Last Chances...

The end of the year is rapidly approaching and there are a few things you should run over to do before time runs out:

If you haven't already, please vote for your favorite story this quarter. The quarterly poll will be taken down on the 1st.

Also, the 31st is the last day to register for the next Flash Fiction Boot Camp and save $5 on tuition. FMM subscribers save an additional $5! Tuition isn't due right away, but you must register by the end of the year to receive the lower rate. All proceeds of the boot camp help support the magazine...

Finally, don't forget to vote for Flash Me Magazine in the upcoming Preditors & Editors Readers Poll. Voting commences January 1st, and ends at midnight on January 14th (GMT). You can nominate stories published in FMM in 2009, FMM cover artwork, FMM editors, and the magazine itself.

That's all for now. Our next issue debuts January 31, 2010.

Until then...
JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Six Questions For...

The publishing schedule for Jim Harrington's new blog, Six Questions For... has been announced.

You can find my answers (for Flash Me Magazine) posted on January 7, 2010. Each post will remain on the home page for seven days and will be archived permanently. I will be monitoring the site while my post is live so I can respond to any questions or comments from readers.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

January Issue Complete

We received 236 submissions this past quarter, and have finally finished reviewing them all. We have selected seven stories for the January issue, and have contacted all authors.

We also sent out the final rejection letters, so if you haven't heard from us yet and you sent your submission in before midnight EST on December 1, 2010 please contact us.

The FMM Staff will be taking a break for the holidays and will be unofficially on hiatus until January 5th. I will still be working behind the scenes, and though receipt emails may take longer, we will still continue to accept and reply to all incoming submissions.

Here's wishing you a very Happy Holidays!

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Registration now open for the next Flash Fiction Boot Camp!

Registration is now open for the third Flash Fiction Boot Camp Session! Interested participants must register between December 15th and January 15th.

Participation will be limited to the first fifteen people, so sign up early. Tuition for this session will be $25 US. Discounted rates are available to FMM paid subscribers, to members of the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, and to those who register before December 31, 2009.

Visit http://www.wingedhalo.com/bootcamp.html for more information and instructions on how to register.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Final totals for the January Issue

We received an additional ten submissions on the 1st that were not originally included in the final tally. This brings us to 236 submissions this past quarter. Our editors are working through the final 65 submissions. All authors should have received receipt emails by now.

We have not reviewed any submissions received after November 16th. If you submitted a story before the November 17th and have not heard from us, please query.

Final decisions will be made before January 17th, though everyone should receive a rejection letter or notice that their submission is accepted or being held for voting before the end of the month.

FMM Staff

Clarification

We recently changed the submission deadline from December 31st to December 1st, and there was some miscommunication between the staff about exactly when the cut-off time was for the January 2010 issue.

To clarify, the submission deadline was Tuesday, December 1st at midnight EST. All submissions received on the 1st will be considered. Receipt emails are going out this morning.

We apologize for any confusion. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at info(at)wingedhalo.com

FMM Staff

Flash Fiction Boot Camp Reminder

Flash Fiction Boot Camp is a 12-day intensive course for serious writers taught by the Editor-in-Chief of
Flash Me Magazine, Jennifer Dawson. She is joined by Flash Me Magazine's Senior Managing Editor, Elizabeth Hull.

Each participant must have three unpublished short stories under 1200 words that they have submitted and had rejected from at least one market prior to enrolling in this course. The goal is to have stories you feel are ready for publication, and proof of that is a collection of rejection letters. If you don't have any rejection letters, start submitting!

Every participant will:

1) have one story edited offline by the instructor
2) have one story reviewed online by peers
3) use one story in a variety of exercises
4) be challenged to write new stories through daily writing exercises.

At the end of each session, selected stories may be published in the Special Features section of Flash Me Magazine. We selected seven boot camp stories from the first session, and five from the second session.

Click here to see what past participants had to say.

The next session will be February 1-12, 2010. Interested participants must register between December 15th and January 15th.

Participation will be limited to the first fifteen people, so sign up early. Tuition for this session will be $25 US. Discounted rates are available to FMM paid subscribers, to members of the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, and to those who register before December 31, 2009.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

I'll post a reminder on December 15th when registration opens.

Quarter End

Yesterday marked the last day to send submissions for the January 2010 issue. We received 226 submissions this quarter.

We have accepted 2 submissions, held 11, and sent 3 back for possible rewrites. We've had 3 withdrawals, have 10 before the editors, and have rejected 155. We have 45 submissions sitting in our inbox, all received over the last week. It'll take some time to get through them all, but we should have this quarter's submissions wrapped up before Christmas.

One quarter ends, and another begins. All submissions received now will be considered for the April 2010 issue.

FMM Staff

Slush Pile Update

This has been a very slow quarter for us, which is nice since we have so many new staff members. We have received 168 submissions so far.

We have accepted 2 submissions, held 11, and sent 3 back for possible rewrites. We've had 1 withdrawal, have 13 before the editors, and have rejected 138. We have no submissions sitting in our inbox. Again.

So please, send us more! The submission deadline for the January issue is December 1st.

That's it for now...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Issue 26 Now Online

This Flash Me Magazine issue is our special all-fantasy issue, featuring stories by: Gregory E. Clifford, Gitte Christensen, James Ellis, April Grey, Kelli D. Meyer, Donna Quattrone, and William Wood.

Our Feature Story this quarter is "Soul Mate" by Gregory E. Clifford. He receives $20 US and a free year’s subscription to Flash Me Magazine for being the favorite flash story this quarter.

We also have three bonus stories chosen from the first Flash Fiction Boot Camp.

Our PDF subscription features an interview with Jannette Johnson and book reviews of On the Edge by Ilona Andrews, reviewed by Elizabeth Hull, and An Ungodly Child by Rachel Green, reviewed by Mona Lisa Safai.

We're also pleased to announce our award nominations for 2009 in this issue. We nominated six stories for the Pushcart Prize, and two for the 3rd Annual Micro Award. Congratulations to those authors - we wish them the best of luck!

To see all this quarter has to offer, subscribe today!

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Slush Update - Call for Submissions

So far we have received 120 submissions:

1 accepted, 11 held for voting, 1 withdrawn, and 88 rejected. In addition to that, we have sent 6 back for requested rewrites, three of which have come back already and been held for voting. That's impressive!

We still have 13 submissions before the editorial board, but our inbox is empty!

Send us more stories - quick!

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

2009 Award Nominations

I just packaged up our award nominations for 2009 and emailed the nominees. Six stories were chosen for the Pushcart Prize and two were nominated for the 3rd Annual Micro Award.

The list of nominees will be announced on our website on October 31, 2009.

We're always looking for new ways to celebrate the best of flash fiction, so if you know of any other prizes, awards, or collections that accept nominations from editors, please let us know!

JDawson

Editor-in-Chief

Slush Pile Update

So far we have received 104 submissions:

1 accepted, 11 held for voting, 1 withdrawn, and 71 rejected. In addition to that, we have sent 6 back for requested rewrites, three of which have come back already and been held for voting. That's impressive!

We still have 10 submissions before the editorial board, and 4 more still in our inbox.

In the past few months, we've added five new editors to the staff, so we're churning out replies quicker than ever before. We have reviewed all submissions received before October 9th, so if you submitted prior to that and haven't heard from us, please query.

You may also notice more editorial feedback with rejection letters. We have so any editors reviewing slush that we occasionally have five or six editors commenting before we make a final decision. We are also making an effort to give detailed feedback for stories that have flaws we can point out easily. We hope this extra feedback makes a rejection letter a little less like a rejection and more like a review from an experienced editorial board.

We look forward to seeing your stories in the slush pile...

FMM Staff

Slush Update

We have received 78 submissions this quarter, which isn't a huge amount, but the quality of those submissions is much higher than in recent quarters.

So far we have accepted 1 story (though we have not notified the author yet), held 7 for voting, and rejected 43. There are 11 stories before the editorial board right now.

We've had 1 withdrawal, and have 15 submissions still in our inbox.

FMM Staff

Flash Fiction Boot Camp

Flash Fiction Boot Camp is a 12-day intensive course for serious writers taught by the Editor-in-Chief of Flash Me Magazine, Jennifer Dawson. She is joined by Flash Me Magazine's Senior Managing Editor, Elizabeth Hull.

Each participant must have three unpublished short stories under 1200 words that they have submitted and had rejected from at least one market prior to enrolling in this course. The goal is to have stories you feel are ready for publication, and proof of that is a collection of rejection letters. If you don't have any rejection letters, start submitting!

Every participant will:

1) have one story edited offline by the instructor
2) have one story reviewed online by peers
3) use one story in a variety of exercises
4) be challenged to write new stories through daily writing exercises.

At the end of each session, selected stories may be published in the Special Features section of Flash Me Magazine. We selected seven boot camp stories from the first session, and five from the second session.

Click here to see what past participants had to say.

The next session will be February 1-12, 2010. Interested participants must register between December 15th and January 15th.

Participation will be limited to the first fifteen people, so sign up early. Tuition for this session will be $25 US. Discounted rates are available to FMM paid subscribers, to members of the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, and to those who register before December 31, 2009.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

I'll post a reminder in December.

Slush Pile Update

We are now working on the slush pile for next year's January issue. Submissions have been trickling in since August 1st, even though we were focusing on the October issue during that time.

As of now, we've received 37 submissions. Eleven are before the editors, and 26 are still in our inbox.

We have three new editors that we're breaking in, and we have lost our long-time editor, Jennifer Crow. She retires as our Managing Editor, and we will miss her greatly. It's a time of transitions and changes, but we're still committed to providing an exceptional market for flash fiction stories.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Final Fantasy Issue Update

We have notified all authors on fantasy issue submissions. If you haven't heard from us by tonight, please query.

FMM Staff

Fantasy Slush Update

We have finished our end-of-quarter voting and have selected seven stories for the upcoming Fantasy issue. One was accepted outright and the author was notified months ago, while the other six were chosen from our "held for voting" pile and have not yet been notified. We're reviewing them for any suggested changes prior to sending out the acceptance letters. This may take a few days - perhaps as long as a week.

Everyone else should have received their rejection letters. If you had a story held for voting and haven't heard back yet, that's good news;) If you did not receive a notice that we were holding your story for voting, and you haven't received a rejection letter yet, please query asap.

FMM Staff

Still looking for a few editors...

If you enjoy reading flash fiction and have time to volunteer, Flash Me Magazine is still looking for a few new editors. We receive an average of 300 submissions per quarter, and have been short-handed for the last six months.

We are also looking for another publishing assistant.

If interested, visit our website for the job descriptions and how to apply.

Now is the perfect time to join our staff - we're wrapping up the end of one quarter and are about to begin a new one;)

JDawson

Submission Deadlines

We have decided to make a change in our submission deadlines each quarter, so that we have more time to review submissions, do our end-of-quarter voting, and format the issues. Our original submission deadlines were March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31. We are pushing the deadlines up to the beginning of those months. We will still be open to submission year-round, but our deadlines for each particular issue will be March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1.

The submission deadline for our next issue, the January 2010 issue, is now December 1, 2009.

We did this in part because we are short-handed, and our attempts to find more editors have come up empty. So if you would like to join our staff, please check out our open positions on how to apply.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Almost Done

We are almost done wading through the slush pile for the fantasy issue.

We have 1 accepted story and 12 held stories. We still have 22 submissions to read through.

FMM Staff

Fantasy Issue Now Closed to Submissions

We didn't receive as many submissions as we'd hoped, but there are enough to compile a spectacular fantasy issue. In total, we received 168 submissions:

We have accepted 1, held 10 for voting, and have rejected 112. We still have 25 before the editors, and 20 more in our inbox.

We should finish wading through the slush this week. Final voting on held submissions will be on the 10th. All authors should be notified no later than the 17th.

FMM Staff

A Question of Titles

Some people have a natural gift for titling their stories. Most do not. As the Editor-in-Chief of Flash Me Magazine, I see hundreds of story titles every month. Most of them are bland, many are too telling, some are too long, a few don't fit the story at all, and the rest are usually okay, but not stellar. While a story's title does not influence whether or not FMM accepts a story, it should be more than just okay. A story's title should make you want to read the story. It should make the reader curious. It should hint at what's to come, but not give everything away.

Think of the title as the gift-wrapping of a present. You just bought the perfect gift for someone you want to impress. Will you throw it in a paper bag? Wrap it in the business section of the Sunday paper? Use Christmas paper for a birthday gift? Or do you want to use the perfect paper with a coordinating ribbon? It's the first impression, and you want to see a look of glee on the person's face when they see the package. Have you ever received a gift with paper so pretty you had to open it carefully so you could save the paper? That's what your title should emulate. Something so perfect it can't be tossed aside, ripped to shreds, or ignored.

Bland titles don't illicit instant excitement. They don't do a story any favors and indicate a lack of writing pizzazz. If the title is bland, the reader usually expects a bland story. It's human nature. There are a few words that scream "bland" that should be avoided in story titles: ordinary, just, and another. If it's just another ordinary day, why would I want to read about it? I see these words often in titles, and they never inspire joy-joy feelings.

Some other bland titles involve oversimplifying. The _____. or The ____ and The ___. The Pot. The Dog. The Boy. The Day. The Dog and The Cat. The House and The Rain. Not only are those titles bland, they are telling, as well. The Dog. A story about a dog. Joy. The Bad Dog. Not much better. The Bad Dog Who Became a Superhero. It's just getting worse. I now know everything that should happen in the story, so why read the story? The Bad Dog Who Became a Superhero After His Owner Died in a Fire. Oh, my. Now we're bland, telling, and too long. You may think that's a ridiculous example, but I've seen many, many titles this long (or longer!). At FMM, many titles feel longer than the stories. Not good.

It's harder to describe titles that don't fit the story. These are titles that, after reading the story, just don't seem to have anything to do with what I've just read. You don't want telling titles, but they should relate, somehow.

The best titles, in my opinion, are the ones that you either only understand after reading the story, or titles that quote words from the story - preferably words near the end or from the climax. Some examples? Sure!

From the FMM archives:

“Especially the Rooster” by Mark Fewell from FMM's first issue, July 31, 2003. The title made me want to read the story. It tells me there's a rooster (hopefully) in the story, but otherwise is obscure. The words Especially the rooster are in the story three times, the third time being the last line. Nicely done. Ties in nicely, and I only understand the title after reading the story. Doesn't give too much away and isn't too long. Perfect.

"Survivalist" by Kevin Brown is the current issue's Feature Story, July 31, 2009. The title is concise and hints at what's to come, but doesn't give too much away. Who survives what? I wonder. Well, I had to read the story to find out. "Survivalist" isn't a direct quote from the story, but the word ties in perfectly with the ending. Perfect.

Look for something that hints at what's to come, but doesn't give it away. Think about elegant gift wrap that doesn't have the words "Happy Birthday" on it. Balloons are okay, as are cakes with candles, but what about something sparkly or special that, if you were carrying it down the street, people will assume is a birthday gift but won't know for sure. Be creative and have fun with it.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Fantasy Slush Update

So far we have received 139 submissions:

We have accepted 1, held 9 for voting, and have rejected 89. We still have 15 before the editors, and 25 more in our inbox.

We have not reviewed any submissions received after August 18th.

FMM Staff

Fantasy Slush Update

So far we have received 109 submissions:

We have accepted 1, held 6 for voting, and have rejected 59. We still have 21 before the editors, and 22 more in our inbox.

We have not reviewed any submissions received after August 12th.

FMM Staff

Rewrite Requests

Flash Me Magazine often sends stories back with a rewrite request. These are stories we liked, but thought they needed more work before they were publishable. We include editorial feedback, often with suggestions for improving the story.

Sometimes we see those stories back and sometimes we don't. When the revisions come back, sometimes they are better and we end up publishing them, but more often, the story still doesn't work and we pass on it (and further revisions).

Today I came across a great link I thought I'd share about whether or not you should rewrite a story based on an editor's request.

The flowchart is fantastic, and I agree wholeheartedly. We never want to force our suggestions onto a story. We also realize some stories just can't be reworked into something publishable. So, if you receive a rewrite request from us, pull up the flow chart and ask yourself those questions. It's better for you, the story, and the editors.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Flash Fiction Boot Camp

Registration for the next Flash Fiction Boot Camp is now enabled:

Flash Fiction Boot Camp is a 12-day intensive course for serious writers taught by the Editor-in-Chief of Flash Me Magazine, Jennifer Dawson. She is joined by the Senior Managing Editor of Flash Me Magazine, Elizabeth Hull.

Each participant must have three unpublished short stories under 1500 words that they have submitted and had rejected from at least two markets* prior to enrolling in this course. Registered participants must send their three stories and rejection letters to the instructor prior to the first day of the course.

Every participant will: 1) have one story edited offline by the instructor, 2) have one story reviewed online by peers, 3) use one story in a variety of exercises, and 4) be challenged to write new stories through daily writing exercises. At the end of each session, selected stories may be published in the Special Features section of Flash Me Magazine.

The next session is scheduled for September 14-25, 2009. Registration will begin August 15th and be open until September 1, 2009. Participation will be limited to the first fifteen people. We will also have a wait list in case any participants withdraw prior to the first day.

This is a time-intensive course. Participants in the first session reported spending one to four hours per day on writing and reviewing. Participants need to understand the time requirement prior to enrolling.

Click here to see what past participants had to say.

For more information, please contact Jennifer at ffbc @ wingedhalo.com


* I have waived this requirement in the past so please don't let this keep you from registering. The goal is to have stories you feel are ready for publication, and proof of that is a collection of rejection letters.

Fantasy Slush Update

So far we have received 97 submissions:

We have accepted 1, held 4 for voting, and have rejected 47. We still have 15 before the editors, and 30 more in our inbox.

We have not reviewed any submissions received after August 8th.

FMM Staff

Fantasy Slush

So far we have received 74 submissions:

We have accepted 1, held 4 for voting, and have rejected 42. We still have 17 before the editors, and 10 more in our inbox.

I won't lie; I'm very disappointed by the amount of submissions we've received so far for the fantasy issue. With the submission deadline a few weeks away, this is by far the slowest quarter we've had in years. If submissions don't pick up here at the end, we won't have this special issue next year, which is disappointing. Fantasy is my favorite genre.

I'll keep my fingers crossed...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Issue 25 Now Online

It's close enough to midnight to announce that the 25th issue of Flash Me Magazine is now live.

Featuring stories by: Kevin Brown, Katy Bowman, Kathleen Elizabeth, Patricia La Barbera, Angela Morben, Ripley Patton, and Elyse Salpeter.

This quarter also has bonus stories from the last Flash Fiction Boot Camp by: Dawn Allison, Philippa Bower, April Grey, and Leland Thoburn.

There's also a book review of Variations on a Theme by Simon Forster, and an interview with Joan Migton.



Finally, here's a reminder that we're accepting fantasy submissions until August 31st for our October All Fantasy Issue.

Enjoy!

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Call for Fantasy Submissions

FLASH ME MAGAZINE will be doing another ALL FANTASY ISSUE October 31, 2009. All stories submitted for the fantasy issue must contain some element of fantasy and be 1,000 words or less. The submission deadline is August 31, 2009.

Special guidelines apply, so please visit our website prior to submission. You can view the fantasy issue submission guidelines at: http://www.wingedhalo.com/fig.html

Please spread the word!
FMM Staff

Submissions

We are still receiving regular submissions even though we will not review them until after October 1st. Right now, we're focusing on fantasy submissions.

The fantasy issue will be published October 31, 2009, with a submission deadline of August 31, 2009. Special guidelines apply so visit http://www.wingedhalo.com/fig.html prior to submitting. Please note the special submissions email address.

I'd also like to remind everyone that all submissions must have the story's title in the subject line. We've received five submissions over the last week without the story titles.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Finally Finished!

We have finally gone through all the submissions received last quarter, chosen the seven stories that will be published this issue, and are in the process of sending out acceptance emails. In fact, I've sent all but one, but they knew their story was held for voting.

So if you haven't heard from us on a story you submitted for the regular issue prior to July 1st, please query.

In addition to these seven stories, we will also be publishing a few special selections from my recent Flash Fiction Boot Camp. These stories will be published in our Special Features Section. We'll also have an interview and a book review for your reading pleasure!

Until then...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

A Quick Update

We've gone through all but 6 submissions, and we'll get through those final stories soon. Probably tomorrow.

As of now, we have 23 held submissions which we will weed through next week, after the U.S. Holiday.

We should be on schedule to notify all authors by July 10th.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Catching Up

Somehow we managed to fall behind so much that we were left with over a hundred new submissions to be reviewed when the quarter ended. This has never happened before, not in 5+ years. My poor editors have been slaving away, churning out dozens of rejection letters in only 24 hours.

You can't imagine how tired we are! Still, I don't think it's affected our feedback yet. If it does, well, that's a downside to submitting stories at the end of a quarter.

We're not caught up yet, but we're in far better shape than we were last night:

We have received a total of 335 submissions last quarter.

We have held 11 for voting, accepted none, rejected 248 and had 4 withdrawals.

There are 31 submissions before the editorial board right now and 41 left in our inbox.

We will get to each and every submission before we decide which stories make it into the issue. But after this issue is decided, the staff will be taking several weeks off to recuperate after this horrific quarter end. This will not affect authors or the upcoming July issue. It just means new fantasy issue submissions will sit for a while before being reviewed. All will be well... with a little rest;)

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Another Update

Here are the current Slush Pile Stats:

We have received 282 submissions so far:

We have held 4 for voting, accepted none, rejected 155 and had 3 withdrawals.

There are 27 submissions before the editorial board right now and 93 left in our inbox.


The submissions deadline for the July Issue is June 30th at midnight EST. This will be the last regular issue this year, as our October issue is only for fantasy. To learn more about our fantasy issue, visit http://www.wingedhalo.com/fig.html

FMM Staff

Slush Pile Update

We have received 254 submissions so far:

We have held 2 for voting, accepted none, rejected 115 and had 2 withdrawals.

There are 15 submissions before the editorial board right now and 120 left in our inbox.

***

We have switched to a generic email which we will send out when we receive submissions that do not meet our guidelines. There have been far, far too many of these lately and my administrative staff is flustered by trying to decide which ones to reject outright, without sending a notice, and which ones should garner a courtesy notice. A generic email, sent to anyone who submits without the proper subject line, necessary information, etc, will make our lives easier.

If you receive such an email, please reread our submission guidelines carefully. Do you have the word "submission" and the story's title in the subject line? Did you send your name, name as you'd like it published, and a short bio? Is your story under 1,000 words? If your story is not included in the email, is it attached? Is it attached as a .doc or .rtf file? We cannot open .docx files.

We receive too many submissions to accept those that cannot follow our guidelines.

***

For our October All-Fantasy Issue, we have received 13 submissions so far:

We have rejected 4, we have 5 before the editorial board, and we have 4 in our inbox.

We expect the number of submissions to increase dramatically after our regular issue closes to submissions on June 30th.

For information on our all-fantasy issue, visit http://www.wingedhalo.com/fig.html

***

That's all for now!
JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Deleted submissions

We said we'd be cracking down on submissions that do not include the required information. We are. Tonight I just deleted SEVEN submissions that didn't have the story's title in the subject line.

These authors will not receive receipt emails - their emails weren't even opened. So if you sent us a submission and haven't received a receipt email, resend it with all the required information and a correct subject line.

I have a feeling we'll be getting dozens of queries at the end of the quarter saying they haven't heard back about their submission. We keep a log of all the properly submitted stories, and if those authors aren't on the list I'll have to assume they didn't follow our guidelines.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Fantasy Submissions

Submissions usually trickle in for the first few months of our fantasy submission period, then flood in after the July Issue submission period ends. It is proving to be the same this year.

We have received four submissions so far, and have rejected one. The other three are before the editorial board right now.

For more information on our special All-Fantasy October Issue, visit our website at: http://www.wingedhalo.com/fig.html

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Slush Pile Update

We have received 143 submissions so far:

We have rejected 72 so far. 2 have been held for voting, 14 are before the editors now, 2 have been withdrawn, and 53 are still in our inbox.

We have not reviewed any submissions received after April 30th.

Two reminders:

1) All submissions MUST have the word "Submission" and the story's title in the subject line. We've been lax so far this quarter, but we'll start rejecting these stories outright. They will not receive receipt emails, so if you don't hear from us after submitting, please verify that you did have the correct subject line.

2) A few subs ended up in our spam mailbox this month. Not sure how, because they all had the right subject lines, but we found three and replied to those authors today. That worries me, though, because we clearly state in our guidelines: "If you do not receive an email within a few days, assume we have not received your submission and resend it." These three submissions were older (May 1 thru May 6) and we didn't receive queries or resubmissions. These subs were almost deleted as junk mail when I cleaned out the spam inbox today. Please, please, please resubmit or query if you don't receive our receipt email within three days.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Flash Fiction Boot Camp

Our new Flash Fiction Boot Camp is a 12-day intensive course for serious writers taught by the Editor-in-Chief of Flash Me Magazine, Jennifer Dawson.

Each participant must have three unpublished short stories under 1500 words that they have submitted and had rejected from at least two markets prior to enrolling in this course. Registered participants must send their three stories and rejection letters to the instructor prior to the first day of the course.

Every participant will: 1) have one story edited offline by the instructor, 2) have one story reviewed online by peers, 3) use one story in a variety of exercises, and 4) be challenged to write new stories through daily writing exercises. At the end of each session, selected stories may be published in the Special Features section of Flash Me Magazine.

The first session will be June 8 - 19th and will be free. Interested participants must register between May 15th and June 1st at http://flashfictionbootcamp.proboards.com/ Participation will be limited to the first ten people, so sign up early.

For more information, please contact Jennifer at ffbc (at) wingedhalo.com

FMM Staff

Flash Me Magazine PDF Subscriptions

Due to an email glitch, subscriptions didn't go out this morning as planned. They were sent out tonight as soon as I found and fixed the problem, though.

This type of thing doesn't happen often, but when it does, we do like to make amends. To compensate, I'm adding another issue to current subscriptions.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

It's not too late to subscribe to FMM! The new issue is 49 pages and sports beautiful cover artwork by Junior Mclean. To subscribe or buy a single issue, visit our website.

You can see the issue online tomorrow, but only our PDF subscription offers a fabulous interview with our Associate Editor Kurt Kirchmeier and three book reviews: Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews, reviewed by Elizabeth Hull; Revealing Moments by Wayne Scheer, reviewed by Jennifer Dawson; and The Amadeus Net by Mark A. Rayner, reviewed by Janet Paszkowski.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

A New Quarter

Another new quarter began April 1, 2009 and we're not lacking in new submissions. We've received 63 so far...

Right now we have 11 before the editorial board and 1 held for voting. We have rejected 21 stories already. That leaves 30 in our inbox.

It always takes us a little while to dive into the submissions because we spend the first two weeks of each new quarter working on the new issue. Our April 2009 Issue debuts this week and we're very excited. We accepted more stories outright last quarter than ever before. It's a balanced issue, with new faces and a few returning authors. Until then...

Subscribe to FMM and get more! Our PDF issues include interviews, book reviews and additional special features available only to our subscribers. PDF issues are emailed quarterly the day before our online issues debut, so subscribers get not only get more, they get it sooner!

Or better yet: Order your 2008 Compilation CD before April 30th and you'll receive a year's subscription to FMM for free! That's right. For a limited time we will throw in a year's subscription to Flash Me Magazine with every CD purchase.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Taking a much needed break

The editors are taking a much needed break - ten days off, to be precise. We've made all the decisions for the April issue, so this is when the staff steps back and relaxes while the Editor-in-Chief starts formatting the issue.

This doesn't affect incoming submissions, so keep sending them our way. Remember to read our submission guidelines carefully because we've made changes to the guidelines, the payment structure and the editorial process...

FMM Staff

Final stats

We have finished going through the slush pile for the April issue and here are the final stats:

We received a total of 365 stories this quarter. I have sent out the last of the regular rejection letters, and the only thing left to do is finalize the issue.

15 stories were sent back for rewrites this quarter. Five of those fifteen were done early enough in the quarter to possibly see them back before the submission deadline. Most of them did come back, but revisions are tricky things, and even with editorial comments and the feedback of our development editor, Janet, it's still hard to get stories into our issues.

Two stories came back through that we liked. One just missed the mark and we offered the author another chance to resubmit next quarter. The other has been accepted! Revisions can work, if you make the effort. Maybe that author will be willing to discuss the process with our readers in the near future...

We had two stories withdrawn this quarter, one because the author had mistakenly sent it to us without realizing it had already been submitted elsewhere. The other was accepted elsewhere, which is why we discourage simultaneous submissions. Still, that's a much lower number than usual, especially considering the large amount of submissions we received.

And that leaves 336 rejected stories, many of which would have normally been held for voting, had we not had so many high-quality submissions this quarter.

We've accepted 7 stories outright and have 3 stories we'll be rereading here shortly. We may choose one of them for inclusion in the April issue. Looks like we will have eight stories in the April issue, an interview with Associate Editor Kurt Kirchmeier, and 2-3 book reviews. Not bad. Not bad at all.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

News, news, and more news

We've changed our submissions guidelines, our payment format, and our editorial process for the foreseeable future. We've been discussing it for a while, but this crazy quarter cause quite a stir, and we needed to rethink some things.

So before you send us any submissions for the upcoming July issue, please make sure you reread our submission guidelines page, including the payment information at: http://www.wingedhalo.com/guidelines.html

The basics are this: Everyone gets paid the same except the Feature Story winner. Everyone gets a subscription and cash. Win-win. We thought that was better. And simpler.

The changes do NOT affect authors who submitted prior to April 1, 2009.

As for the new editorial process, you can read about it here: http://www.wingedhalo.com/process.html

We now require six YES votes instead of five to accept a story outright. We can only publish 6-8 stories per quarter, so we don't want to fill the issue too quickly. Stories with less that six YES votes will still be considered for the issue (and Feature Story) but they will be held until the end of the quarter and compared to the other held stories before they are formally accepted.

We would love to hear your feedback on these changes...

In other news, we'd like to announce that Kurt Kirchmeier has been promoted to Associate Editor and has graciously allowed me to interview him for the upcoming PDF issue of FMM! Our subscription will have that and more, including a book review of Ilona Andrews' newest book, Magic Strikes. Subscribe today at http://www.wingedhalo.com/subscribe.html for only $8!

More news:

We will be publishing another all-fantasy issue this October.

Our last all-fantasy issue was an astounding success so we’d like to do it again. Submissions will be accepted between April 30th and August 31st. Stories received outside of these reading dates will be rejected outright.

There are special guidelines for this issue and a separate email account set up for these submissions, so please read our fantasy issue guidelines at http://www.wingedhalo.com/fig.html

Submissions sent to our regular submissions email address will not be considered for the special fantasy issue. Any submissions received that do not follow these specific guidelines may be rejected outright.

That's enough for now...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

All caught up!

What can I say except that my staff is amazing?

They have been slaving away for the last 48 hours, trudging through the slush pile to meet my unreasonable request that we clear out the inbox before midnight. But they did it and they did it far quicker than I expected.

We still have 29 submissions before the editors, and we're still open for new submissions until midnight EST, but for now the inbox is empty and that's the first time in a long time. Actually, I went back through all the blog entries, and this is the first time the inbox has been empty all quarter. Impressive.

Enough bragging; here are the stats:

We have received 362 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 309 stories, sent 15 back for rewrites, held 3 for voting, and accepted 6 already.

We have 29 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 0 left in our inbox.

Now, we have done something unprecedented this quarter in regards to held submissions. With six accepted stories, we knew we only had two slots left to fill, which didn't give those 12 "held for voting" stories much hope. So we sent those that didn't have three or more "Yes" votes a revised rewrite letter, giving them the option to make revisions to their stories and resubmit them next quarter. Or not. The choice is theirs, but we felt that was the better option given the odds of making it into this April issue.

So we now only have three stories held for voting, and about ten hours.

I have to tell you, this issue may have given me ulcers... it's been one interesting quarter.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Following Submission Guidelines

Starting April 1, 2009 we will no longer send courtesy emails letting authors know that we cannot accept their submissions as is. If a submission does not follow our submission guidelines, it will be deleted unread and no receipt email will be sent.

The two biggest complaints are failure to put the story title in the subject line and incorrect attachments. If we can't open it, what's the point of sending it? If we can't find your submission amid the 300+ in our inbox, it wastes our time and yours.

All markets have specific guidelines they wish authors to follow, and ours are not incredibly difficult. So if you didn't read our guidelines prior to submission and you didn't get a receipt email within two days, assume you did something incorrectly, read the guidelines to figure it out, and resubmit it properly.

This may seem harsh, but we've had the same submission guidelines for more than a year and we still receive dozens of incorrect submissions. What's worse are the rude replies I've received to our courtesy emails letting the authors know why we can't accept their submissions as is. So enough is enough. Our submission guidelines specifically state that "Emails received without the proper subject will be deleted as junk mail." It's time we followed through.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Another update

Here are the current stats:

We have received 356 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 294 stories, sent 6 back for rewrites, held 12 for voting, and accepted 6 already (though we haven't notified the newest accepted author yet).

We have 19 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 19 left in our inbox.

FMM Staff

Current Stats

Here are the current stats:

We have received 354 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 256 stories, sent 5 back for rewrites, held 12 for voting, and accepted 6 already (though we haven't notified the newest accepted author yet).

We have 43 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 32 left in our inbox.

Due to the number of accepted stories this quarter, we will NOT be holding any other stories for voting this quarter. We will still be reviewing submissions up until midnight EST tomorrow night, but unless a story receives five YES votes by our editors, it will not be considered for the issue.

At this point, it might be best to hold off sending us new submissions until next quarter, which begins April 1st. We will of course continue to receive submissions.

This is an unusual quarter for us, though, and the issue is almost full.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

More updates

Here are the current stats:

We have received 337 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 248 stories, sent 5 back for rewrites, held 12 for voting, and accepted 5 already (though we haven't notified the newest accepted author yet).

We have 34 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 33 left in our inbox. The stories before the editors right now were received between March 1st and March 20th. We have not started reviewing any submissions received after March 20th yet.

If you submitted a story before March 1, 2009 and you have not heard from us, please query!

FMM Staff

BTW (and misc info)

BTW - Posts will become more frequent as quarter-end draws closer. I know all authors are eagerly awaiting news about their stories, whether theirs are still in the slush pile or are being held for voting.

Until the April issue is decided (somewhere between the 5th and 17th of April) and all rejection letters have been sent, I will keep posting progress reports here.

The slush pile is a little topsy-turvy due to two people running the account, so rejections aren't being sent out in exact order. Right now the stories before the editors were received between March 1st and March 9th, with one still there from February 14th.

Remember to get your submissions to us by midnight EST on March 31st for consideration for the April issue...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

More Progress

We are making more progress as the month (and the quarter) comes to a close...

Here are the current stats:

We have received 328 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 218 stories, sent 5 back for rewrites, held 9 for voting, and accepted 5 already (though we haven't notified the newest accepted author yet).

We have 27 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 64 left in our inbox.

FMM Staff

Working Hard

Here are the current stats:

We have received 318 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 209 stories, sent 5 back for rewrites, held 9 for voting, and accepted 5 already (though we haven't notified the newest accepted author yet).

We have 36 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 54 left in our inbox.

***

Quarter-end is March 31st, so if you want your stories considered for the April issue, we need to receive your submission by midnight EST on the 31st. Stories received after midnight are considered for the July issue.

***

In other news, we have filled ALL of our vacant positions at FMM! We recently hired two editors and a publishing assistant. Look for their bios on our staff page when the next issue debuts.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Catching Up

We are slowly but surely catching up on submissions:

We have received 309 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 203 stories, sent 5 back for rewrites, held 9 for voting, and accepted 4 already.

We have 43 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 45 left in our inbox.

***

Since my last post, we have received an influx of thanks for our editorial feedback and one very unsatisfied customer, about which I may post more at a later date.

For now, all authors should know that we delete these hateful emails without replying. We do discuss them amongst ourselves, though. We reread our feedback, the stories, and the authors' unhappy replies to see if we might have crossed the line between honest feedback and tactlessness. So far, we haven't, so we delete these emails without replying and trudge on; we don't need the unpleasant discourse.

These emails are far outweighed by all the letters of thanks we receive from authors who appreciate our feedback. We get so many I never have the chance to reply to them all, but we do read them. We are one of the few markets that offers editorial feedback with rejection letters, and we continue to do so because the majority of authors seem to appreciate knowing why we passed on their story. They may not agree, they may not like the answers, but they do appreciate the time it takes us to do this for every rejected story. And it is for those authors that we carry on...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Trudging Through

Here are the current stats:

We have received 301 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 165 stories, sent 5 back for rewrites, held 8 for voting, and accepted 4 already.

We have 41 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 78 left in our inbox.

***

We have lost one editor, Janet, and hired a new editor, Jannette.

We are currently looking for at least one more editor and a publishing assistant to join our team. We're looking for people who enjoy reading a wide variety of fiction and who have the time to devote to the magazine. All of our staff works on a volunteer basis and enthusiasm is more important than any experience.

For more information, including job descriptions and how to apply, visit: http://www.wingedhalo.com/positions.html

We are also looking for more books to review. Currently, we only review books by authors we have published, anthologies featuring a story by an author we've published, or collections of flash fiction stories. For more information, visit: http://www.wingedhalo.com/reviews.html

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Kicking it into Gear

March 31st is the end of our submission quarter, so we're stepping things up to get through all the back-logged submissions. We finally sent out our acceptance emails, and have our administrative staff settled in. Things look good for the weeks ahead.

Here are the current stats:

We have received 271 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 123 stories, sent 3 back for rewrites, held 6 for voting, and accepted 4 already (which is an outstanding amount! We haven't accepted four stories outright in years!)

We have 9 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 119 left in our inbox. We have not reviewed any submissions received after February 13th. That will change very soon and very quickly as we charge through submissions in the next few weeks.

Rest assured that we will review all submissions received by midnight EST March 31st. You may not hear from us before April 17th, but most likely we will be done reviewing all submissions before April 5th and will vote on all held submissions at that time.

April 17th is the very latest you will hear from us if you submitted a story before April 1st, so if you do not hear from us by then, please query. And remember, we notify each author when we receive their submission. If you do not receive an email within a few days, assume we have not received your submission and resend it.

That's all for now...

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Slow Going

Things are going slowly this month at FMM. Both the Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor have been taking part in a special focus group this month, leaving the rest of the staff to manage as best they can. Our new Administrative Manager went MIA, so we hired a new one, and training takes time. All of these are are excuses, but we do hope you'll forgive us our slow turn-around times this month.

Here are the current stats:

We have received 194 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 107, sent 3 back for rewrites, held 4 for voting, and accepted 3 (though we still haven't contacted those authors yet*).

We have 10 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 67 left in our inbox. We have not reviewed any submissions received after February 7th.

Thank you for your patience!

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

*Why does it take so long to send out an acceptance letter? Before I send out an acceptance letter, I read through each story carefully for any typos. Our acceptance letters include a list of any edits we would make to the story, so the author knows exactly what we would change (with permission, of course!). Mark, Lydia, and Adam, I will try to get your acceptance letters mailed next week.

New URL, same website

For now our new URL will still point to the same pages, so there's no need to panic, but we do go ahead and purchase http://www.flashmemagazine.com - something we have meant to do for some time.

We will slowly copy pages over to the new url, leaving duplicates where there are right now so no one misses anything.

It'll be a while before the old pages are completely replaced.

Winged Halo Productions will remain our publisher and will continue to have a link to the website for as long as it is our publisher, but the staff wanted the magazine to have it's own URL and now it finally does.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Top Four Reasons a Story is Rejected

Top Four Reasons a Story is Rejected by Jim Harrington
(Editor & Development Coordinator for Flash Me Magazine)

There many reasons why a story might be rejected by the editors of Flash Me Magazine. Here are the top four based on editorial comments.

4. Obvious endings -- The resolution of the problem is telegraphed well in advance. The editors don’t look for, nor necessarily expect, surprise endings, but they don’t want to guess the outcome half way through the prose either.

3. Telling, not showing -- Telling the reader about the characters and events of the story is not only boring, it displays amateurishness on the part of the author.

2. Poor grammar and spelling -- The fastest way to get a story rejected is to submit one that has not been thoroughly edited for spelling and grammar errors. Misplaced commas, missing quotation marks, and using “their” instead of “they’re” are examples of mistakes that jump off the page and take the reader out of the story.

1. It’s not a story -- A story consists of a believable character who has a problem that is resolved by the end of the story in a satisfying manner. Prose that lacks any of these elements is no more than a scene, story snippet, or perhaps a character description. As well written as the text may be, it doesn’t meet the requirements of a story.

Website Maintenance

The server wingedhalo.com is hosted on will be undergoing a hardware upgrade at approximately 11PM MST on Friday, February 13th. We expect the downtime for the account to be 1-2 hours. We apologize
for any inconvenience.

FMM Staff

Slush Pile Update

We have received 134 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 74, sent 1 back for rewrites, held 2 for voting, and accepted 3 (though we still haven't contacted those authors yet).

We have 13 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 41 left in our inbox. We have not reviewed any submissions received after February 1st.

***

You'll notice we're a bit backlogged right now. We'll catch up - we always do.

FMM Staff

FMM Updates

We have received 82 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 50, sent 1 back for rewrites, held 2 for voting, and accepted 3 (though we haven't contacted those authors yet).

We have 12 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 14 left in our inbox. We have not reviewed any submissions received after January 25th.

***

Our PDF subscriptions will be emailed out later today; we had some last minute additions to make and are proofreading the final draft.


FMM Staff

Our January 31, 2009 Issue is now live!

We have six stories in this issue, featuring stories by: Stephanie Haefner, Gayla Chaney, Random de Shea, Fiona Glass, Paul Lewellan and Wayne Scheer. We also have an interview with J.C. Runolfson and a book review in this issue.

It’s the beginning of a new year, and here at Flash Me Magazine we strive to make each year better than the last. This year, that meant changing our guidelines, cutting down on the number of stories we publish each issue, changing the cover’s look, and updating some of the web pages. For more information on the changes we’ve made, see our “What’s New?” section of the magazine at http://www.wingedhalo.com/new.html

Also, it's not too late to purchase your copy of our 2008 Compilation CD. For a limited time we will throw in a year's subscription to Flash Me Magazine with every CD purchase! That's right. Order your 2008 Compilation CD before April 30th and you'll receive all four 2009 issues, as well! Visit http://www.wingedhalo.com/compilation.html for more information.

FMM Staff

Slush Update

We have received 79 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 40, sent 1 back for rewrites, held 1 for voting, and accepted 3 (though we haven't contacted those authors yet).

We have 10 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 13 left in our inbox. We have not reviewed any submissions received after January 20th.

***

Slush Pile Gripes:

Two things have happened recently: we received forwarded submissions (meaning the author didn't bother to send us a new email after submitting the story elsewhere) and we received two stories that weren't supposed to come to us. Both look unprofessional.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Working Hard

We have been working hard and getting submissions reviewed faster than ever before.

We have received 57 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 26, sent 1 back for rewrites, and accepted 2 (though we haven't contacted those authors yet).

We have 12 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 15 left in our inbox. We have not reviewed any submissions received after January 17th.

FMM Staff

Slush Pile Update

We have received 48 submissions so far this quarter.

We have rejected 16, sent 1 back for rewrites, and accepted 1 (though we haven't contacted that author yet).

We have 11 submissions before the editorial board right now, and 19 left in our inbox.

FMM Staff

New Quarter Stats

The editors at FMM are back to work and have started going through the slush pile!

We have received 38 submissions so far and 8 are now before the editorial board.

***

Nits so far this quarter:

1) Failure to follow our submission guidelines. The big things here people are having the word SUBMISSION and your story's title in the subject line, and having your name, byline, bio, and story in the submission. That really shouldn't be too much to ask for, yet we keep rejecting submissions that fail to give this basic information.

2) Weird formatting in attachments. We're not going to reject a submission for this, but it still amazes me how many people send in unprofessional manuscripts. The biggest nit so far is strange fonts. It's one thing to use an eye-catching font, but quite another to use one that makes all of the document's text all caps. I had to change the font on one before I could send it before the editors. I can't understand why anyone would do that...

***

January Issue progress:

I have formatted all the stories for the online version of the magazine. We're going back to putting all of our regular issue stories online, and we'll be saving the other extras for the PDF subscriptions. It's more work for me, but posting only the Feature Story online didn't increase our subscriptions enough to warrant the change.

I am finalizing the coverart for this year, having gotten approval from our artist. Now it's just a matter of giving the covers a fresh look.

I still have to format the PDF version, which is the last thing I do after all the contributors have approved their stories.
It takes the most time, but subscription sales are what enables us to pay our contributors and I enjoy putting together a quality product.

That's it for now...
JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

One Quarter Ends, Another Quarter Begins

I have finished sending out acceptance letters for our January 31, 2009 issue. If you submitted a story on or before December 31st and you haven't heard from us, please query.

The next three weeks will be dedicated to formatting the January issue, both online and in PDf format. Email responses may be slow during this time, so please bear with me.

We haven't started reviewing new submissions for the April 30, 2009 issue yet, but we've already received 37 correctly formatted submissions. I say "correctly formatted" because we started rejecting submissions that did not have the requested subject line information. We've sent back a great many submissions... hopefully those authors will make the appropriate corrections and resubmit.

As soon as we've started reviewing submissions, I'll post the slush pile status updates here.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

News

Today is the first day that we will be strictly enforcing our submission guidelines... We sent back one submission already, for lack of a story's title in the subject line, and for not including a short bio.

Today is also the day that we're sending out our last batch of rejection letters for last quarter. We are holding voting now, and should have our final selections for the January issue within the week. If you haven't heard from us by Friday the 9th, please query.

And finally, we notified authors from FMM that are on the P&E poll this year, then we sent out letters to our Pushcart Prize nominees. We also sent out the letter to our solo Micro Award nominee. Nine letters filled with good news:) The nominees will be announced in our January issue on the 31st.

FMM Staff

Please Vote!

Every year Preditors and Editors hosts a poll for the best of the previous year. Flash Me Magazine has been on the polls for many years, for the magazine itself, for its coverart, for the editor, and for our authors.

Last year we placed #7 for 2007 with Elizabeth Tomcheck's coverart for Issue 16 in the Magazine/Ezine Art category.

Voting ends January 14th, so if you have some time, please go vote. It doesn't take much time but it's a fun annual poll to celebrate what we all do!

***

Also, Help Defend P&E:

Unfortunately, there are those who do not like P&E or its editor because we give out information that they would prefer remain hidden from writers. Usually, they slink away, but not this time. P&E is being sued and we are asking for donations to mount a legal defense in court. Please click here and give if you can to help protect P&E so it can continue to defend writers as it has for the past eleven years.

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Quarter End

We just finished sending all new submissions before the editors, so things are wrapping up quickly.

We have received 358 submissions this quarter and our inbox is empty!

We have accepted 1 outright story so far, held 5 for voting, and sent 7 back for rewrites

We have rejected 282 submissions so far, and we still have 63 before the editors.

We will have everything wrapped up by January 11th and will notify all authors before January 17th.


***

In other news:

While you’re waiting to hear from us regarding your submission, you can order a copy of our new 2008 Compilation CD, which has all four of our 2008 issues as well as some great behind-the-scenes information. They're only $10 and if you order one before April 30th we'll throw in a year's subscription to Flash Me Magazine as well!

***

Editor's nits and gripes:

I've been saving up my list of complaints for a few weeks now and I can safely say that the quality of submission procedures has gone down hill. I hope it's just a year-end rush to get things submitted and not a wave of laziness overcoming authors.

We received TONS of submissions without the story's title in the subject line, which makes sending out rejection letters a real pain. I'm going to start sending back submissions without the title in the subject, both to save myself some time and aggravation, and to get the point across that we have submission guidelines for a reason and we expect authors to read them (and follow them!) when sending us their work. As far as guidelines go, we're not very picky, and putting the story's title in the subject line isn't very difficult.

We also received dozens of blank emails with attachments. Is it really that hard to put something in the email? Your name, perhaps? Your bio? A hello? We don't require cover letters, but this is the perfect place to give us the information we DO require. It really shouldn't be on the manuscript...

Email addresses that either don't work or require some sort of special process to prove we're not spam are both annoying. I avoid the aggravation by deleting the submission. Afterall, if I can't send you a receipt email, how am I going to send you an acceptance letter? If you're sending us an email and your spam filters are out of control, add our email address to the filter list. It's for your benefit, not ours.

The lack of professional manuscripts attached has also been surprising. We don't really care how the story is formatted, so long as it's legible. It still amazes me, though, how many manuscripts cover to us looking like third grade English papers, with only a title and the story, if we're lucky. I opened a few that didn't even have the title on the document! We're lax about formatting, but it wouldn't hurt authors to format every story in a standard way with your contact info, the title, your name as you want it published, and the story.

I suppose that's enough to gripe about for now:)

JDawson
Editor-in-Chief

Changes Anyone?

It is the beginning of a near year and the staff of Flash Me Magazine is contemplating possible changes. If you have any suggestions for us, now is the time to voice them!

You can email us at info (at) wingedhalo.com with any suggestions you might have.

We will take all suggestions into consideration, but we will not reply unless we need clarification from you.

Thank you for your support and have a Happy New Year!

FMM Staff