Christmas Backlog Times Are Changing

October, November and December used to be the perfect time to send story submissions to the editors of magazines. Writers are supposed to have other things to do. They’re supposed to be busy with their high-powered day jobs, spending hard-earned credit on presents, and partying so they aren’t in a position to weigh down depressed editors with their 500000 words tomes such as, Harry Trotter, He’s Not At All Like Harry Potter.

The time to spare editors used to be the end of summer, when all those wannabeeJKs return from homes in France with tomes such as, Gone With the Mistral, A Book Not Unlike Gone With the Wind But Set in France. It’s a seasonal thing, but not any more.

Here in Strange Story HQ, a divided packet of chicken chips shared around a single unlit candle invoked the proper spirit of Christmas, and writing continued unabated in the hope of catching the editors in relaxed mood with their feet up, mince pie in hand.

It’s always worked before. Maybe it’s the credit crunch, but during the last festive season, (which started on Oct 30th), I sent out eight submissions. How many responses have I received? Three! And one submission went red on Duotrope last week, indicating a query was due. Now I haven’t had a response to the query. The other editors must still be sitting on top of a pile of emails, or having babies, or both. What is going on?

The Centre of Attention

How do I start a blog about the things I do? Maybe, “Hi, I’m a writer…” Maybe not. The header has links to my satire, and fiction, plus some up-to-date photos, and reviews. This is my new central web site in the form of a blog, and a podcast. You will be able to listen to my podcast shows Friction Fiction and The Riff here. I’m writing fiction, podcasting, singing, songwriting and writing poetry all in different places. This is the first time I’ve tried to pull all my fans together on one site, iandsmith.com. So that’s me, Ian D Smith, or Ian Duncan Smith, which is a mildly amusing name to UK citizens because it’s the same name as the failed ex-leader of the Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, who went out in a blaze of apathy with a terrible speech, “The quiet man just turned up the volume.” Maybe I could change my name to avoid any comparison. But that’s politics. I have three Myspace sites Friction Fiction for the podcast show, The Hexyl Circle and Shedworks for my songs. I blog my Novel at Blogster, and I send out two podcast shows at Libsyn, Friction Fiction, indie Myspace music, and songwriting The Riff. My poetry collection, What You Will See, is available at Gatto Publising. Please look around. I’m writing a second novel, so I’ll be talking about that here. I’m writing songs, so I’ll be publishing those here too. What else? Well, wait and see.

Technorati Profile

My life and stuff

( 147 people are following me....thankyou )

Claudia Feitosa-Santana

Insights about Science and Arts

dlightblog

non potete fare affidamento sui vostri occhi se la vostra immaginazione รจ fuori fuoco (mark twain)

Broken Light: A Photography Collective

We are photographers living with, or affected by, mental illness; supporting each other one photograph at a time. Join our community, submit today!

My Days in Focus

A photographic journal by Dan Miller

BunnyandPorkBelly

life is always sweeter and yummier through a lens. https://www.facebook.com/BunnyandPorkBelly https://twitter.com/BunnyNPorkBelly

Tara Hanks

Author of 'The Mmm Girl' and 'Wicked Baby'

Doli Siregar

Photography

clotildajamcracker

The wacky stories of a crazy lady.

Brad Geagley

Writing Advice and More from the Best Selling Author

Cave Inn

The Xyiwa Poets Run Amok

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 122 other followers