Twitter Timesinks

"Genius is eternal patience." Confession: I go on Twitter to check and see how my submissions are going. (As in, maybe that editor will tweet something favorable about a new manuscript that landed in their in-box.) In reality, though, I need to resign myself to the waiting game. Publishing tends to be a crawling business. Another way I find my hours spinning by on Twitter? Hashtags: #mswl Manuscript Wish List; what hot topics agents and editors are looking for #querytip Ways to … [Read more...]

Mission: Submission

Sihdaahn: anything will doAt times, Cantonese phrases get abbreviated.  For example, "si-mouh-geih-daahn" means "without restraint of any kind."  The shortened term becomes sihdaahn.Please accept my submission. When I think about submissions, I'm in a sihdaahn mode.  Any positive response will uplift me.  Last month, I participated in Khara House's Submit-O-Rama challenge.  For October, I queried three literary magazines a week, for a total of 15 entries.Here are my results: 1 acceptance, 1 … [Read more...]

Our Fears

Gengcheng: frightened, scaredThe Chinese use lion dancing to celebrate many special holidays and festivities.  Businessmen believe a lion  will bring them prosperity, so they hang up a cheng (lit. green), a stalk of vegetable with a red envelope as a prize.  With gongs and drums in the background , the lion dancers will reach for the cheng, sometimes with one man standing on the shoulders of the other.  The expression gengcheng comes from the spectators being afraid that the dancers will … [Read more...]