8 points!

I sent off a new story, titled "Priority."
It takes place in a future where robots raise everyone's children and workers are obsessed with maintaining their websites to earn a living.
That brings my point total up to 8!

New JBU version of "The Disconnected"

I've posted a new version of "The Disconnected" on Jim Baen's Universe Slush forum. It's a story that speculates what the future may look like if over-dependence on cell phones continues to grow. People become so dependent on them that those who are separated from their phones are cast out and are treated like animals.

You can visit the forum by going to bar.baen.com You have to register to get a username and password. Then click on "Baen's Universe Slush" in the Forums panel and choose my story to read it. Then if you want to post comments about it, you can do it under the "Baen's Universe Slush Comments" Forum, under the same title.

7 points!

I polished up a story today and sent it off to Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. I feel really confident about this one, but we'll see how it turns out. The nice thing about that magazine is that if they reject a story you almost always get a reply in your mailbox within 2 weeeks, so at least you don't spend forever wondering. :)

The Race--clarification

My previous point about the unlikeliness of reaching 50 points is solved easily: write more novels.

But for now I think I'll concentrate on short stories. 5000 words of short story take a small fraction of the time it would take to write 5000 words of novel (at least for me). My goal is to get published, so having more stories in circulation is to my advantage, even if they're not worth as many points.

The Race

I'm currently trying a method of staying motivated created by Dean Wesley Smith that he calls "The Race".
http://deanwesleysmith.com/mt/archives/cat_blog.html#000178

It's a point game, with the points as follows:
1 point for each short story that's currently in submission right now
3 points for each novel submission comprised of 3 chapters + synopsis
8 points for each full novel manuscript submission

Currently my score is 6:
3 points for a novel submission (3 chapters plus synopsis) to Elder Signs Press.
1 point for a short story submission to Writers of the Future Contest
2 points for 2 short stories submitted to Baen's Universe


DWS suggests that successful writers manage to stay in the 50-75 point range consistently. With the short story market the way it is, I am skeptical that this is possible. SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) lists 18 publications they currently recognize as being professional. Most will not take multiple submissions (that is, more than one submission from one author at a time), Baen's Universe being the one exception that I know of.

So if I stick to pro publications, to reach 50 points I could do it by having 1 story at the 17 publications that don't accept multiple submissions, and have 33 stories simultaneously submitted at Baen's Universe.

In any case, it's a way to help me keep each story in continuous submission loop, if 50 points is unrealistic. :)

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog.
This is my first attempt at blogging, so bear with me. :)
I'll try to put periodic updates here on the current status of my writing and submissions.
Enjoy!