"Wings" to be Featured in Nocturnal Lyric #69

In late 2007 and early 2008 I went on a short story submissions bender. In reality, I should probably be submitting my work like this all of the time, but I get lazy or I focus on longer projects and the submissions inevitably begin to taper off shortly after the initial round’s rejections come filtering back in. Poor work habits, I know.

Two of my manuscripts never made their way back and while organizing a new manuscript tracking method this morning I decided to contact both publishers to see what might have happened. One is a website called East of the Web, and I believe I’ve contacted them before about my manuscript. I can’t be certain, because my original tracking software declared mutiny on me and destroyed all of my data (and refuses to read the backup), but I do believe I’ve queried them within the past half year to find out what has happened to my submission. Today I contacted them again and let them know that I consider their silence a rejection sans notification and will be submitting my piece elsewhere.

The other publisher is a small press horror magazine called The Nocturnal Lyric. They were my first publication credit, printing a story I wrote called “Last Hope” back when I was eighteen. I still have my contributor’s copy on my shelf. They really have a special place in my big, gooey, dorky heart.

My story “Wings” has been on their desk since March of 2009, right as their reading deadline was looming. I wasn’t even sure when I mailed it if I was going to make the cutoff or not, and today I decided to contact Susan Moon, the editor, to find out the fate of my story. When I went to their website, I discovered that they no longer send out rejection or acceptance letters, or at least haven’t for the recent handful of issues, and that “Wings” would be in their upcoming issue.

It’s been up for three months and I never thought to check. This notification was dated February 19th, the day before my last day of work for my old employer. What a strange weekend that whole time period was.

I’m looking forward to seeing myself in real ink and paper print again. It’s a place I haven’t been in a while.