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),

I remember reading that some heavyweights got started in both Ploughshares and GT(But GT wouldn't publish me so all their taste is in their mouths, of course.;))

Depends on the short story you want to place, Betsy. Anything wrong with, say Womens World? They buy short fiction, and pay for it, too.

Guys, for reasons having nothing at all to do with GWW and everything to do with an outside reality, I'm going to delete anything identifiable or specific to my first Nicholas, both here and elsewhere. Not destroying it - just making it inaccessible to the greater outside world.

I'm still going to drabble (since it's saving my sanity this past year), but I'll be putting them into a specifically screened livejournal folder. If you want to read any new work about those years, and have a livejournal account, ping me in LJ; if you don't and want to read them, ping me in email.

Sorry about this, but there's a bio in the works and I've discovered that I really do want to maintain a complete lack of visibility.

And sorry for being so oblique.

Allyson, WOOT! Go you!

Wow, what a catchup! Good vibes for Allyson (because I can't wait to buy this book), and for Deb (because... well, just because!)

(It still feels weird to try to talk to people, because I've lurked for so long, and though it seems like we all know each other, we still really don't. Well, you don't know me, at any rate.)

OK, less blabbling, more drabbling...

Picture 5

He built the light at Cape Kumukahi, and she fell in love. He was exotic and warm, and she married him after two weeks. He followed where the work led, and she sailed from tiny Pahoa into their future.

There were ten houses, three children, and 25 years. Good times and bad, they were home wherever they were. A party, cake and hothouse flowers for their anniversary, snapshots of a life well lived.

She returned to Pahoa, after he died. She lived on the coast, and his ashes joined the sea. She was his life, and he was her home.

That's beautiful, Ailleann.

(blink)

DAYUM, Ailleann. That one just flows - it's so even and easy and nice, it's damned near tidal.

I think I've found a way to keep most of the stuff I've written up - since I wasn't Grabien back then, if I just make sure he isn't mentioned by name in anything, it should be invisible to anyone who isn't reading them here.

Received from my agent this morning:

My most recent reply from Ruth Cavin states that you just write too fast for her. But she is planning on getting back to me the beginning of next week with an offer. And says: "I don't doubt I would want her next book."

So, I think it's OK. I'd be happier if she'd used the plural, since the proposal is for three. But if she'd used that last line say, oh, two months ago? She'd have saved me a lot of worrying.

Well qualified relief, then, on both counts. But yeah, I can't see her *not* wanting Cruel Sister, or its sequels. Moneymakers for the house, especially after Famous Flower's numbers.

So, this home drabble? I can't do it. Oh, I did it earlier in the week, with the picture prompts. But now... Let me back up.

Tuesday, my mother met with the realtor to put her house on the market. Mum had had the house on the market for about a week, back in November. When she met with the realtor, they were set to list it for the same asking price. That night, the realtor called my mother and said she thought they ought to set it for $12,500 higher than last time. Mum--liking money as much as most humans do--said, "Sure."

It went on the market Wednesday morning. Mum got an offer for $5,000 less than the new, improved asking price, before supper time, that very day. When she called to tell me, I told her to take it, and promptly started crying. I tried to hide that as best I could, but she could tell by my voice.

This morning, I took Ben to school, and took Julia and Chris with me, so Scott could sleep. We stopped for Munchkins, and went by my mother's house. The realtor was just driving up with the paperwork my mother had to sign, in order to formally accept the offer. The P&S is scheduled in about a week and a half. The closing will be early in August.

Suddenly, "There's no place like home," takes on a whole new meaning.