And with my final Phase II rejection safely in my filing cabinet, we begin Phase III!

I sent out eight pieces over the last few days to various literary magazines and competitions – some harder to crack than others, some that pay and some that just give you the glory of publication (plus author copies!) and so we’ll start the board running with 8 pieces for Phase III in 2009.

Once I get the novel queries out from under me I have another four or five short fiction pieces I hope to work on and get out there, but it will probably be a couple months before I get to that.

The good news is that, whether these pieces go anywhere or not, as of March 2009 I have submitted more pieces than I submitted in all of 2008, so that’s a good place to start!  Unemployment does have its benefits I suppose.

So here’s the official status update:

Phase II: The final tally is – 0 for 7 in 2008.  A not good year for me and short fiction.  Here’s to 2009 kicking 2008’s ass in every possible way.

Phase III: 8 submissions out the door.