Well, I said I would post here every two weeks, and it’s been three. Okay, so I lied. Excuses: family, arthritis, gardening, watching soccer (Allez Pumas!!! http://kitsapsoccerclub.com/), and being involved in a vehicle collision.
Though shaken and overdosing on adrenalin, I emerged unhurt, but my car did not, and I was reminded yet again of how many people these days are unemployed, homeless and broke by the fact that the driver of the elderly, and heavy, Ford truck that smooshed my poor little Corolla was all three, and thus uninsured. Luckily we have good insurance.)
My final, painful admission—I can’t call it an excuse—is that sometimes I just love reading more than I love writing. Scottish novelist Kate Atkinson writes brilliant thrillers, rich in humanity, intelligence, wry comedy, general wackiness and unexpected twists. I’ll review them one day. Georgette Heyer’s romantic comedies comfort me when I need soothing—as I did after the crash; ditto for Agatha Christie’s mystery novels, especially those from the 1950s and 60s, when she was at the top of her game.
My sense of guilt is somewhat ameliorated the fact that I have recently finished a strong revision of my story Joy (I posted an early draft of the first part here a few months back) which in fact turned out to be a novelette. At about 10,000 words, it’s substantially longer than most short stories but a bit underweight as a novella—in itself a rather difficult form to sell.
Sell it, however, I am trying to do, because I’m bloody proud of it! The founder of my critique group, Randy Henderson (http://www.randy-henderson.com/) was kind enough, though a speculative fiction writer himself, to send me a list of likely magazines and/or contests for mid-length literary fiction, and I’ve put some time into researching some of them. Here are the results, not definitive, certainly, but giving some hint as to where they’re at:
Alaska Quarterly Review (under 50 pages) – read unsolicited mss (paper, no email) Aug 15 – May 15
A Public Space – (online, very odd)
Carpe Articulum Novella Contest (up to 150 pages) – ($25 fee)
The Collagist – open submissions; also chapbook contest
Drue Heinz Literature Prize (up to 130 pages) requires having had novel published (print)
Failbetter – regular submissions (also novella contest, May 15 deadline)
Glimmer Train (short story award for unpublished writers; submit in May – I did. Fiction Open, up to 20,000 words, submit by email in June)
Miami University Press Novella Contest (18,000 – 40,000 words)
Narrative – diff size MS, $22 fee, big money for winners
Novella Project (25,000 – 35,000 words)
Paris Review – rather prissy, paper subs only
Quarterly West (not regular submissions — only for novella contest)
Quattro Books (Canadian, 15,000 – 42,000 words)
Seattle Review (40 – 90 pages)
Southern Humanities Review (up to 15,000 words) open email submissions – looks promising
Texas Review – paper only, submit Sept thru April