Ending The Week

 Not much to report for Thursday or Friday. Yesterday was spent in tidying up my main room; with plans on finishing up on Friday. Once again, I stayed here for the most part - an early morning trip to the BMV was fruitless, but I did get some supplies at Payless.

I did get the following rejection for "Going After The Kid": 

Thank you for submitting your story to Big Smoke Pulp. I appreciate you considering this anthology for your work.

 

The selection process for this anthology was highly competitive, and unfortunately, your story was not chosen for inclusion in our anthology this time.

I apologize for this form letter rejection and the delay in sending this reply. 

Although I would love to provide feedback for each and every submission, we've received hundreds of entries for our second volume, significantly more than our first, and individualized feedback would be too great a challenge to attempt.

 

In lieu of that, here's a high-level view of what successful entries did to be accepted for this edition:

• Fast paced and high tension: get into the story immediately. Set the scene with action over description.
• Shorter is better: though some longer works have made it through, the overwhelming majority have been south of 2000 words.
• Cliches are okay...sometimes: with shorter word counts, using some cliched tropes helps set the scene so you can get to the action.
• Don't do too much: though you may have a neat or interesting way of formatting your short story, there's a lot you can still do while staying within the lines.
• With a twist: keep me guessing 'til the end. I want to feel like I know what's coming, then be shocked. It's not a requirement to be an actual twist, but subvert my expectations a bit.

The work submitted this round was the highest quality yet. I can honestly say that many of these stories deserve a home. I encourage you to continue submitting your story to more publications. 

Thank you again for submitting your work to us. 

I wish you the very best in your writing career - and hope to see something new for Big Smoke Pulp Vol. 3 next year!

Adriano Ariganello Publisher, Writer, Crowdfunder adriano@pestocomics.com | pestocomics.com Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I did read Modernity is a Predicament: On Jacob Burckhardt and the Italian Renaissance (Marginalia Review of Books).

Mostly, I spent the day working on blog posts.

 Today, I went to lunch at The Dumpling House and then to the group session and then Payless for more supplies.

 I spent most of today working on blog posts, listening to writing podcasts. Now i am thinking of going to bed.

sch