SO, I SIGNED UP FOR DUOTROPE

I went for the free introductory week.

It will take me a full week, and probably more, to navigate everything they offer the writer who wants someone else to do her research. There’s nothing wrong with that. I feel totally inadequate to the task of finding someone, anyone out there, who might be interested in something I wrote. That’s what Duotrope does, and they say they do it best.

Does that include miracles?

Yeah, right.

When I cleaned off my desk several weeks ago I found bits and pieces of stories never finished, short, short stories, and other amazing things I’d forgotten I’d written. Some were, to me, good. Some I remembered as better than they appeared now in the light of many day’s (year’s) passage. Some were ‘gag’ me material. Gah.

Will Duotrope find homes for these treasures and for the ones I’ve been steadily working on for lo these many years?

Meaning a miracle?

Duotrope will not only do the search for an agent or publisher for my unique story, they will keep track of what I’ve sent out, when I’ve sent it, and how long it should be before I hear back from the recipient. They will refine the search for the perfect spot for my story to the smallest number possible, almost guaranteeing success.

But do they do miracles?

Is a miracle the same as pulling a rabbit out of a hat? Definitely not. The rabbit was hidden in the hat already. A miracle is when there’s no rabbit, but something manages to get pulled off anyway.

I have to write something way better than a ‘gag’ me story. I have to pull all the bits and pieces of a story into one homogenous whole. And I have to take a good story and make it the best I can.

Is that the miracle?

No, unfortunately. It’s called pulling a rabbit out of a hat.