I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Michelle Pendergrass
I'd be a terrible poser if I acted like U2 was one of my favorite bands. (Sorry Heather) However, as I sat down to write this post, that song did come to mind and I did pull it up and listen to it.
Because right now, it's truth as far as The Midnight Diner goes. So I'm going to lay it all out there and hope that you will rise to the occasion and make it so.
Submissions were extended to January 15 and maybe I should have addressed the issues then, but I didn't think about it. Live and learn, right? So the 15th came and went and I looked at the state of submissions and noticed a huge discrepancy in categories. Some categories are overflowing but most are gaunt and starving.
We have plenty of horror, paranormal, and hard-boiled stories. They are abundant. Everything else? Not so much. Like almost nothing. A drought.
We need you to submit in these categories:
Jesus vs. Cthulhu
Monster
Shatner on a Plane
Archetypical Exploration
The One That Happens in a Diner
Weird Western
Conspiracy/Intrigue
Adventure
Aliens/UFO
Weird War
I am committed to producing a quality publication and right now, I feel that the scales are stacked and there isn't much variety. Take a look at the list and get going!
As for the new deadline, I wanted to give you until the end of March, but then I looked at my April calendar and I'll be traveling three-quarters of the month and I know I will not be able to read the last minute submissions, not to mention start trying to produce this issue, so to save my sanity, I'm going to go out on a limb here and set the new submission deadline for May 15, 2010.
I realize that means we've kept submissions open for two months shy of a year and I understand we've not made decisions on stories submitted over the past six months, but I'd rather publish a quality, diversified issue than try to make it work with mostly three categories. In the end, this is better for you, author, because you want your story in a publication that cares.
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Michelle Pendergrass is Editor-in-Chief of The Midnight Diner and hopes you consider submitting a story in one of the desolate categories above.