Now Batting

July was an exciting month for me. First off, I finally got a response from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. I sent "The Ballad of Honest Luke" to them last September. I can't remember the last time I got such a shot of adrenaline just looking at the outside of a letter. I wasn't sure if I would get accepted, but I felt very strongly about the quality of my story and was hoping at least for a rejection letter with a hand-written note of encouragement. 

As it turned out, was just a plain old rejection letter. Yeah, I was disappointed, but I still feel the adrenaline from tearing open that letter now. With so many magazines taking e-submissions nowadays, the ritual involved in receiving a hard-copy rejection letter was a refreshing formality.

The last time I submitted to AHMM was nine years ago. That was too long. In fact, as I take stock of my submission history it's been pretty scant lately. I haven't been published in print or online since 2006. I did get a story accepted to a print anthology once in 2007, but it never got printed. Sure I've submitted to few contests since then and even earned some recognition, but I haven't been submitting to enough magazines and anthologies.     
                      

One reason is that I have been holding to my best stuff so I can submit it to top magazines like Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine or AHMM, but then I put off submitting to them which means I have a bunch of stories laying around. 

No more procrastinating. Right 'now, I'm rewriting a story I want to send to a literary magazine called Glimmer Train. I'm in way over my head with this and will probably just get an e-mail letting me know my story is free to be published elsewhere. But I can't be sure unless I try. One thing I learned from my rejection by AHMM is that trying to swing for a homerun every now and then is a big thrill. Even if I miss.  
                           

Plus, it lets me know where I stand. When I think I can write stories that are better than the ones I'm reading, a rejection here and there forces me think of why the allegedly inferior story gets published and mine doesn't. Then I learn something positive from the story.        

  

The deadline for the Glimmer Train submission is the end of July. With the pressure of writing for a first class magazine, I'm demanding more of myself and writing better. A couple months later, I'll learn whether or not the story has been accepted. Either way waiting will be exciting.