The Absent Willow Review accepted a story I recently wrote called, “Caught in a Trap,” that would fit in the horror genre.  It is a very short story about a woman whose husband has become a “monster.”

What’s the story about?  You have to wait until Absent Willow publishes it, which should be mid-April.

I wrote “Caught in a Trap” specifically for Absent Willow, but didn’t tell them – and didn’t submit it to them right away.  I first sent it to Shimmer and Shock Totem.  The reason I didn’t send it to Absent Willow is because they said their minimum word count is 2000 and this story came in at only 1250 words.

Since I wanted to submit to Absent Willow, I wrote a longer beginning, but it didn’t make the story more exciting.  I outlined additional material for a different ending, but that didn’t make the story more exciting, either.

Maybe I will right a novel.

On the third submission I said, “What the heck?” and submitted it to Absent Willow, anyway.  A few days later, they accepted.

Oo-rah!

Now I have six stories accepted by e-zines.

I expected my progression to professional writer to go faster, mostly because I was overly impressed with my own abilities (as most potential authors tend to be).  Evidently, I write fine in non-fiction or for a web site, but fiction?  That’s harder to break in.  Maybe it’s like acting – there is a huge unemployment rate and only a few actors make money at their craft.

Years ago (I believe the author was Stephen King) I read an article where only seven percent (or so) of creative writers made a living at it.

Hmm.

At first, I wanted anyone to publish a story as long as magazines  or e-zines were their business.  Then I started looking at acceptance ratio.  Next, I started looking at the number of reports generated by authors who registered on Duotrope.com.  Now I’m looking at the websites.

I want to like the website where my story will appear.