My New Challenge For October

I took the weekend off, and now it's time to start into the new challenge for the new month.

For an author, the biggest danger isn’t that someone might not like your work–-it’s that they might never encounter it at all.

That is a quote from this blog post that I read a few weeks ago. There were many other interesting things to learn from it. They asked several editors to tell people why they needed to stop rejecting their stories before they even get sent out to an editor. I know that I'm guilty of this. I've sent a couple of stories out, but barely any. I've whined on the show about how it's hard to take rejection, but the only real rejection I get is from myself.

So, in October, I have a new challenge for myself. That is to take all the stories that I have written in the last few years, and submit them to publications. And, in the spirit of not rejecting myself, I'm going to start with the highest profile publications and work my way down from there. I'll probably submit several of Rish's stories as well, once I've burned through all of mine. Because, really, it won't take long. I don't have that many.

So, tune in here each day, my friends, and follow my progress, if you'd like. I'll report which of my stories was sent to which place, and then, eventually, I'll let you know what happened with it. You can all join me in the fun of butting my head against the wall until I finally bust through the bricks to see what is on the other side of that wall. I've heard the grass is really green over there. No, I mean, like, a lot greener than it is over here.

I'm going to do my best to continue to write 500 words a day as well. And, if I can manage, I may even up it to 750 or perhaps 1,000. But while I'm sending out stories, I'll stick with 500. Won't take but a week or so to get them all out. Looking at my stories folder, I have this list:

1. The Battle Of The Ideas
2. Last Contact
3. The Mirror Sometimes Lies
4. Sepia Tone Prison (nearly finished, not quite)
5. Through The Din Of Silence
6. Queen Bea (which I suppose has to be a reprint since we published it for BMSE 2010)
7. The Tenth Album
8. Little Caesars Ghost
9. Straw and Sawdust (Another BMSE, 2009 this time, maybe I'll rework this one before sending it out)
10. Euthanasia

And maybe a couple of other reprints or some really old stories. Although, I don't know if I want to go as far back as 2002 in search of stories to submit.