The hits keep on rolling in this spring. When I got home from work I found an email from the Free State Review, a literary review based out of Maryland, saying that they wanted to publish my story "Spaghetti Sauce". This marks the 17th short story I've gotten accepted so far, and the 4th one this year. I don't want to jinx it, but 2018 is starting to look like a pretty good year.
This is a big one for me because I've been sending stories to the Free State Review for four years and each one has come back with comments and suggestions (which is pretty rare in this business of mostly form letters). For four years they've been telling me I'm almost there, and damn does it feel good to finally get there.
"Spaghetti Sauce" is a pretty short dark story full of reading between the lines. I wrote it back in January and only managed to get it out to eight reviews before it got snapped up (with only two of those having rejected it). For those of you who like to follow such things, that's pretty good compared to how most of them go. My record for rejections is 80, though I once did have one snapped up by the first review I sent it to, though that is more dumb luck than one can ever wish for.
Unfortunately, as with how things work now, you're going have to wait for Free State Review to publish Spaghetti Sauce before I can share it. I know, unfair, but they get first publishing rights. In the mean time, feel free to peruse the website for other things to read. Also, as always, thank you to everyone who has helped support me with this writing business. Especially those who ask me about my writing despite the fact that whenever they do the best I can manage is a vague stilted answer.