Reading Pulphouse Stories…

Out of Order…

So don’t panic if you get a response from me for an October or November story and you have not gotten a response for a story from a previous month yet. I am just jumping around so I don’t get in a rut with the same theme. Plus if I think I might buy a story, I put it aside and read it again in a few days.

However, that said, the HEAT WAVE stories are all responded to. TWILIGHT ZONE stories only have a few left.

Fascinating patterns I am noticing in the writing.

For example, a lot of the stories are pulling me in, but then in a page or two I fade out, scan for a moment and then send the story back. Two reasons for this from me…

1… Nothing happens in the story.

2… Clear it won’t be a Pulphouse story.

Another pattern I am seeing regularly is that the character is a complainer, a whiner, doesn’t like the situation, is bored by the situation. Why in the world would I want to read that???

I think tonight alone in my reading I had three stories with flickering fluorescent lights in an office. Really? Maybe in the 1950s… Or in office building so old they are falling apart. Not fun to read either.

So I know heat wave stories and Twilight Zone stories and so on make you think of ugly, but not something readers (or editors) really want to go down into.

As I have said a billion times. We are entertainers. And good characters are not whiners. (How long do you want to be around a whiner in real life?)

So over the rest of this month and through next month I will be reading solidly. So many stories per day and yes, I am buying some. Thank you and sorry about the delay on all of these, folks. Sure never intended it.