I just got a rejection from Realms of Fantasy. It took about two months from the time I sent the submission off. When it comes to short stories, I go to duotrope.com. It will tell you how much each mag pays, how fast they respond, and what percent of submissions get published.
I feel good about myself, despite the rejection, that I resubmitted to another publication today. You have to keep trying. Every aspiring author that quits ups my odds of getting published.
I'm writing a fantasy novel now that I'll start shopping to agents, hopefully in the next six months. After that I'm debating between writing my scifi novel, or my ghost novel. Both ideas intrigue me. Does that hurt you as an author, if the things you write are drastically different from each other? I wonder how well an agent would do with someone like me. I write fantsy, soft sci-fi, urban fantasy, and I've started with ghosts.
Matt