December 8 Deadline and Growing Possibilities

     My plan to narrow my list of possible magazines down to five or six possibilities failed. I now have even more options after broadening my search to include magazines specifically interested in high school writers. I plan to contact a former teacher of mine who is more intimately familiar with the publishing process and see if she can help me wade through my list. I know once I have a slimmer list, I will still have a lot of research to do, including reading past publications and figuring out what each magazine wants from submission. Certain ones want cover letters, others only accept email submissions, others require a fee, etc. My Excel chart of all the information about each magazine is growing more complicated everyday. 

     I met with my mentor yesterday and we have decided that I will send everything out by December 8. A deadline for submission is daunting, but exciting. My stories look good, though I need to spend some more time adding finishing touches, but the bulk of my work from here on out will be narrowing down my list of possible magazines and organizing the actual submission itself.