My New Year's resolution

For Christmas Eve this year, I got a short story rejection. Then for New Year's Eve I got another one. Happy Holidays. The Christmas Eve one didn't bother me much, but the second one bit. It was a story a really liked ("Seagull and Raven" for those of you keeping score), and it didn't even make the quarter-finals, which I've been doing consistently up to this point. I read the story again. I still really like it. It will be interesting to see what becomes of my entry of this quarter, since I only sent it because it was the only thing I had ready. It's not really the same in tone as most of WOTF, almost horror. Wait, I write horror? At any rate, I feel better about sending that one now as I had felt so good about this completely snubbed story it's clear I have no sense of what they are looking for. Maybe they'll like this new one. Who knows?

And I just realized, I sent "Seagull and Raven" on to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, who rejected me on Christmas Eve. Ah, the old swaparoo. That's not really a coincidence; I send everything to FSF first because they respond in about 10 days. Then they go on to other mags, the ones where I don't hear back for 2-3 months.

At any rate, my New Year's Resolution is to get more rejections.... I mean to send things out more. All my short stories are waiting in slush piles right now, except for the one I decided would work better as novel #3, but that's not a heck of a lot, actually. So, resolution #2: Write more stories. So I can get more rejections. Maybe #3 should be, read Wil Wheaton's blog. Because nothing makes me feel better about story rejections than reading his account of the auditioning process. I can always say at least I'm not an actor.