This morning, I drove Heron to work, and on my way home, I heard John Lennon’s version of “Stand By Me.”  I knew it was going to be a good day, but I didn’t know how good.

When I got home, I walked Hendrix before I started working.  And on the walk, I received an email.  That email was informing me that my story, “A Crash in Boston,” was selected for publication in Literary Orphans.  Well, I was excited.  It comes out at the end of September, and they have published great writers like Tom Pitts and Joe Clifford.

Let me provide you with a little bit of back story.  In 2010, I won the fiction prize for graduate students at Florida International University.  The winning story was “A Crash in Boston.”  Well, I thought I was some hot shit.  I was just 24 years old, winning a graduate competition in a MFA program.

So I started sending the story out to literary magazines.  Not just any magazines — the top, la creme de la creme.   And do you know what I found: yeah, that’s right, rejection.  Boy I received so many rejections I stopped counting.  But if I had to guess, then I would say about 50.  My story received, at least, 50 rejections.  I revised, and I continued to believe.  Continue reading “Published Three Years Later & Other Good News” →