How Long Does it Take a Slush Reader to Reject your Story?

A delightful innovation from Hey Publisher lets you know. Hey Publisher is submission service that various magazines subscribe to.

First off, I I got an e-mail informing me that my story is being read. Then a minute later I got a form rejection.

A minute! I might not even have got the full 60 seconds. Feeling discouraged.

Illuminated Manuscripts in London

I visited the British Library today to see the illuminated manuscript exhibition. Wow. They have some wonderful works in there. I've been inspired. 

Although I was a bit disappointed that I had to pay £9 to see them. All the other exhibitions I've been to at the British Library have been free. They ran a good one on science fiction during the summer and that was free so I don't know what's going on. 

If you get a chance the exhibition is running until March. If you don't you could always download the app for the exhibition. Yes they have apps. Now if only I had an iPad. Hmmm. Christmas is coming. 

Writing Faster

Here's great post from author Rachel Aaron explaining how she quintupled her daily word count.

How I went from writing 2,000 words a Day to 10,000 words a Day.

And another great post from prolific writer, Jay Ridler about increasing speed:

The Speed of Excellence. Part 1.

You can tell what's on my mind, can't you? Any tips from you writers out there? I want to write faster, but with the same, or even improved quality. I don't want much, do I?
An

Drabbley Goodness

The Drabbler re-opens. Boy, I love drabbles. Stories of exactly 100 words (some count the title, others don't. The Drabbler doesn't). The theme is: Death Bed Confessions.

If accepted, you get a copy of The Drabbler and a dollar. Now, sadly, paid by PayPal. I used to love getting my American dollar through the post. It reminded me of the days when I worked in a fabric factory and we got paid in cash every week. Just imagine that-- cash. Oh dear, I'm showing my age.

Talking of drabbles, for you of a womanly persuasion, check out Luna Station Quarterly, who are accepting speculative drabble at the moment until the 15th.

'Ovoids' up at Nature. Also as a Podcast.

My story 'Ovoids' is up at Nature's Futures, and there's also a podcast. This is a new initiative from Nature. I think the editor, Dr. Henry Gee,  did a great job reading it. But, hey, I'm biased.

Nature's Futures takes  flash science fiction stories. It's a SFWA accredited venue and they send you 90 squiddles. Guidelines are here. You may also like to check out the podcast when Dr. Gee talks about Futures. Interesting listening.

Writers' Forum

I'm writing a novelette (or is it a novella I always get them two mixed up) for a competition on my writers' forum. Now normally I'd be complaining about that. How hard it is for me to write 20K. But seeing as how many of you are doing nanowrimo, and I know that a couple of you are writing 2 books in a month, I don't think I'll get away with it. So I shall just get on with it.

However, it has reminded me to talk about writers' forums. I belong to Codex, which is a group for speculative neo-pro's. To join, you need to have sold a story at professional level (SFWA accredited plus a few others) or to have attended an interview based workshop like Clairon or Odyssey.

It really is a fine group. The membership requirements means that we're all working at the same level. Sorry if you don't qualify-- yet. You can do it. Keep on subbing.

Codex  holds competitions (groan) just for the glory, we chat about the craft, about the submissions opportunities, about the business of writing. There's also a fast critiquing facility.

What writers groups do you belong to? Any that you'd recommend?