I got a short story published (finally)! I emailed Altered Reality Magazine my query Thursday night, March 26th. They replied an hour later requesting to see the manuscript. I submitted my story “The Girl with No Eyes” the next morning, and they accepted it a half hour later. I’m so thankful it found a home.
Thank you Gaelle and Ricky for being my beta readers.
I like “what-if” premises. I thought of the title before I knew what it was going to be about. I knew I wanted to write a speculative fiction story about a girl with no eyes, but I didn’t want to write horror.
The editor suggested turning the story into a novel. She wrote: “I encourage you not to let it just stay a short story–expand it and turn it into the book it wants to be.” I would love to do that someday. I wish I could write faster though. Any novel I write would probably take at least two years from blank page to polished final draft, and I’m in the middle of writing the first draft of two other novels. It would be a while before my story would see the light of day as a novel.
The editor requested a picture for my bio. I didn’t have one ready so I used a photo taken a few years ago and ran it through a watercolor filter using Photoshop. At some point I’m going to need a professional author picture, but I think the one I gave them works well.
I’ve written two other stories since my June 2020 blog post (My “Mirror Moment” – A Look at Short Stories). One of them got rejected enough times that I’ve stopped submitting it so I can rewrite the ending. The other is out there in the ether, queued, waiting to be considered. I’m working on a couple of new stories right now. It’s fun to get a story published and see it on someone else’s website. I’ve never thought of myself as a short story writer before. Up until now I’ve been spending all my free time writing novels (which have interested a few literary agents, but not enough to offer representation–not yet). Maybe getting a few stories published every year in the meantime is just what I need to keep me happy.