Week 24 & 25 — Year of Short Stories 2026

2026 is another year of short stories. In this weekly series, I track my short story writing, from idea and draft to submission. This is the weeks of Jun 15 – Jun 28. Stats Stories Finished: 2 Submissions Currently Out: 5 Submissions Total: 22 Rejections: 19 Acceptances: 0 Submissions and Responses Two submissions came back to me over this two-week period. One was for The Incident at Pleasant Hills, and was a very pleasant personalized rejection that said several nice things about the story before the usual “we get 1000 submissions each submission period and only have 10 slots” let-down. The one piece of feedback was that the beginning was too slow, so I might review the story and see if there’s anything I can tighten up next time I send it out. The other response was an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future contest for my story, Red Eye. This is the second time I’ve submitted, and the second honorable mention I’ve received. So that’s something. I do not know how many…