Every year at this time, I take a look back at my publishing history for the year and look forward to the year ahead.  This post gives me the opportunity to thank again the journals and editors who published my work this year. 

This year I had five short stories and one essay published.  First, the stories:

• Squalorly published my flash "Knees Like Jimmy Durante" in February.
  
• SmokeLong Quarterly published "The Dentist's Parrot" in April.
  
• Wilderness House Literary Review published "The Moon in Daytime" in July.
  
• Corium Magazine published "Dear Squirrel" in November.
  
• Jellyfish Review published "Listen to Me" in December.
  

I'm very grateful to the editors who selected and published my work.  Operating a literary magazine is a labor of love for these editors, and they are the unsung heroes of the literary world.

In addition to the short stories, I had one essay published.  The essay was published in the local paper, which gave it a very broad readership.  Some of my friends mentioned that they were well into reading the essay before they realized it was by me.  The essay, Valuables, was published by the San Jose Mercury News in May. I appreciate the newspaper letting readers like me contribute.

Looking Ahead

In addition to the stories that were published last year, I also had some work selected for publication that has not appeared yet.  So, in advance, I'd like to thank Spark, The Quotable, and The Laurel Review, and I look forward to blogging about those publications when they appear.

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2016.

My story "Listen to Me" is up at Jellyfish Review.  For a look at some other stories in the journal, click here.  You'll find not only good stories, but some very arresting artwork.

"Listen to Me," like some other flash fictions I've written, is set at a San Francisco landmark.  If you're interested in a few of my past  flashes set in San Francisco, you might try "Secret San Francisco" and "Vertigo." I'm lucky to live near such an inspiring city.

My writers group has an annual holiday tradition: we give each other gifts based upon our writing.  Often we doctor toys or books to reference a story of novel chapter we've read that year.   For example, the year I wrote an essay about watching Lawrence Welk, I got a Lawrence Welk Bubble Machine:

Since the gifts are often from this year's writing, they usually reference unpublished pieces. This year I got a nice assortment of gifts representing my writing:

Three of these reference the same piece;  the spirograph, the disco ball necklace, and the disco nutcracker all refer to my latest work in progress.  The talking cat saying "Wait till next year" represents a different story that has yet to find a publisher.  So, in the future, if these pieces get published, you may see me reposting this picture with a link to some new piece of writing.  And, as always, I'm very grateful for the ongoing support I've gotten for the last 18+ years from my writers group--the best colleagues a writer could have.