Suddenly October

Submitting Sunday #5 – October 4, 2026

Stats for 2026:
Submitted Stories: 7
Rejections: 6
Novel Queries for Taraxaca: 3
Rejections: 3

Steadily collecting those rejections!

It feels nice to be submitting again; having a new short story finished makes a big difference. I had my fastest rejection ever from Beyond Ceaseless Skies—I wasn’t sure if this story was the right fit, but I’d rather send it and find out than self-reject. They got back to me the same day, along with some notes as to why. I appreciate their quick turnaround and that they take the time to include some feedback. I’ll definitely be submitting to them again in the future (this was my second time!). I also submitted to Story Unlikely for the first time. I’ve been curious about them for a while now and have heard good things—and they use actors from The Office in some of their promotional content!

I didn’t end up submitting to this last quarter of Writers of the Future, but I think I will for the Quarter 1 window, which closes at the end of the year. It is nice to have a steady, predictable deadline every few months, and I feel a little silly for not just sending something, but (as my last post ranted) time has been short lately.

Along with WotF, there are a good number of submission calls that I’m eyeing for the last few months of the year. Story Unlikely’s short story contest opens up (to non-members) on November 1st and I think I’m going to submit something to that. Free entry and big rewards for winning, similar to WotF, it’s worth it to give it a go.

The Superheroes, Super Problems anthology from WordFire Press and Western’s Publishing MA cohort closes on October 14! I have something I’m working on that I want to try and get fully drafted this week. I know some fantastic authors that will be submitting to (and editing!) this anthology; they were great to work with when I had a story accepted last year!

Flame Tree has a couple of calls that feel interesting—Dark Ages: Folk Horror Stories and Human Accounts of Beastly Encounters. I’ve submitted to this press once before; they have interesting calls and themes, really pretty covers, and professional pay. I’m not sure yet if I will submit for these—deadlines of October 18 and November 1—but I’m letting some ideas marinate for now.

One that I definitely want to submit to closes on Halloween: Hiraeth Publishing and their anthology of Untold Tales of the Round Table. I came across this call while searching for potential homes for my recent Arthurian story (which received a rejection from the Passing Strange anthology, sadly). This one focuses on specific knights (and Arthur) for lesser known or nontraditional stories. I’d like to submit two stories for this, one for Bedivere and one for Mordred.

Another tempting call, but a maybe for me, is Diabolical Plots’ themed window opening October 18-25. This one is all about rot and decay, and I have some ideas; we’ll see if I have the time!

For the last quarter of this year, my big goal is to get back into the groove of writing, submitting, and querying. The last few months since graduation, I haven’t hit any of my personal project goals. And that’s okay! New job, new school year, it’s okay to take some time to adjust. In the next three months, I’m aiming to finish the draft of my fantasy “next big project,” to finally revise my historical fantasy, and to send out another round or two of queries for my sci-fi romance. We’ll see how that is going in a few weeks!

The Miscellanea:

• Aside from the occasional trip to the archery range and slowly reading through my TBR and book club books, life is full of the demands of work—planning, teaching, reading, grading, and meetings. Many, many meetings. I have some professional development to start on this week that’s mandatory for one job, and I’m eyeing some additional PD that’s optional for the other job, since I’m this close to a little pay bump.
• Next week marks the anniversary of a dear friend’s death, three years ago, so I’ll be getting together with some old friends and celebrating his memory with a visit into Manitou Springs to see his resting place.
• In about ten days, we’re flying off to Florida to celebrate my cousin’s wedding and have a mini reunion with family I haven’t seen in over a decade.

Until next time!