Year-End Summery!

As 2009 winds down, things are looking very summery in the fiction and nonfiction-writing career of yours truly. To wit: I've had a political essay accepted for publication by the online journal The Fear of Monkeys, a memoir accepted by the online journal Quicksilver, a very short story (950 words, which I guess some would call flash fiction, but it's more a postmodern parody or pastiche) accepted by the online journal Writers' Bloc, and, last but far from least, a science fiction story accepted, pending further editorial review, by a print journal to be named later. I'll be posting these miscellaneous works to the blog as soon as they appear, but for now, I just wanted to announce their impending arrival.

Whew! It seems that in the publishing business, it never rains but it pours.

Also: this cracks me up, but the editor of Terrain.org forwarded a message from a teacher who found "Positioning" online and was interested in using it in her classes. I'm not sure whether she's intrigued by the subject, the style, the sentiments--or, frankly, whether she wants to use it as an example of how not to write an essay! But whatever the case, this fortuitous first reminds me of the virtues of online publishing: you never know when, where, or why something of yours might be read and put to use.

So in my current upbeat mood, I'd like to end 2009, my first year of blogging and only my second of creative publishing, with a link to one of my favorite stories, "An Interview with Mr. Gance," which appeared earlier this year in the journal Gander Press Review. It took a long time to find a publisher for this one--you'll see why when you read it--but I personally think it's one of the most memorable, meaningful, and in an odd way moving stories I've written. You can read it online or order a hard copy (which would be nice, since it supports the publisher). Either way, I hope you enjoy it.

Have a great new year, and see you in 2010!

JDB