You will forgive me for not reporting the rejections I receive, because that is also happening during all of this, but the close of this crazy week brings my third offer of publication from a lit mag., which officially puts me in “beyond my goals” territory. The story is “The Staring Man” and it will be published in the weekly-updated on-line hub Subtle Fiction. July 23rd is the date they have penciled-in, but I know these things can scooch around.
So three of the batch of six I scattered out there in the last two weeks have been picked up, and three are still in the running. In spite of this week’s astonishing run of success I think that the odds are pretty long against all six finding a home. One of the remaining stories is “Bubbles”, which has been rejected all over the place – I think I’m falling into a version of the Uncanny Valley problem with that one, because it looks close enough to being a traditional story that expectations are set for a traditional story and then not fulfilled, while its imaginative/non-traditional elements are enough on the subtle and gentle side that they don’t light up the experimental part of readers’ brains. It’s similar in a lot of ways to “Tourist Trap”, although that one had much more overtly dream-like language.
Still – much to celebrate. And Picasso opens tonight as well!