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| Lamplit Underground |
I am grateful “The Perils of Reading the Classics When You’re No Holden Caulfield” was accepted into issue ten of Lamplit Underground which launched today.
It was probably sometime in the middle
months of our stay in Portland, Oregon when I first wrote “The
Perils of Reading the Classics When You’re No Holden Caulfield.”
Admittedly, I don’t remember writing it. What I suspect, though, it
must have been during those months when we lived in SW Portland, and
I worked at the kitchen table in the mornings and worked in the
restaurant in the evenings.
I remember very specifically that at
this time, I was writing short stories almost exclusively. I have no
idea how that happened. I felt compelled to write short stories, I
suppose. Writing for me at that time was very much in the vacuum. I
was reading and I was writing, but I was not around other writers.
“The Perils of Reading the Classics
When You’re No Holden Caulfield” centers around a character named
Ted who lives in Portland with his brother and his best friend. Ted
meets a girl and they decide to read or reread classic literature.
Ted is loosely based on who I was and where I was in the waning days
of the twentieth century.
What never ceases to amaze me is what
an editor of a magazine will like. I have written so many short
stories and I have varying sentiments with them. I have submitted
short stories, some more than others, and so much of the time the
stories come back to me with rejection. Whereas I don’t mind the
rejections, the acceptances feel much better.
When I submitted “The Perils of
Reading the Classics When You’re No Holden Caulfield” to Lamplit
Underground, I did so because it seemed to be a good fit. And, as
I’ve said, an acceptance feels much better. And to be honest, I’m not
sure how many times this story has been submitted over the years, but
I think more than once. If this story had been previously submitted
and rejected, then it has gotten subsequent revisions and reworkings,
ultimately into the version it is now, the one in Lamplit
Underground. The reasons why I don’t mind rejections is because
it’s an chance to change. But, for a third time, acceptances feel
much better.