No email yet…

The email isn’t here yet. I just checked.

Should I check again?

OK.

Nope. Still nothing there.

Wait! Spam folder!

Nope. Just spam.

How come I haven’t heard from those publishers I sent to weeks or months ago with short stories?

It’s really ridiculous. Stupid, even. It’s not like I don’t have other things going on. I currently have that novel coming out in March. I have eight other short stories that have been accepted and will be published coming up. (And I’ll be announcing those as more information becomes available about those anthologies and magazines!) Between all that, you’d think I could concentrate on just writing.

But noooooooooooo!

See, my goal when not working on a novel or similar large project is to write, polish, and submit a short story twice a month. That means at any given time I’ll have between ten and twenty short stories out at various publishers for consideration. Some of those I don’t honestly expect to ever get published unless it hits someone just right. Others are favorites that I am dying to get published.

That means that even when I’m working on a novel (as I currently am), there are other stories I’m waiting to hear back about.

I go through phases on this. Sometimes I’ll be living life and not thinking about it at all. Other times I’m too busy concentrating on the current work in progress.

But then… then it hits.

And I’m all like, “But I haven’t heard from them in 28 days, and it says they’ll reply in 30! So they should send me an email ANY SECOND NOW.”

Refresh the inbox.

Still nothing there.

Disappointed sigh. Eyeroll from my wife.

And thus it goes.

I don’t know if there’s a point when authors get past that. I suspect for me it will always be a phase I cycle through, though I hope it comes less often.

Though on the plus side, it shows I’m still excited about this whole process. It’s not, “Yeah sure, another rejection, another acceptance, woo.” It’s, “I can’t wait to find out!” And that eagerness, I suspect, is really a good thing in the long run. After all, it’s hard to create quality work for something you’re not excited about at some level.

So, I guess I’m still excited about this writing thing.

And that definitely is a good thing.