The fate of literary magazines

I'm sad. While working on submissions I thought I would check out the latest theme for Writer's Post Journal, the literary magazine that published my interview gone wrong story, Sweaty Palms, over a year ago.

When I got to their site I found they are out of business. I feel bad for them. I always said that if a magazine would publish me I'd get a subscription. Unfortunately, their yearly price was in the $100 range so I settled for buying a few different issues, not to mention a few of the issue with my story. Of course, now I wish I had bought more of both. Not only to help out a literary magazine but also because now I'll never be able to buy more of the issue with my story.

It's discouraging that this is the fate of a lot of small literary magazines that are one of the few places a fiction writer can get a start.

Well on the topic of things gone wrong, visit my livejournal for a great story on how I won't have to worry about sweaty palms at a job interview anytime in the near future.

Now available!

What a day!
I finished my part of chapter 5. Now I'm working on the first part of chapter 6. The reason that we're only doing part is because 5 kind of ends in a mini-cliff hanger.
I'm real excited about working on this. I keep thinking of hilarious things to put in. One of them is inspired by a Pussycat Dolls' video. It involves stripper moves and what else, a Naugahyde curtain. Yep! It's just that wacky!
The part that I'm writing for chapter six will involve a lot of superhero inspired maneuvers, a battle between a smart woman and an arrogant boy, plus a poster of a naked body part.
I hope I'm getting some suspense built up.

Okay onto my other big news. It is now available. The September 2006 Issue of Writer's Post Journal is now available through LBF books. I will be adding the link to my side bar. A few words of warning to anyone who may want to actually by it. First is that it's not my typical kind of story. It's funny( I think) but it's not superheroes, action, adventure, sci-fi. The next is that the magazine cost $9 plus $2.50 postage and the story is flash fiction. While I would love for many to buy it I realize it's quite pricey for such a short story so I won't be mad if no one buys it. Of course just because my story is short it is filled with lots of other fabulous stories and it will help support a small literary magazine that makes dreams come true for writers.

Currently watching: The Jaws marathon on AMC. Not 1, 2, or 3 but 4 Jaws movies, in a row.

Sweaty Palms are not so bad!

Normally the horrible heat and the not-so-happy moments in my life would be really keeping me down. I've been trying to keep a positive attitude and tonight I just started complaining about how things suck.
Then I checked my e-mail. It was not a rejection notice my friends, it said "accepted". My work has been selected to appear in the September issue of Writer's Post Journal.
I submitted my job interview gone bad story, Sweaty Palms, for the September issue that had a theme of jobs/work/opportunities.
The magazine can only be purchased on-line but it is a real magazine, not an e-zine. The issue will be out in September and I'll post a link then.

I actually wrote the story as a short-short for a creative writing class assignment. And it's written in second person. Crazy, I know. I was inspired by my job interview for the job I have now. It was in September so it was still hot and I remember my palms were sweating like mad when I had to shake my bosses' hand. Then in the interview he made a comment about what not to wear and I was wearing it. I really didn't think I would get the job. I did but I thought about what else could have gone wrong and then kept elaborating until I had this story. When my creative writing teacher didn't put a bunch of horrible comments on it I thought it might be worth sending out.

I'm so excited!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope that Christmas has gone well for everyone. Mine has been great! I thought long and hard about what to get my faithful readers for Christmas. I gave my live journal readers fabulous holiday photos, but what about my blog readers? Since this is about my journey in writing, I should post some work. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten anything new done in a while, but I did come up with a good idea. Here is the link to the second story I had published in Pandora's Gate. I promised it a while ago and finally searched for it today, just for you.
http://paperdragonink.com/november_issues.htm. Click on the issue with my name in the credits to read "Double Take 2: Sophomore Year", or don't , whatever. Sorry it isn't better but it's creative and free. What do you expect from a struggling writer? Maybe I'll post some new work for a belated gift if I get as much work done in my week off as I plan to.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

It's been awhile.

I know it's been nearly two weeks since I posted. I'll keep my explanation short by saying AOL sucks and I'm working on getting a cable modem (for further details visit www.livejournal.com/users/ashlucsha ). With that out of the way let me tell everyone what's up.

Sadly, I did not finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I do intend to but it did not get finished in the month of November. I failed this year but all is not lost because I still have a near finished novel. FYI, since I did not get the opportunity to update the NaNoWriMo website, my final word count for the month of November was 41610.

On the much brighter side I mentioned a bit ago that I wrote a sequel to "Double Take" my superhero duo story that was published in Pandora's Gate, a Paper Dragon Ink production. I sent the sequel off to them and it got published last week. Hurray! I'm having trouble locating it on the web thanks to my current old school access. When I get it I'll post it or you can go to www.paperdragonink.com and search around.

My final project for class is due next week. It's a portfolio that must include one short story, one scene, a short-short, 2 free verse poems, a prose poem and a reflective essay. I guess we know what I'll be doing all week. When we go to turn them in we have to stay and practice rhyme and meter poetry. I'll try to contain my excitement.

My first article(s)!

Well, I was going to show you my first bit of publicity, but I can't get the image to down load so you're just out of luck. (If someone actually wants to see it leave a comment and I'll send it in an e-mail) Sorry! My first article for the Lansing Community College paper, The Lookout, was also published in the same issue as the article about me.

Aside from that, I have been working on a short story for my creative writing class. That's due Thursday and I've got one out of at least eight pages done.

I also started a sequel to my previously published story "Double Take", since it was about two college freshmen super heroes, now they are sophomores. I will probably send it to Pandora's Gate, which published the first. We'll see when it's finished.

Now I'm having some readers take a look at my comic script so I can edit it. I also start my next article for the paper this week and will keep writing reviews, which have fortunately gotten somewhat easier. Of course, I will keep sending out my minimum of five submissions a day.

I am still waiting to hear back on my movie script and my sci-fi/western. That's not unusual though. It's artists trying to make a living have to put the paying job first.

'Lookout' for the next issue!

Last Thursday, I had an interview with a fellow Lookout reporter about my interest in writing comics. Today, I also had my photo taken to accompany that article in the next issue. The same issue that should feature my first article that I wrote for the Lookout. So needless to say I'm a little excited and as always a little worried about how things will turn out for me.

Now I'm just spending a lot of time editing and sending out submissions trying to figure out what my next project should be. I definitely think I want to write something in the comic book genres. I'm just not sure what. Do I start another comic or write some super-hero, sci-fi stories? I'll keep you posted.

Exciting News

Okay let me first start by apologizing. I am very new to blogs and I think I messed mine up already. My first original post keeps appearing and you have to go to archives to find my latest post. I don't know how I did that, but hopefully this one works better.

So now for the exciting news. About a year ago I submitted Double Take, a short story to a new web zine called Paper Dragon Ink. The editor said he liked it and sent some changes, I made them and returned them. And didn't hear back. However, I still get issues sent to me and checked them out to support others for a while. But I hadn't been doing so lately. Well yesterday while trying to figure out how I messed up my journal here the new issue arrived in my mail box.
And my name is in the contents. YES! You heard me right. I have gotten my first published works. I encourage everyone to go to www.paperdragonink.com and check it out. Go to introduction, then back issues, May 16th. And check out their website it really is cool for writers and artist trying to get some publishing experience.
Well that's my exciting news. They must have ran out of better stuff to publish. But I'm thrilled no matter what.