I was asked to write a post on the topic: How do I know when a story is ready for submission? My fine writing friends over at the 5Writers blog posted my response. You can read it here. #guestpost #5writers #blog #submission #story #fiction

The Front Porch Journal is an online literary magazine published by Texas State University in San Marcos. They publish three or four times a year, with a mixture of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, book reviews, and interviews, including audio and video features from time to time. They’ve been publishing since 2006 and the current issue online (as of this writing) is Number 18. This issue has two fiction pieces, Louanne’s Baby by Jacqueline Doyle, and Moth by Zoe Miller. Check t

One of the great things about Twitter and other such social media outlets is that I get a chance to chat briefly with folks I would never meet otherwise. So it goes with Hazel Foster (@HazelKFoster on Twitter). She is a writer and works with the good folks at Dzanc Books. Her work has been featured in several online literary outlets (Knee Jerk, Metazen, PANK, Kill Author, and more). Her website and blog has some links to her current works online. Her most recent (as of this w

I have an affinity for geographically-centered fiction. What I mean is, I think the “place” of the writer and the story he writes are very important to the writing, even if the place only serves as background and research for the writer. On Twitter recently, I stumbled across a relatively new literary magazine called Midwestern Gothic, with a focus on stories, poems, and photography that highlight the midwest. Midwestern Gothic (ISSN 2159-8827) is a quarterly print literary j

So, I have this story. It’s called, “The Silence of God is Impossible to Bear”. This was a story that I wrote several years ago, and it was part of my application package to the Queens MFA program. I re-worked the story twice before I sent it in to the Queens staff, and it was–obviously–strong enough to help me make the cut. It still needed work. I did two more editing passes and took the story with me as my large group workshop submission for my first on-campus residency. Th