Discussion: Q1 Volume 36

[chuckt]

Dave Farland:

Just finished my part in judging the first quarter of Writers of the Future. Wow, we got some great stories!

A bit of advice for entrants: very few of the entrants send in paper copies nowadays, and as a judge I prefer to see electronic copies. A couple of our judges have eye problems, and we can enlarge the electronic copies so that they are easier to read.

Wasn't this from Dave's Facebook page? I don't see it there now. I wonder if that means something.

[KD Julicher]

I think this is the time period between finalist being selected and the winners being selected. Not sure what they would do if a winner were disqualified or withdrew.

The finalist stories are ranked by the judges. In the case of a winner being disqualified or withdrawing, I presume the award would go to the next finalist on the list.

[Dragonchef]

Sheesh! For a Thursday there don't seem to be many posts going up here. I thought I would at least hear of some other forumites going nuts waiting from their report on the Q1 subs.
Dead quiet.
So, I must be the only one of us that didn't get a phone call with a gag order.
I need a hug.

[disgruntledpeony]

Sheesh! For a Thursday there don't seem to be many posts going up here. I thought I would at least hear of some other forumites going nuts waiting from their report on the Q1 subs.
Dead quiet.
So, I must be the only one of us that didn't get a phone call with a gag order.
I need a hug.

Oh, I'm antsy, alright. I checked the boards five times in ten minutes, then stopped looking at them for hours because that was silly. Every time I get an e-mail or my phone rings I get super jumpy. I haven't twitched this hard in ages.

[RSchibler]

I'm totally not checking them regularly. My email is not open in another window.

I am writing my next while I sit here not twitching, though.

[Dragonchef]

Whew! Fears unfounded. Back to work.
One ear on the phone, the other on email notification dings.
One eye on the keyboard, the other looking for email notification icons.
Both hands nervously touching the keys.

I think I'm good.

[MWStallings]

I keep clicking refresh here. then I hit email every hour. <42 minutes till next email check.>

[SCAFontaine]

I have avoided my phone for the last few hours specifically for this reason. I couldn't stop checking it.

[thegirlintheglasses]

Sheesh! For a Thursday there don't seem to be many posts going up here. I thought I would at least hear of some other forumites going nuts waiting from their report on the Q1 subs.
Dead quiet.
So, I must be the only one of us that didn't get a phone call with a gag order.
I need a hug.

My phone shattered. It's alive, it rings, it dings, but I can't access any of it. I will admit, I keep giving my computer the side-eye and then plunging into the forums and Facebook for clues. But it just takes longer to log on and check in...obviously I'm back again. Again. AGAIN. Checking to see if there's any peeps and I should worry about the phone calls I can't answer...probably a sign not to worry...don't think about it...don't think about it...

[Dragonchef]

My phone shattered. It's alive, it rings, it dings, but I can't access any of it. I will admit, I keep giving my computer the side-eye and then plunging into the forums and Facebook for clues. But it just takes longer to log on and check in...obviously I'm back again. Again. AGAIN. Checking to see if there's any peeps and I should worry about the phone calls I can't answer...probably a sign not to worry...don't think about it...don't think about it...

I think you need to sit down, Brittany. Have some chocolate.

Where on FB or anywhere else would you even look for possible clues to quarterly results?

[thegirlintheglasses]

Takes chocolate and snarfs it down. Opens the deep freeze and pulls out the ice cream.

"But...but someone might PEEP!" lol.

Hopefully, I figure things out with it this weekend.

Hopefully. ;)

[chuckt]

My phone shattered. It's alive, it rings, it dings, but I can't access any of it. I will admit, I keep giving my computer the side-eye and then plunging into the forums and Facebook for clues. But it just takes longer to log on and check in...obviously I'm back again. Again. AGAIN. Checking to see if there's any peeps and I should worry about the phone calls I can't answer...probably a sign not to worry...don't think about it...don't think about it...

Just noticed the link to your blog entry. I enjoyed reading it. Congrats on getting your entry in and the birth of your newest daughter. (She's a cutie).

And of course there are hints on Facebook! See above.

[thegirlintheglasses]

Sheesh! For a Thursday there don't seem to be many posts going up here. I thought I would at least hear of some other forumites going nuts waiting from their report on the Q1 subs.
Dead quiet.
So, I must be the only one of us that didn't get a phone call with a gag order.
I need a hug.

My phone shattered. It's alive, it rings, it dings, but I can't access any of it. I will admit, I keep giving my computer the side-eye and then plunging into the forums and Facebook for clues. But it just takes longer to log on and check in...obviously I'm back again. Again. AGAIN. Checking to see if there's any peeps and I should worry about the phone calls I can't answer...probably a sign not to worry...don't think about it...don't think about it...

Just noticed the link to your blog entry. I enjoyed reading it. Congrats on getting your entry in and the birth of your newest daughter. (She's a cutie).

And of course there are hints on Facebook! See above.

Thanks ChuckT! My daughter is six months now and crawling! It's crazy how fast time flies. But that entry--I wish I knew how to post an update--ended up being my finalist entry. Kinda nuts how things just fell in place. I blame hormones lol. Thanks for reading :)

[Dragonchef]

I asked Joni if she had any tidbits or bones to toss to us for the Q1 results. Here is her reply:
"Well I got slapped with jury duty right after the event! Ahhh! So next week for sure!"

[chuckt]

I asked Joni if she had any tidbits or bones to toss to us for the Q1 results. Here is her reply:
"Well I got slapped with jury duty right after the event! Ahhh! So next week for sure!"

Arghhh!

[disgruntledpeony]

I asked Joni if she had any tidbits or bones to toss to us for the Q1 results. Here is her reply:
"Well I got slapped with jury duty right after the event! Ahhh! So next week for sure!"

Arghhh!

Eh, that means I get to relax for a week, I'm good with it. (Joni often overestimates how quickly results go out, and jury duty is a good reason to go long.)

[R.W.Ware]

Jury duty could take a lot longer than a week.

[disgruntledpeony]

Jury duty could take a lot longer than a week.

If it does, it does. We'll muddle through. We're writers, we can handle suspense, right?

[RSchibler]

We live in a state of quantum rejection and acceptance. Schrodigers Publication.

[AnikeKirsten]

We live in a state of quantum rejection and acceptance. Schrodigers Publication.

I laughed so hard at this. Brilliant.

[OldDarth]

Indeed!

[chuckt]

If anyone felt like doing some analysis on the results days over the last few years, though,
I for one would be interested!

Actually, this is a thing I track (sometimes, my submitomancy goes pretty in-depth!). I don't have it broken down by year, but since V27Q3, which was in 2010 (probably when I started submitting electronically) without missing a quarter, here's the breakdown of the days on which I've received results:

Sunday = 0
Monday = 7
Tuesday = 7
Wednesday = 10
Thursday = 5
Friday = 4
Saturday = 0

These are all email results--I've never placed high enough to get a phone call. It looks like Wednesday is my Thursday, although that could be due to the time difference (I'm on EDT).

I just made my 900th submission (to any market, I'm only in the 40s on WotF submissions) this week! In case anyone was wondering, Monday is the most likely day to receive a response from any market, and Sunday is the least likely (this is also highly unscientific since it includes a wide range of all the markets I've ever submitted to, including many that no longer exist)

So! Monday is one of the more likely Thursdays. Maybe?

[disgruntledpeony]

So! Monday is one of the more likely Thursdays. Maybe?

Every weekday is Thursday, by those metrics. I think I'm done stressing over it for the moment, myself. I can only twitch for so long before my mental muscles get tired. That's just me, though. It's certainly a possibility, so feel free to twitch away!

[RSchibler]

So! Monday is one of the more likely Thursdays. Maybe?

Every weekday is Thursday, by those metrics. I think I'm done stressing over it for the moment, myself. I can only twitch for so long before my mental muscles get tired. That's just me, though. It's certainly a possibility, so feel free to twitch away!

Yup - over it. Working on a new novel idea and my Q3 is keeping me busy.

[KD Julicher]

And don't discount weekends! I got at least one of my finalist calls on a Saturday morning.

[Beth Powers]

And don't discount weekends! I got at least one of my finalist calls on a Saturday morning.

Yep, and I've never gotten higher than an HM, so that might have impacted my stats too! It looks like for two of the last three Q1s, I've submitted on the last day (as I did this year), and I've gotten my results on April 25th or April 26th, so I assume Thursday is likely to arrive around the same time as Avengers: Endgame

But I've also gotten Q1 results as early as Jan 28th and as late as June 1st, so you never know!

[DoctorJest]

I need to revise what I said about mine -- I seem to have checked my dates all wrong, I have a Monday, a Tuesday, a Thursday, and a Friday in my list. The first time I checked, I thought I had two Sundays, which seemed weird, because I didn't remember getting any on a Sunday...I just put it down to a faulty brain.

So I wasn't wrong, I just wasn't exactly right, either.

[chuckt]

It occurred to me last night that, if Dave finished his job last week as he said, they would not wait on Joni to do her thing. They would go ahead with final judging. So we may get the whole kit and caboodle this week, winners and all.

[disgruntledpeony]

It occurred to me last night that, if Dave finished his job last week as he said, they would not wait on Joni to do her thing. They would go ahead with final judging. So we may get the whole kit and caboodle this week, winners and all.

I think final judging takes awhile. It was about a month between when I found out I was a finalist and I found out I hadn't placed. That may be different quarter to quarter; all I know is that's how things went for me.

[chuckt]

It occurred to me last night that, if Dave finished his job last week as he said, they would not wait on Joni to do her thing. They would go ahead with final judging. So we may get the whole kit and caboodle this week, winners and all.

I think final judging takes awhile. It was about a month between when I found out I was a finalist and I found out I hadn't placed. That may be different quarter to quarter; all I know is that's how things went for me.

Oh. I thought it was pretty fast from something Wulf posted. I prob misread or misinterpreted what he wrote.