Oh dear, I didn't mean to let more than a week pass since my cryptic post without elaboration. This post was really due last Friday, but Friday evening saw me leaving The Grid the whole weekend, and then, werk, werk, werk, and also, Girlfriend like it's going out of style, because even though she will never go out of style, she is going out of state.
But anyway, answers. Some of you have heard of Machine of Death. Actually, all of you have heard of Machine of Death, if "heard" includes "read" and you read this post. Or, if you hunger for true knowledge, go hear about Machine of Death. The point is this: some cool people made the coolest short story collection I have ever seen, and then decided to make a sequel. And I wanted in.
This was several months ago, when submissions for Machine of Death 2 were first solicited. I had an idea, threw it out, had another, tried to write it, hit a dead end, threw it out, gave up, had another idea, tried to write it, threw it out, and gave up again, pretty for real this time. And then, the weekend before the submission deadline, my first idea ripened. Or perhaps it sprouted. This story may have been a potato: it both ripened and sprouted while I left it in a dark corner of my brain and forgot about it. And when the tendrils began to creep up between the floorboards, I got very excited.
But there was no time. Alas! Except, Girlfriend, pointed out, there was time: five days. I just had to buckle down NaNoWriMo style. She suggested that I skip jujutsu on Monday to stay home and right. "You're under deadline," she said.
That was a heady phrase. Real writers have deadlines. What's more, I realized that when the other guys at the gym asked where I had been, if I told them I had been under deadline, they would believe me. I had never even considered the possibility of people thinking I was a writer. Not any time soon. My friends, of course, know I write... but they also know me well enough to know how far I was from being published.
Suddenly five days from the end, with a cold, I put basically everything on hold, like I never had for NaNoWriMo. My recreational activity for that week consisted of watching the first 20 minutes of Casino Royale, and I really felt like I was getting away with something there. I gave up the news, which is saying something.
Writing a short story in a week is an interesting experience. The rush that comes from the end approaching comes before the rush that comes from the beginning has worn off. It's something I could get used to, if I could get used to sleeping six hours a night and taking two weeks to get over a cold.
The end result is a short story I'm actually rather pleased with, called "Burned at the Stake." It is the first short story I have, perhaps ever, submitted for publication. It is definitely the first I have ever completed to what I would now think of as submission quality.
What are my odds of being published in Machine of Death 2? There were more than 1,200 submissions, possibly significantly more. I think my odds are better than 1/1,200. I should know by November. If they don't decide to use it, I'll post it here. How does that sound?
No comments :
Post a Comment