Of Stories and Submissions

Thanks to everyone who has dared the Lake of Fire to bring their stories to the attention of our tormented readers. The old lake is burning merrily with all the stories we've fed into it's flames over the last couple of weeks - well over a hundred, but who's counting? The screams are what makes this job worth getting out of the bed of nails.

Note to Manuel in Puerto Rico and CC-S in London: Email to your address is bouncing. Please be advised, your story has been consigned to the Lake of Fire.

Now that the number of submissions has begun to level off, I think it's safe to assume everyone has gone through all their trunk stories.

To everyone who has submitted without reading the guidelines except to find the submission address, please don't think I haven't noticed. You would also do well to read Things to Consider, Things to Avoid.

Also please pay attention to the word count restrictions. Although I haven't had to reject a story because it was too long, most of the stories that I have received are over 500 words, with an unhealthy percentage of those pushing the 600 word mark. If your story is 597 words long, it already has a strike against it.

All that said, I do have quite a large folder of stories that I plan to grant further consideration. If you have submitted a story and haven't heard back from me in about 5 days, your story is in my Read Again file and it could be a month or two before I reply to it.

They say punishment delayed in the worst punishment of all. Meanwhile, try the veal.