Tag: Cast of Wonders

If Only a Word for All Things is Published

I’m a tad late on this, because I didn’t know this was happening until it happened, but I am so excited to announce that my short story “If Only A Word for All Things” has been published by Cast of Wonders. It’s been a long time coming (I got the acceptance more than a year ago), but now it’s here! You can go listen to or read the story here.

Cast of Wonders is a young adult speculative fiction podcast. You may recall they published my story “The Collector” back in 2014. I was so excited when I got the acceptance letter a year ago, because I love what they did with “The Collector” and I knew they would do a great job with this story.

“If Only a Word for All Things” is the only story I’ve written (so far) that was directly inspired by my year in Italy. It means a lot to me, and I’m so glad you can all read it now. It is a fantasy story, but the fantasy element is very subtle. It’s much more of a literary or magical realism type story. I really hope you enjoy it.

And once you’ve read the story, you can check out what went on behind the scenes and find out the story behind “If Only a Word for All Things.”

Happy reading!

New Years Resolutions Take 2

Back in January, I wrote a post about my New Year’s resolutions, and now, at the beginning of September, I thought it might be a good idea to check in on how I’ve done, celebrate some successes, and renew the ones that could use some renewing.

 

1.  Post on Facebook Every Day:

 

To be entirely honest, I haven’t posted on Facebook every single day this year, but I do almost every day, and I have gotten myself into the habit of actually using Facebook like a normal person, which was the goal underlying the “post every day” bit. So I declare this resolution a success.

 

2.  Reach 200 rejection letters or get published, whichever comes first:

 

I’m not going to say exactly how many rejections I have because I don’t want to share and no one really wants to know that, but in all likelihood, I will reach 200 by the end of the calendar year.

 

On the other hand, I have made 200 a moot point. After 137 rejections, my story “The Year of Salted Skies” was named the third runner-up for the 2014 Dell Award, and after 150 rejections, my story “The Collector” was accepted for publication at Cast of Wonders! And it was published .

 

Victory!

 

3.  Blog semi-regularly:

 

So…

 

About that…

 

I could make all sorts of excuses for why I haven’t blogged—finishing my thesis and taking my honors exams, applying to graduate schools, waiting to hear from said graduate schools and from the Fulbright, graduating, preparing for a year in Italy, expanding the World War II Italy novella into a full length novel, all that important stuff. But I am not going to bemoan or attempt to excuse my lack of blogging activity. Instead, I am going to renew this resolution. 2014 is not over yet, and the new school year is about to begin. This year I will be teaching instead of learning, and this is strange and a little scary to me. Also Italy, which is awesome and must be blogged about. So I will make a new school year’s resolution to blog more. Please pester me if I don’t.

 

But, lack of blogging aside, I have to say, this has been the year! I graduated from college! I got a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Assisi, Italy! And I got published! And if I did all that—and kept my Facebook resolution—then I will get better at blogging.

 

And once I get better at blogging, maybe I’ll figure out this thing called Twitter.