Things are eventful. We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mother in Hardy, Arkansas. This week is filled with kids' events: therapy appointments, soccer practices, 4-H club meetings. Tonight, Ellie has her first elementary school Orff performance.
The writing is going well. I finished the latest draft of my novel a couple of weeks ago, and already I'm itching to go back to it for another round of revisions. I've also started work on a crazy new novel-- we'll keep our fingers crossed and see how that goes.
The other day, Chris Moyer, the managing editor of The Pinch (one of my favorite literary journals) emailed an acceptance for a story I sent them a few months back. The story in question, "The Last American Tiger," is probably my personal favorite of all the stories I've written, so this is especially gratifying.
But what makes the acceptance more meaningful, for me, was Moyer's wonderful acceptance note. I've submitted work to The Pinch before, and they've sent me encouraging rejection letters asking that I submit yet more work to them but I really had no sense that they knew me from Adam.
This time, in accepting "The Last American Tiger," Moyer referenced my past story submissions by name, telling me how much of an impression they made with other editors. I was shocked. They actually remembered them!
Moyer then added, "I'm really glad we finally got one of your pieces... The current senior fiction editor and myself had said before that we wanted a Kocz story in the journal."
A Kocz story?!?
When one says, "a Munro story," or "a Saunders story," one has a pretty good idea of what that story might be like.
But "a Kocz story"?!?
All I can say is that this is probably the best compliment anyone has ever given to my work.
Lastly, although I can't just share the news yet, there really is more good news in the offing. I'll write soon about it.
The writing is going well. I finished the latest draft of my novel a couple of weeks ago, and already I'm itching to go back to it for another round of revisions. I've also started work on a crazy new novel-- we'll keep our fingers crossed and see how that goes.
The other day, Chris Moyer, the managing editor of The Pinch (one of my favorite literary journals) emailed an acceptance for a story I sent them a few months back. The story in question, "The Last American Tiger," is probably my personal favorite of all the stories I've written, so this is especially gratifying.
But what makes the acceptance more meaningful, for me, was Moyer's wonderful acceptance note. I've submitted work to The Pinch before, and they've sent me encouraging rejection letters asking that I submit yet more work to them but I really had no sense that they knew me from Adam.
This time, in accepting "The Last American Tiger," Moyer referenced my past story submissions by name, telling me how much of an impression they made with other editors. I was shocked. They actually remembered them!
Moyer then added, "I'm really glad we finally got one of your pieces... The current senior fiction editor and myself had said before that we wanted a Kocz story in the journal."
A Kocz story?!?
When one says, "a Munro story," or "a Saunders story," one has a pretty good idea of what that story might be like.
But "a Kocz story"?!?
All I can say is that this is probably the best compliment anyone has ever given to my work.
Lastly, although I can't just share the news yet, there really is more good news in the offing. I'll write soon about it.
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