The backstory to this is that I sent in my one (1 (single(only))) short story to The Collagist in late July.  To my surprise, I got an email back from the editor after little more than a week, during my first few days here in Riverside.  He asked me to resend the story, as I’d lopped some of it off in the sending.  A good sign, no?  So I resend.  And today–of all days, seriously, Sunday?– I get an email back rejecting it.  The good news is that he said there was good writing in it, and he looked forward to more of my work.  Which is honestly a pretty good silver lining.  But dammit, man.  You just had to wreck my momentum.  So, I blog.  I’m reclined on a couch.  Are you, collectively, putting pens to your lips, saying “hm”?

The wordcount now is 7,658.  In the whole of the text there are 114 commas.  I’m not about to go through 18 pages and see how many of those are contained in dialogue.  But.  That’s not so bad, yeah?  I’m nearly through my designated 2,000 words, and I’m gonna shoot for 3, but we’ll see how well that goes.  I might just sulk and watch The Venture Brothers.   Rejection’s part of this industry, and as far as skin goes mine’s pretty thick.  But the first issue of the journal came out and some decent-sized names are in it.  Would’ve gone a long way for things.  Back on the horse–truck.

That being said, here’s a very short one for you:  For the 3,296 words currently in my third book, I have six commas*.  I’m pretty proud of that.  For you non-writers, take a look at the number of commas in this post, then count the words.  I am a comma wasteland.

In other news, here’s fodder for another day: the role authors must play in selling their own work, and the role they play as a commodity of their own.   That dynamic is and has been changing from the dynamic we’re used to–the one of the writer-as-recluse.  Now we have to be connected.  For now I leave you with more learned and experienced folk’s opinions on the matter.  Nathan Bransford and Sonya Chung each consider this topic.

* comma count only valid for prose, dialogue not included.