Rebecca K. McDowell's Writer Site. Horror and Puppies and Bitching, Oh My.
I finally got my anticipated rejection from Apex Magazine earlier this week. Now I need to figure out A) what's wrong with the story, and B) where to send it to next. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen until this weekend, because you know what, turds, I have a job. I also need to write …
Continue reading “It’s an Honor Just to be Nominated” Part 2: REJECTED. Plus, Hallucinogens.
So I've written previously about how I have a couple of stories being held for consideration, one by Apex Magazine (which is fucking crazy) and one by Pseudopod (which is only a little less crazy). Since learning this information, I've been obsessed with finding out whether I will be rejected at the next stage. Pseudopod …
Continue reading Many and Varied Obsession #472: Checking Statuses of Things
So a month or two ago, I made submissions to Apex Magazine and Pseudopod (that one is a reprint; you can find it linked here). Since then, I've been advised that the initial readers liked the stories, and so they're moving up the chain. I almost didn't post about it here, because I didn't want …
So a few new but uninteresting-to-anyone-but-me things happened this week. I got rejected by The Dark. Not THE DARK, as in the breathing black space that haunts closets everywhere, but the horror magazine. Rejection Game Strong thus far. Still waiting for DarkFuse, Pseudopod and Apex to tell me to fuck off. I have two weeks' …
Continue reading I Didn’t Want You Anyway. Also, Bullet Journals (Mullet Journals?).
A dubiously smart person once said, "Write drunk; edit sober" (that person was not Ernest Hemingway, despite what you've heard). In that vein, I am now at The Yachtsman with Ashley so I can work on my novel. No, I am not drunk (yet), because it's Sunday, but we were running out of places to …
So I polished some things up and sent them out. I look forward to either 1) boilerplate rejections, 2) personalized rejections, or 3) acceptances. #1 would surprise me the least; #2 would probably make me feel the worst; and #3 is unlikely. All the same. I kind of wish personalized rejections were less professional. They …
Continue reading Rejectathon, Commence. Also, Submission Grinder.
I have three things to report. I'm in Pittsburgh right now for work, at a hotel. I've been to Pittsburgh on this case twice in the past month. It's a nice town. I decided to try to drink coffee this morning. I hate coffee. I normally drink tea. I finished a short story last night, …
Continue reading Coffee is Gross, but I Wrote Something in P-Burgh.
There are some things I'm really bad at. Bowling (I average a 45), hanging pictures straight, keeping plants alive, decorating cakes n' things, human social interaction when I'm in a certain mood. Also, finishing my creative projects. I started this site and blog to talk about my writing, and of the several blog posts I've …
If you haven't read Nightmare, you should. It's a well-curated online horror and dark fantasy magazine with some non-fiction and podcast business going on as well. They have a subscription service, but there are also plenty of good stories available to read for free online. Although I would say subscribe; it's cheap and it helps the writers. …
Continue reading Nightmare Magazine, Masques, Manuscript Format, Etc.
Yesterday was President's Day, and I had the day off. I don't think I've ever had President's Day off, not in my entire career. It was kind of nice. I did the usual "it's my day off so I should do these things" bullshit, like dishes and vacuuming and admonishing the dog for being so …
