The Lorelei Signal

03/03/2024

2nd reviews for The Lorelei Signal completed and rejections have been sent out. I now have 16 stories/poems to whittle down to 7 stories / 2 poems / 1 (maybe 2) flash.

If you don't receive a rejection then I still have your story/poem in my 3rd read folder.

03/03/2024

Planning on trying to work my way through the stories that made it to the 2nd read folder for The Lorelei Signal today. Have 39 stories/poems to whittle down to 10 total.

26/02/2024

Gotta love the sc*mm*rs (trying to prevent them from commenting)

My posts about the issues I had over the weekend sure drew them in - I deleted quite a few comments and blocked the offenders.

Honestly, if the person is unable to access - they will not see your post telling you to contact so-n-so (s**m**r) and once they can access - they do not need your advice. Not that they really need it to begin with.

23/02/2024

I'm back - ended up locked out of my page for 2 days after the back and forth of resetting the password. Looks like what they were doing was using my ad account to run ads. My ad account was disabled as a result of my sending an email after seeing the unusual charges pop up on my PP account. Now trying to get that all sorted with Meta and my account reinstated so I can still do my new release ads when books are released.

Problem occurred because two-factor authentication was turned on - but not linked to my phone properly. (Corrected). my phone and laptop had been deleted from the authorized devices section of the account security screen - so had to wait on FB to verify my identity.

Gotta love technology and the scammers who use it to steal.

21/02/2024

Blasted FB Hackers - I just played change my password for about 15 minutes. I was checking my advertising account and while in the session was told I had to reenter my password - password didn't work. Reset the password - removed two people who had been added in the last hour (That I didn't add) remove a post that didn't look anything I posted - plus it was posted while I was still asleep this morning according to the time stamp. Logged out of all devices.

Logged back in on the laptop - went to log into the phone - password was an old password - so the new password had already been changed.

Went through the reset password again - removed two more posts that been added during the time I was resetting passwords. Rinse repeat - had to do it a third time.

Seems to have stuck this time. (I hope)

Let me know if you see anything weird coming from any of my accounts.

20/02/2024

Rejections for initial reviews have been sent out - if you don't receive any email - then your story is in my second review folder.

Because of the number of submissions received - over 100 - stories that failed to follow guidelines were rejected unread.

19/02/2024

Initial reviews are completed.

Out of the 78 files that were sent in the correct file format (.rtf) 38 have been moved to the second read folder.

Out of the 40 that were moved to the rejection folder 15 where moved for failure to follow guidelines: one story was over 20k in length and while the guidelines do say that 10k in not a hard and fast rule if the story needs longer - more than doubling the posted requested max length is a bit much.

The rest were primarily the common issue of not single spacing and putting an actual blank line between paragraphs.

And just a note - dropping the f-bomb on the first page along with other 'salty' language tends to tell me you will not be keeping the obscene language to a bare minimum.

18/02/2024

Starting on reviews of the Jan/Feb subs for The Lorelei Signal. 96 files saved (over 100 subs as some of those 96 files contain multiple poems) - out of those 18 are in a file format other than the requested .rtf format. With Lorelei Signal being a 1 woman operation, I will be transferring those 18 into a folder labeled wrong format and depending on how many stories/poems I pull from the rest of the submissions, those may receive a failed to follow guidelines rejection.

16/02/2024

Submissions are closed for the current submission period - I received a total of 116 submissions - 35 Poems and 81 stories.

Please be patient as it will take me some time to get through them.

15/02/2024

Reminder: Submissions close today for the current submission period for The Lorelei Signal.

I just updated the Submission Status page for all submissions received through 2/14. I currently have a total of 109 submissions to review (32 Poems and 77 Stories)

11/02/2024

Submission status page has been updated for submissions received through 2/10/24

Reminder: Submissions close on 2/15.

Currently have 83 submissions to review. 20 Poems / 63 SStories/Flash

03/02/2024

Submission status page has been updated for submissions received through 2/2/24

Reminder: Submissions close on 2/15.

Currently have 57 submissions to review. 12 Poems / 45 SStories/Flash

15/01/2024

The Lorelei Signal is now open for submissions through February 15th.

I will be reading for the July 2024 Issue.

Several submissions have already been received outside of the submission period - which I held. At some point, I may start deleting unread submissions received outside of the posted submission periods.

07/01/2024

The January 2024 Issue of The Lorelei Signal is now live - check it out at:

Welcome to the Lorelei Signal - a quarterly online fantasy / science fiction magazine.

05/01/2024

Page set up for the next issue of The Lorelei Signal - goes live on Sunday.

29/11/2023

All Acceptances and Rejections have been sent out for stories received during the Oct-Nov submission period for The Lorelei Signal.

29/11/2023

Final Reviews completed - will be sending acceptances and rejections out later today.

28/11/2023

Reviews for stories that made the 2nd read folder have been completed. I still have 26 stories/poems awaiting a 3rd review.

Rejections have been sent out for those not in the 3rd read folder.

20/11/2023

First round of reviews are completed.

Have 38 files that made it to the 2nd read folder and 2 that jumped straight to the 3rd read folder.

I have 9 stories that made it to the 2nd read folder - but ended up moved to the Failed to Follow Guidelines folder. They'll get a note explaining the issue as well as being told they can resub the story in the future.

More reading to do

16/11/2023

Just did a quick check of the files received for The Lorelei Signal's submission period. (closed yesterday) - 84 separate files (over 100 total submissions with up to 5 poems in some files)

In my guidelines I ask for .rtf files - I received 66 as .rft files / 3 as .doc files / 15 as .docx files. (since I use Word, I can open and read them and will do so - but that's roughly 20% who failed to follow that guideline.

I also ask that stories be Single spaced with an extra space between paragraphs. Do not use the paragraph spacing option, use carriage returns (hit the enter key twice between paragraphs) and no indents. (Web formatting - since it's an online magazine)

Had 14 files that failed to follow those guidelines. (6 of those fall into either the .doc or .docx files groups as well)

I didn't track it - but there are also several that put NO contact information on the manuscript itself. (Not even a byline under the title // A couple of poems don't have the title on the manuscript - just as the file name)

And I have 2 authors who submitted multiple submissions -- now that could also be because it is only recently (2023 - don't remember the exact month) that I made that part of my guidelines. (1 story and up to 5 poems can be submitted each submission period)

Every story will get the same initial review - I start reading and if I want to read past the first page it gets set aside for a second review (or full read) if I don't care about turning the page it goes in the reject pile.

Depending on the number that move forward, I'll flag the failed to follow guidelines as part of the 2nd review and if enough move to a third review before I read the ones that failed to follow guidelines, they'll be rejected with the caveat they can resub during a future submission period.

I have had stories that drew me in so well on the initial review that they bounced straight to the 3rd review folder - even when they missed something on the guidelines (so it can happen, but the story has to really blow me away from the first word)

Be patient - it will take a bit to get through all these stories and as always, I hope the selection process is a difficult one.

16/11/2023

Submissions are now closed for The Lorelei Signal. I received 101 total submissions: 37 Poems / 64 SStories/Flash.

Please be patient as I work through them. Although I do hope to have most of the first reviews done this weekend.

14/10/2023

Just a note - The Lorelei Signal opens for submissions tomorrow for the April 2024 Issue.

01/10/2023

The October 2023 Issue of the Lorelei Signal is now available.

https://conta.cc/469pYan

01/09/2023

All rejections have been sent out as well as contracts for stories accepted for the Jan 2024 issue.

29/08/2023

1st read and 2nd read rejections have been sent out. Hope to have the final acceptances and rejections done by Friday.

29/08/2023

Second reads completed on the stories and poems that made it into the 2nd read folder. I now have 19 in the 3rd read folder to whittle down to 10 total (7 Stories / 2 Poems and 1 Flash). 27 (including 5 that failed to follow guidelines) to send rejection letters to.

I will be sending 1st read rejections out today.

25/08/2023

Initial reviews of submissions received for the Jan issue completed. I have 39 in the rejection folder (they just didn't grab my attention enough to convince me to keep reading past the first few paragraphs) and 46 in the 2nd read folder (these are the ones, I'll start reading through unless they lose me somewhere in the middle). Stories that made it into this folder, but which failed to follow guidelines will be flagged and shuffled to the bottom of the pile and may not be read depending on how many other stories make it into the 3rd read folder.

Thank you to every one who submitted.

24/08/2023

Working on initial reviews for July-Aug submissions to The Lorelei Signal - these will be for the Jan 2024 issue. Have over 80 submissions in the to be reviewed folder so may take a bit to get through the first pass.

15/08/2023

Reminder - Submissions for The Lorelei Signal close today.

I currently have 81 emails in my submission folder - so will have a lot of stories and poems to read through.

04/08/2023

So far 64 submissions received for the Oct issue of The Lorelei Signal - 25 of those are poems (wow). Remember submissions close on Aug 15th.