Market research: BOOTH & writing prompt 17

Today's post contains a review of Booth and the weekly writing prompt.

Market research
Booth

• Online & print publication since 2009. Run by MFA fellows & students at Butler University.
• New online content posted every Friday. Print issues in winter & summer.
• Non-paying market.
• Accepts poetry (up to 5 at a time), fiction (up to 7500 words), nonfiction (up to 7500 words), comics (up to 20 pgs), lists.
• Submission period: September - March.
• Accepts simultaneous submissions. Accepts multiple submissions for poetry; everything else is one submission at at time. No wait time between rejection & submitting again. No info on whether they accept previously published work.
• Submissions accepted via electronic system (Submishmash) only. No submissions via email.
• No info given on rights requested.

I. Love. This. Journal. I first heard about Booth a year or two ago when someone (maybe on Facebook?) posted a link to Alexander Lumens's "Phys. Ed. 112 Syllabus: You and Your Apocalypse." The majority of the work they publish is right up my alley - careful language, twisted humor and a different way of looking at the world. When I read it, it feels like someone has inserted a key into a lock in my mind I didn't even know was there. And it fits just right.

For some reason as I wrote the above I was reminded of the bands Neutral Milk Hotel, Grandaddy, The Flaming Lips and The Decemberists. I guess because they also have a different take on things and are my kind of strange.

But seriously, go check out Booth's archives.

Verdict: Yes, yes, yes. Maybe this is the place for the things I write that seem too strange or off-center for other markets.

Prompt
Record your dreams.

I've given a similar prompt in a previous post, but it's up for me again these days. Last week I decided I need to sell my house, so a few days ago I spent some time freewriting about my ideal living situation. (It basically involves a cozy room, a huge fireplace, and walls filled with books.)

"Your dreams" could be the ones you have at night while sleeping, the daydreams you catch yourself having, or a description of what you want your life to look like. Whatever the case, try to capture as many concrete details as you can. You're creating a scene, and you're also describing how you felt/would feel in that scene. Here's an example of a dream I recorded in March 2012.

Happy writing!