Inquiring about "Home and Home Again"

My fiction piece “Home and Home Again” has been out to Xelas Magazine now for 98 days. According to Duotrope (a great place to find places to submit to), the average time for this magazine to respond is 65 days. Xelas states that if they have had a story for 90 days that we can write and inquire about it.

Well, I did just that last night. It is usually a good sign when a magazine doesn’t get back to you right away. However, it could just mean that a hard heartache is coming soon. I remember when it took Gambara a long time to get back to me. I kept waiting and waiting. About the time I was going to send them an inquiry they wrote me. And told me that my piece made it into the final reading. So close, but they still rejected it. In fact it was this same story, before the re-write and name change.

I’ll let you know what they saw, when I hear back from them.

I also sent an inquiry letter to Dicey Brown last night as well. Their average response time is 76 days and my story has been there for 97 days. I went to find out how long to wait for. When I clicked on them through Duotrope, it said in a big yellow box not send them anymore submissions as they are closed for submissions. This was a little scary, but nothing too much. Sometimes magazines to do that in order to catch up on their slush pile (in fact Gambara did that for a little while). But then when I tired to get into their link to read about when I can inquire, there was nothing there. This scares me. Know I wonder if the magazine is no more.

I went through my sent email box and found the address I submitted the story to and emailed them an inquiry. I don’t know if I’ll hear back from them or not. But if I do, I’ll let you know.

“Home and Home Again” is also still out to 42opus and Armada Quarterly. Both for 27 days. 42opus’ average response time is 69 days, while Armada Quarterly’s is 11.