Just worked my way through 113 e mails, quite liked this one đ Hi David, Thank you for submitting your work to XXX, and our apologies for taking so long to provide you with a response. We were saving the acceptance emails until last. Yes, congratulations! We’d love to publish your story, pending the editorial […]
Perhaps I exaggerate slightly. On making my way through the latest edition, I came across the following: Next Issue Aurealis appears ten times a year. Every month except January and December. The next issue, Aurealis #68 will be published in March 2014 featuring: âIcarusâ by Tara Calby and âAvoiding Gagarinâ by David Stevens I knew […]
I thought that it must have been International Burns Day with the victims on parade, their different scars on display. Marks I had not seen before. Hair up, showing pigmentless flesh below the ear. Flashmark along the arm. Puckered skin running down the rear of a shoulder. Are these the marks that all lives leave, […]
News of the bus misadventure high in the Canutes caused me to reflect on an incident from my school days. Those of a certain age will remember the tightening of the local school curriculum, when a scientific fine tooth comb was drawn through the hippy length hair of what in those days passed for the […]
I ranted commented previously about one line dismissals of stories, and how hard it can be to work out what they mean. I am such a hypocrite. I get another one line critique with a rejection and I am very happy about it. I like the mood this piece evokes, but overall I felt it […]
The real reason to write fiction, after all, isn’t to make money, nor to show the human heart in conflict with itself, nor to give a picture of one’s time, nor to call attention to the plight of any oppressed classes, but to show off. You want to be able to say to visitors, “Sit […]
Hello David, Congratulations! Your story âAvoiding Gagarinâ has been accepted for publication … That makes me a very happy old builder. Second acceptance for the month … year … century … Details to follow …
Dear David Stevens, Thank you for sending us “Good Boy”. We love it and would like to publish it … No, thank you!! Big smile! The things that get us through the day.
The world does not need this blog. It is not about huge successes, it is about dreams and memories and scratching away. Â It is about little things, like rejection slips and kid’s nightmares. Â Still, I have to be professional. Â It does not do to encourage further rejection by blogging about how many times a particular […]
The world of rejection slips is probably more impersonal than it ever was, now that form letters have been replaced by form e mails. Â As a person who is able to work out what people were thinking by the way they placed a stamp on an envelope, (I have a story about that somewhere), I […]
Nobody is looking 