rhienelleth | Writer blues.

So. This morning I'm battling an enormous case of post-submission depression. Of the "OMG, I'm sure that sucks and there's nothing I can do about it now" variety.

I hope there aren't any gigantic spelling and/or grammatical errors in the query or synopsis, but I can't bring myself to look and make sure now that it's too late. I'm also avoiding reading the entire novella, because, while I'm quite certain that it is clean, spelling and grammatically speaking, I am also not so sure I want to know what I really think of it the morning after, you know?

The good news is, Samhain will be announcing their picks for the anthology at the end of the month. The bad news, several authors they already publish submitted. (I know this via the magical power of google and author blogs.)

I don't know for sure, but it seems previous novella anthologies had only 3-4 stories in them.

But whatever. I just have to remind myself, if it doesn't get picked up, this is just an excellent reason to actually start a website and offer some free material.

Which brings me to something else I've been thinking about. I think I might want a pen name. There are a lot of reasons for this. It's something I've waffled about for some time. Lots of authors use them. Sometimes authors publish under multiple names, so that they can have more books come out in a limited time frame, usually totally different series/genres. Or sometimes, an author won't sell very well their first time out, and they need to use a pen name to distance themselves from that for the next try. So even if I don't use one to start, I might need to at some point in my career. Assuming I have one. Which I totally will. Eventually.

(See? Depression.)

So. Of course, I have no idea what would make a good pen name. Something from the middle of the alphabet, instead of the very end, that way my books won't be on the very bottom bookshelf in the store, as they would if I used either my maiden or married names (V or Z, those are the choices there!) My Mom's maiden name doesn't work, either. Suggestions? I'm open. Totally help me pick a pen name! Or two. You never know, I might need a stock pile.

Note: Since starting this post, one of my beta readers has cheered me up immensely. I'm not quite so convinced I suck anymore. :D Thanks