I thought I was a little further ahead than this, but apparently I’ve read 175 stories so far during 2015. The rating breakdown for them is:
* – 0
** – 7
*** – 88
**** -74
***** – 3
I’ve seen a couple markets I read increase in quality over the last year and I’ve also cut out any markets that were consistently giving me 2 star stories or lower. 3 stars is a “good” story. 4 stars is a “great” story, and 5 is something that touched me. It just happens that all 3 of my 5 star stories are available online so I will link to them so you can read them.
Makeisha In Time – Rachel K. Jones (who may be MY favorite newish to me writer)
Thirteen Incantations – Desirina Boskovich (this story made me cry so hard)
Links For The Day:
Thinking About Death Secret to Happiness? (I’m not sure I agree with this the way it is written, I think that you have to be accepting of your own inevitable demise too and not have cyclical thought patterns. If you can’t NOT think about death that isn’t very helpful either.)
Afraid to Die In Games (fascinating essay about how failure = death can mess with one’s head)
What Happens When You Die? (and this concludes the unplanned death trilogy of links)
Millennial Hobo Culture (I have many complicated thoughts on this. I’m sympathetic and think it’s great that people have found new ways to transmit cultural knowledge at the fringes of society… but there are a lot of complicated problems with that fringe, both because of society and within the people who dwell in these fringes. This is probably a good indication I should delve into working out my thoughts more clearly in fiction.)
Norway first country to turn of FM entirely (O_o I just… FEELS!!! How are we supposed to have automated FM stations in post-apocalyptic stories?! What will happen with FM technology 100 years in the future? Outdated doesn’t mean useless, and if it isn’t used by mainstream how can it be used by others?)
Rayguns, spaceships, and selfie-sticks (guest post by Andrea Phillips)
MINERVA ZIMMERMAN 