Friday, February 8th 2002 - Golden Goat-Apple Pies
Ah, the importance of a query letter! After much dithering about it, I finally sent off my second polite query letter to Pif magazine, inquiring after "Golden Apples" which I had sent them back in July. Early July. The response I got, two days later, was that they had sent me a letter - informing me that while they enjoyed the story, they couldn't use it at this time - some time ago and they were sorry I never received the notification. I suppose they didn't get my change of email address notification, nor notice the discrepancy the last time I queried, which is why it's a good thing I queried again. Yeah. So, tomorrow it goes out in the mail again. This actually makes me happy; I like movement. I think I'll try one more nice fat, juicy market with this story before I go for the shotgun effect of sending it to every magazine that accepts simultaneous submissions and is looking for "experimental" writing. If I can get $35 a page for it, I might as well give it that chance first, though . . . This week has been an exercise in getting over the flu-plague from hell and catching Tim's new cold. Yay It's so not fair; he doesn't get nearly as sick as I do when he falls ill, and I suspect his immune system of toughening up the virus before it attacks me. In any case, I'm all stuffed up (but somehow with a runny nose at the same time), headachey, dizzy and a little nauseous today. I almost turned around on BART and came home before I even got to work. This is ridiculous. I need to apply for a better immune system. Last night, Tim and I went out for some Vietnamese chow with Mary Anne. Nice time, mostly chatting about the writing business. Once back home, we got into a huge crafty discussion, giving both me and Holly the itch to create something artsy soon. Holly wants to sew. I want to try my hand at coaster/collages. In fact, I got the idea that it would be fun to do some of Tim's poetry instead of my own. I'm a huge fan of his poetry, for one thing, and some of it has great imagery that would work well in such a medium. Plus, it gives both of us a chance to get our name out there through this medium. Speaking of Tim, go read his story Little Gods over at Strange Horizons if you haven't yet. It's an amazing story, definitely one of my favorites of his. And, if my comment in the feedback form offends anyone or seems inappropriate, my apologies. It seemed just as tacky to mention that he's my boyfriend as it did to omit that information. I meant no harm. I'll spare you the rest of my rant on this topic. It's just too bitchy. I got an email from a journal reader today lamenting that she couldn't find a copy of "Goat Girl" on my site, despite the fact that I talk about it so much. Well, the reason you're not going to find any unpublished fiction on my site is because that would *count* as publication, thus making it near about impossible for me to sell it to any major market (or minor one, for that matter). What I can offer you is this: If you read this journal and find yourself really interested in a story I mention, just ask me and see if I'll send it to you. The answer will most likely be yes, you but need ask. Nicely, if you don't mind. The email I got today was somewhat, er, demanding, basically giving me a very stern, lecture in satisfying my audience. Thing is, I think most of my audience understands that this journal is for me first. I love it that you guys read it, I appreciate that quite a bit, but I do hope that you'd be polite when emailing me. As Tim likes to point out, I give you free content. You can at least ask instead of demand. So, if there's a story that I mention in my journal that you would like to read, email me at: gryffyn@there.net and ask nicely for a copy to be emailed to you. My apologies to the 99.5% of my readers who didn't need to hear that lecture about asking nicely. You're the ones I'd most want to read my fiction anyway.	Writing log: See entry. Sent that story out to Gettysburg Review and "Feeding Time" out to the New Yorker. Why not? Current Publications: "How to Suck" reprinted in From Porn to Poetry: Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind I'm currently reading: The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce Northern Gothic by Nick Mamatas Actually, I'm still trying to figure out where Tim stashed after we had it signed last Sunday. Books on Tape (usually while exercising): Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.
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