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Welcome to the review of the twenty-three (23) stories I suggested on social media over the course of August 2023! If you missed any, here they are. If you enjoy any of these stories, I strongly encourage you to read more on the magazine's website and if you like more than one story there, please consider supporting them either through a one-time donation or subcription.
fiction published In the Making by Tonya R. Moore in July. A wonderful sci-fi story about accidents turned into worse situations.
Nature: Futures published Eight laws I wound up breaking while attempting to restore the timeling by P.A. Cornell in July. This is a hilarious little story about when things go slightly wrong when time traveling. FAQ: The "Snack Fight" Portion of your Thesis Defense by Luke Burns was published by McSweeney's in 2010. Thesis defense does feel like defeating snakes. RE: Thesis defense issue by kalirush is an AO3 fanfiction of the previous McSweeney's story published in 2020.
The Wife's Story by Ursula K. Le Guin was originally published in 1982. A story that challenges your preconcieved notions of what is happening in the story.
Mr. Death by Alix E. Harrow was published at Apex Magazine in 2021. This story made me cry. Have a box of kleenex nearby.
Songbird, Jailbird by Pauline Barmby was published at Stupefying Stories in July. A flash piece with a bit of a joke about writers block.
The Princess with Blood on Her Dress by Jared Povanda was published by Milk Candy Review in July. Do you see the ending?
Looking for another speculative fiction market? I didn't highlight much horror this month. The Speculative Fiction Magazine Subscription reference site can help you find just what you're looking for.
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It's been another, approximately, 4 months...Cribbed from my last update post, I write goal and goal update posts for transparency. I strongly suggest you find yourelf a small writing group with goals similar to yours - whether it be short fiction or novels, indie publishing or traditional routes - because these groups will be vocal about their goals, activities, and struggles than the average social media or blog writer. Why four (4) months? Because it's short enough that it doesn't feel like everything has happened all at once, but it's long enough that I don't feel like I'm not reporting change. Short StoriesSubmission Goals On the day of publication of this blog post, my goal was to have submitted sixty (60) of my yearly goal of nintey (90) stories. I am at exactly sixty submissions as of today.  Giving this an On Course 🏃🏻♀️  Photo by Drew Farwell on Unsplash "Just send it" is a term for mountain biking that also works for short fiction submissions. Rejections and Acceptances I have ten (10) submissions out at this time. I've had two (2) acceptances this year - one for Manawaker Flash Fiction podcast for a reprint for "Submerged" and an new, original print of "W.F.A. #31" for Worlds of Possibility. This number hasn't changed since my last update. I seem to get all my acceptances in the spring. I'm hoping the increased submissions will change that pattern of the last few years. I always aim for 100% rejection because I really don't have control over acceptances. I've also gotten a higher rate of personal rejections so far this year than in years past. This is a good sign. Giving this an On Course 🏃🏻♀️ Short Fiction Writing Goals I was already very much in the weeds on this goal for my last update. Knowing that I was at 3 stories out of 17 at that point. If I had tried to get back on track I should have aimed for either drafting or polishing one story per week since. That's another 17 stories. Well, I was draftintg a novel through the beginning of June and took a writing break in mid-June for two weeks. That wasn't the initial plan, but I'm statisfied with that course anyway. Then I participated in the Clarion West 2023 Write-a-Thon Flash Fiction Groups. My goal was to submit a story to them weekly for the five (5) feedback weeks. I accomplished that! I also ended up writing another novelette in July on top of the poem and flash for the workshop. I've also polished one of the flash stories from the workshop and started its submission journey. All in all, again, I'm satisfied with where this has gone. Giving this a Smelling the Flowers and perfectly fine  Photo by Ray Shrewsberry on Unsplash NovelsQuerying News No good news since my last update. I have all the responses I expect I'll get on my first novel that I queried. I have started querying the second novel as of the end of May. Querying is going faster this time around. For that I'm thankful. Here's hoping for better news next update. Novel Writing and Revision I finished the novel I wrote April - June at about 82,000 words. I plan to let it sit until September (that 90 days that gets thrown around as a suggestion to let novels rest) and pull it out for revision. I'm very happy with that drafting process and that I have something new to work on. Meanwhile, I have seven (7) pieces of flash, short fiction, and poetry to revise and get on the short story submission grind. Ideally I'll finish all of those in the next couple of weeks. I'll update you on if those manage to get finished by the end of the year, let alone this wild goal of 2 weeks. That leaves the 23k novella I wrote in February/March to revise still and the 10k novelette I wrote in July to revise - hopefully by the end of the year. Those sit between short fiction and novels. They won't be queryable, but depending on how things shake out, I will be on another submission path with each of those. That's it! I've been productive in the writing front, and less successful in the acceptances, requests, etc front. Wish me a bit of luck for this last part of the year.  Photo by Autumn Martin on Unsplash MentorshipsIt's an even month, when I usually talk about giving or receiving feedback. I'm going to mutate that into talking about getting mentorship, which may involve getting feedback. Types of MentorshipsThere are multiple types of mentorship programs.
What do you need? What do you want?Free or paid?This post has been edited to add a section on choosing a free or paid program at approximately noon Pacific time on Monday August 14, 2023. "Money flows to the writer" is often heard in writing circles. This is meant to help writers to avoid schmagents and scammy Publishers. In certain fiction circles, one is advised not to pay submission fees and in others, it is standard procedure to pay submission fees. However, paying to attend conferences and workshops is not a part of that particular advice, since those are expected to be improving your craft and not as a direct publication exchange. It does contribute to a "pay-to-play" mindset that we must be careful about. That said, consider your budget for learning and improving your craft and career.
Some of the links below are free to applicants and some have fees. Some cost thousands of US dollars. Other than trying to avoid scams (please comment or email me if I've linked to a scam), I've included both free and paid opportunities below. In this edit, I've marked those that have fees/tuition. Career-type MentorshipsThere aren't that many mentorships that focus solely on your career. Often, career gets lumped into a combined mentorship. For a career mentorship, you already have to have an idea of what you want for your career. Are you a short fiction writer? Novelist? Both? Often you'll have to focus on one per mentorship. What craft advice can you use? This won't come in the form of feedback on your work but rather craft books and other reading for you to learn from. What tools might help you advance your career? A few of these are available through
Craft-type MentorshipsThe most well-known of these was Pitch Wars, where a specific manuscript was selected by a mentor who helped with revising until it was polished for a showcase for agent interest. Many Pitch Wars mentees went on to find agents (with or without their mentor's continued assistance) and a portion of those secured book deals. However, Pitch Wars is no more. In fact, the last couple of years has seen the ending of many similar programs. All of these programs require you have a manuscript or a short story that will be revised and polished during the mentorship with the goal that you'll use the learned revisions tools on your future manuscripts. Find opportunites at
Combined MentorshipsLook for these from
WorkshopsWorkshops can also lead to mentorships. All the in-person and online workshop intensives will require you have a manuscript you submit. You'll often have teachers who will spend time discussing craft in group and sometimes individual settings, along with group critique. These are also given with the idea that you'll take these learned lessons for revising future manuscripts. There are a ton of annual workshops. SFF/H related workshops
Writers GroupsThere is a ton you can learn by joining writers groups. My favorite are Discord groups. Many like Facebook groups or email groups or web forum groups (like Codex). These are not individual focused mentorships, but you might learn a lot about career and craft that you would not have discovered on your own. Keep your eye out for groups that might provide you these oppotunities. Some suggested Discord groups - these link to webpages where you can find the Discord invite:
Please shareThis was not in any way meant to be an all-inclusive list of mentorship opportunities. It is meant to encourage fellow writers to look into mentorship opportunities as ways to improve their careers and crafts. Do you have suggestions on mentorship programs and groups? Please leave a comment!
July might have been rough to follow my short fiction recs. Mastodon was the best place to get my weekday morning suggestions reliably. I started the month on Twitter, but have since abandoned my account. Three weeks ago, I joined BlueSky and have started posting daily there - though without a scheduler, it's a bit random throughout the day. Here are all twenty-three (23) in one place for you
Smokelong Quarterly published Lucy Ignores Death by L. Sorviero in 2020 Princess Shipwreck by Tessa Yang in 2017
The Haunted Tea Set by Sarah Jackson was published at Bone Parade in June.
Egg / Shell by Avi Burton was published by Kaleidotrope. Cossmass Infinities published The Bullet in My Pocket Has Your Name On It by P.A. Cornell in June.
If There's Anyone Left published And Again, We Try by Allison King in 2022. Poignant science fiction story about family immigration decisions. River Mumma Remembers by Tonya R. Moore in June. The Care Giver by Frances Ogamba in 2022. A story about a mortuary worker who sees the ghosts of the bodies he works on.
The Hamster Machine by Andrew Kozma was published by ergot. What happens when you need a lot of hamsters?
Good news first! I've already met my 2023 reading goal! I did meet my reading goal of 15 books in 2022 because my reading slump that started in 2020 finally ended last September. It feels so good to meet my goal half-way into the year. (This was completed as of June 23!) Year-to-date StatsI don't know how to make StoryGraph only give me stats for 3 months (only one or all of a year.) So this includes my first quarter reads as well.  The pie graph says I've been reading adventurous, emotional, and dark stories the most. This is spoilers for my two favorite reads this quarter.  This year I'm primarily a Fantasy reader with a large amount of LGBTQIA* rep. Young Adult (which I write and therefore read) and Science Fiction follow those up.  The spikes in the third month of each quarter intrigues me. I'm not sure why I read more books in those months. Here's to another 24 books! Favorite Reads of the 2nd Quarter 2023Querying!!For months I have wanted to post some advice on querying. You may have already seen the advice I'm going to give. However, I've come across many writers who query without getting up-to-date advice and make mistakes. The worst that happens is the writer gets a form rejection. The best that happens is the rare agent who will tell you what mistake you made so you can improve. But why get rejections when you could be getting requests? GuidelinesAll agents have manuscript wishlists and guidelines. The wishlists may be on their agency agent page, their own website, or on the Manuscript Wishlist website.
Common guidelines include what they want in the query package. It will make your life easier if you have the following already saved in a folder.
Do you follow up?In short, NO! Generally, once your query is off to the agent, you let it be until they respond. There are agents who accept query inquries, but it's rare. Querying has been slow for the past three years. It will take some time for most agents to get back to you. Have patience. Query more agents, write your next book, distract yourself. You got a response, do you follow up?In short, NO! The vast majority of rejections are form rejections. Often personal rejections may not give specific advice for improvement. Emailing the agent or DM'ing via social media to plead for personal response is generally frowned upon. Obviously, if the response is a request or asking for contact, then of course you follow-up! If you have an offer in hand, then nudging (a follow-up) is considered appropriate. In short...Don't have agents be the first reader of your manuscript. Get readers for your manuscript and get feedback before querying. You may be nowhere near ready to query and then you blow your shot. Agents typically frown upon getting second queries on the same story they rejected, even if rewritten. Get feedback on your query package from other querying and recently agented (seriously recently, as in the past year or two) writers who have been around the block. Query using a currently accepted query letter format. There are many blogs and resources on query letter format - but make sure the advice is within the past couple of years. Query following agent guidelines - synopsis the length they ask for, the number of pages they ask for you to send (or none at all if they are query letter only), etc. Response times are long, invest in Query Tracker to have an idea when you might expect a response. Accept the response as given and move on. Get yourself a group of fellow querying writersIdeally, you'll find yourself a group of writers who are querying, who have been querying, who have successfully queried (that means groups with agents authors who stick around and give advice). These groups are a lifesaver and are available on many social media platforms. Good luck! I can't wait to congratuate you on your requests, offers, and announcement of rep!In June I posted twenty-one (21) story for followers to read. Here they are all rounded up! Hibernation Heirloom by Chelsea Mueller was published by The Sunday Morning Transport in June.
Your Inheritance Will Taste of Salt by Karolina Fedyk was published at Fireside in 2019.
Eternal Haunted Summer published Beneath an Unknown Sky by Dawn Vogel in June.
How to Give Helpful FeedbackBe Honest and PositiveGoing back to an earlier post, the best feedback to give and recieve is both Honest and Positive. Again, hat tip to Darren Groth for combining these. To everybody who I critiqued before I learned about the positive portion, I apologize. I assumed you would know that I liked it or felt somewhat positively about it if I didn't say anything. But that's not how that works. And I wasn't receiving positive critiques myself at that time. During that time is when I had an honest = brutal CP and people giving me 1* reviews as though they were being helpful. I was not intentionally being unkind, mean, or nasty. But I wasn't highlighting the things I liked frequently unless I really liked them. It's important to be both honest and positive. This will make sure no one feels like you're dishonest about either the positive things or the things you see need improvement. The writer is benefited in that they have actionable feedback and won't end up delusional about their own work. Use the format agreed upon by both partiesLearn to write a dev edit letter. This is the first way writers will get feedback from editors and getting it early on from beta readers and critique partners will get them used to this format. It also gives you practice developmental editing, which will only improve your own work if you are a writer. If the writer has sent you a list of questions, use the letter to answer the questions. If you have overall statements to make about the manuscript or story, use a dev edit letter to make those statements. However, before sending a dev edit letter, make sure the writer is open to getting it. Make sure they know ahead of time you'll be commenting and/or editing so that they know to expect the comments or edits. This doesn't mean sending them a message right when you start, but if the agreed-upon format is a dev letter, and all of a sudden comments are flying into their inbox or throughout a returned MS, the writer is rightfully mistrustful and possibly taken aback. Are you both verbal/audio communicators and learners? Then have a phone call or a video chat! I, for one, cannot retain anything said over the phone to me. I have some issues with my ears and I have to be in a specific environment free of any other humans or higher cognitive distractions to listen to something I need to learn from. I need to be able to take notes. I cannot take notes on a phone call. I do a little better over video chat. In-person is easy because the person sees me taking notes and will pause. A writer should learn to get used to the workshop format used in many group settings, but make sure it's something you agree upon if you are just you and the writer. Ask Questions and Be Descriptive; Don't be PrescriptiveDescribe your reactions or ask questions. If something is funny or you enjoy it, by all means, point it out! But if something doesn't work for you, don't try to fix it. Ask a question to get their writerly brains going. Describe your reaction - even if it's just a "this isn't working for me." But don't prescribe a correction. I couldn't find a positive framing for this. But overall, I've gone awry when giving prescriptive feedback. That's entirely the reason I got pushback on feedback I gave a writer. It was prescriptive (and wrong.) Your feedback will be equally useless when being prescriptive unless you've already established a relationship where your prescriptiveness is trusted by the writer. Mary Robinette Kowal's Feedback Guide: I'm going to end with MRK's excellent feedback guide. This is a start. The discussion of how to give good feedback should go much deeper than this.
I took a social media break for the first two weeks of May. I only posted thirteen (13) suggested short fiction (plus a nod to my April National Poetry month daily poems.) Enjoy!
Beneath Ceaseless Skies published The Void Door by V.M. Ayala in March.
You Are My Ending by Julie Reeser was published by Little Blue Marble in May. If There's Anyone Left published Sally Mary Henry by ZZ Claybourne in 2020.
Twitter Writing Advice or Listicle Advice or Pithy AdviceAs of the writing of this post, Twitter was dying. Who knows what state it will be in by the time I post this particular blog. But the idea is the same. The idea of Twitter Writing Advice, Listicle Advice, or short, succinct advice is that Writers™ just want a bunch of check-boxes of writing advice that will guarantee their success. To some extent, that may be true. But the advice you get in 280-characters, a list, or without additional context is basically worthless. Example, "Show, Don't Tell"Everyone knows the basic "Show, Don't Tell." Hell, I was taught that as a child in English class about writing having nothing to do with fiction. Where did that advice come from? Well, I've read many interesting suggestions on that ranging from a CIA plot to sway politics via fiction to silent films to Anton Chekhov, a playwright. Quite frankly, none of the sources of these give sources that satisfy my scientist's heart. I have no opinion on the source. My problem lies in how this advice is given. That is, simply and often without anything to actually help a fiction writer grow. Even in the course in which I first heard it didn't really expound upon it usefully. When given as advice, "Show, Don't Tell" is useless. Only give or receive this advice if you're in an hour class in which ways in which discussion of "tell" as important and helpful. Only give or receive this advice if you're in an hour or more class in which you discuss what is meant by "show" without it resulting in purple prose or overblown narration. Only give it if you are prepared to really discuss what "show" means and what "telling" is and how they are not mutually exclusive and can be mutually beneficial. Twitter AdviceMy first gripe in this post is when on a 280-character limited social media someone posts Found 25 instances of "asked" in my MS. Time to get trimming! A writer might walk away from seeing such a post thinking, "is 'ask' a filler word now? Should I be removing dialogue tags of 'asked' from my prose?" The answer is No. No, it is not and no you should not. Why is this person citing "asked" as something to trim? Who knows? They didn't elaborate. They didn't thread. They just tweeted out a person goal that now reads as Writer Advice. Or better yet, actual writer advice! There have been amazing disk horses over such things as "do people frown with their mouths or foreheads?" or "nobody sighs as much as writers think they do." Often this advice is a random person giving advice using their own personal pet peeves as though it is helpful and useful - just like that 1* review on feedback I mentioned before. Personally, I enjoy the pushback on these. But if you miss the pushback, you might think the advice is good.
By definition, micro blogging media such as Twitter or even Mastodon, is meant for short, sweet communication. It does not allow for nuance. I'm not even sure long blogs, such as this, can really get into advice clearly. Because communication is limited. Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for WritingYou've come acrost one or more of these:
When I came back to writing groups after about 15 years of not being apart of fiction writing groups, these pieces of advice were being passed around like candy. I implore you to go back to my first piece of advice. Who is Elmore Leonard to give this advice? He's a writer who had books and short stories published for 30 years before he gained widespread notoriety - in 1985. He was supposedly "one of few genre writers taken seriously by lit circles." LOL, okay. Please let me know if I'm wrong, but based on photographs and when he was writing, he seems like a cis-het-NT-able-bodied-white man. He basically constrained huge amounts of writing to his world view and preferences. Oh. This seems like prescriptive writing advice in a list based upon one writer's personal pet peeves presented as hard and fast rules. Please see above. I'll be honest, I'd never heard the thing about only using "said" as a dialgue tag until 2020. So it wasn't even accepted advice until after this guy died. But I get told "Publishing says..." Did Publishing say? Or have a lot of people in Publishing read this prescriptivist advice, felt the need to present some basis in fact or figures, and have made up that "Readers don't see 'said.'" Can I get a price check on that? Like, how was that determined? My advice...Find a writers group you can trust who will discuss the advice given, so that there is nuance and context. In the group, go through craft books together and discuss the advice with critical eyes and minds. Do not fall prey to pithy Writer Advice without understanding where it is coming from, with good sources. Going back to my first blog post - Who is giving this advice? What's the context of the advice? What's the nuance about this advice? Furthermore, is it prescriptive? Does it improve your writing to follow as just a list? Do you understand the goal behind the advice? Do you understand why the originator gave the advice? I have brought my confusion over advice to one of my writers groups many times, and our discussion has often clarified whether it was something I seriously needed to consider thinking about for my writing, discarding as absolute nonsense, or discarding because it just wasn't effective advice for me.
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