Space-walking

Bought a new laptop computer to get me out of the home office and now I'm limited in my writing space by the (a) amount of time my battery lasts or (b) the length of my extension cord. Can you see the 150-foot orange cable snaking down the hill through the pine trees to the little clearing?

But now that I've accomplished that little act of freedom, I need more desperately to learn to find places to submit my little short stories while I wait for compensation to arrive from my soon-to-be published novel. Getting the shorts published is only a matter of finding the right house--just like getting a ride when hitchhiking. Of course, I want to find a good ride, not the back of a pig truck. I'd prefer a couple hundred dollars to five or ten, but you get to a point, you know, when you figure you can make a few pig friends for a free ride.

So that's my goal: to find more places to submit work for pay and to submit any of three fictions I've been working on lately and at the very least make back my subscription to writersmarket.com.

Bob/bfdc

Alright, Bob!

Hey, you can get a 150-foot indoor/outdoor extension cord at Walmart for about $25. Now all you need in the clearing is a table and comfy chair (a coffee maker wouldn't hurt, either). Great goal, thanks for sharing! Let us know how it goes! :thumbs

Melina

Haven't exactly broken down fences with this goal. It's hard to find time to send stuff out and then to get things together to send out, and then when you send it out, you have to wait so long sometimes to get a "thanks, but no thanks."

On the good side, I have had three micro-flashes accepted at FlashShots (flashshot.tripod.com). No pay, but it only takes a few minutes to write a micro-flash, and it's fun to have your name going out to people's mailboxes. Maybe somebody will be so impressed with my Christmas rat story, they'll buy my mutant bug thriller.

Bob/bfdc

I'm right there with you. Months and months spent waiting for a "Close, but no cigar." Close is good, just not good enough.

Christmas rats and mutant bugs, huh? I read the blurb about your book on Amazon, and it sounds scary. Guess I'll have to pick it up...

Keep plugging away, Bob, and so will I. Maybe the new year will bring publishing success.

Melina

***

Good news, Melina. Plugging away works. I've had a short story published by Buddy Tales (buddytales.writerbuddy.com) in its premiere issue this month, and a flash story to be published in Chick Flicks ezine's (ee.1asphost.com/fwbw/ezine_index.html) February 15 edition. Buddy Tales even pays, though I'm not sure when.

I've had a major writer agree to read Thrips and he's liking it. Hoping for a blurb for the second printing, if I get that far. Got lots of good reviews on amazon and B&N, so that's nice, too.

Had an editor ask me to do a chapter for an upcoming book on writing, so that might be nice, too, when it comes out, especially if it sells a million copies. (Let's see, ten percent divided by eighteen writers, point zero--ah, who cares, it's something.)

But the best thing is getting stuff accepted after so many months of rejections. Sure, the rejections hurt, but it makes the acceptances that much better when they come.

Still planning to keep to at least two submissions a month to paying pubs. Got myself in online college, and everything's working out pretty good. Really an up day.

Bob/bfdc

Hey, Bob, that's great news! Sounds like you've got a lot to keep you busy. Glad to hear you're keeping up with your goal of subbing 2-a-month. That's the ticket, huh? Keep at it and it pays off. Good for you! Looking forward to reading your stuff!

Melina

***

J.A. Konrath blurbs Thrips

The major writer (J.A. Konrath www.jakonrath.com ) gave me an excellent blurb, which I wasted no time in plastering all over my Web sites at www.LRFarley.com and www.BobFarley.com . Here's what he said:

"Farley has written a techno-thriller with teeth! Part rollicking adventure, part mutant insect mayhem, Thrips will make your heart race and your skin crawl. L.R. Farley is a writer to watch."
-J.A. Konrath, author of Bloody Mary
Pretty cool, I thought, for a busy guy to do.

And I only had to bug him three times to get him to agree to read the book.

Bob/bfdc