Today I got my first rejection email. I've submitted one thing, and had that one thing rejected. But you know what? It's ok! Because I did it. I wrote and I submitted and they took time to READ it, and wrote back. They said it was well-written and they really liked it, but it doesn't fit with their current issue. They're interested in seeing more from me. So that's exciting.
One of my writing goals for the year is to submit a short story every quarter. That was my first quarter submission. I only sent it to one magazine because, while they accept simultaneous submissions, I forgot to tell them I plan to send it to other places. And that's the etiquette. So I screwed myself there.
I have a short story I wrote for Bausch's class that some classmates have told me I need to submit. One suggested Memphis Magazine's fiction contest, but you have to pay $10 to submit. I'm not sure it's worth paying to maybe have it read and published. I'd rather submit to a lot of places for free, and get feedback like I just did. So I think I'm going to take that story and send it to this place, and maybe some others. My deadline for the second quarter is June 30th, haha. I need to get on the ball.
Narrative Magazine usually charges $20 per submission, but the first two weeks of August are a free-for-all, so I either want to polish the above-mentioned piece some more and submit it there, or have something new. It feels nice to have direction, but right now they're only thoughts. I've been procrastinating more than usual lately, and I'm not proud of it. I'm so busy with work and school that I don't have time to dedicate to the reading or writing of fiction. I hardly even have time to study for class. I need to manage my time better, and stick to a STRICT schedule that won't leave me two days before an exam NOT having studied at all...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
sometimes a cigar...
I oh-so-badly want a pair of Freudian Slippers. But what would it say about me if I bought them for myself? I'd put them on my birthday list, but then it's all about me, Me, ME! I can't ask my mom to give them as a gift, because what would that say about my fixation on her??
On a completely unrelated note (or is it?), I wish I was smarter. I am struggling through biology. INTRO to biology, even, for NON-majors. Could they make it any easier, short of just granting me eight hours of science credit? I cannot wrap my mind around the tiny-ness of cells, the functions of mitochondria, and the thought of HIV bursting out of red blood cells still makes me shudder. I am not a scientific person. At all. I just hope my grades don't reflect this... I need a high GPA for grad school, pls!
Fiction > Fact. Literature > Science.
Scrubs makes me cackle with laughter, and peanut butter M&Ms make me say "nom nom nom." Overall, an excellent Friday.
On a completely unrelated note (or is it?), I wish I was smarter. I am struggling through biology. INTRO to biology, even, for NON-majors. Could they make it any easier, short of just granting me eight hours of science credit? I cannot wrap my mind around the tiny-ness of cells, the functions of mitochondria, and the thought of HIV bursting out of red blood cells still makes me shudder. I am not a scientific person. At all. I just hope my grades don't reflect this... I need a high GPA for grad school, pls!
Fiction > Fact. Literature > Science.
Scrubs makes me cackle with laughter, and peanut butter M&Ms make me say "nom nom nom." Overall, an excellent Friday.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Expanding my Vocabulary
Work has been slow lately. We're finishing up the 2008 line but not quite jumping into 2009. Therefore, no one has been using our large 9800 Epson printer. We clean it every morning, but that's been it.
Until this afternoon, I have to print some samples. I send the file over and watch the print window on my screen to see if the document is too large. It keeps saying "Searching for 9800." So I go to the next cubicle, where it lives, and see what's going on. The printer's screen says "Ready". I wiggle the mouse so the monitor screen will come up. Nothing. I wiggle harder. I click some keys. Nothing. I look at the computer tower sitting next to my head. Not on. Ok, so I'm a little slow after lunch. I turn on the tower and wait for the monitor to light up. THERE we go.
I click on the icon of the print software we use - ColorBurst. It jumps like a Mexican bean, alerting me that something is wrong. After a moment an error message pops up.
"ColorBurst cannot find its dongle. Please manually find it and make sure it is firmly attached."
Dongle? I giggle silently, press cancel, and wait a moment before clicking the icon again. The same message pops up! I giggle at dongle some more and repeat steps three through five. I do this four more times and finally I cannot hold back my laughter at poor ColorBurst not finding its dongle! Perhaps it is overweight?
I compose myself and go to the office of our in-house "tech guy". "The 9800 isn't responding," I say calmly, and I really mean to stop there. I am acting mature and composed. But DONGLE pops into my head like an evil little gopher, and I spit out "The ColorBurst can't find it's dongle!" Somehow, through all my laughter, he understands me and leads me back to the printer. I should have left the error message up, or taken a screenshot, because when he clicked the icon - IT WORKED.
My face was bright red. "I swear it said it couldn't find its dongle," I insisted. He turned the tower towards me and pointed at what looked like a flashing USB drive. "That's the dongle. Sometimes it's pushed too hard against the cubicle wall; just jiggle it around." I can't help myself, "What kind of girl do you think I am?!"
That whole time, no laughter from him. I felt like an out-of-place thirteen year old boy. I was just relieved there was actually such thing as a dongle! Then, as I'm leaving work, I pass him on the stairs. "Dongle," he mutters, and bursts out laughing. I knew it was hilarious! I laugh too, of course, it had kept me laughing all afternoon! "That's going to pop into my head in class tonight and I won't be able to stop laughing," I told him, and that made him laugh harder.
Thankfully, I was so sleepy and preoccupied with fiction that dongle did NOT pop into my head in class! It is now firmly rooted in my vocabulary though, and should be in yours. Learning new words is always excellent.
Until this afternoon, I have to print some samples. I send the file over and watch the print window on my screen to see if the document is too large. It keeps saying "Searching for 9800." So I go to the next cubicle, where it lives, and see what's going on. The printer's screen says "Ready". I wiggle the mouse so the monitor screen will come up. Nothing. I wiggle harder. I click some keys. Nothing. I look at the computer tower sitting next to my head. Not on. Ok, so I'm a little slow after lunch. I turn on the tower and wait for the monitor to light up. THERE we go.
I click on the icon of the print software we use - ColorBurst. It jumps like a Mexican bean, alerting me that something is wrong. After a moment an error message pops up.
"ColorBurst cannot find its dongle. Please manually find it and make sure it is firmly attached."
Dongle? I giggle silently, press cancel, and wait a moment before clicking the icon again. The same message pops up! I giggle at dongle some more and repeat steps three through five. I do this four more times and finally I cannot hold back my laughter at poor ColorBurst not finding its dongle! Perhaps it is overweight?
I compose myself and go to the office of our in-house "tech guy". "The 9800 isn't responding," I say calmly, and I really mean to stop there. I am acting mature and composed. But DONGLE pops into my head like an evil little gopher, and I spit out "The ColorBurst can't find it's dongle!" Somehow, through all my laughter, he understands me and leads me back to the printer. I should have left the error message up, or taken a screenshot, because when he clicked the icon - IT WORKED.
My face was bright red. "I swear it said it couldn't find its dongle," I insisted. He turned the tower towards me and pointed at what looked like a flashing USB drive. "That's the dongle. Sometimes it's pushed too hard against the cubicle wall; just jiggle it around." I can't help myself, "What kind of girl do you think I am?!"
That whole time, no laughter from him. I felt like an out-of-place thirteen year old boy. I was just relieved there was actually such thing as a dongle! Then, as I'm leaving work, I pass him on the stairs. "Dongle," he mutters, and bursts out laughing. I knew it was hilarious! I laugh too, of course, it had kept me laughing all afternoon! "That's going to pop into my head in class tonight and I won't be able to stop laughing," I told him, and that made him laugh harder.
Thankfully, I was so sleepy and preoccupied with fiction that dongle did NOT pop into my head in class! It is now firmly rooted in my vocabulary though, and should be in yours. Learning new words is always excellent.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Gatsby's Girl
Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston: I've wanted to read it since I saw it in bookstores two years ago. I have this thing though, about buying new copies of books by authors I'm not in love with. I'll buy dozens of used books I've never even heard of, but at $.50 a pop that's not a big deal. Also, since I'm a huge fan of paperbacks (so portable!) it's hard for me to justify shelling out $20+ for a hardback book.
I FINALLY got it from the library last week! And read it! And really liked it! I'm glad I didn't buy it in hardback (is that mean?) but it was enjoyable. My main issue was that I pretty much hated the main character. She's the stereotypical kind of girl I can't stand, and maybe that was the problem - she was a stereotype. But I find that a little hard to swallow since she was based on a real person. Fictionalized, yes, but based in fact. It was hard for me to feel anything for her, so the whole time I was reading I felt a little distanced from the story. But I fell in love with the main character's sister and, of course, F. Scott himself. So it was weird to be rooting against the main character of the book.
Some great lines:
"The soothing chatter of men and the smack of balls floated over from the seventh fairway."
Ok, I KNOW fairway means golf course, which means golf balls. But the way it was worded is questionable.
"The baby girl was bald except for a fringe of black eyelashes - just like me."
I know it means the baby looked like her, but doesn't it sound as if the mom is bald except for a fringe of black eyelashes?!
It seems like an editor shoulda-woulda-coulda caught those two sentences and re-worded them. There were a few other confusing sentences too that kind of jolted me out of the story with a giggle.
Some (actually) good lines too. It won't make much sense out of context (they're at a Hawaiian-themed costume party), but this made me laugh and re-read the whole scene.
"'But I'm keeping this,' he said, patting the scarf around his middle. 'The fringe will quiver when I tango.'"
"'What would have happened if I'd turned right instead of left, if I'd picked the writer instead of the aviator? I've always wondered.'" - THAT, ladies and gentlemen, gave me chills. After reading the whole story up to that point, I had been wondering the same thing. And when you sit and think about it, how all these little decisions add up to change your life... it's monumental.
I FINALLY got it from the library last week! And read it! And really liked it! I'm glad I didn't buy it in hardback (is that mean?) but it was enjoyable. My main issue was that I pretty much hated the main character. She's the stereotypical kind of girl I can't stand, and maybe that was the problem - she was a stereotype. But I find that a little hard to swallow since she was based on a real person. Fictionalized, yes, but based in fact. It was hard for me to feel anything for her, so the whole time I was reading I felt a little distanced from the story. But I fell in love with the main character's sister and, of course, F. Scott himself. So it was weird to be rooting against the main character of the book.
Some great lines:
"The soothing chatter of men and the smack of balls floated over from the seventh fairway."
Ok, I KNOW fairway means golf course, which means golf balls. But the way it was worded is questionable.
"The baby girl was bald except for a fringe of black eyelashes - just like me."
I know it means the baby looked like her, but doesn't it sound as if the mom is bald except for a fringe of black eyelashes?!
It seems like an editor shoulda-woulda-coulda caught those two sentences and re-worded them. There were a few other confusing sentences too that kind of jolted me out of the story with a giggle.
Some (actually) good lines too. It won't make much sense out of context (they're at a Hawaiian-themed costume party), but this made me laugh and re-read the whole scene.
"'But I'm keeping this,' he said, patting the scarf around his middle. 'The fringe will quiver when I tango.'"
"'What would have happened if I'd turned right instead of left, if I'd picked the writer instead of the aviator? I've always wondered.'" - THAT, ladies and gentlemen, gave me chills. After reading the whole story up to that point, I had been wondering the same thing. And when you sit and think about it, how all these little decisions add up to change your life... it's monumental.
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