Bridesmaid terror

I’ve got this looming “always a bridesmaid” feeling hanging over me. There’s just so many fiction projects I’ve got in the “you made it out of the main pile, and now we’re thinking seriously about giving you the big prize” category that my head’s about to issue sparks and fly off my neck in a pretty, blue and red fireworks display.

Listing them, to aggravate my torment:

– “All In My Mind” – Phobos Finalist
– “The Scent of Their Voices” – passed second reading at ASIM.
– “The Few, the Proud, the Leech Corps” – passed initial slush at Dreams of Decadance, email reply to query from the editor saying that she’s holding it for consideration and “quite likely to buy it.” But no further word since May.
– “My Friend Is a Lesbian Zombie” – shortlisted for the Launchpad anthology.
– “The Reign of the Wintergod” – held for two months at City Slab where anything held longer than a month is in “serious consideration.” Or maybe they just lost this one and I need to query. Eep.

I keep telling myself not to get too worked up over strong maybes ’cause down that path lies earth-shattering disappointment.

But I’m just dying over here from all the waiting and hoping. And the dreary, dreadful fear that all I’m going to end up with is another pile of rejection letters.

AGH!!

My patience reserves have gone the way of the dodo.

On an up note, I am looking forward to seeing yakdog et al. this weekend. Something to take my mind, however briefly, off my anxious twitching.

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6 Responses to Bridesmaid terror

  1. oracne says:

    [pat, pat, pat]

    At least you’ve gotten that far. [you may now smack me, since I know in the end that only non-writers think that’s any real consolation.]

    And all those stories in consideration meaning you’re doing something. You’re writing and sending the stories out. You’re writing a lot and sending them out regularly. That’s good. Eventually, some idiot at a con will ask you, “how did you gain such amazing, instant success?” and you can smack them down with great vigor.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Commence with the smacking!

      Y’know, you’d think that writing would be a fairly peaceful exercise. And yet, there seems to be a surprising amount of smacking involved.

      • mouseferatu says:

        Re: Commence with the smacking!

        “And yet, there seems to be a surprising amount of smacking involved.”

        Head against the keyboard mostly, in my case.

        I wish I could give you advice on waiting patiently, but frankly, that’s one of the writer’s skills I’ve never mastered. I’m as impatient as a redneck at a chewing tobacco and buckshot convention (no offense intended to rednecks, and with special thanks to Our Lady of the Extended Metaphor).

        But it is really cool that you’ve gotten so far with so many of them. And extra creativity points for including lesbian zombies in your titles. 😉

        • Eugie Foster says:

          Re: Commence with the smacking!

          Wonder if we could get some manufacturing folks to make padded keyboards for writers, so that when we bang our heads in frustration, we don’t concuss ourselves as much.

          Then again, maybe it’s the concussion that brings about the ideas and phrases that come whisking out of the air, demanding (screaming, screeching, railing) to be set down . . .

  2. alladinsane says:

    Sounds like my job search…at least you have several things advancing ahead and getting closer in..something will connect…good luck!

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