I subscribed to BowWow, the magazine that is going to print my Na No Wri Mo excerpt in a few months or so. I wanted to get a feel for the magazine for a few reasons. I wanted to support the magazine that was supporting me, for one thing. I also wanted to get a sneak preview of the journal of the quality of the magazine, how slick and professional and polished it was . . . or not . . . about how good the writing was.
I got a pair of prior issues, and let me tell you I was impressed, by oth the presentationof the magazineand the quality of what goes between the covers. Very nice presentation of very nice work. I am impressed and excited to have my work in this magazine. It is a very slick magazine, very nice black and white layout, very nice photo and print and paper quality. I was a little unsure about whether this magazine which I had never heard of was a little two-page Xeroxed piece of crap (which it is certainly not, I was pleased to find out). That was my fear, in which case this would be a publication that I would not even mention and could not show off and could not brag about . . . this is not a fly-by-night operation, but it is a nice little mag with writers with far more experience than I have . . . I mean I heard about the publishing opportunity through a forum on the Na no Wri Mo website, so how much credibility could it have? I am glad I took it seriously, though, and glad I polished up a piece and got in in to them. This will be my first creative publication and it is one that I would not be embarrassed about mentioning in public.
One fear I have now of course is that the magazine is too good for me to parlay this into other publication opportunities as i had hoped. I need to got through my short backlist of short stories and see if there is anything there that could ever be made good enough to be accepted, but it is a bar that I am setting and I hope that I can do some work that will be good enough to at least submit without the fear of embarrassing myself. Getting accepted and published again by them would be nice, but I don't know if I have any short fic that is good enough to qualify. Short fic is osmething that I never really thought about, and have not written much of other than through the writers' group, but I doo see it as a way of getting clips in and having something to show an agent or publisher in the midst of a book proposal. I understand that now, and I think I see the value of it. Of course, this piece in BowWow is not technically short fiction, but is a short excerpt of a novel . . . not one that I have completed yet, but that is another story altogether, so get off my back!!!!!
Of course I did write one short story about 12 years ago, based ona dream that i had once. I do not think the stoy was as good as the dream, sort of a fantasy SF epic thing, but maybe I should look at it again. Not for BowWow, but just maybe to see how far I have come in my ability to produce good work. I started one in college (now about 20 years ago) about the aftermath of a worldwide war, but that never got finished either. Maybe I can dig that one up, too. But I have about 3 or 4 finished little works from the group that I have put toegther the last year or so, and maybe one of those will wualify for submission to BowWow. I need to do some polishing, but I think I can probably handle it. I have high hopes. This has been an amazingly productive nine months . . . I have birthed a second career in that time? Hmmm . . . . . It is that sort of keen insight and amaziny metaphor that has enabled me to write so well that I am getting published. I can not wait to hold that slick little literary magazine of some repute and see my name in it . . . and maybe even on the cover? One can hope, no?
I have not heard from the academc publisher for a while, so I don't know where the article stand. That news will have to wait as well, but I havenot given up and I am sure that is the summer and all academic work slows down a bit, so maybe it will be delayed a little while, but I have faith that that journal will get published with my paper in it. I am also working on a S S that I hope to submit to The First Line, a mag that publishes stories based on a particular first line, each issue. This is one that I did for my writers; group, and got good feedback on. I have a month or so to edit it and get it submitted. I look forward to getting on with this minutae of the writing life. Having multiple projects and deadlines, keeping a record of submissions, being rejected, being accepted, etc . . . It has been great fun.
I got a pair of prior issues, and let me tell you I was impressed, by oth the presentationof the magazineand the quality of what goes between the covers. Very nice presentation of very nice work. I am impressed and excited to have my work in this magazine. It is a very slick magazine, very nice black and white layout, very nice photo and print and paper quality. I was a little unsure about whether this magazine which I had never heard of was a little two-page Xeroxed piece of crap (which it is certainly not, I was pleased to find out). That was my fear, in which case this would be a publication that I would not even mention and could not show off and could not brag about . . . this is not a fly-by-night operation, but it is a nice little mag with writers with far more experience than I have . . . I mean I heard about the publishing opportunity through a forum on the Na no Wri Mo website, so how much credibility could it have? I am glad I took it seriously, though, and glad I polished up a piece and got in in to them. This will be my first creative publication and it is one that I would not be embarrassed about mentioning in public.
One fear I have now of course is that the magazine is too good for me to parlay this into other publication opportunities as i had hoped. I need to got through my short backlist of short stories and see if there is anything there that could ever be made good enough to be accepted, but it is a bar that I am setting and I hope that I can do some work that will be good enough to at least submit without the fear of embarrassing myself. Getting accepted and published again by them would be nice, but I don't know if I have any short fic that is good enough to qualify. Short fic is osmething that I never really thought about, and have not written much of other than through the writers' group, but I doo see it as a way of getting clips in and having something to show an agent or publisher in the midst of a book proposal. I understand that now, and I think I see the value of it. Of course, this piece in BowWow is not technically short fiction, but is a short excerpt of a novel . . . not one that I have completed yet, but that is another story altogether, so get off my back!!!!!
Of course I did write one short story about 12 years ago, based ona dream that i had once. I do not think the stoy was as good as the dream, sort of a fantasy SF epic thing, but maybe I should look at it again. Not for BowWow, but just maybe to see how far I have come in my ability to produce good work. I started one in college (now about 20 years ago) about the aftermath of a worldwide war, but that never got finished either. Maybe I can dig that one up, too. But I have about 3 or 4 finished little works from the group that I have put toegther the last year or so, and maybe one of those will wualify for submission to BowWow. I need to do some polishing, but I think I can probably handle it. I have high hopes. This has been an amazingly productive nine months . . . I have birthed a second career in that time? Hmmm . . . . . It is that sort of keen insight and amaziny metaphor that has enabled me to write so well that I am getting published. I can not wait to hold that slick little literary magazine of some repute and see my name in it . . . and maybe even on the cover? One can hope, no?
I have not heard from the academc publisher for a while, so I don't know where the article stand. That news will have to wait as well, but I havenot given up and I am sure that is the summer and all academic work slows down a bit, so maybe it will be delayed a little while, but I have faith that that journal will get published with my paper in it. I am also working on a S S that I hope to submit to The First Line, a mag that publishes stories based on a particular first line, each issue. This is one that I did for my writers; group, and got good feedback on. I have a month or so to edit it and get it submitted. I look forward to getting on with this minutae of the writing life. Having multiple projects and deadlines, keeping a record of submissions, being rejected, being accepted, etc . . . It has been great fun.
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