Mid-Year 2022 Publishing Stats

Now that it's the end of June, here's a mid-year update on my publishing stats for January to June of 2022 (short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry):

4 Acceptances (Born in the Watchmaker's Garden, Dental Hygiene on Orbital Station #57, The Tale of Starling, and Raspberried)

Bonus (1st place in NYC Midnight Short Story Round 1)

23 Rejections

32 Submissions

8 Pending

4 Publications (Luna Britannia, Dental Hygiene on Orbital Station #57, The Tale of Starling, Born in the Watchmaker's Garden)

My goal this year has been to submit something at least once a week, and I've met that goal with 32 submissions so far! I also passed my submissions total for all of 2021, which was 29 subs.

Thanks for reading!

Micro Fiction Acceptance! "Raspberried"

I received an acceptance email last Sunday from 101 Words, a site that publishes micro fiction stories that are exactly 101 words long!

I submitted a story to them that I originally started as a poem. But as I've been practicing flash fiction and micro fiction over the last six months, I decided to turn the poem into a teeny tiny story. "Raspberried" is not as speculative as my other fiction stories. It deals with reflections on life and death and, of course, raspberries. My early title for it was "Bury Me With Raspberries" and I use the made-up word 'raspberried' at the end to convey this idea of the homonyms 'berry' and 'bury' that intrigued me.

I'll share the link to the story when it is published!

- Meg 

Publication: "Born in the Watchmaker's Garden" in HyphenPunk Magazine, Issue 4

The full eBook for HyphenPunk Magazine's Issue 4 was released today! Happy Summer Solstice, readers.  Read some awesome -PUNK stories in this issue including my Clock-Punk fairy story inspired by radioactive material used in watchmaking in the early 20th century!

Buy the full eBook issue for just $2.99 here: HyphenPunk Issue 4

Happy reading!

- Meg

NYC Midnight Challenge Updates

In April, I participated in Round 1 of the NYC Midnight 100 Word Microfiction Challenge. These were the prompts I got:

Genre: Comedy

Action: jumping a rope

Word: wash

I wrote a story under 100 words called "The Visitor" about a little girl in Kansas teaching an alien to jump rope. Yesterday, the results came out. I, sadly, didn't make it into Round 2, but I received feedback from the judges today. It was very positive feedback, with some helpful suggestions on tightening up the story. One reason I didn't advance was that my story fell more into the SciFi genre than Comedy. I'm planning on revising it with their suggestions and submitting it for publication as a SciFi drabble (the name for a story of exactly 100 words).

Last weekend, I completed a Round 1 story for the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge. These were my prompts with this one:

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Location: A microbrewery

Object: A toy car

After getting Romance in Round 2 of the Short Story Challenge and Comedy in the 100 Word Micro, I was not thrilled to get Rom Com with this one! These three genre options are my LEAST favorite. Really hoping I can pull better genres in the future. Here's the complete list of genres that NYC Midnight uses:

Action/Adventure

Comedy

Crime Caper

Drama

Fairy Tale

Fantasy

Ghost Story

Historical Fiction

Horror

Mystery

Political Satire

Romance

Romantic Comedy

Sci-Fi

Spy

Suspense

Thriller

They have very helpfully included a definition of each on their site: Genre Definitions

My Rom Com story under 1000 words is titled: "Of Beer and Brides"

Synopsis: Can Jane keep her fiancee happy with the wedding she’s planned in the microbrewery she owns?

I did something a little experimental with the format and switched POV between the two brides. I also didn't try to include ANY speculative elements, so maybe I'll get more points for trying to stick to the genre. I'm really not sure if I have any comedy ability though. The NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge is unique because writers are guaranteed to be in the 2nd Round (happening in August) with the exact same group of writers from Round 1. Then the scores from the two rounds are combined and the top 5 advance to Round 3.

Fingers crossed for a great genre in Round 2!

Cover Reveal for HyphenPunk Magazine Issue #4

Look at this beautiful art for the cover of the upcoming Issue #4 of HyphenPunk Magazine! Such a treat to see my name here for my clockwork fairy story "Born in the Watchmaker's Garden."

Publication: "The Tale of Starling" from Pumpernickel House

Issue 1: The Blue Door from Pumpernickel House has been released! My story "The Tale of Starling" appears in this issue. It started as a NYC Midnight writing prompt and I'm so thrilled it found a home in a magazine.

I have a description of the story and its origins on a previous post here: Round 1 Story

I'm really looking forward to receiving the paperback version of the issue! You can purchase it here: Amazon paperback or Kindle version

A short excerpt of "The Tale of Starling" is below.

Thanks for your support, readers!

- Meg