What does it take to publish a story?

One of my greatest frustrations as a beginning author is that when a story is rejected the reasons are usually not clear. "It doesn't fit our needs at this time", "We receive more submission that we can publish" are often cited reasons by editors.

Although I sympathize with editors and understand that they do not have the time to elaborately criticize every story that falls on their desk, as a beginning writer it does get to me.

I have several strong stories that are currently being considered by magazines (I wouldn't have sent them out if I didn't think they were worth the editor's time), but so far I haven't had any luck. For reasons that remain unknown to me.

Is it that the stories are really not suited for the markets I've chosen for them or is my writing not strong enough? I'm sure every writer has asked him or herself this very question.

For now, there's nothing for me to do but persevere and hope that my stories do find a good home somewhere...

New Year, New Challenges, New Opportunities

The new year has arrived, 2011. The second decennium in the 21st century. And like any new year, we are faced with new challenges, but also new opportunities.

I have always had a healthy scepticism against new year's resolutions. Be honest how many have you kept over the years?

But this year everything is going to change, right? Right. I've made a resolution that in 2011 I will finish my first novel. So far, I've been working on four at a time and the occasional short story. And I wonder why I haven't finish one last year. So, I decided, this year I'll work on just the one, the chosen one.

Most new year's resolutions fall through in the first week. Let's just see how far I've come next week before we open the champagne.