This story is bleak to the point of sickening. I don't know if I should give it a hopeful ending, or just stick with Life Is Unrelenting Horror and Misery. How Russian Novel can I go and still get published in an American market. Maybe go with ambiguously ominous and let the Reader decide if the happy couple survives.

Watching my friends become published authors isn't inspiring me to action like it should be.

Watching my friends become published authors isn't inspiring me to action like it should be.

wrod

Ok, maybe they don't quite say that, although I swear I read one that did, once, but they are all kinds of glittering generalities that don't really tell me what they are looking for, except preferred length, and, possibly"limited violence" or the ultimate "No, duh!" "No fanfic." I mean, I know they are trying to leave room to be blown away by something unanticipated, but I have no idea where to go next.

Yes, I read a lot of short stories, but they aren't great *guides" to markets. Like, if I notice a lot of divorced women in a mag, does it help or hurt to give my character a divorce? Should I write a single man by way of contrast?(Not to sound like a story generator...I do write about stuff I care about, but if I could make it more widely appealing, I certainly would.)

I thought I'd have a breakthrough and this would get easier, but even EQ didn't really open doors like I expected.

Would it help at all to take a break from submitting for a little while and just write something you love that you don't care if there's an editor who is looking for it? As a sort of vacation.

I do that, too, but I thought if I stopped I'd never really get back to it, and I keep hoping to toughen up about rejection(I mean, if I were trying to skate, or ride a bike, I wouldn't quit if I fell, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.)OTOH, once you get out of college, there really aren't writing training wheels, either.

That totally makes sense.

P-C!!! Woooooo! The same edition as James Gunn, whose brother I hung out with all night at a jazz club at PlanetComiCon in Kansas City without knowing that Sean Gunn was in Guardians of the Galaxy and Gilmore Girls and that he is James guns brother. That was my geek highlight so far. Congratulations! I am so proud of you.

The same edition as James Gunn

Different James Gunn, alas.

OK, a little detail question: Have a TV executive character who works for a cable network...has the kind of background where his parents might think "Harvard" nut he's not really as competitive as those people...where would he have gone to college?

NYU or Columbia?