Go Allyson!

By the way, I should make it very clear that I am completely usurprised at the agent wanting to read Allyson's work. What made me jump was the speed of it. Dayum, that first bite was quick!

I know! My, Allyson, you must be "now" or something! Go you!

I sent out about a third of the essays. Keep telling myself that the best to hope for is maybe some good feedback on why it blows.

If things work out better than that, think how surprised I'll be!

Seriously, I was up until 1am, trying to talk myself into sending it.

wow...well, I loved the Wedding Tree one you sent me.

That's the thing: there is no down side to sending to an agent as requested. If you want it published, it's the first step; if you're OK with just getting useful feedback, even a rejection can be useful in helping you make it better.

So long as you don't steam into it thinking ha! I am the Best and the Brightest and there will be a Bidding War!, you can't lose.

I am the Best and the Brightest and there will be a Bidding War!

Okay. So that thought also crossed my mind. It's a fun thought, like dreaming of what I'll do with the 10 million I win in the lottery every week, despite the fact that I don't play.

Oh, don't get me wrong; it crosses all our minds.

Just pointing out the essential difference between "wouldn't that be cool?" and "this is what I expect to happen and will be stunned and furious if it doesn't."

I too confess to the bidding war fantasy. I think it's OK as long as I realize it's only slightly more likely than my winning the million dollar prize a local radio station offers if a Mariner hits a homer into a specific tiny spot on their sign high above the left field wall.

(And I say "slightly more likely" only because bidding wars actually do happen once in a blue moon, and as someone who knows where homers in Safeco Field actually tend to go out, I'm impressed with how well KOMO did at making up a neat-sounding prize they'll never have to pay up on.)

Dudes and dudettes, is anybody familiar with the short-story market? I have a short-short I'm interested in submitting, and so far I'm using Google to do market research.

[link]

I note that many markets have reading periods that end in the spring. Are there any from this list that y'all recognize or have experience with? I recognize most of the magazines in "You're In The Money" and "Genre Gems", but that's all.

Beginnings Publishing: A Magazine for Novice Writers

Mindprints: A Literary Journal
Outsider Ink (outsiderink.com),
Prose Ax: doses of prose, poetry, visual and audio art (www.proseax.com),
The Unknown Writer (www.munno.net/unknownwriter),
Internet Envy

Alternate Realities Webzine (www.alternaterealitieszine.com),
Big Country Peacock Chronicle (www.peacockchronicle.com),
The Blue Moon Review (www.thebluemoon.com),
The Cafe Irreal: International Imagination (www.cafeirreal.com),
PIF (www.pifmagazine.com),

Genre Gems

Analog: Science Fiction and Fact (www.analogsf.com),
Asimov's Science Fiction (www.asimovs.com),
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (www.sfsite.com/fsf),
Millennium Science Fiction & Fantasy (www.jopoppub.com),
Scifi.com (www.scifi.com/scifiction),

Fame Without Fortune

Connecticut Review (www.ctstateu.edu/univrel/ctreview/index.htm),
The Literary Review: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing (www.webdelsol.com/tlr),
Snake Nation Review (www.snakenationpress.org),
StoryQuarterly (www.storyquarterly.com),
Transition: An International Review,

You're in the Money

The Georgia Review (www.uga.edu/~garev),
Glimmer Train Stories (www.glimmertrain.com),
Ploughshares (www.pshares.org),
The Southern Review (www.lsu.edu/thesouthernreview),
Tin House (www.tinhouse.com),

Around the World

The Barcelona Review (www.barcelonareview.com),
Event (event.douglas.bc.ca),
Grain Magazine (www.grainmagazine.ca),
Prism International (prism.arts.ubc.ca), Storie, all write (www.storie.it),