A little list of all the books I'm reading at the moment. I'm a reader who reads several things at once. My brain and gut will tell me what to read at any given moment. Here's what I'm indulging at this time: 

• Blood of Tyrants, Naomi Novik 
  • Number 8 in the Temeraire series, fantasy books about a dragon air force during the Napoleonic wars. Described by some critics as Patrick O'Brian meets Anne McCaffrey. A fair assessment. 
• The Seven Deadly Sins (Nanatsu no Tazai), Nakaba Suzuki
  • ​LOVED the anime, now I'm reading the manga. Interesting take on Arthurian themes. I'm getting ready to end Volume 2 and begin Vol. 3. 
• Claymore, Norihiro Yagi​
  • ​Started reading this manga as part of my research on my Senior Capstone project for college. Part of my research was on strong women in speculative fiction. The Claymores, women warriors who battle demons called Yoma and who are half-yoma themselves fit the bill. I am currently reading Volume 20: Remains of the Dead Claws. 
• The Strange Library, Haruki Murakami 
  • The first book I read by Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, did not impress me much. But I have friends who recommend him all the time. I'd really like to read his Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World sometime, but for now, Overdrive e-book library had this one and since it is a mere 96 pages (his books are usually whoppers!) I feel like I can get through it rather quickly. 
• Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: Subversive Children's Literature​, Alison Lurie
  • ​I know I finished my Bachelors Degree and I'm just hanging around waiting to apply to graduate school, but I miss academic reading. I've taken an interest lately in the literature of revolt and thought this book was a good place to start. It deals with the subversive ideas within classic and modern children's literature. 
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
  • ​Started this book before my last semester at college. I'm halfway through it and keep meaning to start reading it again. One thing keeping me back is that I sense major feels are ahead. 
• The Best American Poetry 2015, edited by Sherman Alexie (Editor), David Lehman (Series Editor)
  • ​I picked up this light tome of the best poems from last year at the library. As someone who sometimes writes poems, I wanted to read some of the best recent poems and poets. 

I know this is a lot of books to be reading at one time, but I'm weird. I  honestly love to read. All of the time. 

​What are you reading right now?

When you write stories and poems, write and actually submit them to magazines and anthologies, that takes a hell of a lot of nerve. Super-thick steel coated ones, if you get my drift. But submitting your work is easy peasy compared to what you go through after.

Next comes the Hard Waiting Time Game.

I have been waiting for news on five poetry submissions for over 130 days. I know that's long without sending a query, but at the time of submitting to this journal I read on their guidelines that it could take up to 4 months before hearing from them. I keep checking my Submittable account and it still says "In Progress" so I'm not going to sweat that one just yet. 

In the meantime, I should be hearing back in a few weeks about a major submission of a flash story to a well-known publication. I sent them my flash story "The ABC's of the Apocalypse" awhile back and got the news a month ago that the story made it through their first round of reading and was kicked up to the editor. The email said to expect a wait time (Hard Waiting Time Game Level 2) of about 8 weeks, so I should be hearing something about this one over the next week or so. 

I have other submissions in elsewhere and looking to put some more through over the Easter weekend. 

Just like gamblers say, especially about the lottery: "You can't win if you don't play," this modified adage holds true for writers: "You can't get published if you don't send it in." And I would add that you need to be patient. Getting published is a waiting game. Write, submit, be patient, and persevere.