Submission And Homework

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 Hey everyone! If you're reading this, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me, and I hope you're all doing great!

So it's 7:45 am and I slept a grand total of about two and a half hours last night. Summer is definitely in full swing and it was about 93℉ here in Portland yesterday, which is totally gross and makes it hard to sleep. Also, my partner snores really loud, so that doesn't help either 😖

Anyway, I'm working on a short story that I plan on submitting for a flash horror anthology called 'Campfire Macabre', which is published by Cemetery Gates Media. They're asking for stories with certain themes, and of course, the one that I picked was My Last Trick 'r Treat. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, so naturally, I'm more than happy to write a story that takes place on the spookiest night of the year! I'll have until August 15th to submit the story which seems like a long time, but I'll need to complete the initial draft, then read it to make sure it all flows, then edit the initial draft to really make sure it flows and doesn't feel like a fifth-grader wrote it, and then submit it for publication! If they accept my story for publication, this would be my first ever published story so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on this one! 🤞

Speaking of short stories...

I have always had a hard time writing short stories because when I write them, the story just feels rushed. But is that always the case for every writer out there? No way! There are a great many "short" stories out there that are perfectly paced and feel natural to the reader, right? So what I've done is assigned myself a sort of homework project to help myself get better at my short game; I recently purchased three anthologies of short stories to read and study. These anthologies are The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell, Nightmares: A New Decade Of Modern Horror, and The Best Horror Of The Year Vol. Thirteen, with the last two being edited by the esteemed Ellen Datlow. 

It's no secret that the best way to improve ones writing is to read anything you can get your hands on, so I plan on having a hell of a good time reading these three books back to back and taking LOTS of notes in the process!

Anyway - that's all for now! Take care, everyone!






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