Submitted for your approval

Okay, kids, its time for a quick poll.

I have a story that’s gone out 10 times in the last 18 months, but tends to stay out longer than the others. I’ve listened dutifully to the excellent comments (when available) of all my non-publishers, and the story as it stands is a lean, tight and fast read.

I sent it out to readers again the day of its most recent rejection, but I’m wondering now about its overall future. There’s an anthology coming up it might be a good fit for, but if accepted I’ll make 1/8th the cabbage a direct sale would.

Considering that neither is really a lot of money, it’s a toss-up for me. My goal in all submissions is to get the stories out to a greater audience, but also to get my SFWA requirements out of the way once and for all.

Themed anthologies are the crazy wife in the attic of the fiction world, but I’ll be honest in my love of the new and experimental fiction they encourage. New qualifying markets open up all the time for short fiction, and sooner or later, the story will hit. Perseverance wins out in the end, and really, who doesn’t like cowboy superheroes?

That’s right, this is in fact, that story. Another window into my frustrating and ever fantastic dream world.

Yesterday I woke up with what could become a YA series kicking around in my head, pounded out two thousand words of plot and dialog, and felt the creative demons loose their grip on my brain for a while. Last night in between sleeps I came up with the first line of whatever that story will become, and possible titles for three books exploring that world.

I started writing it down today, then got distracted by shiny things, then angry things. So I sent off a new piece that’s really old, and got to thinking about the one that never seems to get away.

So here we are.

What say you, gentle readers? Add another kind of rejection to the pile, or stay the course of respectability and financial insecurity? Either way, I’m happy to read this piece in public to whomsoever wants to hear it. But for me, any way to broaden that circle seems to be the right thing to do.

After all, I’ve forgotten how to do anything else.