Blurred Line

You'll recall that in my last post I mentioned that I was procrastinating. I was working on a paper due the next day. Well, I ended up pulling an all-nighter (my first of the year), spent the next two days recovering, the next two working/drinking (not simultaneously, although I'm sure that would've really brightened up the whole data entry scene for me) and today...well, today I got productive.

I'd had two submissions out for a while. "The Last Ad" had been sitting around with market for 200+ days. The average response time for that market was somewhere around 90, so I assumed rejection for that one. On a reread, though, I realized that I'm simply not very fond of the story anymore, so I'll probably post it here (it's short enough, being a flash piece) if I do anything with it. "Learning Magic From Mint" had been at its market for a total of 101 days, which had an average response time of about thirty or forty. I'd heard some business about the editors at that particular market not responding to some stories due to submission outside the reading window (which I'd never seen notice - and I've worn the editor's hat, so I'm always diligent as far as submission guidelines go), so I simply withdrew the story from consideration and fired it off elsewhere. Frankly, it felt nice to send something off to market again...it's been, well, 101 days.

I also finished off Jude the Obscure, the last novel of the semester and rewarded myself with some pleasure reading. That felt good. I fired through Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby pretty quickly. It's not Coupland's best work, but he always manages to make his characters feel so intensely real that I felt myself drawn in anyway. His characters aren't just fully-fleshed out, three dimensional characters on the page, they actually feel like people I've met at some point in my life. Anyhow, this novel, Coupland's ode to loneliness, is about a single, friendless thirtysomething woman who finds her life changed after taking in the son she's never met. Coupland's rather heavy-handed at moments, which stops this book from ever being anything truly special. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable read. Of course, maybe I was just happy to be reading something outside of class.

Anyway, now I'm off to write yet another essay (yes, I was procrastinating again - gasp!)


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Sunday, November 26, 2006 - A Week in Review You'll recall that in my last post I mentioned that I was procrastinating. I was working on a paper due the next day. Well, I ended up pulling an all-nighter (my first of the year), spent the next two days recovering, the next two working/drinking (not simultaneously, although I'm sure that would've really brightened up the whole data entry scene for me) and today...well, today I got productive. I'd had two submissions out for a while. "The Last Ad" had been sitting around with market for 200+ days. The average response time for that market was somewhere around 90, so I assumed rejection for that one. On a reread, though, I realized that I'm simply not very fond of the story anymore, so I'll probably post it here (it's short enough, being a flash piece) if I do anything with it. "Learning Magic From Mint" had been at its market for a total of 101 days, which had an average response time of about thirty or forty. I'd heard some business about the editors at that particular market not responding to some stories due to submission outside the reading window (which I'd never seen notice - and I've worn the editor's hat, so I'm always diligent as far as submission guidelines go), so I simply withdrew the story from consideration and fired it off elsewhere. Frankly, it felt nice to send something off to market again...it's been, well, 101 days. I also finished off Jude the Obscure, the last novel of the semester and rewarded myself with some pleasure reading. That felt good. I fired through Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby pretty quickly. It's not Coupland's best work, but he always manages to make his characters feel so intensely real that I felt myself drawn in anyway. His characters aren't just fully-fleshed out, three dimensional characters on the page, they actually feel like people I've met at some point in my life. Anyhow, this novel, Coupland's ode to loneliness, is about a single, friendless thirtysomething woman who finds her life changed after taking in the son she's never met. Coupland's rather heavy-handed at moments, which stops this book from ever being anything truly special. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable read. Of course, maybe I was just happy to be reading something outside of class. Anyway, now I'm off to write yet another essay (yes, I was procrastinating again - gasp!) Cavan blogged at 10:50 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart