Back in July this year, something really rather splendid happened. I had one of my short stories accepted byThe Fiction Desk. I remember precisely where I was when I opened their email: I was in Seoul, South Korea, having just got back from visiting the highly fraught but extremely interesting Demilitarised Zone on the border with North Korea. I had just flopped down exhausted on my hotel bed, took a deep breath having been shepherded about with military precision for most of the day, clicked on my iPad, opened my email and there it was. An acceptance! Two worlds had collided. For a few brief moments I didn’t know who or where I was.
It’s extremely gratifying to be published not only in a real, tangible, walk-into-a-shop-and-buy book, but also to be featured by this particular publisher. The Fiction Desk is one of my favourite publishers of short stories. I’d read their three previous volumes, extremely impressed by the fresh and imaginative writing, the assortment of styles, the thoughtful way they’d been curated, the mix of established and new voices, and the classy, professional way the books actually looked.
The new volume, the one to feature my story, is called “Crying Just Like Anybody” (named after the title story by Richard Smyth) and is due for release around 20th November. It’s been a bit of a wait for it to come out, not least since my acceptance was back in July, but I gather a large part of this delay has been finding the right stories to feature. That, and I personally couldn’t begin to imagine the work involved. But it’ll be well worth the wait. It’s available to pre-order now.
It’s extremely gratifying to be published not only in a real, tangible, walk-into-a-shop-and-buy book, but also to be featured by this particular publisher. The Fiction Desk is one of my favourite publishers of short stories. I’d read their three previous volumes, extremely impressed by the fresh and imaginative writing, the assortment of styles, the thoughtful way they’d been curated, the mix of established and new voices, and the classy, professional way the books actually looked.
The new volume, the one to feature my story, is called “Crying Just Like Anybody” (named after the title story by Richard Smyth) and is due for release around 20th November. It’s been a bit of a wait for it to come out, not least since my acceptance was back in July, but I gather a large part of this delay has been finding the right stories to feature. That, and I personally couldn’t begin to imagine the work involved. But it’ll be well worth the wait. It’s available to pre-order now.
Sort of related to this: I had a rejection letter from another journal this morning. Now this, of course, is par for the course. It’s a fact of life that writers have their work turned down, in journals, in anthologies, in competitions. So, ho hum: never mind. But here’s the weird thing: it was my first ever rejection letter.
Now, that’s not to say that everything I’ve ever submitted before has been accepted. No way – I’ve had loads of misses, far, far, far more than acceptances. But how strange that this place was the first to write to me specifically to say “no thanks” (and very polite they were too). Usually I find out I haven’t got anywhere by logging on to a publisher’s website, with the list of successful stories featured, and I’m not among them.
But with “Crying Just Like Anybody” coming out in just over a week, it’s impossible to be downhearted.
I may even frame it.
Now, that’s not to say that everything I’ve ever submitted before has been accepted. No way – I’ve had loads of misses, far, far, far more than acceptances. But how strange that this place was the first to write to me specifically to say “no thanks” (and very polite they were too). Usually I find out I haven’t got anywhere by logging on to a publisher’s website, with the list of successful stories featured, and I’m not among them.
But with “Crying Just Like Anybody” coming out in just over a week, it’s impossible to be downhearted.
I may even frame it.