Rejections and Acceptences

I've been receiving a few rejections alongside a few acceptances. The rejections are getting steadily nicer, some even downright complimentary, and all of them always want more.

It's nice after years of "Thank you for submitting to SO&SO. But your submission isn't right for us." So, now even though I receive a rejection, many times, their notes tell me exactly what I need to submit next time (or an idea). Sometimes, they're basically saying, this is good, but it didn't quite knock our socks off, though parts did, so keep throwing your stuff our way and eventually we may find something we like. My submissions become feelers. And I think I'm starting to get a grasp on the kinds of poems/stories I am writing, and what certain kind of journals like.

Assignment idea (this would be an ongoing thing every couple weeks). Read a journal. Compose a piece that would fit with the journals taste. Submit what you write. Examples: Mud Luscious, Poetry, kill author, Ninth Letter, Pank. Not all journals have anything in mind, but they publish what strikes them. Kill Author publishes things that make their jaws drop or kick them in the gut, or both. I can't remember the quote with the editors, but it was pretty cool. Anyway. That's the assignment. Learn your markets. So many of us (ME) just submit to anything that sounds good...read a poem or two...part of a story...submit. Everything is scattered shot. Sure I know what goes to Ninth Letter, Puerto del Sol, Jeopardy (just kidding), all has to fit with that I think they publish (though I'm unsuccessful so far...except for Jeopardy). But it's a long process. I think that's one thing I'll tell my students one day. Submit till you drop, but know your journals. Sure, there is always scatter-shot, but that's how you learn.

Here are some examples of nice rejection letters:

Thank you for sending us “Afterwards”. We appreciate the chance to read it. We regret that we must decline it for the anthology, however.

This is nicely observed and feels more meaningful than its content, which is good. My issues resolve around the use of “false” mystery to sustain tension and the lack of traditional story elements. My reading notes, in case they help, are at http://wp.me/pBZsd-jU Story 117. It's a good story, just not for us, I'm afraid.

We would certainly consider other stories from you.

Thanks again. Best of luck with this.

(Triangulation)

Dear Joshua Young,

Thank you for sending us “A Woman Under Ice.” We appreciate the chance to read it. Unfortunately, the piece is not for us.Our editors like the eerie quality of the woman who emerges from the ice and her dialogue. We like the mysteriousness of never quite finding out what she is and why she is so disconnected to the city. We like the mysteriousness because it keeps us from asking logical questions about her being human and able to breath underwater. Her explananation, (true, anybody could drown, but not me), has a confident delivery, but we're not sure if it's enough to keep our questions at bay. The writing is clean and casual feeling,but could stand to be a little sharper.

Thanks again. Best of luck with this. Please try us again next year.

(Ghost Town)

Dark Sky loves you and wants you to keep trying, but this submission wasn't quite us.

All the best, and good luck taking over the world.

(Dark Sky Magazine)

Joshua:

This one's not right for us, but I certainly enjoyed reading it. Thanks for the look.

(Johnny America)

Dear Mr. Young,

Thank you for sending us “We Came from Railroad Men and Shadows”. We appreciate the chance to read your work. There were many things we liked about it. In particular, we thought your sentences were crisp and interesting. The lyric poem format worked well. What didn't work for us, though, was the ending. We weren't sure what to take away from it. There is an expectation of the unexpected that isn't fulfilled. We know about your family now, but what else? If you would like to revise and resubmit, we would be happy to look at it again.

Best of luck with this.

(Beechers)

Joshua:

Thanks for sending this our way, but we are going to pass. You're getting closer though, so please keep us in mind for others. You may want to try this one at PANK or Smokelong.

(Mud Luscious)

Dear Joshua Young,

Thank you for sending these poems. We appreciate the chance to read them. Unfortunately, they're not the right fit for us, but I enjoyed the energy of the voice. Please feel free to send more work in the future.

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Mike Young (yeah, Ian, yeah)

(NOÖ Journal)

Dear Joshua,

Thanks for sending “How We Started Bumping” for LITnIMAGE's consideration.

We've decided to pass on this one, but I really liked the style and tone of the piece, as well as some of the details--for instance, the items given to Micah after his parents were killed. But the story seemed a bit unfinished, as though it were an excerpt rather a complete narrative in and of itself.

In any case, I'd enjoy seeing more of your work and invite you to submit again anytime.

(LITnIMAGE)

OK. I didn't post these to brag (even though, Em insists that this is what I'm doing...). I posted these because many of them provided details that I can use. If I don't use them for my stories that they are referring to, at least I know, what kind of stuff they don't like. The point is (going back to the assignment) that I after I get this, I continue to read the journal, then I resubmit with what I've learned in mind.

God, two years ago (hell, maybe a year ago), I would've shit a brick for reading that editors like my stuff but not enough. If you like it publish it bitches! But this is good. I like rejections of this kind--sure a pub would be better--because I know where to go from there. Even form rejections, I use to my betterment. If they don't like my aggressive shit, I send more personal shit, and sometimes, I'll go from a form letter to a personal one (New Madrid is one example--they hated my personal stuff, but enjoyed by prosey stuff).

Anyway, there's my blog.

Wait, no, I have so much new music on my ipod...but I'll blog about that soon. I promise.

Love and Vegan Cupcakes,

J.

Submitting and Stuff

Tedious. Fucking tedious. I wish everyone was on Submishmash. I hate email submissions, but my plan to submit one story/batch to at least four different journals requires that I submit on submishmash, email, and CLMP. Ugh. It gets confusing and tiresome. Anyway. I official passed 350 submissions (which is more like 400 + because at least 25 aren't registered with duotrope, and there are a good 25-50 that I submitted before duotrope, so really the closest number might be 450 or so. Maybe. I've submitted a lot). Now, I hope this plan pays off and I start publishing. I just got an acceptance from elimae (After an edit...which was actually fantastic...he wanted to cut the poem in half--this is something oliver used to do with our poems in grad school and undergrad). Sometimes the heat of the poem begins at the end. Oh, and I totally ripped off a Joshua Marie Wilkinson line in the poem. The last line line is verbatim. I'm a little nervous about it, but hey, it's out of love, right? And it's actually a line I've tried to "borrow" for years...it was in Chapel, Wolves, Rule, and finally this. "This" by the way is a poem from the thing Chas that I sent out on a whim, not thinking that Chas and I were compiling. Well, it's cool 'cause now we've got at least one poem published from our book/project.

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Mission songs are starting to come. I wrote some Petty-sounding songs, and tried to edge them out a little. We'll see how they shape up.

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I plan on blogging on my other blog, but I'll do that tomorrow.

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Snow is here. I like snow, but I hate driving in it. Idiots surround me.

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I'm heading to the gym in a bit, another late night workout. Though, I'm stoked, I downloaded some new music, thanks to Dave (shhhh, it's illegal), including the new bright eyes, head and the heart, and some shit from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Alright, now, pushups.

Later,

Joshua

I hate waiting.

I've been using this submission manager SUBMISHMASH for most of my submissions, and it's infuriating. You submit and it says, "Received," and when an editor starts reviewing it, it says, "In Progress," then you get an acceptance or rejection. I check this all day, even though, an acceptance or rejection comes to my gmail. But I check it to see what's in progress and what's not. Usually, once something goes "in progress" it takes a couple days to receive and answer, or that's how it was at first, now there are some that have been in progress for three months. I don't think I would be as obsessive about checking, except that 90% of my submissions are also at at least two other journals, so if accepted I have to email the others right away, or if a journal wants one of four poems, I have to pull that ONE from the four. Anyway, my obsession is unhealthy, almost as bad as when I was checking the MFA blog while waiting to hear back from schools.

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Chicago is approaching. In the next few months we may go out for a visit. Our friend who were living there have moved away. So, we're gonna have to make new friends.

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I don't have much else to say. I've been revising and submitting. That's about it.

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Oh, the Facebook film is really good. The tragedy of the relationship between best friends, destroyed from some douchebag who once help Napster. Sad shit. BTW J.T. is a wonderful fucking actor. Actually, the whole cast was fantastic. Fuck Harvard, though. Seriously. It was funny to see a Bill Gates cameo. Nerd alert.

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I've been thinking about about my poems. Many of them aren't even poems, they're snippets from narratives. They're poetic in language, but not poetry. I'm trying to write more "poetry" but my "Trilogy" seems to want to be strictly narrative, so the ones that I've actually had accepted are the ones that stray from the narrative, that rely on the lyric rather than the narrative. I think that's the fiction writer in me. It's made me a better fiction writer. I've been thinking lately, "What if I applied for fiction MFAs?" I wonder. I think I'm having more fun studying poetry though. Fiction, yeah, I still got a lot to learn, but I dissected and read fiction for all of undergrad and grad, so doing that with poetry (something I'm not as understanding or well-verse in) fells like a challenge and something new, even still.

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Back to Criminal Minds marathon, then the gym...maybe.

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Tickles and Backrubs

Joshua