Sunday Salutations from the Black Dog Club
I like to do a nice recap of the week on Sundays. Sometimes this is a reflection of the week as a whole. Sometimes this is just focused on recent events. However, one of the things I have come to realize is these Sunday Reflections help me feel like I have made progress. My current goal is one post a week. I have some plans that include posting two to three times a week, but we are working on the back end to get the blog setup for that to happen. Because I only like Chaos when it is fun.
Tod is also hard at work on building an even nicer, super spiffy version of the blog on WordPress. We are currently using Drupal because I wanted something simple up quickly before we got into the weeds of making something magical. For some reason, Drupal was easier for us to do that with. I don’t have a rollout timeline for the WordPress version, but it is part of the reason I am usually the only one posting. At some point Tod will add his voice to the blog more often and Chaos will truly rain down. (Although, he usually does read through my posts and at least proof-read them once.)
The new version of the blog will use Divi ( https://elegantthemes.com/ ), which seems to address the issues we had getting basic WordPress to work for us. Divi was recommended by Author Media ( https://www.authormedia.com/ ). Jack Wylder, who helps with Larry and Steve’s podcast ( https://www.writerdojo.com/ ), likes their podcast — so that turned out useful!
Overall this week has been a true balance. Here is the recap.
Acceptances
On the good side, one of our pieces of flash fiction got accepted to the Fanta-fly Postcard Anthology. It will be coming out in about a month. More details to follow. It was a fun piece to write and part of the 50 Word Postcard Challenges that Raconteur Press does when they go to or host conventions. (A scientific paper at work also go accepted this week, so I guess it was the week of hearing back from places.)
The Three Moms of the Apocalypse, who do the Postcard Challenges, did another one this weekend. Of course we entered, because at this point they are just fun to enter. I have been pushing their post on MeWe and Facebook so that more people know when they open, since it is a very short term challenge. Some of my friends, and friends of friends, also entered which is always fun to hear.
Rejections
On the awesome side, we got our first actual rejection. By this, we mean we actually got a reply saying “no thanks”! We have only been submitting stories for the last year, and have gotten a couple accepted at Raconteur Press. It is actually odd that we got an acceptance before ever getting a rejection. I have to say it was a very nice rejection. It was the very first story we ever submitted. The story received a “Silver Honorable Mention” from the Writers of the Future Contest (WotF), which means that in theory we can clean it up and send it again. They even give you a nice certificate.
We are cleaning up the story, but it is now going to be a novel! We want to submit to Baen. Overall, the results are a mixed blessing, because if you enter WotF you learn that you are not just entering to get published, or get paid for said story. Nope you are entering for a writing workshop (cool) in California (meep) with celebrities and flash bulbs(nooo!) at some unknown date usually in April (uh…). So, it is better off this way in my opinion. I would have liked to be a Semi-Finalist because then we would have gotten feedback, which would have been even more awesome! But such is life.
The Black Dog Club
Other than that, it has been a full week at work and at home.
There was a small convention of large black dogs around our neighbor this morning. We walked with a couple and their oh-so-cute, HUGE, Black Russian Terriers. Despite what you might think from the name, these are not tiny terriers. Black Russian Terriers are not small ( https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/black-russian-terrier/ ). In fact the male was taller than Crokell (who is a Newfoundland) and weighed about the same. We had fun walking with them before it heated up too much. It also turned out to be good training for Crokell as he learned he can not just run up to other dogs and shove his face into their space.
Other than I am focusing on (1) editing and expanding the Silver Honorable Mention WotF story out to a full novel and (2) getting more solid content for this blog.
I wonder what everyone else’s favorite dog is?