Saturday, February 12, 2011

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update #write1sub1

A week of flash fiction. Whew.

I subbed "A Long Walk to Never" (a riff on Kurt Vonnegut's "A Long Walk to Forever") to Abyss & Apex. Yes, it's a piece of flash fiction.

My first acceptance for a Write 1 / Sub 1 piece came last week: "The Ballad of Arkady and Nadia" will appear in 100 Stories for Queensland. I don't generally sub to non-paying markets anymore*, but I always will for a good cause. I did land two more acceptances this week (funny how these things come in clumps and then nothing for a month or more). "Poe's Blender" (an extension of a Friday Flash I wrote long ago) sold to Death Rattle and "Upon Leaving the Candy Factory" (a weird little thing with candy-making zombies) sold to Bourbon Penn. Both stories were nearing the end of their "lives", so whew.

One final piece of flash news, and then I'm off...three stories of mine have made the cut for The Best of Every Day Fiction 3: "Billy Boy", "How to Burn a House", and "Faith". I'm quite honored to find a place in the volume (TOC mates include Gay Degani, Robert Swartwood, Milo James Fowler, and many more excellent writers). A big thanks to Jordan Lapp and Camille Gooderham Campbell and the rest of the team at EDF for their hard work and finding something in my little stories.

All right...(rolls up sleeves)...I have some editing to do. Happy writing.

*In genre fiction (horror, fantasy, science fiction), there is a quality gap between most non-paying venues and those which pay at least token or semi-pro rates. The markets become more competitive, too, and competition makes us all better (even though it is frustrating at times).

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Proud to share a TOC with you, sir - as well as 90+ fine fellow flashers. Speaking of, I took the same route this week for W1S1. So far, I've been staggering a 5K with a 1K every other week, and it's been working.

Aaron Polson said...

Thanks, Milo. Proud to share that TOC for sure. My longer pieces are languishing in my "edit" file while the flash keep trucking through...

Martin Rose said...

Congrats! Accurate observation, in regards to the non-paying versus semi-pro markets . . .

Katey said...

Congratulations, Aaron! Three pieces, wow. Massive!

Cate Gardner said...

Taking over the world one flash at a time :)

Kara McElhinny said...

Niiiiiice!!

Aaron Polson said...

Thanks, Martin.

Katey - I clogged their inbox last year. ;)

Cate - Always aiming for world domination. (haha)

Thanks, Kara.

Anthony Rapino said...

Hey, congrats again on the acceptances. I also try not to sub to non-paying markets. In fact, I probably hadn't in quite some time until very recently, when I saw a non-paying market reading for a theme that so perfectly fit a story I had in reserve, that I couldn't help myself. And alas, it was accepted.

But I'm with you on this one, I'd rather not sub to non-paying mags. I just wish there weren't so many.

K.C. Shaw said...

Congrats on the acceptances! I predict they will be the first of many this year. :)

Barry Napier said...

Ha. You have more acceptances for 2011 than I have submissions. Well done, sir!

Aaron Polson said...

Thanks, Tony. There are non-paying markets with great reputations, and donating to charity is always a good market in my book.

Thanks, K.C.

Barry - And how many novels am I writing? Oh, yeah...none. ;) It's just give and take.

Simon Kewin said...

Great stuff Aaron and good luck with Abyss & Apex. They're a fine market.