Betsy has convinced me. I just sent an inquiry to the editors at Dandelion.

Grrr, argh.

See, I've got no chair at the books-about-writing table; I've never read any of them.

erika, since the fiction I've read of yours wants only a resolution, I'd say you didn't have to steal characters. Of course, the one's you do play with are pretty damned funny.

'suela, let's see what happens. I'm with Betsy on the submission being good.

Go, Suela!

I shouldn't be so stressed about this. Except:

1. It's very close to home: real me-experiences. This is how I feel when I'm climbing, this is what it's like. While it's not intimate, it's very personal.

2. It's not genre, or a character study, or even really a story. I'm all about plot and this isn't really. It's just a weird sort of thing that I don't understand why anyone would want to read, but I want them to read. Because see (1) above.

3. It's fiction, basically, and the last time I published fiction that wasn't fanfic was in 1979, I believe.

So, yeah. Weirdly stressed out about the entire thing.

I may send a copy to my dad. I showed it to my brotherthedoctor, who got me started climbing back in 1987, and whom I rather worship (even when he pisses me off), and he didn't say anything. Which, errg. You know?

I know it's just KFKD. But, like Munch at the Justice of the Peace, I thought it would be different this time. I think my feeling good about myself two months in a row messed with the natural order or something.

'suela, magazine submissions are incredibly stressy. I'm fleshing out one I did as flashfiction, by another few hundred words, crime as told by the weapon, and I'm hating the idea of all the idiot guidelines.

Feh. Hang in.

It's just a weird sort of thing that I don't understand why anyone would want to read

You posted at least part of it here (or on some other thread), right? I remember reading that part and being very captured by how vivid and flowing it felt. I would definitely want to read the rest.

Contract-ma to Deb.

Awww, Nilly, you're so kind. Many thanks.

And yeah, I did have a little bit of it posted on a now-defunct blog. I should go delete the silly thing since it's enough for me to keep one blog going, much less two.

Consuela, I remember reading that bit and really enjoying it, too, and I don't climb. I say keep trying too.

Betsy, if you could tell us the author and title of that YA book, I can see if Greg can get the library system here to buy it. It's a little more tricky for YA, since he doesn't work directly with those buyers, but he's known them forever. One was his librarian when he was a kid. If you don't want to post it here, you could e-mail it to me.

Weirdly stressed out about the entire thing.

Submission SUCKS. Truly.

Don't send it to any more family. If they love it, you'll assume it's because they love you. If they don't, you'll assume it must be really bad, or otherwise they'd find something to praise.

Slap it in an envelope and send it OFF. Out into the cruel world.

On that note, does anybody know any women's magazines that might be open to a quasi-political poem? Does Ms. publish poetry any more? It's about the connection between cooking and turmoil, the war in particular.