I submitted a short story called "Shimmer" to a short story contest that ended a couple weeks ago. Soon after learning that I didn't win, I started sending the story out to other journals. It's what we do, writers. We keep sending.
And it was a good thing that I did. The journal Nauseated Drive published the story last week. You can find it HERE. I hope you read it. It's one of my favorites.
My prose poem "A Nostalgia" appeared today at Rusty Barnes's journal Live Nude Poems. Rusty has been reading my submitted work for more than a decade now.
Rusty published one of my first stories back then at his journal Fried Chicken and Coffee but, more than anything, he's always been straight with me. When I was submitting to Night Train (the renown publication Rusty founded, edited, and made into a stellar journal) he gave me the best rejections. The one I remember most was a short and perfect: "Not this one."
I've always loved that rejection. I've even used it myself more than a few times over the years with journals I started and edited. It was straight forward, no bullshit, but it also reserved just a little bit of encouragement. Not this one? Well he must be okay if I send another. Maybe that'll be the one.
Two of my prose poems - "A Bad Wreck" and "Triumph of the Young Man Against a Pagan God" - were published today at Call Me [Brackets]. They can be found in the issue on pages 70 - 73, along with some really really fantastic artwork. Have a look and see what you think.
Below is a link to the opening section of my new novel-in-progress, Sister Hall . I posted on Twitter about the novel, too. I'll also p...
