sharing in the writer's market

OK, I'm probably not reporting anything new by telling you about newpages.com because if you just google "literary magazines" or "online literary magazines" it shows up at the top of the results. I may even have heard about newpages.com, and it may even be in my browser's bookmarks for what I know. Except that today, faced with another rejection letter and faithful to my promise to just keep submitting the same story to other magazines, I felt overwhelmed by the number of literary magazines out there. It became even more overwhelming once I found the lists at newpages.com

A few days ago, I thought: I'll start my own! I know how to make websites, and since I even own the web site, litbazaar.com, I might as well use it. That will take a long time. And there are so many out there! How many writers can there be? Some of the most obscure (to me until now) online magazines already post "no more submissions for now, please," and it feels like arriving in a town where there's a big convention going on and no rooms in even the dingiest motel. You rent a car, because you have to go out of town and seek the "Vacancy" sign. Then you try one and they look at you and tell you they don't really have a bed for you. You don't take it personally, because the motel wants to attract a kind of clientele that does not include you.

Now if I look too deeply at a magazine I selected for its name, I find out it's based in the south, and tell myself they'd never be interested in a story that talks about a kid being stuck in a snow bank. Or would they? Maybe that qualifies as novelty.

So, seriously, what do I do?

- start my own magazine. Being its editor, I'd slip in my writing here and there
- become a novelist and withdraw for a few years until I come up with the novel that someone will surely want to publish
- look around me and find an open mic so I'll keep writing poetry with the only goal of "publishing" it at the open mic (and then on this blog). I read somewhere that people my age are past their prime as poets (an issue with the fossilization of one's language, I think), but then wouldn't it be an antidote to aging?

A decision will come soon.

Oh! newpages.com also lists independent bookshops in your town! Go there, then review the store on Yelp.

issues of the day

Wow, I keep forgetting that the rest of the U.S. out there is really strange. They keep thinking whoever isn't like them, i.e. ignorant, is dangerous. It reminds me of what we learn about the Middle Ages, and frankly the U.S. has been plunging into something like its own version of the Middle Ages for a while now. It's amazing that today, with technology that would allow anyone to get a proper education, we can hear them.

There's the case of Sally Kern, a State Rep from Oklahoma spreading her message of hate and bigotry
http://www.victoryfund.org/files/listening.html

And then, much more to worry about the loss of civil liberties that is now an institution, a University professor in Florida was arrested and jailed because he's Palestinian, lost his job, has been in prison for no reason for five years...

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/21/al_arian_enters_19th_day_of

This is so much bigger than it seems. We see the tip of the iceberg, and we do nothing because we think Obama or Hillary will fix it. But I'm pessimistic.

It's About a Sweater

Berkeley, November 16, 2002
Dear S.,
I am returning this sweater to you in this package addressed to the last place I know you lived. Yes, it is an old sweater that maybe you don’t remember, or if you do, the burden of claiming it from me was too formidable… I understand. I could not imagine trying to contact you since the day you left.

The whole letter in PDF format at www.heatingupthefog.com