It has been about 45 days since I sent out the last batch of stories. I have three left out that have not yet been rejected so I am getting antsy. SH, by my stats, sends out rejects on Thursdays, so tomorrow I will have a pretty good story with one reject attached to it and I’ll need a new place to send it. The other two stories are dogs and I’ll probably re-trunk them.

There was a note on the Heinlein website that they would announce (over a year late) the winners of their story contest in August. I wish I had entered a stronger story, but all the good ones have been published.

I wrote a new story yesterday afternoon that I like. I have been reading Damon Runyan on the bus and wrote a Runyonesque story, but it uses a Nigerian setting rather than New York (very odd humorous story about 419 scammers). It is a good story, but I have no idea where it would fit in. It will sit on my disk a while. It is neither action packed or dark so there are precious few places to send it.

I calculated that F&SF gets upwards to 10,000 submissions a year in its slush pile and accepts only a couple of these stories that whole time. The other pro markets show similar if not worse stats. I have to think outside the box and find a good home for my stories outside the usual markets.

My critters submission is now up and I expect that I will be receiving some crits on it soon. The quality and nature of the critiques will determine if I wish to continue with them.