State of the Union

In the words of Ringo Starr, 'Forgive the lateness of my reply.'

First post since last May! Appalling, but there we are. Still not in possession of Bernard's watch, so no time-travelling here. Anyway, on to the purpose of this post...

SOTU

I don’t have a great deal in common with the 46^th president of the United States of America; not withstanding a worrying regularity to muck up my words, and fall up steps. But we share something of not: being relatively late delivering our State of the Union address.

On February 7^th of this year, old rubbish-nicknames himself, Joe Biden (check out some of the nicknames previous POTUSes had – The Last Cocked Hat, anyone? – here List of nicknames of presidents of the United States - Wikipedia ) addressed congress, touching on topics like the economy, news, achievements, and where to improve. Like a school parent’s evening, only without having to look at three A4 books of your child’s work on The Ocean, India, and The Victorians.

All well and good, but not as mind-blowing (perhaps a slight exaggeration…) as my very first SOTU, delivered on the last-but-one day of the first quarter of 2023. I’m intending to focus on my writing here, so it’s as much a mystery to me as it will be to you what turns up.

2022 stats:

85 pieces of work submitted in total (61 to competitions, 24 to journals, writing sites, calls for submission, etc)

34 pieces published/ to be published in 2023 (21 from competitions, 13 from other sources)

So… roughly a 29% success rate (just shy of 18% from competitions, 11% from other sources). Which is good.

However… 22 of those published pieces belong to a: a writing group that I no longer belong to, and, b: a journal which ceased publishing last year, which comes to almost 75% of my “Hey, I like your style, sister!” success platforms. Which is a little worrying. Isn’t it?

Well, maybe.

But… a big bit of the SOTU is to looking to the future, and, in the words of FDR in 1941 (Jan 6^th, eager beaver!) have ‘freedom from fear.’

What fears? Well, look at those 85 submissions, what do they have in common? A total and utter dearth of agents or publishers. Not one bloody piece did I dare send.

2023 is almost ¼ through, but ¾ remain for that to be addressed. Even if the outcome is 0% success, I will have done it anyway, and nothing is ever as hard the second time around, is it, Amtrak Joe (terrible nickname)?