I've spent the last few days catching up on submissions to the food anthology, and have sent out all of the initial rejections. If you haven't heard from me yet, it means I'm still considering your story or recipe. I'll be sending out the final acceptances and rejections on November 15. I had the fun task of emailing some acceptances today, and I'm getting increasingly excited about this project. So far, our confirmed contributors include Christopher Rowe, Jon Hansen, Mark Teppo, Nalo Hopkinson, Rhys Hughes and Barth Anderson. Janet and I are still hashing through the other submissions, trying to agree on what we both like; she's a plot monkey and I'm a style monkey, so our tastes sometimes clash. But those of you who haven't submitted yet still have a week to send your story. The deadline is midnight EST, October 31.

Our deadline corresponds with Flytrap, and I'm hoping to get something small ready to squeak in there. I'm also trying to finish another story for my Shakespeare class, and have been going to Cup O'Joe to write it; it helps being in the same place to get me back in the same mood. And I have a story to rewrite that's due Nov. 1 that I need to get on. But instead of working on any of those yesterday, I tried finishing what I'm hoping is going to be my submission to Polyphony 5, and have gotten stuck on it.

So many stories, so little time.

You know, I'm seriously considering abandoning the submissions process once I start my PhD program next year (wherever that might be; I'm leaning toward Chicago at this point). It would be nice to just work on my degree and my dissertation (which I'm hoping will be a novel) and not even worry about submitting short stories to markets who'll have nothing to do with me. Just take the time to work on my craft and not worry about publication.

Some of this might be coming from the fact that I haven't sold any fiction in a while. The last story came out in July (thanks, Heather!), but I haven't had any nibbles since then. Yes, I sold two interviews since then, but it's somehow not the same. I miss that feeling of a fiction sale, that rush you get when someone deems your imagination worthy of print.

Regardless, big congratulations to writing pals Mike Jasper and Barth Anderson for selling their first novels! You guys rock.

Now Reading:
Leviathan 3 edited by Forrest Aguirre and Jeff VanderMeer

Stories Out to Publishers:
10

Books Read This Year:
58

Zines/Graphic Novels/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
30