I love
the very idea of getting a story published. I can’t think of a single
writer who doesn’t like this. I love the small literary magazines
too. I love that so many of them are looking for writers of
marginalized communities. I am tickled to think that so many
magazines and editors are after the same thing that I’m after:
something different, something new, something with flavor.
I
don’t fear for the future as some of my colleagues do. I don’t think
that AI will take over. And who cares if it does? Once the power
goes out, so will the computers. I also think that people who read
literary magazines are looking for something a machine cannot
provide. When you get involved with a literary magazine, what you
really want is community.
As for
me? Well, it’s been a fascinating glimpse into who I was as a person
and as a writer. Sure, I have written a great many short stories. I
can tell with utmost honesty, and this is not a self deprecating
thing, that most of these stories are not very good. I have to ask
myself, what was important when I wrote them? Was the product
important? No, it was the process. I have always been the writer that
will write ten stories and pick the best one and I feel like that
provides me with better odds than to just write one.
I will
not say that this is the end of my writing of short stories. I will
not say that I’m eager to write more in the future either. I have no
plans to continue writing them. If I’ve learned anything over the
years what it takes to produce a good short story is to read a bunch
of them, and then start writing a bunch of them. I’m no longer
willing to do that.
What’s
going to happen with the stories I’ve put out for consideration this
month? I won’t know the outcome for weeks, possible months. The few
editors that have sent rejections already I am very grateful to. If
an editor is not interested in a story, the most considerate thing
they can do is to reject it quickly.
I
started this because I wanted to be relevant. Have I become relevant?
Again, I won’t know for months.
What I
do know, I’ve been enjoying this process immensely.