I’ve got some really cool news to announce today.  I was just informed that my short story, Short-Changed, was accepted for publication!  It’s going to appear in the March 2015 issue of Mulberry Fork Review.  I am grateful that their editors think enough of my work to include it in their magazine, and I’m absolutely thrilled by the idea of seeing it out there.  I can’t wait until March!

What’s that you say?  You’ve never heard of Mulberry Fork Review?  Well, I suppose I can forgive that… but you should check it out.  It’s a relatively new, very cool, online literary journal that publishes twice a year, featuring short fiction, prose poetry and non-fiction.  You can check out their past issues (for free) here.  I can vouch for their taste in fiction.

More to come on this, obviously, but I just wanted to spread the word.

Happy New Year, everyone!  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been submitting my short story, Short-Changed, to various literary journals and magazines.  It’s been a while since I’ve submitted my work anywhere, and I almost forgot how nerve-racking the process can be.  I am not, by nature, a patient person, so having to wait weeks (and, in some cases, months) for an editor to get back to me is a big ask.  I find myself checking for new emails obsessively, which is surely not the best way to pass the time.

On some level, it’s funny that I’m so anxious to hear back from these people, because I know that their response is likely to be negative.  I don’t mean to suggest that I don’t think highly of my story, or that I’ve lost faith in it.  My expectations simply reflect the probabilities here.  The numbers vary depending on the publication, obviously, but even the lesser-known ones are tuning down a hundred pieces for every one they take.  Plenty of good work doesn’t make the cut.  It is what it is.

But I just need one “yes,” and as long as I’ve still got submissions out there, I’ll live in hope.  And I’ll probably keep checking my email every few minutes.