Jinked

After taking my car to get the oil changed, its brakes looked at, and then replacing some holdy-thing that keeps my muffler from dragging on the ground and shooting off sparks against hot pavement, I spent a few hours researching a variety of literary magazines. Last week I had jotted down a small list of potential places to send works while at the library. I have to say, as high-brow as some of these publications are, their websites leave much to be desired.

There were a notable exceptions, however: Literal Latte and Fiction Magazine which while they aren’t the epitome of awesome design (but I guess that’s subjective as well), it is still a hell of a lot better than this. Seriously. Why even have a website if it’s going to look like stinky, unreadable poo on a 1990s background, with unreadable font, and Lorem Ipsum dummy text on your submission page? I don’t want to take them seriously at all.

I’m surprised American Short Fiction isn’t touting something extra-sleek given how notable and high-brow that place is. Some really good fiction though, and I guess that’s the whole point. I am craving sample copies and back issues from a few of these places.

So we shall see. Get more familiar with the publications, that’s the first order of business. If some feel like a fit for some of my work, then I go for it. I’m not wanting to undergo some mad carpet-bombing mission or anything. Just a few places that take simultaneous submissions. Maybe make some new, shorter works (given that “Will” is about 6,000 words) and see where they can possibly find a home.

Hardly any of the places pay, and even the ones that do, it’s not a lot. (I can make more working minimum wage at McDonalds in a day here in NW Indiana, I’m sure.) However, I will take the publication notch on my belt. It will make finding an agent for novel representation a bit less stressful… I hope.

In other news, I’ve dug out my old voice recorder. In the spirit of my brother, I’m going to use it to record dreams. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of doing that sooner. I can record all my dreams, and not just the lucid ones. With audio I just reach for the recorder, flip it on in the dark and babble away. Before I would have to get out of bed, turn on a light, look for my glasses, sit down, and then write for a half hour. Audio is definitely more convenient.

This will be a fun little project: dream audio archives!