At this point in the Submission Game, I have 8 stories in the hands of editors. I’ve submitted 15 since the beginning of the year. According to the rules of the challenge, I have to resubmit every story to a new market once it is rejected. I’m beginning to see the results of that as the number of submissions is rising each month.

Dean Wesley Smith had a blog post about a week ago on rejections. He went back to the early days of his career and noted that he had three thousand rejection slips in about five years.

I looked at all those rejections and realized it was because I could get that many rejections, and keep going and not give up was the very reason I am here now. So many writers get a few rejections and give up. I just kept writing and sending out stories. Year after year, story after story.

Dean Wesley Smith

I am nowhere near his level of productivity in either writing or submission, but I am striving to get better and the submission challenge is part of that.

Earlier this year, a number of my friends asked for suggestions of good books to read written by Black writers. I just finished a book of short stories that was excellent. It is A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope. If you want to diversify your reading or just want to read a really good anthology of speculative fiction, this is the book. I promise it will transport you to different worlds, all beautifully rendered and filled with excitement.

So that’s the update for today. Hope you are reading good books and doing good work. Be well, friends!