I have sent ‘The Ruined Lady’ off to Black Static, a horror magazine owned by TTA Press. It’s a weird feeling, sending something off in print, rather than by email. The formatting alone makes it look official. Also, the cost. And the fact that I’ll know whether they accepted it or not as soon as I receive an evelope addressed in my own handwriting; it all depends on the weight of it now!

Submitting was a little awkward, because TTA’s website wasn’t actually very helpful, and there isn’t a current issue in store at Borders (though I did pick up Myslexia instead, which I’m enjoying). I was trying to find a person to address the submission to, rather than the ubiquitous ‘editor’. Luckily, Writer’s Market had the details; I wouldn’t have discovered Writer’s Market if it hadn’t been for the fact I’d wanted a copy of Black Static in the first place!

So, I was wandering around Borders with Myslexia in hand, having given up on Black Static, and I figured I’d have a look at the writer’s directories, since it’d be good to get a broader idea of what mags are out there that aren’t available to me. The directories were all huge, hefty books, with huge, hefty pricetags, and none of them were ordered by genre, which is what I really wanted. I did, however, notice that the Writer’s Market 2008 had a note on the cover offering 30 days free trial for their website, so I figured that’d be easier to search, and take up much less space, and I’d rather spend the money registering for that.

If I’d bought the book, I’d actually be pretty annoyed right now, since “30 day free trial” actually means “register for free membership until 2199′. The site is free, and though I can’t describe membership as indefinite (1/1/2199 is a definite date) it’s certainly not going to run out. Still, it’s a really helpful, free, searchable website, with handy features such as ‘my directory’, to which you can add markets and comment on them. So their marketting needs work, but their site is good, and I thoroughly reccomend it.

I suppose I ought to start working on some more short pieces, now these are all out of my hands. Not that I expect an of my current three to be immediately accepted, but that’s no excuse to get lazy in the meantime.

Oh, quick note to people who’ve added me via a feed (you know, all two of you): you’re perfectly welcome to comment on the feed, but bear in mind I won’t know if you have, unlike if you comment directly on the blog.

ETA: I’m having such a pout over being a PC person, and not a Mac owner. Narrator, for Macs, is a program that reads your work aloud, in different voices, rates, pitches, inflections, and volumes, so you can set it up to read a short story or play with different voices for each character. The kind of thing that’s great for spotting inconsistencies, nonsense and repetiton. Like a writing group, but writing groups don’t come in a shiny infty package for use at any time of the day or night, does it?