Major Fail

I'm in the midst of a major losing streak with my fiction submissions. For the Duotrope obsessed you'll understand when I say my acceptance ratio has seen an insane drop in the last two months. More important than statistics is just the fact that when the rejections aren't peppered with the occasional acceptance it's hard not to get a little frustrated.

My poetry does a better job of keeping a balance. I tend to get an acceptance for every few submissions. Is it wrong that I feel more strongly about the fiction? I love poetry and would love to get some chapbooks or a collection out there, but if I had to choose I'd rather see my fiction published.

All that said, a while back I mentioned the weird experimental novel I'm slowly working on, and how an excerpt was going to be appearing online. Well, it's HERE.

And Then...

I don't post a lot about my "issues" or problems I'm having that don't particularly pertain to my writing. Today at Big Other, I wrote a thing about some compulsive behaviors I have regarding books. I have a lot of little OCD tendencies. None that effect my quality of life or anything, thankfully. Little things that prey on me, though. Like the way things are organized on the counter at work. Or when I was in school, how my notebook and pen were placed on the desk. I would often lose track of a lecture because I couldn't stop re-arranging them. Sometimes I beat these urges, sometimes they beat me. For the most part I see these tendencies as amusing, maybe not directly in the moment, but later. I make jokes about my compulsiveness a lot. In fact, this is probably the most seriously I've ever spoken (or written) of it.

Anyway, all that to say, you should read my post at BIG OTHER.

Slacker Slacking

I've been slacking a bit on submitting stuff. Haven't subbed a single story this month, which is unusual for me. Only four last month. I have 30 fiction submissions outstanding. Ranging from 32 days to the big dog which is up to 502! I have to say that one's to the point of sheer entertainment now.

I have full drafts of all the stories for my Alaska collection now. I even found a couple more that could be added to the mix.

I'm experiencing a weird phenomenon lately with my poetry submissions. I get emails back saying "we don't want x or y, but we'd like to hold on to w and z for further consideration." This is kind of cool. It's happened frequently as of late, but I've never had it happen before this. The first time it happened, about a month ago I heard back about w and z pretty quickly and they didn't want those, either. I only had to wait an extra couple days, so it seemed like they could've rejected the whole batch at once. Maybe this is a more common practice than I know of? I don't really have any real reason to expound on it, other than I found it interesting. Here's to getting lucky on w and z one of these times!

Holy Cow

I read Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz today. Holy shit, it was amazing. One of the best books I've ever read. The funniest thing is that I just stumbled on it. I searched "Minotaur" in the distribution database at work, thinking maybe I'd find a cool book for kids about a minotaur for us to carry in the store. The search yielded pretty bleak results but I clicked on Tammuz' book just to read the description. It sounded interesting and it was listed as going out of print with only a couple copies left in the warehouse. When this happens I usually can't resist ordering for the sheer sake of getting a chance to snag one before its gone. I'm so glad I did, 'cause this one paid off in a big way.

If I can gather my thoughts coherently I think I'll try to write about it for Big Other. Here's one of the review quotes for the book, though:

"Minotaur is a strange quiet novel about love and espionage, about the expectations and compromises that humans create for themselves, about the way those expectations and compromises take position within the labyrinthine convolutions of destiny. (...) (W)hat sounds like truism in summary becomes magically dramatic in Minotaur." - David Quammen, The New York Times Book Review

Here's what the cover looks like:




I've been trying to find images of the covers for other editions, here's a slight variation on the English edition's cover (or vice versa), (it's a small pic, but the only one I could find):



I think I like this one better... then again I wouldn't have been able to read it.

Smaller Poem Thing

"When I'm Sad I Eat, When I'm Happy, Too"

Poem Things

I have two poems in the new issue of YB. They are called "Everywhere I Look is Pornography" and "Death is Driving this Car." You can read them HERE. You can read a little commentary about them HERE. Read the whole issue HERE.

You know you want to.

Oh, How the Mightily Silly Plan

I started listing titles on a piece of paper, and I realized I have what I think will be enough stories for my collection, Glaciers. This is the one that is comprised of stories taking place in Alaska, largely revolving around blue collar work and lives. My five thesis stories are the backbone. There are 11 stories total, though I won't argue if another one or two show up in what I'm sure will be a long meantime before the collection ever appears as a real book. A couple aren't fully finished, but that they exist in some sort of fully written form is exciting. I'm trying to hold onto the excitement, and not go all ME on things and start dreading the long haul that's ahead of me with this. (I'm so impatient). Only one of the stories has been published so far, though I'm trying to hold onto hope for the others that are out in the ether. Some of them have been out for quite a while. I'm trying to imagine that as a good thing. Until the rejection shows up there's always hope, right?

It's been a long time since I've had news of any real sort in regard to writing.

Yup.