Sunday, February 28, 2010

A Day in My Life

To my new followers, thank you! Hopefully I'll be entertaining enough to keep you around. If not, you can leave. Promise I'll only cry a little. :-)

In personal news: Evan and I found an apartment! We're signing the lease tomorrow. Funny enough, it's actually an apartment that some friends of ours lived in while we were all in college there; I really liked it then, and I'm thrilled to be moving in to it now. It's probably twice the size of where we currently live and within walking distance to work/school for Evan, which means we're going to be saving a ton of money once he's not commuting 80 miles a day.

I'm going to have an office!

Well, technically I have to share it with Evan, but still. We've had our desks shoved into corners in our living room for 2 years now. I can't imagine what it'll be like to have our very own room dedicated to our computering ways. We even bought a 17-inch TV at Goodwill yesterday to go in there (for 18 bucks!) because Evan can't function without a TV while he plays on his computer. :-)

First month's rent is free, which means that we can start moving now. Evan has Spring Break next week; I think we're going to get the moving truck and do the monster move then, and in the meantime he's going to shuttle boxes up every day when he goes to work.

Of course, this means I'm going to be here packing. Ugh.


In writing news:

Well, not much to report here. Ever since I finished my short story, I haven't written a thing.
I've had 3 people give me feedback, including our very own DL, from Cruising Altitude. His critique was insightful, thoughtful, and very helpful! I'm sure you all follow him already, but if for some reason you don't, you need to! He's a great addition to the blogosphere.

I'm still researching magazines that I might want to submit the story to once it's all pretty and polished up. I've been taking notes from Duotrope and am getting a good idea of where I want to start. Just for kicks and giggles, I wrote down the acceptance/rejection rates of the ones I'm interested in. And yes, most of these are speculative fiction mags, because that's what I figure my story is closest in genre to, so some of the names are pretty funky! all following stats are from Duotrope

  • Kaleidotrope: 18.52% acceptance, 74.07% rejection 
  • On Spec: 6.25% acceptance, 90.63 rejection
  • Three-Lobed Burning Eye: 2.99% acceptance, 89.5% rejection
  • GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator: 1.35% acceptance, 95.18% rejection
  • Shimmer: 1.07% acceptance, 97.38% rejection 
  • Weird Tales*: 0.94% acceptance, 94.38% rejection
  • Strange Horizons: 0.75% acceptance, 97.01% rejection
I forgot which one this was, but I think the lowest acceptance rate I saw was 0.28%. Pretty encouraging, huh?

*Weird Tales is my #1 pick, kinda like submitting to The New Yorker or Harper's for spec fiction. Mostly because my fantasy idol Ray Bradbury got his start there. :-)

Anyway, the lower the acceptance rate, the more I want to submit. Is that totally masochistic or what? I'm excited about starting the submitting process, even though I still have some revision to go.


Simon's post yesterday mentions writing erotica for $$. I checked out the website and was instantly intrigued! Especially by the link called Smutters Lounge! I doubt I'd share any of this with my mom, but I have no problem writing erotica. Maybe it's my calling...

EDIT: I was looking around on the ERWA website and ran across this article. It may be in an erotica forum, but trust me--it has meaning for all of us.


Blogging might be touch-and-go for a couple weeks, but let's be serious: I really doubt it. Just covering my butt either way.

Ciao, February! Aloha, March!

20 comments:

Hannah said...

Congratulations on the new apartment!! I love that feeling when you walk into a place and know instantly that you would love to live and plant all your stuff there. That's how I felt when I got my place. I hate packing. Good luck!! Drink beer or wine while packing, it'll go by faster. ;)

sarahjayne smythe said...

Congrats on the apartment and good luck with the packing. And, uhm...good luck with the erotica if that's what calls to you. :)

Lisa Miles said...

Congrats on the new apartment. It's so exciting to move. We just bought a house (we close Wed.) and I'm finally getting my own writing office after five years of being in our bedroom!

Anne Gallagher said...

Cogratulations! That's great news about the apartment. And yeah, an 80 mile commute. Been there done that. I wouldn't worry about the writing unitl you finished moving. You don't need to add any more stress. It'll be better for you when everything is in its new home.

Shelley Sly said...

Congrats on the apartment! The new office will be great for you. My husband and I are moving too, in July. Not looking forward to packing everything up. Best of luck with the move!

Anonymous said...

Ha! Er... I wonder whether I should be proud of inspiring that idea, good lady. Yes. I've decided that I am. Good luck! :)

Summer Frey said...

Thanks, everyone! I'm mostly concerned about my packing/moving ability when I can only lift 1 pound with my right hand...

Simon, you should be proud. Especially if I actually go through with it, and then most especially if I actually sold any. Then I'd hope you'd try it out too. :-)

Unknown said...

Yay to new followers! Yay for new apartments! Yay for your very own office *shared or not*

Sounds like a fantastic weekend!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the apartment & getting an office. That is way cool. Now about romance, it's a huge business. If you can write it, go for it!

Dread Pirate Lainey said...

Congratulations [again]!

I am a little envious of your office space. Kalin and I definitely can't wait to get into a bigger house to have an office!

I promise I'll get my critique to you soon! Wednesday is the magical day!

Kimberly Franklin said...

YAY for your new apartment and your new office! Good luck with your move! : )

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad you're getting an office. And I confess - either the TV or my stereo is going whenever I'm in front of my computer. Maybe it's a guy thing.

Those percentages are daunting! Where did you find the stats on the magazine's acceptance/rejection percentages?

And thanks for following my blog!

Andrea Coulter said...

Ooh a home office! I am drooling; I have only a desk in my bedroom.

The magazine percentages are rough, but hey--the smaller the acceptance rate, the more you can celebrate when they eventually accept you, right? Good luck with the move, and with writing :)

amanda h. said...

so awesome about the apartment! and look at you go with the blogging, i love it!! happy packing :)

Anissa said...

The new apartment sounds fab! Yay for an office. :) I write on my bed. LOL!

Enjoy the move.

Berlin said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Congratulations on the apartment!! I've been married for nearly fourteen years now, so it seems like ages ago that we were in the same boat as you guys. But I look back pretty fondly. I'll never forget our first apartment. Happy packing!

By the way, I followed you over from Simon's blog :) I'm now a follower.

Sarah Ahiers said...

oooh fun times ahead!
And now i want to go play around on duotrope

Summer Frey said...

Thanks all! I'm still super excited about it. We've been in this place since we got married, so it'll always have special memories, but I'm NOT going to miss it!

Donna Gambale said...

Congrats on the apartment! I'm currently househunting, and I can't wait til I'm all done with the hunting part and up to the house part!