Write1Sub1--Month 8: August

While still officially a W1S1 monthly (committed to writing at least 1 new story per month and submitting 1--old or new), I've been aiming to do at least 2 per month. But due to July's inspiring results, I silently aimed to equal its short story output in August (4 new stories written and subbed).

With at least 5 contests/anthologies I was interested in submitting to, I thought for sure I'd be able to get at least 3 new pieces done. Which I did!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to submit to 2 of the markets I wanted to submit to the most:

Uncle John's Flush Fiction & Dagan Books: Fish Anthology--the former because I waited 'til the last minute then couldn't make the submission deadline because they only took postal subs which I noticed too late, the latter because I couldn't get an ending together to the piece I'd been working on for it. I figured out a sort of ending on Sep-1--too late for the deadline and to count for August, but hey--I'm already officially done with my September W1 (although the ending still needs some work).

Anyway, of the 3 new stories, one initially ended @ about 1300 words but grew to 1700 before the month was done, the second remained a flash story @ 1200 words (the zombie girl idea) and I ended up submitting it to one of the other anthologies I really wanted to submit to. The 3rd, a short story ending @ 3600 words--one of my favorite stories of the year so far: a fantasy/sci-fi tale around a circus.

Still, Redstone's Identity Crisis contest failed to inspire me, and Penumbra's call for submissions regarding The Arts inspired me a little but not enough (I struggled with a still-unfinished half-baked story) so I missed 4/5 markets I'd been keeping an eye on and thought had such potential.

Oh well--sometimes deadlines inspire me to 'git 'er done' fast, sometimes they freeze me and I get absolutely stuck 'til its too late.

Still, there are several contests/anthologies with September or early October deadlines I'm keeping in mind and can either submit something older to or write something new for:

- Penumbra: Sports/Games theme (pro-market)- due 09/15

- BayCon Program (pro-market)- due 09/15

- On the Premises: Myths & Legends (semi-pro to pro)- due 09/30

- Enchanted Conversation: Red Riding Hood (pro-market)- due 09/30

- Wily Writers: Lovecraftian Horror (semi-pro to pro)- due 09/30

- Tin House: Weird Science (pro-market)- due 10/01

- Rainstorm Press: Mutation Anthology (semi-pro)- due 10/01

- Literary Landmark: Poe Anthology (pro-market)- due 10/01

Wait--what am I doing here? 8 and most of them pro-paying? I better get back to writing/plotting!

To be honest, I already have something I can send to about half of these and just have to decide what goes where (and hope some pieces currently out come back with a response in time).

Well, let's see how many of these deadlines I can make!

I hope to finish at least 3 new pieces by the end of this month regardless.