Acceptance, Rejection and Otters! Oh My!

Well, awhile back I had “mystery” news. Now I can share it:  my story “The Gloaming” has been accepted at Cast of Wonders and will be made into a podcast!

If you’re not familiar with them, Cast of Wonders is a site for YA spec-fic audio podcasts, and they do a really fantastic job! I can’t wait to hear my story being read aloud (by someone else, mind you–my reading voice is, shall we say, less than wonderful). I get shivers just thinking about it. I’ll relay the date of my story’s release once I know it.

Until then, I encourage you to head over to their site and listen to the other works. Donate, too! Cast of Wonders runs entirely on donations. Finally, send some “young adults” over–get them engaged in speculative fiction in short, non-threatening bursts of wonder.

In the natural-world side of things, I took a short walk this morning and stumbled upon a young river otter sliding off a rock and into the water. I’ve never seen one before, so I thought this was a good omen…but we all know the strange way Mom Nature has of pre-saging my rejections with wondrous sights. Still, I was glad to see this guy (or girl) sliding through the water.

In a reversal of normal events (I hope, at least), I got a rejection yesterday. No great news there, but… this one held comments! They can be summed up in the first line:  “It’s ingenious, but it needs a little work.”

I don’t know about you, but despite that being a rejection, I’m pretty thrilled. My work was called “ingenious!” Of course, I’m also putting that story back into the “editing” pile, and revisiting those things the editor mentioned. Then maybe with the next market it’ll find a home?

So, while I’d been hoping to report I had six stories out again, I’m back down to five. And I haven’t finished a second story for the month yet, even though I’m actively writing on two! Which means…enough blogging, I’ve got to get back to work!