Celebrate the Small Things: A Long Awaited Flash

Some time ago - I deliberately decided not to remember - I launched my own short story e-zine. The prime reason for doing so was to create another marketing avenue for my novels. I have tried a plethora of tricks to draw attention to myself, and my work, and to gain followers, but when most of my family and friends have not been able to find the time or the willingness to do it, the results have been unsurprisingly poor.

Square Pegs E-zine was another idea for increasing my exposure. I also, as a veteran of sending stories to various print and online publications, wanted to offer a short story market with a difference. Very simple guidelines which I present in text and video formats, a condition (not a fee) of publication, which is that the writer has to follow me, and a reward for publication (not cash) other than what most markets offer which is 'exposure': a free copy of one of my novels.

I'm very happy with the product, but far less happy with the outcome. I listed with Duotrope who have contacted me twice already to make sure I am still active. I have received three submissions and published one, although the author has still not indicated his preference of which of my novels he would like. (Indicating clearly that he doesn't want any of them - ouch!)

I've put some of my own more 'celebrated' stories in the e-zine: a couple which have been published multiple times since I wrote them.

This morning, I awoke to find a submission to Square Pegs in my inbox, and it made me happy. I like the story. A tight little tale with a sweet touch of irony at the end. I will publish it as soon as the author adheres to all of the submission guidelines, but in the meantime, I will just feel happy about it.

Also happy this week to hear from Forge journal who have accepted my alternate history story The Death of Issac for publication in the October edition. This will be the third time they have published a story of mine.

I'm chipping away, working on staying thankful when sometimes I feel quite the opposite.

A few thoughts on submission guidelines

I have been writing and submitting short stories for many, many years. It is a time consuming  process to find a suitable market, read their guidelines then conform to them. The requirements of editors are quite varied, and some of them are especially picky. Not that I am critical of that, but it can make the task of getting published more difficult. I've lost count of how many rejections I have received, how many times I've read the words 'thank you, but your story is not a good fit for us' (or something like that), and how many editors have simply never responded.

My message to you as a writer is: do not be discouraged. If you love to write, then persevere, and if you have any talent, you will find some rewards; not to mention the satisfaction of pursuing your dream or your hobby, or whatever it is that writing is to you.

Many of my stories which have been published were rejected multiple times. Despite all the submission guidelines hoopla, all you are looking for is an editor who likes your work. It's that simple really. It was the same deal when I completed my second novel, Loathe Your Neighbor, and was looking for a publisher. I wrote 66 query letters, and received nothing but rejections and no responses, until Jeanne Haskin at Artema Press, said yes. Why? Because she liked my work.

As I said, if you are any good at this art form, then for sure there will be people who appreciate what you do. The truth is that you actually don't even have to be that good. You can be pretty good, work hard and get lucky too. Everyone needs a bit of luck to be successful.

Getting back to short story submissions, here's my advice:

• be patient.
• be persistent. 
• pay attention to the guidelines. 
• don't send a story until you are satisfied that it is the best it can be .
• don't take rejection personally. 
• take every little bit of advice offered and mull it over.
• read a lot and read widely. 
• practice, practice, practice. 
• be focused. 
• decide what your writing goals are, and these goals will determine your actions.
• submit to Square Pegs E-zine
• 
  

Photo source for 'I love Writing this much"

http://www.thedutchphdcoach.com/writing/how-do-you-feel-about-writing/

Celebrate the Small Things

Square Pegs has always had two goals: to express myself on any matter I feel so inclined, and to advertise myself and my work. Unabashedly, I say to all that I want more readers. More readers of my blog, and more readers of my works of fiction; both my short stories and my novels. It is very difficult to break through all the competition. I have been attempting for many years to escape the deep, dark forest of anonymity. I've tried numerous methods to increase my exposure, to raise my profile, to become famous.

When a video of ducks crossing a road receives millions of views on You Tube, it causes me both despair and envy. When a poorly written book of unoriginal and unimaginative content sells millions of copies, I feel genuine happiness for the author, but it is tinged once more with despair and envy. Just being honest here.

However, despair and 
envy can be strong motivators, and for me they are. My determination swells like a tsunami, so today I am celebrating one more mustard seed: the advent of Square Pegs E-Zine. The latest and potentially greatest in a long line of grabs for fame. A little e-zine which may produce enormous success.

There are fifty quintillion online short story magazines, so what hope has another of becoming successful? Square Pegs E-Zine is different. Firstly, potential contributors have to join/follow my blog. Secondly, payment for publication is a PDF copy of one of my novels, and finally, submission guidelines are available in a short video. (Ironically, Duotrope refused to list Square Pegs E-zine if it only had video submissions guidelines, so I had to put them in text as well.)

Let's see how this latest attempt to reach the glorious heights of fame and fortune goes. Wish me luck!

W.A.S. A Muddy Red River cover reveal

Here is the cover for my new novel, A Muddy Red River which is coming soon from Rogue Phoenix Press

The madness of the A to Z Blogging Challenge is over, and now I have returned to my normal writing activities-almost. I say almost because, I have not as yet resumed work on my WIP, Lovesick. I have, however, submitted a number of short stories, and one of them has been accepted for publication. Two rejections and one acceptance. Not bad. Acceptances now stand at 43. My goal is to hit 50 in 2015.

I also entered one of my favourite stories, Still It Bleeds in the Alfie Dog Fiction International Short Story Competition Incidentally, you can find a number of my short stories there at Alfie Dog short stories by D.A.Cairns at Alfie Dog Fiction

The new cover for Devolution is in its final stages and I hope to be able to reveal that to you soon, as well as details of its release.

And lastly, a daft scots lass gave me Bloggin Award for making her smile. Thanks very much for that. It's nice to be appreciated.

Exciting times!

Stuck Again

Lovesick is like an old lawnmower: sometimes it fires up quickly and runs efficiently, other times it starts then coughs and splutters into silence, and on occasions it doesn't fire up at all. I'm stuck again at the moment, that is, nearly two weeks now with no time and nothing new to contribute, no spark of desire or imagination. When I eventually finish it, it will be my greatest triumph.

In other news, I had two short stories accepted for publication this week. One of my goals is to hit 50 short story publishing credits in 2015, and perhaps celebrating the milestone by publishing an anthology. What do you think?

W.A.S.

After failing to make the short list for the inaugural Lane Cove Literary Award with my short story Still It Bleeds, I recently received a rejection from a magazine which I had forgotten I submitted to. I keep track of all my submissions electronically because there's no way I could remember, so this morning I need to update my submissions history with another rejection.

Still it Bleeds is one of my favourite stories but it has been passed over 8 times now. I've had lesser stories, in my opinion, accepted more readily. I wrote it in 2012 which I think was my best year, so far, for short story writing. 12 stories of, again this is only my own estimation, high quality, mostly literary fiction. 3 of them were published while the others are racing to be next to find a sympathetic editor and the readers beyond.

What I think about myself and my work is both important and not important. It is significant because in order to continue the hard and lonely road of the writer, I must believe in myself and my ability. I must be satisfied that I am giving it my best. I must have the confidence to go on with only a quantum of encouragement, or none at all. I must remind myself that my work is good.

On the other hand, what I think of myself is inconsequential in terms of attracting readers. No matter how good I think my work is, I have to find someone who agrees. Initially I need an editor to dig what I do, and then I need readers. People have told me that they love my work. I will never forget the woman at the Meet the Author night at Dapto Library who told the audience that she thought Ashmore Grief was a great book and everyone in Australia should read it. Her words were encouraging but they did nothing for sales.

It's easy for me to write. I have to restrain myself which is what I am doing here. This was only going to be a mini Writing Activity Statement abut the latest short story rejection.

Share an encouraging word you received from someone about your writing, or about anything.

Premature reflection

It troubles me that I have not had a novel released this year, and will not. A Muddy Red River will be released next year, and my previous two novels were released in 2013, in January and September respectively. When I go full time I won't let that happen again. In fact I would like to release two books each year: one novel and one work of non fiction.

I've only had 8 short stories published this year so far, which although better than the 6 which were published in 2013, is still less than the glorious 18 in 2012. Mind you, I have not written a new short story since the as yet unpublished Dry Reach in December 2012. Maybe I should.

2014 has been a relatively quiet year for me as a writer so far, although personally it has been anything but quiet. Turbulent and intense. Maybe next year the tables will turn. Maybe they'll turn next month. Perhaps even today. Let's see.

The Flagpole

I've been looking a lot recently at writing competitions,  Winning competitions is a good way to boost the ego, and increase exposure. Depending on the award, there is a certain cache which comes with being a prize winning writer, aside from the joy and satisfaction of having your work published. The problem with many of the competitions is that there is a fee to enter: ranging from around $5 to as much as $100. I just don't have the budget to keep on paying for my work to be read and perhaps be short listed, or even awarded a prize. I don't know how 'prestigious' these various awards really are. I don't know what impact being a winner or a place getter would have on my profile.

Even for regular submissions of my short stories, I baulk at paying reading fees for the same reason as I have avoided subsidy/joint venture publishing of my novels. Despite their promises of massive exposure, they cannot guarantee sales so a choice to invest in a joint venture is risky. Even though I believe in the quality of my work, it is still a risk I am unprepared to take, because my novels don't sell. Hardly anyone knows about them. I have a dribble of visitors to this blog, and a dribble is insufficient to underpin a solid base of readers.

Anyway, I digress. I just wanted to tell you that I entered the prologue of my WIP in a writing competition. It will be the first test of what I know will be my best novel yet. If I win, that would be great publicity for the novel, but I am also interested in the opinion of the editor/judge.  Very interested. Stay tuned.

A question for writers: what is your take on writing competitions? Do you enter them? Have you entered them? Have you had any success?

What next?

A Muddy Red River will be published by Rogue Phoenix Press next year. I'll have some work to do on the manuscript and cover, and will share the latter as soon as it is available, but it's time to think about the next project. It would be more accurate to say begin the next project rather than think about it, because I have already given it a lot of thought. Since I completed the manuscript, my efforts have been intensely focused on finding a publisher. With that box happily ticked, what will I do now? 

I will write and/or submit more short stories, particularly targeting writing competitions to try to raise my profile. I would like to hit 50 short story credits before my fourth novel is released. I will write another novel. I will try to find an agent. And I will get on with  my study as I'm still falling behind.

Lastly, I will enjoy my work and my play.

Keeping a Lid On It

It's not easy. I began my writing career in 1998 when I was gifted my first computer,(thanks again Darren)and I became familiar, very quickly, with the cycle of submit and be rejected. Editors say things like "we appreciate your interest in the magazine but your story is not quite right for us", "we appreciate the chance to read your story, unfortunately the piece is not for us", "after careful consideration we've decided we won't be able to use your story", and "we read your work but it wasn't a good fit for us at this time." Not all rejections are flat out rejections. Although adding fuel to the fire of frustration, some editors provide encouragement by praising what they liked about the story. They say things like, "Good idea", "well paced", "well written", "I loved the character", "I enjoyed it" etc, and then apologize that they won't be publishing it.I've written 71 short stories and had 11 of them published. That's 11 acceptances out of 252 submissions.

I've also written two novels. The first, Devolution was published as an e-book in 2009. I paid for that to happen and I did not recover my costs through sales. Nevertheless, it was an achievement. I had a product to sell and some supportive friends and family bought copies. Now Devolution is available in paperback and it cost me nothing to produce. It's called "print on demand" and I set it up with CreateSpace. When the proof copy arrived on my doorstep, I was stoked. The book was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. In a couple of weeks, I'll be appearing at the local bookstore to sell and sign copies of Devolution on the back of some publicity, including a feature article in the local newspaper. Like I said, it's not easy to keep on lid on my excitement. These small steps mean everything and nothing much at the same time. You can imagine my anxiety as I think of the in store appearance.

Will complete strangers buy my book? Why should they? Because they like the cover? The blurb? Because they want to support a local author? Will the appearance be a flop, leaving me to walk way with a box of unsold books? All writers have experienced rejection. All writers have had the fear that they are writing for themselves when what they desperately want is readers. Some writers become hugely successful, rich and famous...most writers have to keep their day jobs.I have to keep my day job which is okay because I actually love my day job...but I want to write and want people to read what I write. All I can do therefore, is try, struggle to contain my enthusiasm, keep writing and keep dreaming of eventual success.

Creative Juice

It was while drinking a glass of orange juice one morning that I had a burst of creativity. In just a few minutes, as the sweet citrus danced on my taste buds en route to my stomach via my throat, I came up with three ideas. This post is one of them.

The idea for my most recently published short story, Goyyou, came to me in a dream. Another time, I was standing at a urinal in a public toilet in Greta when the idea for a story about a small group of insects meeting in a awkward social situation struck me. It became the story, A Place of Refuge which was published by Countdown: School Magazine.

Virtually no one reads Square Pegs so I feel there is no harm in blowing my own trumpet. However, that's not what I'm trying to do. Here's my point: I have lots of ideas. I'm always coming up with interesting characters and plots and weird situations. I've written over 60 short stories and I have plenty more to come. I'm a creative person. God made me creative.I love to write and I feel exhilarated by the process of writing. When I write a story, I feel "right". It is one of my escapes. One of my pressure release valves. Writing helps me maintain my sanity. I have to write.

To paraphrase a quote I read a long time ago, "why wouldn't God, having made me this way, not provide opportunities for me to use my talent to bless others and glorify Him?"

It seems as logical to me as orange juice and toast for breakfast. I have a way with words. I'm not Shakespeare but I can write and I love it, so why shouldn't I pursue it? The answer is, that I am, but it can be awfully frustrating. Writers want readers but I have so few that if my readers were books they wouldn't even occupy one shelf in a small library. For thirteen years I have been working on my craft; writing stories, using valuable writing time to research markets and fiddle with the formatting to satisfy various submission criteria. Submitting stories, waiting sometimes for months, sometimes literally forever, and then having those stories rejected, frequently. Finding time to write more stories and repeating the whole process. It can be terribly disheartening but what can I do? It is no overstatement to say that I was born to write. I love writing. I am a writer so I'll just keep writing.

And so ends my self indulgent post for this week. To my army of readers...