pride and self-loathing so frequently, you'd think I had a split personality. I thought some of that would go away once I got a publishing contract and saw my book in print, but I submitted the second book to my publisher and I'm waiting for a response. I'm in a "drivel" period right now and really feeling anxious again. What is wrong with having an ego board because we all have an internal rejection board that keeps us grounded. Whenever I start feeling smug, I remind myself that I can paper my room in my rejection letters.