Submission scaries

I've just sent off a story to Shadowed Realms, an Australian flash fiction e-zine.

It's not the first time I've sent something off... it's the second, and it's scary. The churning of the gut, the re-checking of a story I know is okay, the re-reading of the e-mail, adding something here, deleting something there, even hitting the spell checker when I know ever word is spelt correctly.

Jeez. Then there's the moist palms, the rapid eye blink, constant rolling of shoulders and manic thoughts that shut out the NO! DON'T DO IT! IT'S AWFUL! YOU'LL BE REJECTED AGAIN! THEY'LL LAUGH AT YOU! All those negative thoughts that swim around like sharks, waiting for you to show a weak moment.

Well, HAH! It's done now, gone off into cyber-space to live or die on the word of an editor. I may get a good rejection - "not suitable for our mag" - or a bad one - "thanks but, nope" - or the worst - "you wrote this crap?" I'm kidding about the last... I think.

Whenever I get the submission scaries - that tremor of fear just before you push the 'send' button - I think of Wayne Gretsky.

Yeah, I heard that 'huh? What does an ice hockey player have to do with submitting a story?' He said: "You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don't take." Stating the bleedin' obvious, but true nonetheless.

So I've taken my shot with Soul Food, and who knows? Maybe they'll like it enough to buy it. Maybe they won't, but I've put myself out there.

Brrrr... now comes the waiting. And the work on other stories and novels (caint never stop the wurk).