Our small critique group met a week ago for a Submission Party. I was a little late but once I arrived, I hit the ground running.

The most important thing I had to get out of the way was having something to submit. As much as I would have loved to submit Hilmer Gibb and His Honkin' Huge Bib, the time we had lent itself better to short story submission to literature magazines.

The first stop was Duotrope (http://www.duotrope.com/) "a free writers' resource listing over 2425 current Fiction and Poetry publications," as they describe themselves.

I sent out a longer rewrite of Spirit Into Speck (Previously titled Into Spirit and Speck) to three publication by the end of the evening.

I would suggest hosting or attending such a Submission Party. Submitting is a thankless, tedious job that, similar to write-ins, is best done in the company of others who are suffering the same fate. The added benefit of submitting with other writers is that your peers may have experience with a certain publication. Their nuggets of wisdom can save you time and frustration.

090626 Follow up regarding how to submit your short stories and flash fiction:
At the August 6 San Antonio Writers Guild meeting, Stewart Smith will discuss "Acts of Submission--Electronically". The August program will demonstrate the use of the Duotrope on-line database in the process of submitting a short story for publication.