October Submission Blitz – Scary Scarecrows

Three more days, three more submissions (and two more rejection letters – but it is what it is.) I hadn’t been planning on submitting novels as part of this blitz, but I got a rejection back from Baen for Elements of Genocide and then found out Angry Robot had an open submission window. I really want to find EoG a home – I don’t like having it sit and gather dust on my shelf so I decided to try it out on Angry Robot. That meant writing a two page synopsis, my least favourite submission task. I find tackling the synopsis more difficult that writing and editing the 100,000+ word novel the synopsis covers. But I hunkered down and got it done. Even if I don’t get it published soon, I feel rewarded each time I get someone to read it, whether it ends up rejected or not.

The second novel submission was actually a query in response to a publisher soliciting a novel. This is only the second time I’ve had this happen, so I jumped on it and suggested “Sleep Escapes Us” for review. We’ll see if there’s interest there. I have my fingers crossed.

My third submission was the third resubmission for one of my shorts. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

My horror trope today is scary scarecrows. This trope seems to crop up everywhere. From the classic Pumpkinhead to a myriad of Halloween-themed tales in anthologies and podcasts the scary scarecrow shows its spooky face all over the place. Considering they are designed to frightened, it’s no surprise that they are inherently creepy.