Jibber Jabber - Q1 - 29

I'll do my part. Although I don't think we'll have a problem hitting 160 pages and 10,000 hits.

Something ate my last post. anyway... Maybe we should have a yearly reunion of Jibber Jabber Q1-29, though it is quite possible it will still be active at that time.

The latter... definitely the latter...

Ooooh, I've already gotten my HM, but WizeHive just sent out a mass mailer asking for feedback on the submissions form. That's just mean.

Ooooh, I've already gotten my HM, but WizeHive just sent out a mass mailer asking for feedback on the submissions form. That's just mean.

I noticed that too. Joni is just messing with them now.

And ANOTHER press release to distract us...

Maybe she actually forgot about you guys.

That would explain why she seems to be doing all this busy work instead of sending out results.

OR

The thread's been kinda quiet. Maybe some people are being conspicuously absent?

I've been rewriting my Q3 piece, occasionally refreshing my screen. I take a moment to calculate how many more hours Martin has to be in meetings. Write some more. Link to the announcements. Write some more. Calculate his breaks from his posts. Check on what Q2 is doing. Write some more. It is a very quiet day. Back to my story...

Well, my guess is that it would be hard for the new judge to step in when all that is left are the best stories and paper subs you have to fill in the gaps with. Of the e subs still waiting, a majority of them got 'hold' notices and they are past good performers. And some of those paper subs are past heavy hitters like Marina, Dustin, and gwash....so those paper subs are probably a much higher quality. And we do have some evidence that some paper rejection went out a little while ago, so KD at least skimmed to get the pile down at some point. So all he has left is the cream to sift though, maybe a few ounces of whey.

(sorry, grew up on a dairy)

I think last year the winners were announced the first week of June, so we aren't as far behind as we think.

Well, my guess is that it would be hard for the new judge to step in when all that is left are the best stories and paper subs you have to fill in the gaps with. Of the e subs still waiting, a majority of them got 'hold' notices and they are past good performers. And some of those paper subs are past heavy hitters like Marina, Dustin, and gwash....so those paper subs are probably a much higher quality. And we do have some evidence that some paper rejection went out a little while ago, so KD at least skimmed to get the pile down at some point. So all he has left is the cream to sift though, maybe a few ounces of whey.

(sorry, grew up on a dairy)

I think last year the winners were announced the first week of June, so we aren't as far behind as we think.

Really? Q1 winners weren't announced until June? Hmmm. Do you think they'll just announce it all at the same time? Like 1st, 2nd, 3rd, other finalists, semis... etc?

They could, but unlikely. I think they want to set the finalist/semi from the others. Although I'd have to go back and see, it seems that in the past I've seen the whole thing written up in one blog post (except for winner announcements, those seem to be traditionally kept separate). I just remember it being in June with they finally announced the winners, even thought the finalists knew for months. The last few quarters have gone a bit quicker from lower placement announcements to winners, they can still do that now. Last year I remember a few results started coming out the beginning of June and continued throughout he whole month. The wait gets shorter as we get closer to Q4. Q4 Finalists were all announced from Thanksgiving to mid Dec and then we all found out right after the new year. Winners were announced only a few weeks after that.

The one response on Duotrope in the last 30 days looks so sad and lonely. I think they are waiting until June 3rd, so all the listings will be SHM and up.

Well, that won't happen now. Someone just posted a 66-day form rejection on duotrope. It would be a very long wait for the new one to fall off too.

Such a grumpy Gator...
Doesn't anyone have any more concrete news?

I'm watching A Fish Called Wanda. The Gator insisted. She's sitting here drooling every time the fish tank appears.

And ANOTHER press release to distract us...

We've Gone Global" is buzzword around the offices of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest this week when they broke the 150 mark of countries that contestants have submitted from, coming in at 153.

Seems to me if they've tallied up (and announced) the number of countries, they've probably looked at all entries by now. I suspect there are no more unread entries. Perhaps undecided, but not unread.

I think Joni, probably keeps track of the entries and the personal information on them. So the counting of the countries might not indicate who's read them or not. Methinks this is an attempt for Evil Martin to stir up a debate...

I think Joni, probably keeps track of the entries and the personal information on them. So the counting of the countries might not indicate who's read them or not. Methinks this is an attempt for Evil Martin to stir up a debate...

+1

Hasn't Joni even said that she keeps a data base of all the entries?

Seems to me if they've tallied up (and announced) the number of countries, they've probably looked at all entries by now. I suspect there are no more unread entries. Perhaps undecided, but not unread.

One thing that's been bothering me is the LAMPS. Mine was mores a PS... didn't really send it in at the last minute. I've been wondering if all the paper submissions were chucked in one pile and held until the end. But, if I'm not mistaken, a few paper submissions did get results. ??? If we're now in the thousands (wonder how many thousands) per quarter, surely there is more than one person screening them. Even at two thousand/approx 85 work days = 23 per day.

Seems to me if they've tallied up (and announced) the number of countries, they've probably looked at all entries by now. I suspect there are no more unread entries. Perhaps undecided, but not unread.

One thing that's been bothering me is the LAMPS. Mine was mores a PS... didn't really send it in at the last minute. I've been wondering if all the paper submissions were chucked in one pile and held until the end. But, if I'm not mistaken, a few paper submissions did get results. ??? If we're now in the thousands (wonder how many thousands) per quarter, surely there is more than one person screening them. Even at two thousand/approx 85 work days = 23 per day.

I've been wondering this too. Do they have a slush reader? If the numbers are really as high as Dave Wolverton and Kristine Kathryn Rusch say they are how can they not have a couple slush readers?

I've been wondering this too. Do they have a slush reader? If the numbers are really as high as Dave Wolverton and Kristine Kathryn Rusch say they are how can they not have a couple slush readers?

K.D. was always clear that she was her own slush reader. Dave may follow a different process, though.

Remember that a very large subset of entries could be rejected without reading more than a paragraph: bad formatting, bad grammar, bad spelling, fanfic, etc. Another large subset could be rejected after reading a page or so. Thousands received does not mean thousands read to the end. I understood that the ones she read to the end were pretty much the HMs and up. So that means a hundred or so per quarter that had to be read to the end.

Seems to me if they've tallied up (and announced) the number of countries, they've probably looked at all entries by now. I suspect there are no more unread entries. Perhaps undecided, but not unread.

One thing that's been bothering me is the LAMPS. Mine was mores a PS... didn't really send it in at the last minute. I've been wondering if all the paper submissions were chucked in one pile and held until the end. But, if I'm not mistaken, a few paper submissions did get results. ??? If we're now in the thousands (wonder how many thousands) per quarter, surely there is more than one person screening them. Even at two thousand/approx 85 work days = 23 per day.

I've been wondering this too. Do they have a slush reader? If the numbers are really as high as Dave Wolverton and Kristine Kathryn Rusch say they are how can they not have a couple slush readers?

Makes sense, though probably only to weed out the ones that didn't bother to follow the guidelines. I've always been under the impression that the coordinating judge was the only one to make decisions on the initial batch, but if he/she never even sees the ones that aren't speculative fiction/written in decent English, that should cut the massive pile down to something a bit easier to digest in three months.

One thing that's been bothering me is the LAMPS. Mine was mores a PS... didn't really send it in at the last minute. I've been wondering if all the paper submissions were chucked in one pile and held until the end. But, if I'm not mistaken, a few paper submissions did get results. ??? If we're now in the thousands (wonder how many thousands) per quarter, surely there is more than one person screening them. Even at two thousand/approx 85 work days = 23 per day.

That brings up an interesting question for me. What constitutes a "last-minute" paper submission? I submitted late in the quarter on Dec. 20, but that doesn't strike me as being at the last minute. According to Duotrope, I have the longest wait on a postal submission to WotF right now.

One thing that's been bothering me is the LAMPS. Mine was mores a PS... didn't really send it in at the last minute. I've been wondering if all the paper submissions were chucked in one pile and held until the end. But, if I'm not mistaken, a few paper submissions did get results. ??? If we're now in the thousands (wonder how many thousands) per quarter, surely there is more than one person screening them. Even at two thousand/approx 85 work days = 23 per day.

That brings up an interesting question for me. What constitutes a "last-minute" paper submission? I submitted late in the quarter on Dec. 20, but that doesn't strike me as being at the last minute. According to Duotrope, I have the longest wait on a postal submission to WotF right now.

I submitted mine on December 5th. Not exactly last minute. I'm not on duotrope.

That brings up an interesting question for me. What constitutes a "last-minute" paper submission? I submitted late in the quarter on Dec. 20, but that doesn't strike me as being at the last minute. According to Duotrope, I have the longest wait on a postal submission to WotF right now.

I submitted mine on December 5th. Not exactly last minute. I'm not on duotrope.

You have me beat (obviously). If all the paper submitters since the start of December are still waiting, that's more unresolved entries than I figured there were.

According to Duotrope, I have the longest wait on a postal submission to WotF right now.

We're tied.

According to Duotrope, I have the longest wait on a postal submission to WotF right now.

We're tied.

I'm in good company then.

Hey, you guys'll get a kick out of this. Just in, breaking news on Yahoo!--

Cosmic Collision: Milky Way to crash head-on with Andromeda

...Really?

That's just funny on so many levels. (Ok, the article is actually about some new findings related to Andromeda’s motion, but still.)

And the winner isssss...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...[repeat until insane...] Somebody give me the marshmallow gun...I can't take this any longer!
Preston Dennett
(HM x 2)

*walks up to the bomb that is Q1 results and taps vigorously*

Hello? Is this thing on? Now where's the switch on this blasted thing? I need something to drown out all the crickets in this forum.

In other news, the PARSEC contest results will be out in two more weeks. Did anyone else enter?

Well. The month of May has come and gone. We made it to page 80. WTF?

In other news, the PARSEC contest results will be out in two more weeks. Did anyone else enter?

Me, but I'm not expecting anything positive. I entered my first HM which has flat lined everywhere, and I'm not surprised, it's not very good... I might trunk it after this.
I'm not sure it fits the theme as well as it could either...

*walks up to the bomb that is Q1 results and taps vigorously*

Hello? Is this thing on? Now where's the switch on this blasted thing? I need something to drown out all the crickets in this forum.

In other news, the PARSEC contest results will be out in two more weeks. Did anyone else enter?

I did. It was a story I subbed to the antho, was rejected with a "we'll look at it again if you choose to rewrite it" with no promises. I rewrote it, but couldn't get it passed the SF editors. So. i don't have huge faith in it for the contest. I'll be looking for a more flexible fantasy market when the contest is over. 😉

Good luck with your entry!