I got waitlisted!
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to apply to the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, at UC San Diego. As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ve always thought of myself as a writer - but I haven’t always been willing actually to write, and one of the things that’s often stopped me is fear. Fear of sucking. Fear of not sucking. (Because if you don’t suck, then you really have no excuse, do you?) But, having made the resolution, I actually carried through, and this morning I got an email telling me that, although I wasn’t one of the 18 writers selected for the workshop, I have been put on the waitlist.
I can live with that.
In fact, I can more than live with that. I’m so excited I can barely type.
I’m a bit nervous, though. Because another of my resolutions was to submit at least one piece of writing for publication. I know which piece it is. It’s one of the short stories I submitted to Clarion. I’ve got one or two small edits left to make to it, and then away it goes. And I know which market’s getting it. It’s Weird Tales. My goal is to get it to them by the end of the week.
Wish me luck…
Yay!!!!!!!!
Comment by Novysan — March 31, 2008 @ 9:37 am
Good luck with the story. Weird Tales is a great mag.
Comment by Damien G Walter — April 1, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
I’ve heard that it is pretty simple to become a writer. All you have to do is write! Perhaps there’s a bit more to it than that, but from what I’ve read so far you turn a pretty good phrase. Best wishes with the contest and the publication. Keep writing.
(oh yeah) Thanks for the mention on SmittenKitchen
Comment by Philip — April 2, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
Yeah, but that’s the hard part!
Thanks for the compliment, and the good wishes.
Comment by ChiaLynn — April 2, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
Thank you so much, ChiaLynn! Congratulations on YOUR vote of confidence, getting waitlisted - that means, keep writing and reapply. Send that story to Weird Tales. Just keep at it.
Comment by Monica — April 3, 2008 @ 7:52 am
Thanks, Monica. That’s exactly what I plan to do.
Comment by ChiaLynn — April 3, 2008 @ 8:48 am
Thank you so much for your comment on my livejournal. Best of luck with your submissions. If your story gets picked up let me know and I will buy a copy!
Comment by E. J. — April 3, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
That’s so sweet - thank you!
Comment by ChiaLynn — April 3, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
[...] As promised, I’ve submitted one of the stories I used for my Clarion application to Weird Tales. I was so wound up about it, I forgot to attach it to the first email (though I did remember to paste the first four paragraphs into the body of that email, per the instructions at Ralan.com’s listing for the magazine), and had to send a second one, with an apology and an attachment. I can only hope Ann VanderMeer’s done something similar in her time… posted by ChiaLynn at 10:54 pm [...]
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