Forever Nocturne E-zine Forum Submissions

The 'reply to all' string of things will get hairy if we try to discuss the pieces that way. So I suggest we do it here. It's linnear. Yay!

I've only read the first two emails - so I'll just go over those for now. First up - Alex Hutchinson with three poems, 'Disconnected from Messenger', 'Carnal Blackout', 'Two Queens'. I think this guy shows massive potential. My favorite of the three was 'Disconnected', though the other two had publishible (able? stupid -ble's) qualities. 'Disconnected' had a very strong start, good rhythm to it, but lost that in the middle and went somewhere else. The message and feelings are clear, but I think I'm identifying too much with the emotion of the piece (told you so) and not being critical enough. 'Carnal' had great imagery, but for some reason the phrase 'penetrated hard' really jarred me as a reader. Maybe I'm just tired. Maybe it's supposed to be jarring. In the second stanza though, he suddenly uses question marks. I think it would be just as effective without using the punction. That threw the visual flow of the poem off for me. However, the opening line is killer. I loved it. 'Two Queens', imo, is inferior to the first two poems. The rhythm of it seems to be all over the place, and I had to read it through a few more times to really look at it. It didn't come as easy as the first two. So, over all, though I like 'Disconnected from Messenger' better on a personal note, my vote is to publish Alex in the October issue, with 'Carnal Blackout'.

Moving on to The Watch Box by Steven Silvey - Okay, I have plenty of issues with this piece, but I also see a great deal of potential in it. It needs some editing, but it's such a short piece (and I think a good idea) that I wouldn't mind putting a bit of effort into it. Especially since we're not knee deep in submissions yet. There's something very Edgar Allen Poe about this piece. Murdering a midget after feeding him Chicken Nuggets. Priceless. My biggest concern is not the edit it needs - but the fact that a midgets ashes would not fit into a Watch Box. Human bodies leave a s**t ton of ashes behind. Even height challenged humans. I'd be willing to take this piece under my wing and see if the author will doctor it up, and take the time to fix it. I think it can be a great little morbid piece. I just love the idea of murder to move up the mall character ranks. LMAO

I read Alex's pieces and agree with you on this one.  As for Steven's, I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it sounds interesting.  I also just left you a  comment regarding submissions, so I'll restate it here:

Can we please have the submission guidelines (i.e. the "don't send attachments" part) up on the website where the submissions emails are?  Someone sent several attachments, had no subject in the subject line, and not much in the body of the email.  I feel that part of what we do should be helping writers to query properly.  I don't intend to open any attachments, as stated inside the 'zine.

So... how do we respond to that particular email, or do we respond at all?

I think we need to be strict about the attachments. The last thing any of us needs is a virus to shut us down in the middle of putting together the next issue. But we should have it posted in every place that offers the opportunity to submit work. That way they can't say "You never said blah blah blah".

ok I'm here, what did I miss? Sheesh. I've been battling the crud o' the month and it kicked my generic arse this week. It may take me until this time next week to get caught up. We have 'obligations' every night until the 14th. (My son is a new Thespian and a three year show choir kid, so its graduation, banquets, a wedding and a couple of other things, I forget...)

But - I will get myself caught back up. Doc said I have bronchitis, sinusitus, and allergies....um....ok. would anyone like a ball of phlegm? I have plenty.