The secret to getting published is not just about getting your best work out the door.  It’s about getting the right piece of work to the right editor.  To do that, you’ve got to play matchmaker.  To be a good matchmaker, you’ve got to read…A LOT.

I used to eat books for breakfast and belch them out at dinner.  Nowadays, I chew my way slowly through books and short stories, reading in tiny bites as the 2-year-old allows.  Besides one or two periodical markets that I read inconsistently, I have no honest feel for the short story market.  As for what’s going on in the world of books, I’m clueless.  Most of the books in my reading pile are recommended by friends.

So I’m trying very hard to remedy the situation by committing to read one short story a day.  They may not always be available on the web, but I’ll post a list of the stories I read each week, provide any available links, and maybe talk about any stand-outs.  I don’t have any plans to write actual reviews so much as share what I learn from them, if anything.  There’s so much to be gleaned by what editors choose to publish, how their authors are presented by a market, and letters to the editors or online comments made by readers.

So without further ado, I offer this week’s list — which is a little short, five stories, sorry about that — all available in the current issue of The Pedestal Magazine, a market I’m interested in breaking into.

1.  “Perched” by Andrew S. Fuller

2.  “Giant Killers” by Steve Rasnic Tem

3.  “Tresses” by Anne M. Pillsworth

4.  “Pictures of You” by Rob Davies

5.  “The Last Man on Earth” by Bruce Holland Rogers

All of them are enjoyable stories, very short, which is kind of nice when you’re reading on screen.

“Giant Killers” I liked especially because the language was so wonderful, the whole thing was a giant metaphor, and I think he did an amazing job of trying to communicate what it’s like to be a parent.  My favorite line:  “He knows he is every impossible job they will ever have, every unreasonable boss.”

I also liked “Pictures of You” quite a bit.  My only criticism would be the last paragraph felt unnecessary and was inconsistent with the story’s POV.  I only noticed it because I did exactly the same thing with a story of my own, switching from Third Person Limited to Omniscient in an effort to get in a little epilogue…which made this story a little bit more endearing to me, because I get why the author did it.  That said, I don’t think it detracted at all from the story.  Great visuals.  Still thinking about it a day later, which is a good thing if you’re a short story.

One thing I noticed when I was putting this together was two of the authors I read didn’t have any links included in their bios, which I thought was a bit of a missed opportunity on their parts…and also a little puzzling considering they’re published in an online market.  I don’t know if it’s because they don’t have an online presence or if they just didn’t include it in their bios.  That’s too bad.  Even though I don’t have a big readership, word of mouth is word of mouth, which means clicky on the linky.  And if there’s no linky?  Snap!

Authors, make it easy for us bloggers and readers to spread the word!  We want to see you succeed!  Give us the linky!

So there ya go…five stories read, five stories smarter (hopefully). 🙂  Next week I’ll try to have a longer list, get caught up with the days in the year.  And as I finish books, I’ll try to share those too.

What are you guys reading?

Right now all of my deadlines are created by me.  If I blow one off, nobody will really know but me.  If I don’t do a good job, there’s nobody around to urge me to make it better.  Everything I produce as a writer is on spec, unsolicited.  No one asked me to write this stuff.  No one’s waiting for it.

This is a perilous place to be.  It’s too easy to talk myself away from the edge, away from the computer, back to my warm bed, back under the spell of the television.  “Why stress myself?” I ask Myself.  Myself is a most agreeable person and agrees.  “Yes, why stress?  Let’s watch a movie!”  “Okay!”

What can I say?  I’m a people pleaser.

Obviously, I need some sort of real accountability.  Here is my list of strategies:

1.  Blogging in general, reporting my progress regularly, keeping me focused on the writing so I have something to report. 🙂

2.  The PostADay2011 Challenge.  I’m into the year a mere eight consecutive blog posts…but that’s eight consecutive blog posts.  Cool beans.  Each day just adds to the momentum and lengthens the winning streak.  And hopefully it will also make me a faster blogger.

3.  The Write1Sub1 Challenge.  I’m committed to writing a new story and submitting one story to a market each week and reporting my progress on their web site.

4.  Keeping a time log.  I did this for about a month back in October and realized just how important it was for me to get faster at certain tasks.  I started logging my time again beginning yesterday, and I’m already astounded at how much time certain tasks take and how much time I actually waste.

What about you guys?  Any tips on how to keep yourself slogging forward at a relatively even pace?  Snacks?  Recipes?  Threat of public flogging?

I used to be hip to the groove on anything having to do with computers.  You’re looking at one of the earlier members of CompuServe.  (Everyone’s looking around, going, “What’s CompuServe?”)

I spent a lot of time in my early 20’s around so-called computer geeks, and probably way too many weekends at Ye Olde Computer Show looking for geeky things at rock-bottom prices.  I managed all my files in DOS (“What’s DOS?”), and I always kept my root directory spotless.  I still remember most of my DOS commands.

(Ugh.  I’m having the same feeling now as I did when my friend’s daughters — one of them a full-fledged member of my writing group — saw an old rotary phone in our junk room and asked what it was.  Yep, true story.  It was sitting right next to my dinosaur skin shoes.)

Anyway, despite that relative peak in computer literacy 10 years ago, my skills have fallen away.  Or more accurately, I got left.  See, once I got my court reporting software finally working, I didn’t want to mess with it.  (The early CAT softwares were delicate, fussy, bastardly little things.)  Beyond court reporting, I only needed a word processing program and internet access for research.

Between then and now, I got married; opened a business with my family, ran it, and sold it; and we started a family.  All good things.  All great excuses for why I don’t feel my computer skills are quite up to par for this day and age.

Although I’m hesitant to say at this point in time that great computer skills are crucial to an author’s career, I think it’s obvious that’s where we’re heading.  I understand the feeling of fear and discomfort this may cause some writers, but my attitude is to embrace it.  This is simply the way the world is going.

I personally don’t buy products unless the company at least has a professional-looking website which bespeaks of legitimacy to me (I realize this can be faked).  And like many people, I can consume music, movies, television shows, and books through my wireless cell phone, and I tend to make my choices based on reviews and word of mouth.

Frankly, I tend to be less interested in authors who are new to me if I can’t find out anything about them, or if their websites look outdated or abandoned or unprofessional in any way.  I admit it.  I think in many ways, a writer’s online presence is the new “book cover,” and it’s foolish not to think they’re judged.

As readers, we’re not just looking to discover a great story, we want a great writer.  If we can find that person, then chances are there’s a whole list of stories and books from that person that we can reasonably rely on to be enjoyable.

Besides that, I think readers have always been interested in the wizard behind the curtains, especially if they enjoyed a story.  That’s why the behind-the-scenes extras often included in DVDs are so popular.  People love to be amazed by the final result, whether it be a movie, a book, or a music video, and they love to be let in on the secrets of how it all came together.  It’s like somehow being included in the creative process, even if it is of the fly-on-the-wall variety.

I also know that when I’m looking up a new author, I’m looking to find if I have anything in common with this person in terms of how they see the world, their tastes, how they express themselves as real people, not just as an author.

I know this is a scary thing for a lot of folks because if you’ve ever been last to be picked for a gym team, then this really smacks of the same set-up, and it’s fair to ask, “Can’t my work just be judged on its own merits?”

Don’t worry.  It will.  No matter how great your online presence is, if your books don’t appeal to someone, they won’t continue with future stories.

And, yes, it may feel like you’re standing around in ill-fitting gym shorts being judged for competency, but there’s a happier way to look at it.  We’ve got technology on our side!  In gym class, there was no chance to Photoshop that zit off your nose or point your boobs in a different direction.  Online, your teeth are whiter, your quips are spot on and polished (you do proofread your comments, don’t you?), and you can control how public or private you wish to be.

In other words, there’s a nice buffer of time between the real you and the online you, one that allows you to contemplate each online interaction before committing to them…you know, have yourself a good think before calling a reviewer a moronic asshole.  Ya know.

Anyway, after a good year of reading lots of blogs and author websites and paying close attention to what they’re doing and their results, it seems I’ve got a lot of opinions and ideas and even more questions about the whole platform thing.

Currently, I do not have a FaceBook page, or a MySpace page, or a Twitter account.  I’m new on Skype (I like it!), and I’m also the newly anointed owner of an iPhone 4.  I don’t consume a lot of media, and I find it difficult to make time to read for pleasure at this point in my life.

As a result, I feel horribly behind in everything.  But I’m determined to catch up this year, at least in terms of my understanding of how online things work.  I’d like to find out what the hell “the cloud” is, for one thing, and I’ll be revamping the look of the blog next week and sharing that process.  And, of course, as I discover new things about all this platform business, I will pass it along forthwith.

One thing I will mention is that I have recently reserved my domain name, www.angelamcconnell.com, for some future use in time.  A few years ago it belonged to a real estate agent back East, so I was glad to see it available.  Right now I have no immediate plans for it; however, once I have a byline forthcoming, I’m sure that will change.

The point is, there’s this whole other cyber dimension that modern writers have to pay attention to, and the possibilities are overwhelming for sure.  But I’d be foolish as a writer trying to start up a career not to pay close attention to this aspect of modern writerhood.

I feel like I’m warming up to the task now.  Seems like there’s lots of fun to be had.  And I swear, when I’m famous, I won’t change the direction my boobies point in (though I can’t promise about the zit). 🙂

This post-a-day challenge is kicking my butt, I gotta be honest.  The first four days I barely made it.  I have to lay with the baby to put her to sleep, and I’m struggling to keep my own eyes open.  I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep and miss the deadline.  And writing when she’s awake hasn’t yet been something I can pull off…but I’m trying to right now.

But…I apparently am a creature capable of some learning.  Thanks to Mom, I had a chance to steal a couple of hours alone at Starbucks yesterday, and I actually worked ahead on future blog posts.  Weird.  Stars are groaning slowly into alignment, and angels are choking on their bagels and reluctantly exchanging money.  And I’m trying to be more to the point about things so I can get to the writing.  (I almost took out this last sentence amidst hysterical laughter, but thought I’d leave it in for your enjoyment.  That’s so me…the absolute epitome of brevity and succinctness — not!)

Finally got to the fiction last night and solved a crucial problem with a short story that has been carrying on for far too long.  The solution?  I needed a man something hiding in the bushes.  Who knew?  Anyway, that’s gotta be finished up, chopped roughly in half, and the better part sent to my writer’s group for our next meeting.  This will fulfill the first part of the Write1Sub1 Challenge.

I still need to get a story submitted to a market before the end of the week to satisfy the Sub1 part of the Write1Sub1 Challenge.  I’ve got a 1,500-word quiet sort of twisted revenge story that’s just about ready to be pushed down the stairs and out the door into the world.

Speaking of going out into the world, this just so happens to be Part 3 of my plan to build a Writing Career of Significant Worth.  I submitted more last year than I ever have in any previous year, but six submissions is like spitting in the ocean to raise the tide.  So just imagine, if I stick with the plan and keep up with the other Write1Sub1 folks, I’ll have 52 new submissions this year.  Wow.  What will that be like?

With a new submission going out each week and my reasonable desire to both increase my chances for publication and decrease the number of wrong trees I bark up, I’m going to have to start doing my homework — which means reading A LOT MORE — and maybe listening to my own advice.

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Just a side note, I thought y’all might be interested in this interview of Julie Duffy of StoryADay, featured on Write1Sub1.  She’s the instigator of the Story A Day May Challenge.  Is my eye twitching?

I have way more finished stories waiting to be edited and made pretty than seems reasonable.  I’m getting a little tired of writing for the drawer.  I gotta be honest though.  I’m not a big fan of editing.  Okay, okay.  I said I would be honest.  The fact is, I hate it.  I don’t know why.  I always feel better afterwards.  Maybe it’s kind of like exercise.  Or needing to go poop.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, in an effort to start shoving my overgrown children out into the world, I signed up for Write1Sub1’s challenge.  Write one new story a week, send one story out into the world, like good old Ray Bradbury.  Writing a new story seems much easier than prepping one for submission.  But this is my challenge.  I choose to accept it.  Mama wants her babies to grow up and buy her a big house!  Just kidding.  (Not really.)

Anyway, practice makes perfect, and so I hope to get faster and better at editing.  How do I know I suck at it?  Because Chuck Wendig tells me so, and he tells me why.  Busted.  What to do?  Check out his three-part blog series entitled, “Edit Your Shit.” He also tells a great story.

So together with Chuck’s advice and an insane number of writing books, a running computer (idontbelieveinjinxesidontbelieveinjinxes), and a child who does sleep eventually, I have everything I need to become a faster, better editor.

My biggest worry is that my subconscious will recognize this challenge as an artificial deadline and lure me off into the woods where it has a shallow grave dug and waiting.  If you see it, don’t say nothing, okay?  As far as it’s concerned, there’s an editor with a fat check waiting for my story, “The Shroud Maker,” which is scheduled to leave my custody and control by the end of the week.

Right.  I better get to work.

So last year, my approach was to make a list of all the stuff I wished I could accomplish within a year and then throw it up for everyone to see, believing that potential public shame would keep me to my task.  Apparently, potential public shame is not a huge motivator for me.  Ah, well.

Last year wasn’t a loss by any stretch.  I still ended up with nine or ten new short stories, a detailed outline of a new novel, and some progress on the edit of an older novel.  Also wrote 62 blog posts, for what it’s worth.

This year my approach will be different.  I don’t have a list of stuff I want completed by the end of the year.  I have a plan, a scheme, a design, if you will, on how to build for myself a Career of Significant Worth, and it has to do with how I prioritize the work.

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First things first, no matter what is going on in my work day, the most important work to be done is the first draft.  Yes, editing is crucial, submitting necessary…but there’s none of that without the first draft.

So here’s Part 1 of my plan…and it’s simple.  Just write as much as I possibly can each day.  My goal is to work up to a consistent word count each day, which means learning how to write fast, to write past all the lame, meaningless mental blocks, and to just get the first draft done.  I want to develop 3,000-words-a-day writing muscles. This seems to be a sweet spot for many professional writers, and so it seems as good a goal as any to shoot for.

Should be easy, huh?

Monday morning, first official work day of the new year, first official day on the job.  2010 is now a pleasant memory, and it’s my job to make 2011 be the year it all started.

But first things first —

Okay, here’s where I thought I would talk about the most important work of a writer, but I’m going to save that for tomorrow.

Instead, I’m going to talk about protecting that most important work before you even get to it.

I’m going to go out on a very short limb here and say that 99.9% of writers (professional and pre-professional) don’t work outside of the home.  This is usually considered a huge plus.  Who doesn’t want to work in their jammies?

But there are distinct advantages to working outside of the home.  For one, people take you more seriously when you get up at an ungodly hour each day, shower and put on clean clothes, and go Somewhere Else.  Just meeting these three criteria alone automatically earns you the title of Productive Citizen Pulling Their Own Damn Weight.

Because of this, work time is generally considered sacred, and if you’re gainfully employed outside of the home, most people in your life will save their interruptions until after the quitting whistle blows.  After all, if they love you, then they don’t want to get you in trouble with your boss.

But the perception is different when you’re a self-proclaimed not-yet-published writer who looks suspiciously like a bored housewife with a toddler underfoot and a lot of time on her hands.  (Ha, ha!)

So first things first…I may look like a bored housewife with a toddler underfoot and a lot of time on my hands <choke>, but I’m not.  I am a working writer who is trying to fit her work day around the most precious thing in my life, my daughter, and somehow do right by both my family and myself.

It is an understatement to say that I don’t have a lot of free time.  When I do get free time, I want to give it to my dream, you understand?

So if I don’t answer your text, email, phone call or tapping on my window in a timely fashion, it’s because I’m WORKING and I don’t want to get in trouble with MY BOSS (me).

However, I’m always down to meet for drinks after work.

…When I started this blog back in Fall of 2008, my intentions were mostly to discover what this blogging business was all about and to find out if it was something I would even enjoy doing.  So I decided to jump in and write about my favorite thing in the whole world:  writing stories.

As it turns out, I really enjoy writing the blog, and it’s definitely something I want to continue with.  What makes me certain of this is the fact that I still want to do it even though I’ve got, like, eight regular readers.  (Thanks, guys!  I love you!)

At this point, I have given a lot of thought as to what I want to offer readers of this blog, what kind of folks I hope will show up to read this blog, and what I hope to get out of writing this blog.

I realize I just want to be read.  I just want to share things with people that they find meaningful and memorable and maybe even helpful.  I want to make people laugh.  I want to be honest.  I want to inspire.  I want to connect.  I want to matter…as a writer.

Somehow, I have to make this blogging endeavor support/bolster/power my first passion, which is writing stories, and not get in the way or steal time from it, and yet still offer my best to my readers on a consistent basis.

So I am refocusing this blog to be about the writer’s journey…specifically, my journey.  I am climbing in near-perfect conditions at this time in my life, and all I ever think about is how great the view is going to be from the summit. And what a life, huh?  Climbing mountains on the backs of stories.  I love it.

Although I have produced more and better work over the past year, I am still an amateur writer.  And it is as it should be.  I haven’t done the work yet to be a professional.  But I will.  I am now.

So this is the year I truly begin building my writing career.  I have a business plan.  I have lots and lots of ongoing projects.  I have snacks and coffee.  And I want to use this blog to help me stay the course…and maybe help you, Dear Reader, or at least give you a good laugh at my expense.  I don’t mind.

So I am treating this blog as part of my job as a writer.  I will share my business plan, report progress, bemoan failures, celebrate successes, and share funny cartoons.

I realize that this is nothing new, this follow-my-journey angle, but my story is new.  It’s new to me.  So I invite you to hike alongside me, to call down advice from the cliffs above, and to request assistance from the foothills.  We can swap stories and pop blisters together.

It’s gonna be great.

Love,

Ang

Welcome to 2011!  How was your holiday season?  Hectic?  Mine, too.  But here we all are still standing, hangovers mostly hung.  Dat’s nice.

How did you enjoy the Lame Duck Days¹ of 2010?  I enjoyed mine very much, thank you for asking.  I had a great blog post half-drafted regarding the Lame Duck Days; however, I kept getting interrupted so now it’s a lame duck post.  Sorry about that.  Maybe next year I’ll share my lame duck thoughts, but for now it is a new year and I am feeling crazy like a fox!

Lots to do, lots to share, lots to write.  I have some changes planned for the blog that I’ll talk about here in the next few days, but for today, just two small bits of insanity².

Impulsive and rash I may be, but I have committed to participate in the Write1Sub1 Weekly Challenge inspired by the zestful Ray Bradbury, as well as The Daily Post Challenge hosted by WordPress.com.

What this means is I am committed to writing and submitting a short piece of fiction each week, as well as posting to the blog every day.

Huh.  I thought I heard laughter.

Anyway, what crazy shenanigans are you guys up to, I wonder?

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¹ The time period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve marked by a profound sense of relief.

² In case you’re interested, insanity tastes like lots of coffee.  Isn’t that crazy?