“A Poor Self-Image” was recently rejected from Fail Better (www.failbetter.com) and “Cryptic Coloration” was sent back from Ideomancer (www.ideomancer.com).
Oh, well.
“A Poor Self-Image” may end up being too heavy-handed to sell, considering the message it’s pushing. I didn’t really want to tell the story like that, with a moral nicely baked in the center, but it was the only way I could write it that included everything I wanted. A rejected reflection only comes about from one of a few things, most of which are going to sound cheesy when put down in writing.
“Cryptic Coloration,” though, I’m very fond of. I can go back and read that any number of times. It was my first attempt at Magical Realism, and though there’s not much in the way of an exciting plot (and zero in the way of real conflict), I felt a sense of accomplishment when I finished it. It was a delight to write. Only now, during the submissions process, I’ve come to realize that this story really doesn’t meet any genre criteria. I might have to go the way of literary magazines to find a home for this one. It’s not horror at all, nor science fiction, and it could only be categorized as fantasy in the loosest of senses. Ideomancer requires a genre to pigeonhole the story in, and gives you a list to choose from, so I picked “slipstream.” I’m not even sure that was accurate, to be honest.
So now I have four or five stories I need to shop out again, and two I’m waiting on hearing back about still.
Back to the Post Office I go.
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