lisa writes stuff issue #22 submissions and news
lots is going on
Dear Internet,
Damn, do I have a lot to tell you.
First, I had another piece (written as Lisa Rabey), her heart was broken; it was made whole, accepted to CafeLit! The piece will run this Friday, September 8. I will be on vacation so I won’t get to see it in its glory upon release. I will add it to my portfolio and advertise it here on the next issue.
Secondly, I’ve been submitting a fuck ton. In the last few weeks, as of this writing (Tuesday, September 5), I’ve submitted 24 pieces. Most are simultaneous subs but I never submit to more than two places.
Except for the smut, I’ve split the other subs between the nom de plume and Lisa Rabey. For the smut, that’s under Kat MacFee. I made sure when submitting across multiple places to keep the names the same so I don’t get confused.
(I’m opting on making the smut nom de plume public because, well, it’s smut. I ran some ideas about submitting everything either under Lisa Rabey and nom de plume to Best Kate and she said not to cross streams so there it is! Kat won’t be on social media, especially not Twitter (I refuse to call it by its new name). IG frowns on sexy stuff and well maybe BlueSky or Mastodon? Haven’t gotten that far yet. She does have a website! I was thinking that once I get her more established, of opening up a newsletter where I would provide free smut to my readers weekly. It would also grow her audience. There is a lot of backend work to writing!)
The main stuff under nom de plume is poetry. I never thought to call myself a poet but apparently I was wrong! I also submitted poetry under Lisa Rabey to two mags that look for work by those with a disability and they quantify mental health counts. Those pieces were written when I was manic so it’ll be interesting to see how those turn out.
Oh! A poem under nom de plume is accepted conditionally. This means that they’ve made suggestions for edits, and I’ve agreed to work on them.
When I told Mr Lisa about all of this work, he asked me if I have actually /written/ anything. Other than a few poems, the answer is no. I have two pieces with returned edits I need to work on and two more pieces I’m sending out for edits. This doesn’t the fuck ton of work I’ve started and I need to pick up or fuck, written new stuff.
Some stuff I’ve stopped in mid-sentence and left no notes so I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. Those pieces might need to be re-worked from scratch.
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In other writing news, I’ve been beta testing new features at Chill Subs.
Chill Subs, like Duotrope and The Submission Grinder, does two primary things: catalogs online lit mags and small publishers open to submission and tracks those submissions for you. On the info page for the market, Chill Subs also lists info on submission as well as stats. The one you want to look out for is submission acceptance. (Duotrope also does this.) I track submissions via a complicated Google Sheets doc I mention way back in Issue #5 and at Duotrope. Chill Subs came up in my periphery a few months ago and I decided to give them a whirl.
The website was originally a bit clunky but the bugs are being smoothed out. I like the ease of finding markets and you can bookmark them into folders of your own choosing. Listing your submission is a lot easier than on Duotrope (I never used The Submission Grinder) as well as tracking your work.
They partner have their own inhouse magazine, Write or Die. For paid subscribers, they also offer write-ins and classes.
They have a lot of shit they are providing for the low cost of $5. (I pay $50 a year for Duotrope but they don’t offer this much shit.)
Chill Subs sends out regular emails (2-3x a week) with titles like “15 Magazines That Will Boost Your Writing Career” and “10 Magazines Looking For Work on Parenthood.” They sent out an email last week, “450 Magazines That Are Always Open,” and I’ve been slowly going through the list. I’m up to the Ds.
While working through that list, I found some incorrect info so I submitted a lot of feedback. This turned into them asking me to beta test a few things which I heartily agreed to.
It’s been a lot of fun.
I really hope Chill Subs makes it because the service is becoming more amazing but if they fail, I can always fall back to Duotrope. (I keep my spreadsheet updated regardless of which online service I use.)
Submission update
72 submissions, including 40 rejections, 4 acceptances, and 1 withdrawal.
Publication
chapbook: commercial breaks
Snippet
This is from my poem, strange perversities, that I have recently submitted.
your language is unknown
and in your strange perversities
i agree to the world i see you
as the blind see music or
the deaf hear color
love and tomatoes,
lisa x