COMPELLING AND BELIEVABLE to be published in Sucker Literary Magazine's first online edition!

The message arrived from Sucker Literary Magazine yesterday just as I was leaving work.  I checked my e-mail one last time before logging off.

"It is with great pleasure to notify you that we have accepted your piece COMPELLING AND BELIEVABLE for publication in our first edition of SUCKER LITERARY MAGAZINE."

 Really?  REALLY?  My loud woo-hoo brought colleagues scurrying out of their cubicles.  I know I was beaming...at least.  This will be my first published work.

Compelling and Believable (or What I Learned in Sophomore English) is the story mentioned in my previous post.  It was a piece I started in 2007 when I was living in Paris, but I didn't find the heart of the story until I unearthed it a month ago.  My agent Erzsi Deak encouraged me to submit it.  Voila!

Yes, Virginia.  There IS a Santa Claus!  

About SUCKER:  http://suckerliterarymagazine.wordpress.com/  

And here is the Welcome message from the website, from Hannah Goodman, the President and Founder of the magazine:

Hello!
Welcome to Sucker Literary Magazine where raw, undiscovered, talented writers for young adults have the opportunity to strut their stuff. As we are a fledgling outfit, we will be eating the elephant one tiny bite at a time (how’s that for some mixed metaphors?) That is to say, our immediate goal is to collect submissions for our first issue, scheduled to be released by the fall/winter of 2011-2012. Currently, we are seeking FICTION ONLY (no stand alone poetry unless it is a short story or chapter from a novel in verse) and welcome all genres of YA writing. Bring on your skateboarding vampires, angst ridden, nerd-boy who has never been kissed, or girl crushing on her best friend (be it girl or boy).

A wonderful article about SUCKER in Publishers Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/47825-new-lit-mag-to-showcase-emerging-ya-writers.html

The first edition is due out at the end of this year or the beginning of 2012.

"Do you have any short stories?"

As it happens, I have some, almost all of them UFOs (unfinished objects).  I prefer novels—prefer to read them, prefer to write them.  I like the long burn of character development, plot complications, satisfying denouements.  Short stories are concentrated, like picture books:  brief, intense characterizations, focused plots, one scene or a few mini-scenes. 

When I’m running with an idea, I like to let it grow and develop.  Using it for a short story often seems like I’m wasting it.  But not every idea can sustain a novel. 

So when asked if I had any short stories, I delved into my file and came up with one I’d written a few years ago.  It had good bones but no muscle.  The main character had no motivation for his actions.  It was a story about a relationship with no relationship to back it up.

I named the main character Jason and listened to him talk about his friend.  I let him describe how their relationship changed his life.  But Jason wanted something different than I had planned for him.  I wasn’t comfortable with the story he wanted to tell, but I let him tell it.  Is there a novel in Jason’s story?  Maybe.  That would be a different story.