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The written word has always been a fascination to me and reading has always been a pleasure.

Of course that with all this reading, there comes a time when it starts to become easier to express oneself also by the written word. And then you write and write and write… Most of it never leaves the draft phase, some of it never gets there even. But writing becomes a fervent passion.

And so the history of the story goes on…

On the middle of this year I decided to take it to the next level (pardon the cliché) and pursue the published status. I knew nothing of this world (and still don’t know much) but long hours staring at the screen showed me how big the publishing business is. Thousands of markets exist that accept submission of works, from the modest “home based” e-literary magazines to the secular established “1 issue a year” magazines. Each usually specializes in one type of literary content, and all have an editorial body ready to trash your work without a second glance. Competition is fierce, and many of these magazines state that acceptance lies in a residual 1% of all the work received. Nonetheless the hard part is making up your mind on starting.

After browsing through my folder of drafts, I came to the conclusion that only one work of mine could be eligible for the fictional short stories category. And then the editing process begun. Hours and hours figuring out the best words, going through grammatically incorrect sentences, making it simpler, making it shorter… Revising, revising, revising…

Was this work ready? Not a chance… The next month was spent on a virtual workshop (zoetrope.com) where it was digested and vomited countless times until a final version came out of it. A short story of approximately 4000 words…
And now back to the lists of potential markets, trying to choose one that fits in my story and in which my story fits… also not an easy job. They have everything on their hands and the tiny, pointless demands must be met or they won’t even look at it.

October 26, 2006 - the big day… The day in which I posted my work on its way to the editors (posted as in mail post, envelopes, stamps, still know what that is? Seems that the electronic age of emails is a big no-no to the majority of editors).

Now let us see… 1% of work is accepted, reading time stands in between 2 and 8 months, usually it is said that an average of 20 submissions of the same work to different magazines is needed before it finally gets accepted somewhere… The big wait begins.

Unfortunately, due to conflicts in copyrights if this or any other work of mine gets accepted, I can’t post it here or make it publicly available. But, it seems that sending it somewhere for reviewing purposes is fine. So, if you are interested in reading it, just send me an email (ambiguity at tzplanet dot com) and I’ll forward it to you. I’d appreciate any comments you may have, good or bad, and any criticism that helps the work is more than welcome.