The Girl in the Impossible Library

Mood reader, passion for Storytelling. I travel through a library of all the stories that ever were and ever could be. This is my sanctuary, my home. Check my other blogs: Steampunk tea dreams: Fuzzy & Silky's Tea Time on tumblr, WIP: Escapist Realities on Wordpress. My husband is a published author! Future That Never Was by Kin S. Law

[impossiblelibrary]

I've been writing a cyberpunk novella!

Goal: 20k novella done by May 1st.

I've got 6 more days to go. My word count is impeccable at over 15k.

Now to just get thru all the scenes needed to get to that glorious THE END.

Today's scene: a dragon battle in the skies above a solarpunk haven

[heatherwitch]

From a different life (2019)

[yourfavouritebookseller]

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Book 33 of 2026

[impossiblelibrary]

Loving the people who make playlists for reading a specific book. Especially enjoyed the Cherry Blossom one the author created themself.

[impossiblelibrary]

[bleekay]

had a fucked up dream i had a book that turned out could never be read again the same as the first time because each reread the characters became incrementally more aware that the events of the book had happened before and they were “reliving” it and i reread enough times that they became self aware, figured out they were in a book, acknowledged me as the reader, and some lost their minds or had existential crises, became violent to other characters or themselves, some begged me to never stop reading or they ceased to exist and others begged me to end it all stop reading and keeping them trapped in the endless loop of torment, and the literal only way to get the book back to its first run was to hand it off to someone else to read for the first time and for some reason i physically couldn’t tell anyone about it so i’d have to just hope whoever i gave it to would only read it once and i could never open the book again to check if they were okay and back to normal because i was terrified of fucking them all up again :(

[fictiongarden]

[impossiblelibrary]

[impossiblelibrary]

[deathlyfandoms]

There also needs to be a button for “this is the 5000th time I’ve read your fic because I’m having a horrible day and this is the only thing in the world that always brings me happiness.”

[my-nameless-bliss]

good news: there is!

[monster-bait]

Support the folks posting work on comment-ebabled sites!

[ladymirdan]

I love when people leave comments on my old stuff.

Its like passive income but it actually works to make me happy.

[katzedecimal]

Honestly though, comments like that are gold to me. I love to write and a comment telling me that something I’ve done has improved someone’s life even in a small way? That’s impact. We live in societies that tell us over and over we have no value and nothing we do is ever good enough. So for someone to post a comment telling us that we improved their lives with our stories? That tells us our effort had value. We writers set out to improve the world in tiny ways, offering random acts of kindness in the form of a few minutes’ entertainment, and comments tell us we’ve achieved that little goal.

[naamahdarling]

You can totally come back and leave a comment under that comment a year later! I’m glad to know you are still enjoying it and want to know if you’re doing okay.

[yesbothways]

There is no higher compliment than a re-read.  The longer the time that has passed, the higher it is.  It means a story resonated and stayed with someone. 

[headspace-hotel]

Y'all better believe I treasure and re-read every last one of my comments over and over, even if I don’t get around to replying.

[ptolomeia]

I recently wrote a fic that I have gotten to realize is one of the most imortant/impactful things I have ever done that helped a lot of people heal from incredibly painful and traumatic experiences.

And the only reason I know that is because they told me.

Comments give back to writers in ways that cannot be underestimated. Even the “<3” comments. I will even regularly comment “LET ME LEAVE DOUBLE KOODOS” on fics. There are so many ways to share your love of the story, and most of them live in the comments box!

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[lexsreadingcorner]

Bottom square is the first draft. Top is the finished product. Don't let the quality of the first draft convince you that your story isn't worth writing.

[impossiblelibrary]

[anghraine]

so I’m looking at short story publishers (fantasy)

Tor, cream of the crop. 25 cents a word. Stories can be read for free (YES). Slowish response time at ~3 months. Prefer under 12k, absolute maximum is 17.5k. Don’t bother if it’s not highly professional quality. SFWA qualifying.

Crossed Genres. 6 cents a word. Different theme each month (this month’s is “failure”). Submissions must combine either sci-fi or fantasy with the theme. Response time 1 month. 1k-6k, no exceptions. SFWA qualifying.

Long Hidden, anthology from CG. 6 cents a word. 2k-8k, no exceptions. Must take place before 1935. Protagonist(s) must be under 18 and marginalized in their time and place. Must be sci-fi/fantasy/horror. Deadline 30 April. Response by 1 October.

Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Sci-fi only right now, author must identify as queer (gay, lesbian, bi, ace, pan, trans, genderfluid, etc, just not cishet). 7.5k max. Deadline 15 February. Responses by 1 March. You can submit one flash fiction and one short story at the same time. (My network blocks the Lightspeed site for some reason, so I can’t get all the submission details. >_>) Probably SFWA qualifying?

Women in Practical Armor. 6 cents a word. 2k-5k. Must be about 1) a female warrior who 2) is already empowered and 3) wears sensible armour. Deadline 1 April. Response within three months.

Fiction Vortex. $10 per story, with $20 and $30 for editor’s and readers’ choice stories (hoping to improve). Speculative fiction only. Imaginative but non-florid stories. 7.5k maximum, preference for 5k and under. (I kind of want to support them on general principle.)

Urban Fantasy Magazine. 6 cents a word. 8k max, under 4k preferred. Must be urban fantasy (aka, the modern world, doesn’t need to be a literal city). 

Nightmare. 6 cents a word. 1.5-7.5k, preference for under 5k. Horror and dark fantasy. Response time up to two weeks. SFWA and HWA qualifying.

Apex Magazine. 6 cents a word. 7.5k max, no exceptions. Dark sci-fi/fantasy/horror. SFWA qualifying.

Asimov’s Science Fiction. 8-10 cents a word. 20k max, 1k minimum. Sci-fi; borderline fantasy is ok, but not S&S. Prefer character focused. Response time 5 weeks; query at 3 months. SFWA qualifying, ofc.

Buzzy Mag. 10 cents a word. 10k max. Should be acceptable for anyone 15+. Response time 6-8 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Strange Horizons. 8 cents a word. Speculative fiction. 10k max, prefers under 5k. Response time 40 days. Particularly interested in diverse perspectives, nuanced approahces to political issues, and hypertexts. SFWA qualifying. 

Fantasy and Science Fiction. 7-12 cents a word. Speculative fiction, preference for character focus, would like more science-fiction or humour. 25k maximum. Prefers Courier. Response time 15 days.

Scigentasy. 3 cents a word. .5-5k. Science-fiction and fantasy, progressive/feminist emphasis. Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. 15 cents a word. 3k maximum. Any sci-fi/fantasy, they like a literary bent. (psst, steinbecks!) They also like to see both traditional and experimental approaches. Response time two weeks. 

Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 6 cents a word. 10k maximum. Fantasy in secondary worlds only (it can be Earth, but drastically different—alternate history or whatever). Character focus, prefer styles that are lush yet clear, limited first or third person narration. Response time usually 2-4 weeks, can be 5-7 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Clarkesworld. 10 cents a word up to 4000, 7 afterwards. 1-8k, preferred is 4k. Science-fiction and fantasy. Needs to be well-written and convenient to read on-screen. Appreciates rigour. No talking cats. Response time 2 days. SFWA qualifying.

Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. 6 cents a word. Any length. Science-fiction and fantasy (along with fantastic horror). Good world-building and characterization. Clear straightforward prose. Response time three months. Yes, OSC is editor-in-chief. SFWA qualifying.

Interzone. Sub-pro rates if anything (but highly respected). 10k max. Short cover letter. Science-fiction and fantasy.

[minutia-r]

Whenever I see a post like this, I feel like I have to tell people about the Submission Grinder.  I just did a search on it and it came up with 135 markets that pay for fantasy short stories. You can search by genre, pay rate, length of story they accept, etc, and it’s constantly being updated, which a post like this can’t be, and you can also use it to keep track of what you’ve sent where and when, and since a lot of people use it for this purpose it’s got a lot of good data about response times and so on. If you are trying to sell fiction or poetry on the regular, it is such a useful tool and I encourage everyone to use it.

[starsandatoms]

A couple updates:

Check the Grinder regularly! Markets open, markets close, all is chaos, hail the Submission Grinder.

SFWA pro rates have increased since this post; they keep track monthly of which markets are qualifying (i.e. pay pro rates): https://www.sfwa.org/?s=market+report

Read. Read a lot. This will not only keep you from submitting things to places that are just plain a bad fit (I don’t want to say Strange Horizons won’t take your story if it includes even one joke, I’m just saying everything I’ve read there has made me cry), but it will also make you a better writer. I’m not saying that if you don’t keep up with what’s contemporaneous at least a little bit you’ll never get published…I’m just saying that’s something that certain writing friends of mine who write a lot and have never been published have in common. There is so much out there it’s basically impossible not to find something new that you like. Go read.

Seriously though don’t submit to places you know nothing about. It’s a waste of everyone’s time including your own. If you don’t read their stuff because you don’t like it, then, reciprocally, they’re not going to like your stuff!

Translunar Travelers Lounge isn’t pro but they’re still the best. Never read a story there I didn’t love. Just, genuinely, wall-to-wall bangers. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, I just think they’re neat. Go read.

[murphysangel]

Reblogging for great links

[godzilla-reads]

“We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.”

—Jules Verne

[impossiblelibrary]

[impossiblelibrary]

New story, new inspiration. Art thanks to @artfauna on tiktok.

[impossiblelibrary]