Flash Fiction up at New World Writing

Photo by anthony renovato on Unsplash

I am very happy that my story "Bears" has been published in New World Writing.

In my last post, I wrote about how difficult I was finding writing and submitting work during the pandemic. I felt like I was confessing a huge weakness. Writers need to have thick skins in order to make it, and I was failing.

But the act of admitting my difficulties made me feel lighter somehow. More hopeful. I felt like it was OK if didn't submit work and OK if I did. Then I told myself that I could try doing five submissions. That was an old goal I used to have: five submissions a month. At my height of submitting I often exceeded it, but that was my baseline. 

I sat down at my computer a week ago and submitted to six journals. I made my goal plus a bonus.

My first rejection came a few days later. I felt sad, but not depressed. And then the next  notice I saw was that New World Writing had accepted and published my story. Talk about immediate gratification!

I am not sure how much I will submit for the rest of the year, but January is a win.

This story, "Bears," is the first new story published out of a whole collection about what happens after fairy tales end. Most of them are quite a bit longer and will be harder to publish, but this is a nice start.