Simultaneous or Bust

My submissions have been sent out into the world.
Yesterday, I tried four Kinko’s copiers until I scored and found a decent one. Last night I printed cover notes, stapled, sorted, SASE’d, and addressed envelopes. There was a satisfying stack at the end of this—made smaller by the few magazines that now accept online submissions—and I [...]

Submission Avoidance

I am trying not to think about the pages I sent off in the mail this morning. To whom. For what. To what end. I can’t let my thoughts linger on them because I have been known to get swept up, up, and away, and then the fall is that much harder. I won’t talk [...]

Birthday Letters

Dear Oral Surgeon About to Extract My Mother’s Teeth This Morning:
You will have your drill in her mouth at the very minute I was born. She called to warn me last night. She is in such pain, and this is the only time her appointment could be scheduled—though she felt bad that it would occur [...]

The Mailbox

I had been home a half hour when E asked me if I had picked up the mail from the box downstairs. I bolted upright on the couch. The mail? I had no memory of getting the mail when I passed the mailbox, but how could I have passed the mailbox without getting the mail?!
I [...]

Something to Make Me Laugh

I came home to a rejection letter in the mailbox. This one to a short story. Which one, who knows, I haven’t checked yet. Anyway, it’s one of those tiny little slips, like they squeezed as many as they could onto one sheet of paper and cut it up again and again. The standard “Thank [...]

The Nothing

This is my inbox:
And staring at it does nothing to help.

Always Close, Never a Cigar

I have asked E to block unexpected rejection letters, as he’s the one who usually gets to the mailbox first. He’ll hide them somewhere in the apartment to bring out at times when my skin is thicker, when I can handle hearing the continuous chorus of No’s a little better.
Early this [...]

To Do: No-Box

Another short story rejection came today. Just one of those thin photocopied slips without even a name on it. No return address on the envelope. (And they had this story 5+ months.) Whatever.
At some point at some nameless future date when I feel more secure in my footing, I’ll put together a “No-Box” for all [...]