I started a new short story yesterday. I finished my work up a little early and didn’t want to start anything new in the last half hour of work so I wrote 1,200 words. I like what I wrote and made some changes at home while I watched TV. 1,200 words is a nice bit for 30 minutes work. In a very boring meeting this morning I made notes about the story and outlined three different ways the story could go. It is a good story and I hope I can find time to work on it again. It looks like another 7,000 word story, though. These longer stories are harder to sell.

I received a rejection on my perennial short story, and it is now up to 28 rejects. I sent it out to Pedestal Magazine which has a return time of about 35 days. I had planned to send this story to Gary Marquette at AnotheRealm.com at the end of October for their reading period, but I just noticed that Pedestal is currently taking more than 60 days to respond, and I could miss AnotheRealm’s reading period.

I wanted to send to Gary for nostalgic reasons. AnotheRealm published a one of my flash piece “Pigs are People, Too” back in June of 2003. This story was an unpaid entry into their flash contest, and it did not place in-the-money, so I don’t count it as a publication credit. It was however the first place my fiction had appeared in more than 30 years.

Later, Gary had been featured in my ezine Astounding Tales. I like his sense of humor and writing style, so there was a faint hope that he might appreciate the weird sense of humor in my short story. I know that there is little or no hope for this story to ever be published, but I wanted Gary to have the honor of issuing its 30th rejection. I think he would appreciate the irony, even if he hates the story.

My problem is that the story will be out at Pedestal until around November 20th, well after the AnotheRealm submission period ends. Pedestal allows “simultaneous” submissions, which means that you can submit the story somewhere else at the same time. AR’s guidelines say nothing about sim-subs. I know that at least one of last year’s stories at AR had been previously published, presumably due to simultaneous submissions.

If I have not heard back from Pedestal by the end of October, I will sim-sub the story to AR. I presume that I will not be accepted at Pedestal so there should be no problem. If, by some strange twist of fate, I am accepted at one of these magazines while still waiting on the other, then I have to notify the loser – unlikely, though.