The Writing Process: Acceptance!

On the 19th of July, my short story “A Voice Exhumed,” inspired by Miley Cyrus, written with the help of John Jameson in a Minneapolis hotel room, edited with the help of Juan Valdez and a steaming cup of brief, revised with the help of my good friends over and Litreactor.com, was accepted for publication by Fiction Magazine for their August issue of “Under the Bed.” I am stoked!
Checking my phone, when I see an email come back from an editor, I automatically assume rejection and beginning thinking about who I can submit it to next. Not that I’ve never had an acceptance email come through before, but they are much rarer than those rejections. This email I had to read twice. Yep. This wanted my story.
I’ll admit it. I did a silent little dance and maybe pumped a few victorious fist into the air. Hey, these moments are what get us through all those moments of self-doubt that fill the massive voids between acceptance letters. The first time I was accepted for publication, me and the wife even went out to dinner to celebrate. You have to celebrate. That sense of vindication and validation is what gets us through the darkness.
What’s really cool, is that this blog series now gets to carry on. I’ll be working with some editors over at Fiction Magazine as they collaboratively edit the story using Google Docs. This story will then they be published in both digital and print form. Once published, I get to do some more bragging and promoting. And I’ll blog each step of the way. So stay tuned! I’m really excited to be published and to work with editors and see my story in print, but also excited to share and document the experience here on my site. Watch for updates and the eventual links to get your copy of “A Voice Exhumed”!