Happy Halloween!

Well, it's not quite Halloween. But I do have a party to go to tonight, so it might as well be. I wish it wasn't so blasted HOT though. What kind of Halloween is hot and muggy?

So, the fact that I have watched so much horror this week it isn't even funny (including some horror movie-related shows as well as true-life horror stories), I thought it would be a good time to revisit my senior seminar project in college (for literature).

For the final project, my paper was on horror as the ultimate misunderstood, underestimated genre in literature. This is an idea I still adhere to, to this day. Anyway, what I filled those 10-15 pages with is a little foggy now, but I recall just believing that a genre that explores so well what scares us has got to have serious meaning and serious truth about the human condition, not to mention particular phases in history.

The accompanying part of my project was a vampire story I had written. Which my professor LOVED, believe it or not. He said that that story proved to him what I was capable of as a writer. (It also landed me an A in a class I hardly ever attended -- that was the year I switched nights and days around, and was hard pressed to get to classes, even 6 o'clock pm classes.) Reviews from friends ran the gamut from, "I couldn't sleep after I read it," to another rather unique review, "At times I thought it was comedy, or porn." (Actually, in a little pice of trivia, that last comment was uttered -- probably around 1991 -- by the individual who is putting on the party tonight.)

As for that story's fate, it never got published. I tried it with both straight-up horror zines as well as literary magazines (it got a personal rejection from Richard Peabody over at Gargoyle, of course this was years and years ago. He turned me onto Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls in that rejection, though).

I haven't tried to market that story in a long time. It probably IS a bit over-written, judging by the last time I looked at it, but I still think it had some really good elements. (To my dismay, I spotted some of its elements in vampire movies years after, which kind of sucks when you feel like you did it first.) Meanwhile, though, I kind of think it also didn't have any clear sense of whether it was a piece of literature or a horror story, which made it I think difficult to place.

Although a lot of my work is dark, and occasionally has supernatural or surreal elements, most of it isn't straight-up horror, with the exception of one story that is currently in submission circulation. However, I'm starting to think maybe horror might be my choice for NaNoWriMo.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

LLB

Mac or Windows?

Seeing how we're creative types, I was wondering about any opinions on this integral tool of the trade.

I toil on a (sadly) ancient iMac here at home -- I think the first model that ever came out of the gate -- and plan on upgrading to a brand-new iBook (wireless Internet, please!) ASAP. I'm maybe not the most rabid Apple fan, but I'm up there. I know I'd never buy a Windows PC, at least not until something unforeseen might happen, like Apple really sucking, and even then I'd probably try to bribe somebody to help me figure out Linux.

Anyway, this is probably a much more heated target of discussion for graphic artists, and I'm not sure there's any really defensible reason why a writer might prefer a Mac for any technical reasons unless they did a lot of desktop publishing stuff, but I thought I'd throw the question out there.

Write on (on whatever your computer of choice is)!

LLB

Bush vs. Books?

Well, it makes kind of an incendiary headline, doesn't it?

I ran across something interesting today. The two big bookstore chains, Barnes & Noble and Borders, both warned about their upcoming quarterly sales because of a) the hurricane (not surprising, since every retailer did, just about) and b) the election (surprising).

The idea is, the election has so distracted people that book sales are falling off. I know that analysts thought the election line was a crap excuse. I'm kind of wondering though... has anybody noticed lots of people seem freaked out, and email traffic has kind of trickled down to a minimum? I sort of wonder if everybody's just completely hunkered down, with the opiate of the masses (TV). Of course, it does seem the blogging community is thriving. Maybe everybody's just too busy blogging about the elections.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. In the long run, I'm not sure I can imagine people totally giving up reading so that they can ponder this election, but I guess it is enough to send people shivering under the covers.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

The Agony

... of defeat.

I got the rejection from The New Yorker today. And it was a form rejection too, in the worst possible form. So in retrospect, they're not all that late in responding, though later than I would have imagined. Jen, I hope you have better luck with you submission, which they've had for longer than mine...

Now I need to find another market for this particular story. And something about this particular story really makes me feel like I want to get paid for it (always the problem). I'm sure after it's gone through a few more markets, I might change my mind.

Hope everyone else is having better luck! It's funny, it's not like I entertain THAT much of a notion that that magazine would publish me, but there's always that glimmer of hope that accompanies any submission. (And when it comes to The New Yorker, that glimmer is closely accompanied by greed, since they actually pay good money.)

Write on, everybody!

LLB

So...

I'd like to revisit an old question I posed a while back, that nobody responded to at the time. (Maybe it's a really crappy question that only I think is a good one, ha.) Would Moby Dick have been better if it had been written today -- with word processors and such technology?

I can't take credit for the question, it came from Wired magazine a few months back. But I thought it was an interesting question to pose to the people who visit here.

And yes, I'm still kind of under the weather. So I have gotten absolutely nothing accomplished this week. Other than going to work, and I'd argue that I've done that badly. I love fall... except for the fact that I seem to get some nasty sinus infection every single year!

Hope everybody's making some progress... and enjoying Halloween Week!

LLB

Dead-End Grand Street

I recently got a copy of Grand Street in order to check it out as a market. (Which of course, was part of the original goal of this blog, above and beyond simple bitching and ranting.) I got promptly sidetracked by other demands, like reading Vernon God Little since it's a loaner, and so didn't get to finish it, though it was on my list.

Poets and Writers finally arrived recently (it's bimonthly, it turns out, so all my bitching about not getting my issue was over nothing, so I'm sorry about that). According to P&W, that last issue of Grand Street (theme: Delusions) is its last, after a little more than 20 years.

I'll still likely review its final issue as soon as I can get these other things off my plate. Unfortunately, though, it's another case of here today, gone tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

Novels in November

Well, October's running out so it's almost time to start NaNoWriMo, that is National Novel Writing Month. I just registered last night, so the challenge is almost on.

I saw with interest that on Blogger's dashboard, they're challenging people to blog their attempts. I was chatting about that with Brian over at Bibliotechno. It seems like that might defeat the whole purpose. The whole purpose being, "just do it," crank out those 50,000 words. I'm thinking, if one does it with an audience in mind, that it will very likely be a roadblock to some people who try. Their idea, I guess, is that with an audience, it will drive some people to complete the challenge.

I'm thinking that my own attempts will be blog-free. Whatever I do, I'm just going to do for fun. (Which may also be the result of the fact that the only really fully formed idea I have for it is sort of lame.) Anyway, I'd be curious how many of you intend on trying it out. And if blogging your novel is part of your exercise.

Thanks for reading, and write on,

LLB

Speaking Of...

Speaking of contests, I can't say my track record has been great, but I did win one back in like, 1991 or so. It was a contest for new writers thrown by Byline magazine -- I'm not even sure if that magazine is still around. The prize didn't include publication, but it did include cash money. Whoo-whee!

So yeah, I won first place, I think it was $70. (And for an alcoholic college student, that was SO TOTALLY COOL!) I spent it on beer and threw a party. (Either that or I took a bunch of people to the Green Door, our local haunt, and bought tons of drinks. Judging the alcoholic nature of my youth, it's all a little fuzzy.) All I know is, I spent it all on beer, and maybe cigarettes too.

But anyway, other than the silly vagaries of youth (spending all your prize money on booze), I remember that the slip they sent with the check said something along the lines of, "This is a fine story. It will definitely get published somewhere."

Guess how long it took? 12 YEARS! I just got it published last fall. 12 YEARS! Maybe that was some sort of payback from the universe for spending that prize money on something so fleeting, but it made perfect sense at the time.

Okay, so this is not an entirely inspiring post. That was the first and last contest I won. (Unless you count the one in elementary school that included a felt ribbon.) I guess the positive part is eventually, it did get published, the sad part... 12 YEARS! Ha. I'm pretty sure that these days, given a cash prize, I'd probably pay down credit card debt or something responsible like that.

Write on,

LLB

Waiting Games

Since I'm still at home sick so regular day-to-day life has come grinding to a halt, I thought I'd just bitch and complain about submissions that are out right now.

I had mentioned before that October's sort of "D-Day" in terms of responses to a bunch of my submissions being due. I have to say that I have three that are late in responding and I'm annoyed. (This doesn't count McSweeney's which I consider just a total non-responder.) I sent a query to one magazine already -- but was a little miffed to find that the only address I could find to contact them was a "submissions" address. So I got an auto-generated response: "Thanks for your submission!" it chirped. I found that a bit annoying.

And, as I've already revealed that sometimes I'll take a chance with a story and send to a big name that I don't expect to get anywhere with -- one of the late responders is The New Yorker. (I also decided to give them a whirl when I realized they do accept emailed submissions now.) In my past experience, magazines like New Yorker and The Atlantic tend to get back to you fast. You know, it doesn't take them long to throw some form rejection in an envelope and all that. ("Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.") So... I'm a little annoyed. After all, don't they have a vast army of peons weeding through the slush pile?

Anyway. I guess here in a bit I'll just start resubmitting these pieces regardless. For now I just sit around being peevish and sick and annoyed.

Write on!

LLB

The Power of Many

I'm a little under the weather today so again I'm going to defer to others' interesting stuff.

Check out Maktaaq's post on her early writing experiences and motivation to be a writer. It's good stuff!

Also, if you're looking for some new magazines to check out, Hebdomeros has been posting regularly with some good markets to check out, like Fence and the Dissociated Writers Project, to name a few. I look forward to checking these out some more.

Also, if you're in the mood for some true-life tales, Gatochy suggested Fray recently, a site that had been highlighted by Cool Site of the Day. It is a nice-looking site, and well designed. Each story allows readers to add their own similar experiences to the stories told.

Unfortunately, I was attracted yet repelled by the story, "The Worm Within." Yeah, it's by a guy who contracted a tapeworm. It's not for the faint of heart (nor are the comments from loads of people across the Internet who have had their own brushes with parasitic freeloaders). The story was very well written, although it made me want to wrap myself in plastic and never eat anything that hasn't been burnt to a crisp. Ew.

I also read "A Little Black Death," and liked that one too. A friend of mine recently found a black widow in her apartment -- luckily, a male. I think tapeworms and venomous spiders are neck and neck in terms of unpleasantness and the stuff that nightmares are made of.

Onward (or, in my case, couchward),

LLB

Question of the Day

So, I thought an interesting topic of conversation might be, when did you realize you wanted to become a writer?

I guess it's arguable that I knew all along, since I used to sit down before I could actually write and just scribble gibberish in "cursive" for hours on end. I think my grandfather used to joke that I had some kind of alien intelligence, haha. I think he liked to believe that it meant something, somewhere.

My very first story in a recognizable if primitive form of a real language, which I wrote and illustrated, was, "Little Pink Pig." Boy, was it lame. The pig basically got dirty and was brown at the end from mud. However, I guess for a 5-year-old or however old I was, it was okay.

When I was in the fourth grade, a teacher asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, and when I said a writer, she told me that I had talent but that I'd better be prepared for a tough life. In college, as an English major, I bore more than my fair share of the semi-derisive question, "What are you going to do with that line of study? Be a teacher?" (Man, how the world has changed since 1988 or so!)

I had a few other interesting phases as a grade-school kid, like thinking I wanted to be an archeologist or a parapsychologist (no, not joking on that last one), but finally, I realized that writing was not only something that I loved to do but something I had at least some degree of talent for. I'm not entirely sure I could have done anything other than work with language.

So anyway, I welcome anecdotes, ephiphanies, or recollections.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

Mr. Anderson....

Yep, this post is about Agents.

I was wondering what people think about them. I've always taken it upon myself to market my own fiction (as we've already discussed, this has been a long and grueling endeavor, dragging on for a little more than a decade. Which really dates me.)

It's an idle thought that hits me occasionally. What would it take to get an agent. Would it really be worthwhile? What do you need? I'm guessing you'd have to have quite a few fiction publications (or awards, or something) under your belt in order to have one sign on at all. After all, they may be trying to place your work but they're trying to make a buck or two as well.

And what about the whole idea of relinquishing control? Or is the idea of handing over marketing of one's own writing to someone else a nice thought? After all, it's occurred to me that being thoroughly diligent about it is like having a second job if you're whiling away the daytime hours at a 9-to-5er. (And talk about having a second job with crap for pay.) I know one writer who actually seems to only deal with marketing his work like twice a year, where he'll just hole up for a weekend and do a mass mailing of simultaneous submissions and then forget about it for a while. Which means, even though he's only going it so infrequently, he might be blanketing the landscape more thoroughly than I do in a year with my piecemeal as-you-go style.

Any thoughts? Experiences?

LLB

He's Back

Okay, really, really recently, I blogged about how I had missed William Gibson's regular blogging by like, oh, a year or so. (Talk about being behind the times. Or wondering if the whole process of blogging had jumped the shark, given Gibson's rep as a forward thinker.) Well, right on time, he's back.

Thanks to Brian at Bibliotechno for letting me know.

It seems the precipitating event was the last Presidential debate. Yep, Bush is apparently that bad as to lure a writer, hard at work on fictional issues, to start blogging again. Makes sense to me.

LLB

The G-Force

Unfortunately I don't have anything too literary to say today. I am still reading Vernon God Little but it's only happening in fits and starts. It seems like there's been a lot of upheaval this week and I've had a fair amount of work stuff to do. And of course there's sleeping that needs to be done at some point...

But anyway, I thought I'd write to say, if anybody wants a Gmail account, send me an email (email is on profile page, I'm not posting it here because of spammers). I have 6 invitations at the moment and will give them away on a first-come first-serve basis. I use one gmail account for this blog and a separate account for my "real life," ha.

I thought I'd mention it here since I'm grooving on the idea of using Gmail for my fiction submissions. It means I will have a nice archive of fiction-related feedback as well as a record of communications that won't (shouldn't, anyway) disappear, given the gig of storage space associated with the account. I'm thinking of sending all my stories to sit in that account as attachments, too, just in case my Mac goes haywire one day and dies, and somehow my zip disks go bad. (Other pros about Gmail are searchability, easy Web-based folders, and so forth.) Furthermore, I have lost tons too many emails over the years when my computer's gone kablooey, which also convinced me this might be a good idea in terms of knowing which markets liked what, etc.

Anyway, wanted to offer them up if anyone's interested. I know most people have web-based email they like perfectly well already.

LLB

More on Names and Naming

Okay, I have to defer to the interesting things others are saying.

Maktaaq, thanks a bunch for your post about pseudonyms! That was a great read and I'm loving reading the comments you're getting about the nature of choosing a name.

It reminded me of the fact that my plan, were I ever to get married (and that's looking highly doubtful these days) was that I would likely take the other person's last name, or hyphenate, but would keep my maiden name for use in my writing, be it day job bylines or my fiction. (Hmm, having read this, it sounds so very UNrevolutionary. "Maiden name" -- how dumb does that sound? I've had my own name for 34 years, and I'm not what you could call a maiden.) But again, that shows my stubborn fixation on my name, seeing how LitBlitz is the only place I've ever had a pseudonym.

And maikopunk, thanks for your comments about life in the trenches, viewing submissions to a magazine, and what submissions made you look askance at the contributor. The one who claimed Arnold Schwarzenegger was already agreed to be in the movie version -- that's hilarious. And makes me very happy I have never resorted to patent untruths (or insanity) in submission cover letters ("Johnny Depp REALLY wants to be the leading man in the film version of this" hahaha), nor have I ever accompanied submissions with crayon drawings. Phew. ;)

Thanks for reading,

LLB

Perfect Penmanship

Last I heard, "nobody's perfect" was a pretty well accepted adage, but apparently some of us are more perfect than others. Okay, not to malign a literary heroine of my teenage years, but Blog of a Bookslut included this fine tidbit today: Anne Rice getting all high and mighty about editing. Or rather, how she doesn't need any editing.

Hell. I remember reading The Witching Hour in college -- you could basically open the book to any page, plunk your finger down arbitrarily on a passage, and laugh at the stilted way it was written, the grammatical errors, or the run-on sentences.

I always thought it was a shame that after Interview with the Vampire (which, I daresay, as her breakout book, was her last book that seemed well edited -- and that was the book that made her one of my literary heroines, at least for a short period of time), everything pretty much went downhill, technically.

Everybody needs an editor. Even the most fastidious amongst us writers have times when a phrase looks right to the eye, reads correctly to the inner ear, and it's not. We've missed a typo or a grammatical error, maybe even because we've simply seen the manuscript so many times we know how it's supposed to sound.

Bookslut also railed about J.K. Rowling, who also deserves some ribbing for sloppy editing (not to mention, those more recent barbells, er, books, could have used some adept cutting).

Anyway, I guess it would be nice to be published and popular enough to have the option of becoming a prima donna, but I hope if my day ever comes, I won't become one.

Thanks to Brian over at Bibliotechno for emailing me that blog post.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

In & Out

Well, now that I know the story that I entered into the Glimmer Train contest didn't place (big surprise there), I decided to send it right back out to Tin House.

Those of you who have been reading for a while know I have something against magazines that only accept snail mail submissions. And Tin House is one of those, even though, as I've said before, it's got good content and it's a lovely publication, very pleasing to the eye. So I took the time yesterday to print out the story, paperclip it, write out the cover letter, and print it as well. Now I've just got to get all the envelopes addressed, and then slap it on the postage meter and affix the proper postage. Then walk it to the mailbox.

I don't know why all that irritates me so much. It just does. I feel like a lazy whiner right now, actually. I guess it would be even more annoying if I didn't have my own postage scale though. I remember the days of taking every submission to the post office. Now that was truly annoying.

Hope you all are having a productive Sunday, with a little bit of writing (and a little bit of living it up) thrown in. Thanks for reading, and write on,

LLB

The Winners Are In

Glimmer Train's Fiction Open results are in. Here is the list of winners:

Glimmer Train Press Inc.

Glimmer Train's
Fiction Open
Top 25 Winners And Finalists

1st-place winner:
Gina Ochsner for "A Cloud for a Carpet"

2nd-place winner:
Sean Beaudoin for "Winter Kills"

3rd-place winner:
Susan Engberg for "Margaret"

And the finalists, listed in alphabetical order:
Will Allison for "What You Have Left"
Sarah Blackman for "Pray for Rain"
Belle Boggs for "Good News for a Hard Time"
Robin Bradford for "Mothers of America"
Michael Campagnoli for "The Boundless Arc and Other Dreams"
Jeremiah Chamberlin for "Missionaries"
Thomas Cooney for "Eleanor"
Alison Frost for "Days and Nights on Fairfield Road"
Lisa Graley for "Feeding Instructions"
Carol Howell for "Fool at the Feast"
Quang Huynh for "And the Earth Emptied Clean its Heaven"
Mary Koral for "Flag Girl on the Highway"
Karen Kovacik for "My Polish Widower"
Gail Labovitz for "Life Blood"
Christiana Langenberg for "Maybe It's a Wednesday"
Marc Nieson for "The Last Hours of Pompeii"
Sam Ramos for "Everywhere Is in California"
Susan Ring de Rosset for "Cliff Swallows"
Rebecca Rubin for "Bakery"
Margot Singer for "Borderland"
Randolph Thomas for "Now, from the Beginning"
Robert Vivian for "Body at Rest"

No, my name's not on there, but I did enter on a lark. I think I won't enter again for a long while. People who are familiar with my blog know that I impulsively subscribed to the magazine and wasn't altogether impressed with it on a consistent basis, enough so to rant about their style for more than a few blog posts. Not to say that those people don't deserve kudos for having shown up on the list, they totally do. However, I've definitely decided it's not really the market for me.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

Fun Story

Check out Free Martha by Laura Taylor Lambros on Barrelhouse, if you get the chance. It's a really fun read that gives new meaning to the word "wanderlust." One thing you know about this online mag, is when you visit the site, there's going to be something new, and this piece really made me smile.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

The Pseudonym Game

So, I started thinking about the whole pseudonym thing tonight. I don't know why. Probably part of my delusional thinking of those loads of fiction publications down the line, since I'm waiting for oh, 5 responses within the month. (Which, in reality, will likely be rejections but there's always the time to dream!)

So yeah, I was thinking about what other writers out there think about having pseudonyms. I don't actually use one for my fiction (believe it or not, considering this blog is anonymous) but sometimes wonder if I should. It's funny, I do have a byline for my day job. And while it doesn't bother me too much, like the worlds wouldn't collide too much, it did weird me out when one time, a reader of an Internet magazine that I was in wrote to my work account and asked if I was the same person. While flattering, it also sort of weirded me out, like those worlds shouldn't collide!!! Ha.

So anyway, I was interested in what people think of the pros and cons about having a pseudonym, or not.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

Another P&W Rant

I ranted a while back about Poets and Writers magazine. I had sent in their card (yeah, right, you know how occasionally you do respond to "junk mail," no matter how infrequently?) for a "free issue" and they had sent me the bill before they sent said "free issue."

So anyway, I liked the free issue that finally did arrive. So I sent in a check. In August. (It's October now, right...?) And I haven't started getting my issues yet. (Oh, I have issues all right, just not issues of the magazine. Ha, I know, bad joke.)

I guess I wouldn't be soooo fired up about it if I wasn't at this moment having some strange sense of deja vu. I swear a couple years ago (probably pre-2000) I subscribed after being tantalized with a free issue and had a similar frustrating experience. However, I think the other time, not only did they fail to send me a free issue in a timely manner and hit me up with a bill, I think as I waited for the free issue I got a big ugly PAST DUE notice, which was really above and beyond. I guess I never learn...!

I'm sure once the magazine starts sending again, I'll forget alllll about this little interlude, ha. In the meanwhile, if anybody's thinking of getting a subscription to P&W to advance their writerly career be prepared to wait a bit. Or maybe pick it up at the newsstand!

Thanks for reading,

LLB

Bookshelves and Superstores

Okay, so thinking back to college days is quite a ways back in time, for me, but sometimes I do it anyway. Of course, that means it's a good 14 years since the following anecdote was told to me.

One of my major mentors, a professor I had for several women's and Victorian lit classes, revealed to me that she had, at one time, had similar goals as I -- to be a writer. But one day, she realized just how many books there were in the world, and developed a world-class case of writers block. (Man!)

Every so often I think about that. I imagine how she must have felt gazing at some dazzling array of books on bookshelves in some massive library, or in later years, I guess it might become some Borders superstore or the like.

And sometimes I'll catch myself thinking about it when I'm in a library or a bookstore and I'll command myself NOT to think that thought.

It's a shame, really. I do know she's still a voracious reader. (I like to try to keep in touch with people. I'm a little hard to shake, I guess.) I am not, however, sure if she ever took up the pen again. I should probably ask sometime.

I hope she did. As long as humanity exists, there are always new voices, new horizons, new styles, new ways of thinking and expressing the world, and its changing faces. There will never be a point when it's all been "done," in exactly the same way.

Write on,

LLB

Can Anyone Be a Writer?

Okay, so it's not my imagination. Maybe everybody does think they can be a writer.

Over at WritersWrite.com, they discussed that recent NEA report. You know the one -- most of us are familiar with the report because of what it said about Americans' reading habits, or lack thereof. What didn't get publicized was how many Americans fancy themselves writers. The number of people pursuing creative writing jumped 30%.

However, if you delve further into the post, most people don't want any creative writing training. While I certainly don't think everyone needs a degree in writing to be a good writer, it makes you wonder about that stereotype that "anyone can write" and whether some people think it would be the big easy, if only they had the time or the money to pursue writing The Great American Novel full time.

Write on,

LLB

Uh-oh

I had heard for a long time that author William Gibson (who wrote Neuromancer, one of my favorite books) was an early adopter of blogging. So when I ran across the URL to his blog yesterday, I was psyched.

Unfortunately, I missed him, completely. On Sept. 12, 2003, he packed it in, realizing that he was jotting to his blog instead of spending time working on new fiction. Interesting. He's been such a visionary in so many ways, it kind of makes you wonder if maybe blogging can become a pastime that keeps one away from the true business of writing. True, sometimes it does seem like one more thing on the list of things to do, though on the other hand, maybe it can keep the wheels in your mind oiled when you don't have much to say, fiction-wise. (Traditional pen-and-paper journals have always been considered beneficial for writers, after all.)

He's credited with having pioneered ideas like the Internet. So this year's blogging mania must have him laughing, somewhere. And if you haven't read Pattern Recognition, you should, even if you're not a fan of "cyberpunk."

Thanks for reading,

LLB

More Bitching

It's the moment you've all been waiting for (well, maybe not, but it sounded like a good opener): The Fiction Bitch is back in action!

She's posted a short story with scathing comments embedded as of 9/15. Poor guy, but the story does deserve it; she's right in one of her biggest complaints, that it's a glorified diary entry that could have used a ton more editing (for example, for severe overuse of the word "stupid").

I still wonder who these people are who sign up for this treatment, and why. I also wonder, if you send a manuscript that she thinks is "good," what happens? Her submission guidelines say that she does reject manuscripts. So I'm wondering if maybe a rejected manuscript in the Fiction Bitch's case is the complete opposite to your usual rejection, i.e., "you're too good to appear here."

However, she's so thorough, I'll bet she could nitpick her way through the best of us. I wonder what the hell she'd say about The DaVinci Code?? I would have some scathing comments for that book, to be sure.

Great stuff, I hope you all get a chance to check it out. And be sure to click on the story, not just the overview, because the story has embedded comments that are classic. She's got a lot of bitching to do.

Thanks for reading,

LLB