News – Page 15 – James Pack

August 1, 2018

The Poetry Is Coming

I immersed myself into a tornado of emotion and diligence over the past week and so much poetry burst forth from my brain. I don’t know if this was extreme inspiration or if I’ve finally become comfortable with writing for hours at a time. I wrote about 70 poems over the course of five days. I think the most I’ve ever completed was two poems in one day. My record now is 14 in one day. I became a poetic beast and stopped once I had a total of 100 poems that I could publish. Written over the course of nine months.

I am in the process of preparing a new paperback and eBook for these poems. I am awaiting the proof copy of the paperback so that I can run through it with a fine-tooth comb and correct any errors before official publication. Sadly, that does not arrive in the mail for another week. After making those final revisions, both the paperback and eBook will be ready for publishing. I still have not decided on an official release date, but it will be before the end of September for those of you who are concerned.

Some of my new poetry is featured on my Instagram page, @jamespackwriter, as well as some of my older poetry from my previous collection of poetry “Pariah Bound: The Lonesome Poetry.” My newest poetry is certainly of a higher caliber and I think will be more popular than my previous works. Also, the new collection will be smaller which means it will be cheaper to purchase. I know you’re excited and you’re welcome. I am still working on a few short stories and some of them I am still trying to get published in online magazines but eventually they will be published in a collection in paperback within the next 12 months. More exciting adventures to come!

June 30, 2018June 30, 2018

A New Ebook

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My newest eBook went live today. Dollar Tales from the Morbid Museum: Flash Fiction. It includes four flash fiction stories and an introduction that is in its own way a story. It’s a little introduction to the Morbid Museum and the curator of the museum, Mister Siris Grim. There will be one, or possibly two, more installments of Dollar Tales from the Morbid Museum leading up to the release of the full collection of short fiction titled The Morbid Museum. This will be a collection of horror, true crime, science fiction, and other genre fiction curated around the theme of death. So exciting!

The first story in this new release is titled “Clyde.” It’s about the ghosts of the Pac-Man game from the perspective of Clyde, the orange ghost. Fun Fact: the orange ghost in the Ms. Pac-Man game was named Sue. The next story is titled “Highway 491.” This is a real highway that goes through New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah (partially). Prior to 2003 it was called the Devil’s Highway because it was U.S. Route 666. What kind of spooky things happen on the Devil’s Highway? You’ll have to read to find out.

The next story is “Blue Ridge Mountain Hop,” a ghost story set in the Appalachian Mountains which are sometimes called the Blue Ridge Mountains because of the misty hue they reflect during certain times of day. This is followed by the last story “Jesse’s Lament.” This is a tale about a young man during the Civil War feeling homesick and missing his twin brother. This story takes place during the Battle of Gettysburg on Culp’s Hill. “Blue Ridge Mountain Hop” also includes some apparitions from the Civil War which is why I put those two together.

This new eBook will be available for free this week on Wednesday, July 4, only. The promotion is in celebration of Independence Day and will only be available for free on that day. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, and any feedback will be heard and considered. Who doesn’t love free stuff? If you don’t have a Kindle device, you can download the app for free to any device from the App Store or Google Play Store. I hope you enjoy the stories and I hope you’ll keep an eye out for any future works I publish. I promise more are coming. You can check the Projects page to see what else I’ve published.

June 23, 2018

Story Submission Struggles

I have spent many years studying and learning about the publishing world. I believe this has gone on for somewhere around ten to fifteen years. I’ve studied the self-publishing process and the traditional publishing process. Self-publishing is easy, but you have to put in all the work for marketing and selling your book. Traditional publishing is difficult to get into, but once you’re in, you’re good to go. In attempting to get something published in the traditional fashion, I have learned what writing mistakes I use to make, and I’ve been correcting them. Writing is a skill that one must develop over time. Nothing happens overnight.

I have sent many stories and poems in for consideration to many online magazines, and a few that still print magazines. And with the continued rejection, I persevere. I want to make something clear. I am not angry about these rejections and hold no animosity towards these magazines. Sadly, I will never know what caused the rejection. I assume it’s because my writing isn’t up to par, but for all I know, they may not have liked the subject matter or the story overall. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone in the publishing world who can critique my work.

Every one of these rejection letters sounds the same. “Thank you for the opportunity to read your work, but we will not be considering it for publication.” Or something like that. They always say thank you for the submission and ask you to submit again. Part of me wonders if they have to reject new authors X number of times before they will publish something. It doesn’t matter because it causes me to continue growing and improving as a writer. Eventually, I’ll write something they want to publish.

I now want to share a list of the many stories I’ve written and the publishers that rejected them. This is not a dig on the publishers. I want other writers to see who I’ve submitted to and maybe they’ll feel less discouraged after receiving a rejection letter. Rejection is part of writing and I’m proud to have these rejections. The purpose of this post is to help other writers. I also want to note, I am not including word count or any guidelines to these submissions. Look it up on your own if you’re interested. I’m including the progress on unfinished short stories as well just for fun.

- - The Demon’s Favor
    - Rejected by – Clarkesworld Magazine, Underbelly Magazine, Apex Magazine
  - Where the Bullfrogs Gather
    - Rejected by – Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Flash Fiction Online, Stupefying Stories
    - Currently submitted to Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
  - Insanity Kills
    - Rejected by – Clarkesworld Magazine, Apex Magazine
  - The Puppet Maker
    - Rejected by – Apex Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine
  - Vexed Ventriloquist
    - Rejected by – Flash Fiction Online
  - Ceres
    - Rejected by – Clarkesworld Magazine, Apex Magazine, Unnerving Magazine, Shimmer Magazine (Ending All Publications in Fall 2018)
    - Currently submitted to Strange Horizons

- The Sapphire Cat – 12.5%
- Gladiators – 12.5%
- The Dragon Sanction – 12.5%
- Escape from Century – 62.5%
- NPIA (National Paranormal Investigative Agency) – 62.5%

This is not a list of all the short story publishers out there and it is a little different from the novel publishing world. I found these online magazines from the lists on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association. These are basically writing unions and one day when I actually have money, I will pay and signup to become a member of these associations. Perhaps that will help me improve my writing. I am including link to all these other magazines, so you may submit to them if you wish. And no matter how many rejections you get, never stop writing. Never give up; never surrender.

Apex Magazine

Clarkesworld Magazine

Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show