Cemetery Dance magazine to re-open to submissions later this year

[Lauren Dixon]

Just got rejected. Best of luck to the rest of you!

Oh, I'm so sorry.

[TerryE]

That's rough, Kris. Keep plugging away, you'll get it next time. I hope it's a little comforting to know that you got close, especially with so much great competition.

[Kristopher Kelly]

Thanks, everyone -- it's okay. It was fun getting to dream big for a while. Like Tennyson says, it's better to have submitted and lost than never to have submitted at all.

[T-Dogz_AK47]

Thanks, everyone -- it's okay. It was fun getting to dream big for a while. Like Tennyson says, it's better to have submitted and lost than never to have submitted at all.

Out of interest Kris, what was the story about that you submitted?

[RichardThomas]

sorry, KK. you must have gotten really close. be sure to send that story out far and wide. good luck. if you need some ideas, check out my column, especially the horror section:

http://litreactor.com/columns/storyv...d-your-stories

[Victorya]

Oh man, so sorry to read that KK.

[Kristopher Kelly]

Out of interest Kris, what was the story about that you submitted?

Haha, well -- I'm editing it again with the hopes of getting it accepted somewhere else, so I won't say too much just now, other than that it had nothing to do with zombies (or anything like them), vampires, werewolves, serial killers, creepy dolls, clowns, aliens, the apocalypse, or the post-apocalypse. I tried reeeeeeeeeally hard to write about something I hadn't read about before but that I thought was supercool. Put a TON of real research into it, too, and then tried to keep the pace pretty light and fast and make it character-driven. Looking back on it now, sure -- I can see some dialogue that needs works, and I've got some better ideas for the ending (bit of a case of a monologuing bad guy at the end, which I'm playing around with getting rid of entirely -- though it's tough not to descend into expositional hell when you've got so much world built out behind the story). Let me rephrase all this: it's basically a mystery, with some light horror at the end. I still think it rocks (they said send our best, and I definitely sent mine); after another draft and some polishing, back out it goes!

Truth be told, during the past few months, I thought about the piece a lot, and I was thinking that it was a shame I hadn't had the time to do one more rewrite on it before the submission window closed.

Now, silver linings-style, I have that chance to make a good story even better.

[T-Dogz_AK47]

Nice one Kris, your story sounds very intriguing. I am glad you have not given up with this, as that would be a real shame.

Re-write that thing, get some close friends to proof read it for you and then bang it out to every publisher known to man. I am sure they will be begging to publish your material in due time!

[Nik Houser]

Hi Brian, any news you can share on the stories being processed? No rush, just hadn't seen any updates posted here for a while so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

[Brian James Freeman]

Hi Brian, any news you can share on the stories being processed? No rush, just hadn't seen any updates posted here for a while so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

I know about 20 rejections have gone out, so hopefully we'll get this wrapped up in the next month!

Brian

[Lauren Dixon]

I know about 20 rejections have gone out, so hopefully we'll get this wrapped up in the next month!

Brian

Thanks for the update, Brian!

[Nik Houser]

Cool, Brian, thanks for the update and the quick response!

[Victorya]

I totally imagine the remaining stories cage fighting at this point.

[Kristopher Kelly]

It has been too quiet on this board lately. I like all you scriveners, and if I could carry your stories up Mount Doom, I would.

Cage match would be fun. Would certainly be better than an endless game of rock-paper-scissors.

(Paper ... paper ... paper ... paper ... )

[Kristopher Kelly]

Anyone else heard anything?