Senility on submission

Now that Senility has been thoroughly critiqued, I've done a final set of revisions and edits and sent it off to the first magazine. Here's hoping they're wise enough to publish it.

Senility is a cross between Horror and Dark Fantasy. The horror elements are kept fairly light, more intellectual than your typical blood and guts stories. The title tells you at least a little about what it's about: old age. I'm not giving out any information on the plot, however. You'll have to buy the magazine that ends up publishing it.

What's kind of odd about this story, at least for me, is the responses that my test readers and the critiquers gave, compared to my other stories, The Lay of Percy Wallace in particular. I consider Percy the best story I've written, and the one I think is the most artistic, if you will. But it got very mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Senility got pretty much unanimous praise. Even the few critiquers that didn't seem to get the story said they enjoyed it, and nearly all the suggestions were fairly minor.

Don't get me wrong, I like Senility. And after re-reading it for my last revision phase, I enjoyed the hell out of it. But I don't love it like I love Percy. Yet the reactions of those who have read both favor Senility. Just goes to show that I guess I don't know my best writing when I see it.

I hope magazine editors will like it as much as my critique group and test readers did. Keep your fingers crossed!