Nothing in that which can't be *great* Noir, depending upon the story as a whole.

I'm proud of it, but, at the same time, there are so fewer markets now that I really need something unique, but apparently not the whole wheelchair thing(I've got one place that really wants that, but they pay diddley and squat, and I know the editor so that's like, I don't know, another friend doing me a favor...which is nice, but even I don't have time to befriend every magazine editor in America, and it also makes me feel that the work doesn't stand on its own. Which I know other writers do worry about, but other writers? Haven't gotten as much done for them by people trying to be nice, make them feel included, etc.

Many writers, especially those coming from fandom, get started by having their stuff looked at by people they know. If you get something published by a friend, and you don't have an alternative market do it. That can help the next thing you write get looked at by someone who isn't a friend. Editors don't have time to look at everything. You already had something published in EQ, and some stuff other places. The more you can be published, the more you can include in a query letter, to get your stuff directly to editors bypassing slush pile. I mean I have not been able to pull it off myself, but this is something every book on "how to be an author" says: the more you are published the more you can get published.

I'm pretty sure HP Lovecraft was first published by people he knew. A lot of the writers from the 50s and early sixties got published through friends. Harlan Ellison got a lot of help breaking through from Dorthy Parker, for example. So having a friend who is editor at a small mag give you a break is small potatoes by comparison.

Last point: doubt he uses your stuff cause he knows you. He *looks* at your stuff because he knows you. He will use your stuff only if he thinks it is good. If his pub pays writers bubkis, that means editors get paid at least starvation wages. Which he ain't going to risk by publishing anything less than the best he can get.

Thanks...I'll probably not send this one there as we have another project coming up shortly...however, you're right that a connection does not equal a pity fuck.(And I still do want to expand my range, but being weird about it won't help anyone.)

I'm starting to try to do more promotion for Cog outside of just, you know, posting about it on Facebook. Kind of daunting since I have no idea what I'm doing. I suppose I'm in no particular hurry though.

So I went to a Second Life poetry work shop and I had 15 minutes to write and this is what I have. I need to rework it but I wanted y'alls opinion:

Men define and control
They are gatekeepers always on guard protecting
Masculinity

The Old Guard
The New Guard

Men cling to the good old days
To confining roles
Restricted freedoms

Puritans restricted, restricted , more rules more laws
Believing an individual's sin brought down the wrath of God
A fire burns your neighbor's house
The price of a stranger's sin

Men restrict, police, more rules more laws
Believing the individual expression will bring down the
Carefully built walls of domination and conformity

If one man wears pink or dresses or bows in his hair
What does it mean for men collectively?
It brings them down
And down
And down
To femininity

Womanness
Otherness
Weakness

When a man or group of men commits an act of aggression on
A non conforming non dominant weaker group
Men collectively cry out out "not all men"

But when pointed out that
Not all men

Want their rigid rules, restrictions
The fanatic patrolling and gatekeeping

That some men want dresses
And pink
With beards and boots

The collective The Gatekeepers The Old Guard The New Guard
Recoil and turn and hurl towards those to tear them down
These not men

Because those who do not comply are not men.

Then being a man stops being SOMETHING
THE THING

A chink in the armor is weakness to all
Some men, not all men, some men
Are terrified of what will happen
When the armour falls

What they will see inside themselves
Find repressed and hidden
What the "others" will do when the power falls to them

Some men, not all men, many men
Are brave until they face
The idea
Of being the other, the different
They rail against the loss of power
They fear the other, the different, the women, the gays, the ones they have oppressed
Will take their cudgels and strike them down

Man's Fear:
"You reap what you sow"

Love it, askye. Well put, something that would work really well at a poetry slam.

Thanks!

II'm trying to use SL as tool to stretch myself creatively and participate in an environment where I can be around people but be comfortable. The place I did this has a the poetry prompt every day at the same time so I may try to go several times a week.

Maybe at some point I'l be comfortable enough to do it in real life in front of physical people.