A quick Friday post to tell you that if you didn’t get a copy of the recent issue of Eye Contact containing my short story “Visitation Hour,” you can now view that story on Fictionaut. It is right here.
I love weekends.
The quick Friday post:
1) I have gotten in contact with the people at Eye Contact and they will be sending me extra copies of their latest edition with my short story “Visitation Hour” in it. So if you’d like a copy, contact me. I’d also like to apologize for using the word “contact” thrice in that last sentence.
2) I am reading Anton Chekhov’s short stories, and feel both wonderful and wretched. The stories are so good ( which is good) and they make me realize that mine are not as good as his (which is bad). So I’ll have to work on making them better.
3) I was going to post a link to a website that offered a plethora of novellas for purchase, since it seemed like a good place to also submit your own novella for publication. Then I realized they only published classic novellas, so if your last name isn’t Tolstoy or something like that, don’t bother sending them anything.
Eye Contact, the literary journal at Seton Hill University, has published my short story “Visitation Hour.” It’s out now, though finding a copy of that journal seems to be a little more difficult than just going to their website and clicking on an order button. When I figure out an easy way to get a copy, I’ll post it here. I received two copies of the journal in the mail on Saturday, and it looks really nice. Thanks again to Seton Hill for publishing my piece.
In other news, I’m in the home stretch of reading War and Peace. About 50 pages to go.
There’s an interesting article in The Guardian about eBooks and ePublishing and eReading and eWriting and Don DeLillo. In my quest to figure out if I agree with the ePublishing trend of things, this article makes an attempt to steer me away from it, and while it makes some good points about reading and writing the great works of social consciousness, it also seems like it’s clinging to the past in a way that makes the future seem hopeless, which I don’t agree with.
And finally, reviews are coming in for my short story “Lawnmower Boy,” and so far they are positive. Which I’m not sure is a good thing. I like it when people give me some unknown-to-me-until-then insight into a story, and it pushes me to redraft a stronger story in the end. When people say, “this is great!” and “I loved reading this!” that doesn’t help me a whole lot. Maybe I should just be grateful for the praise.
I went through my mail this morning at 5:47 am while eating a bowl of banana flavored granola. In amongst the ads for shopping specials this weekend was a white envelope from Pennsylvania. More specifically, from Seton Hill University. Inside was a brief letter that said they had accepted my short story “Visitation Hour” for publication in their next fall issue of their college literary magazine, Eye Contact.
“Visitation Hour” will be my one dozenth (a.k.a 12th) story published. I will post a link here to the website where you can order a copy of the journal once it is released. I would post a teaser piece from the story to whet your appetite, but that would be a breach of contract, and I don’t want that on my conscience.
I’m really excited that this story will be published soon, and I want to thank Seton Hill for giving me the opportunity to share my work with them. I also have to thank my friend Deanna for referring me to Seton Hill and their lit journal in the first place. To thank her, I am posting a link to her site where she sells really great handmade ornaments and other such masterful creations. Pick one (or a dozen) up for the holidays!
Also, “dozenth” is not a real word. Microsoft Word gives it the Infallible Red Squiggly Line of Incorrect Spellings.