Skip to main content

Easy Chair

 I hope you’re comfortable.  With apologies for interrupting The Space between Atoms once again, I’m wanting to share another small success for this struggling writer.  A story I submitted to Coffin Bell about a year ago has just been accepted for publication.  Its title is “Easy Chair.”


I know many people that work in publishing.  Although many websites are in a constant state of updating, changing daily or often more frequently than that, publication takes time.  Editors I know often take weeks even to get to submissions they receive.  Those submissions have to be read and compared with others that have also arrived.


Many times a story has to go to outside readers and/or an editorial board.  These are all busy people.  And, of course, unless you’re a household name, you’ll be part of the slush pile for awhile.





I used to find that off-putting, but the slush pile is a reality of a world where lots and lots and lots of people want to get published.  I’m sure the name “K. Marvin Bruce” isn’t widely known.  Although I’ve written novels none have been published yet.


None of this, however, detracts from the good cheer of being informed that somebody likes my story well enough to publish it.  “Easy Chair” is a piece I’d been working on for at least five years.  (Not only the publication process is slow in the life of a working writer…)  It’s a revenge story.


And I’ve been busy during the pandemic.  Last weekend I didn’t even have time to post on this blog until very late Sunday night (in actual fact it was very early Monday morning).  Although I value my writing time above just about all other time, that doesn’t mean I can do it whenever I please.  I just don’t have time.


I’ll send an update when “Easy Chair” appears, along with a link.  I’ve got several other stories out for consideration, but, as ever, progress is slow.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patterns

  There’s a pattern I’m noticing.   For fiction publishers.   Even if you aim low you’ll find it a struggle.   Part of the reason is the pattern. Lots of websites list publishers.   The smaller, hungrier presses either eventually close or get to a place where they require an agent to get in.   That’s the kiss of death. Although my stories have won prizes, and been nominated for prizes, I can’t get an agent interested.   I’ve queried well over a hundred, so the agent route is one of diminishing returns.   This too is a pattern. Back to the smaller presses.   I check many lists.   What I write, you see, is highly idiosyncratic.   It’s literary but it’s weird.   Publishers don’t know what to do with it.   If a smaller press published stuff like this, I’d find it. The pattern includes writers who never get discovered.   Ironically, a number of editors of fiction literary magazines (mostly online) tell me they enjoy my wor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creative Righting

  Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world.   That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week.   That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press.   The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor.   She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher.   I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions.   I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor.   That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it?   You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify.   It’s got speculative elements to it.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Maybe Okay

  A couple pieces of encouraging news, perhaps, dear struggling writers.   I had a couple short stories accepted for publication in recent weeks.   As a fellow writer recently said, “You've got to keep trying.  Somebody will like what you wrote.” That’s a bit of sunshine.   And it’s likely true.   But the stories:   “The Crossing,” about two men in a boat trying to cross the Atlantic, was accepted by JayHenge Publishing.   JayHenge is a small, but paying publisher.   I was flattered when they wanted it for their Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe anthology.   Being associated with Poe in any way feels good. The second story, “St. Spiders’ Day,” had been brewing in my mind for years—yes, this is a long game!   A friend pointed me to The Creepy podcast.   Since the story hadn’t been written, I followed their guidelines of what they wanted.   It worked. I recently heard a successful wri...
Post a Comment
Read more