Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A Nice Surprise

So after 113 days I heard from Shroud Magazine today. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that my story, Beyond the Veil, had been narrowed down to the next phase of the acceptance process. So the story has earned another read and additional consideration. This tells me the story wasn't perceived as total crap, but with the sheer number of people trying to score a slot in that mag, I still know my chances are slim. Still, it was enough to bolster my spirits. For those of you who volunteered as beta readers at the time, Beyond the Veil is the name I gave to the single story that ultimately combined the two pieces The Thing in the Bathroom and Horror in the Chamber of Steam.

Another 350 words tonight on latest WIP. What would you consider to be the scariest form of disembodied voice? A scream? Crying? Laughter? Belching? This (wannabe) writer wants to know.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, congrats!!! I think being short-listed for Shroud is something to be very proud of. :)

The scariest disembodied voice for me would be laughing and low talking. The sort of sounds that people make in their sleep. It always creeps me out that they're having conversations that I'm not privy to.

-Mercedes

Cate Gardner said...

I got the same email. When I read the end of the email - something about how stressful the wait is - I thought, are you kidding - stressful - I'm smiling to hard to stress. I also got a similar email from Apex.

Cate Gardner said...

I got the same email. When I read the end of the email - something about how stressful the wait is - I thought, are you kidding - stressful - I'm smiling too hard to stress. I also got a similar email from Apex. Good luck to us both.

Anonymous said...

That was me btw. Stupid, I pressed enter too early.

Benjamin Solah said...

That was me btw. Stupid, I pressed enter too early...twice

Alan W. Davidson said...

Congrats on the prolonation of the painful wait...hmm, I think the scariest disembodied voice would have to be a whisper, coming from behind the person directly into their ear.

Aaron Polson said...

Good luck! Whispers, murmurs, muttering that I can't quite understand. Those are the voices I don't like, er, I wouldn't like.

Barry Napier said...

That's exciting! Best of luck!

Jamie Eyberg said...

Congrats on the short list! I am in agreement, whispers- ones that are barely recognizable- are creepy.

Jamie Eyberg said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BT said...

Congrats! Excellent news.

Whispers would do it for me but they have to be almost indistiguishable from the wind until I really concentrated and then suddenly made out what they were saying.

Oh, damn. I'm supposed to working on my manuscript not thinking of short stories - thanks heaps, buddy.

Josh Reynolds said...

Hey, I got the same e-mail. We should form a club.
Also, just for the record, my word verification for this comment was 'occult'...how cool is that?

K.C. Shaw said...

Ooh, good luck, and getting short-listed there is a big deal! That was an awesome pair of stories even before you tinkered with them.

Disembodied whispering would freak me out, that and crying.

Merc said...

Congrats, and good luck on making it beyond the shortlist. :D

Fox Lee said...

Wow...three of us got the same email : )

We don't have to try and cut each other's heads off do we? I don't want part of any Highlander situation.

Danielle Birch said...

Congrats on the short listing.

Jameson T. Caine said...

Cate, Josh and Nat - Yay us!

Nat, my sword is ready. Er...Ok, that just sounded wrong.

Fox Lee said...

LOL