Rejections, an acceptance, and reminders

Check out the full version of my story here.

This the eleventh installment of a series reflecting on a sabbatical that ended one year ago. It will run each Wednesday through the summer.

Early in the spring of my sabbatical, I submitted my short story “The Best Thing” to Bull & Cross, a journal I’ve been watching for a while after a couple of my students placed work there. I was struck by the range of stories and the particular care the editor, Dan, takes with them.

Larger, Terry and Butter (the main characters of my story) needed a particular home. My stories tend to run on the quiet side (except the novel I’m at work on, but that’s a different matter). Small moments that connect to the largest parts of our humanity are what interest me.

With that in mind, and like most working writers, I saw “The Best Thing” get passed on by a number of journals. Twelve to be exact. That’s typical, but also it sucks and, like anyone putting their work in front of an audience, I had some moments of doubt as to whether it would get seen for what it is.

Cue Bull & Cross. They got it. Published it with a rather appropriate tweet to promote it (if I do say so myself.

And the reaction I got was really gratifying. The people who read it and reached out got what my characters were going through even as they didn’t like where going through it with them took the piece.

The best kind of discomfort, that. The whole experience was a great reminder that stories aren’t for everyone, but they’re always for someone. Even writing teachers need that lesson retaught from time to time.