Fanfare! Feedback! And It began with the Flash Club

[Katie-Ellen]

Haunted Waters Press ‏@Haunted_Waters 15m15 minutes ago
#ReadingSubmissions Just finished reading & discussing a ghost story from @TacticalTarot Unique plot! Lovely! @SusanUtley @PennyFiction

3 retweets2 likes

The story is The Smiling Madonna, which started life here in the Flash Club and was later revised and slightly expanded. I sent it off to this magazine last week and just saw this.

Made up Fingers crossed.

Pic is Our Lady of the Hermits, Monastery in Switzerland.

 

[Carol Rose]

Congrats!!!

 

[Richard Sutton]

THERE you go! Huzzahs!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

They'll be making their decisions by beginning of March. And, connected to this press is Penny Dreadful, which publishes Flash fiction, folks.

 

[Marc Joan]

Congrats!! Penny Dreadful has a good reputation BTW.
Remember us when you're famous.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I've told them about Litopia. Haunted Waters Press & Penny Dreadful are clearly cheek by jowl and tweet the same tweets, have an open sub window once a year I gather, but asking $10 per entry. What I am really aiming at is a home for the novel, but maybe it's going to take a bit of lateral thinking

 

[Patricia D]

Congratulations and good luck going forward

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

Awesome! Big Congrats!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Really kind, thank you. I 'd be glad to have the chance to put something more recent on the CV. And I love the name, Haunted Waters Press.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Congrats!! Penny Dreadful has a good reputation BTW.
Remember us when you're famous.

*snort*

 

[Marc Joan]

I've told them about Litopia. Haunted Waters Press & Penny Dreadful are clearly cheek by jowl and tweet the same tweets, have an open sub window once a year I gather, but asking $10 per entry. What I am really aiming at is a home for the novel, but maybe it's going to take a bit of lateral thinking

Unless I have committed a major faux-pas, PD does not require $10/entry - it's Irish anyway so wouldn't ask for dollars - at least I sent them something a couple of weeks ago and didn't pay! -: Submit

 

[Sea-shore]

Congratulations!! Best of luck! Fingers crossed for you!!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Unless I have committed a major faux-pas, PD does not require $10/entry - it's Irish anyway so wouldn't ask for dollars - at least I sent them something a couple of weeks ago and didn't pay! -: Submit

No. I don't think you've committed the dread faux pas. I was referring to Haunted Press for this edition, open sub, not Penny Dreadful

 

[Emurelda]

I saw this on twitter! Well done. So happy for you.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Congratulations! Good luck!

 

[J. Rook]

Haunted Waters Press ‏@Haunted_Waters 15m15 minutes ago
#ReadingSubmissions Just finished reading & discussing a ghost story from @TacticalTarot Unique plot! Lovely! @SusanUtley @PennyFiction
View attachment 1084

Really well done. It will spread your author name more widely and as you say, a current publication is very good for the CV.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

They didn't take it, after that! They wrote yesterday to say, after a long discussion etc etc. Blah blah lol-sob.
But the principle stands. What starts in the Flash club for fun and a stretch of the muscles could also go other places later.

*Rolls around, tearing hair and biting the grass.*

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

I really feel for you. I submitted an essay last year to a new polish journal. They wanted anything touching on queer/feminist topics. I emailed them, would you be interested in this-and-that. Yes they would, please write. So I did. Sent the text, got email back Wow, so great, much professional, very edgy, can't wait to publish your stuff. After more than two months (!) I hear from them again: Very sorry, but we got so much submissions that we had to make a selection. You don't pass.

Well, never a failure, always a lesson, they say...

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Quite so, and the lesson is probably, these things happen a lot. Best to have a thick skin in any and all dealings with publishing or media. I had a visitor the other day, who appears on a psychic telly programme. What a picture she painted of that world, and no thanks, would be my feeling.

I hope, Bluma, you place that same piece of work with someone else.

 

[Sea-shore]

They didn't take it, after that! They wrote yesterday to say, after a long discussion etc etc. Blah blah lol-sob.
But the principle stands. What starts in the Flash club for fun and a stretch of the muscles could also go other places later.

*Rolls around, tearing hair and biting the grass.*

Oh, sorry to hear that. *hugs*
Why is there no little button to say commiserations?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

 

[Marc Joan]

They didn't take it, after that! They wrote yesterday to say, after a long discussion etc etc. Blah blah lol-sob.
But the principle stands. What starts in the Flash club for fun and a stretch of the muscles could also go other places later.

*Rolls around, tearing hair and biting the grass.*

Pah! Who needs 'em. Seriously, just send it somewhere else -- to several places at once, in fact. Simsubs are there to help!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Simsubs? Oooh, must go find out. Ta, Marc x

 

[Marc Joan]

Simsubs? Simultaneous submissions. Send it to lots of mags at once - in parallel is much faster than in sequence.

 

[J. Rook]

They didn't take it, after that! They wrote yesterday to say, after a long discussion etc etc. Blah blah lol-sob.
But the principle stands. What starts in the Flash club for fun and a stretch of the muscles could also go other places later.

*Rolls around, tearing hair and biting the grass.*

I remember what Agent Pete said in the "First Page" seminar. Publishers and agents want to make money. No matter how accomplished the concept and writing may be, if it will not appeal to a large number of readers it will not be accepted. I can't help thinking about Thomas Gray and the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". One of the stanzas: "Full many a gem of purest ray serene,/The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:/Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,/And waste its sweetness on the desert air." My mother made me learn the poem when I was quite young. I think she may have been trying to prepare me for life.

 

[J. Rook]

Oh, sorry to hear that. *hugs*
Why is there no little button to say commiserations?

Definitely a "commiserations" button is needed.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Also, a "save the grass" button! Still, sorry to hear the rejection news, but obviously the stories have potential, so keep sending

 

[Patricia D]

They didn't take it, after that! They wrote yesterday to say, after a long discussion etc etc. Blah blah lol-sob.
But the principle stands. What starts in the Flash club for fun and a stretch of the muscles could also go other places later.

*Rolls around, tearing hair and biting the grass.*

Sorry this one didn't go all the way, but send it out again. Obviously, it's good enough. You just need to find the right market.

 

[Quillwitch]

That´s great! Best of luck! Sounds like fun!

 

[KG Christopher]

simsub slavishly @Katie-Ellen Hazeldine I know you will get there.