Interesting News from the Literary World

A few months ago, I submitted a couple of my poems to a well-paying, well-established magazine and they were rejected in one of the nicest tones I've seen used in that type of situation. I accepted it without much hurt- except maybe for the nice check I would have received- and moved on as only my kind can.
So, imagine my surprise when I saw a letter from them today as I opened my mail box. The envelop was heavy, bulging from its contents, and my heart began to emulate it. They say in moments of anticipation, blindness sometimes sets in, and I had been skeptical until today. I blinked to coax my sight back and to calm the alarmingly-high heart rate. I tore the damn envelope and damn near cursed myself to that despised of all kingdoms come...the one with fire and brimstone, not the gold and harps.
The contents, I found out, were marketing materials asking me to purchase a subscription for the upcoming year, with elegant material on the history and the forecast future of the magazine. My first- and only- thought was, why send to people who have been rejected??? We are the ones least likely to purchase because, a) resentment for being rejected, and, b) no money, since we weren't paid.
I would stick to advertising to those who were accepted since they are the ones more likely to sign up. However, I understand if they think the rejects are the ones in most need of seeing what type of poems are accepted, and, thereby, improve their craft along those same structures. Well, that might be well and all, but, once again, as my favorite Calypsonian famously proclaimed, "NO MONEY, NO LOVE."

Submitting Work

Today concluded, for at least the next few weeks, a period of submitting my work to several magazines and journals for publication consideration.I have submitted thirteen poems and one play to five different publishers in the past two weeks and, though I have more, I consider this to be an adequate test of the waters. I don't want to have all my poems or prose tied up while I wait to hear from the editors as it is not unusual for one to wait at least three months for a response...which is usually a "no."
So, now I'm off to continue the plays and short stories I'm working on.

The Goings-On

Much has been going on the past few weeks and, contrary to the spirit of this blog, I chose to wait until my emotions had calmed before I wrote a post, or posts, about it. In case you are wondering, all that has transpired has been good, so there is no need for you to weep and gnash teeth on my behalf.
Anyways, enough with the attempted joke-telling. I finally had some of my work accepted for publishing and it's a great honor for me as I've only been focused exclusively on writing to earn a living. This is a tough nut business to crack into, but I hope this will open some doors. I've also compiled a harem of poems and submitted 10 (ten) of them to several journals and magazines for consideration. I hope they view them from my own biased viewpoint, and I hope you hope for at least that much, too.
I also participated in the annual BBC African Performance Competition for a radio play they hope to air around August 2010. I found out about it with five days to go and I did my best, although more time would definitely have been better for the overall turnout of the script. The cool thing, besides the prize money, is that my play has the potential to be read by the great Wole Soyinka...a man who owes all his massive talent to an encounter we might have had in a previous life whereby I gave him a few literary suggestions and pointers. Seriously, though, it's an honor to participate in this as I had previously wrote about the influence of radio theater. See here.
As you might also have suspected, I am a budding photographer looking to capture the essence of existence through my camera lenses. This is a Herculean endeavor, but I once challenged the great Greek freak to a shouting match and he, like other less Sakabakean beings, resorted to blows. I won the shouting match, but it was another story when it came to throwing blows...or rather, in my case, receiving them. I lost a lot of blood and my pride literally took a beating, but at least I know I can defeat Hercules at something. Please feel free to disbelief this tale if you want, but I would strongly recommend doing otherwise.
Anyways, as I was saying before my thoughts sailed away with whatever remained of my brain from my college days, I entered a couple of pictures of mine into a contest run by the local zoo. Their website states that around 825 pictures were entered and I have calculated the odds of me winning to be 2/825...better than the odds of being run over by the wind...or a bus, in your case.
So, that's what I'm doing now: Waiting. I'm also doing a little writing. To give you a little something to look at, I will post a few of the pics I took from my zoo visit. The ones I entered are not included, of course. Enjoy, and keep writing or doing whatever keeps bread in your belly and creditors off your as...uhm, back.

***All pictures are copyright of Edouard S. Mutabazi and any use without prior written permission is prohibited by law.***