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Nice rejection for a longer story from Kwame Dawes at Prairie Schooner!
Also, I am in a modern building next to this little palace, aka the Oberpfalzer Kunstlerhaus in Schwandorf until the middle of July and pretty much radioactive with productivity (though always sure I could be doing more).
Cutting down on slime.
Salamander didn't want the story I sent them. It was 12,000 words. Yesterday I finally finished cutting it down to a much more reasonable (though still long) 6,900 words. Let's see how this goes.
I received a very kind rejection for the reprint of a piece in an anthology to which I'd been invited to submit. They'd decided to take the anthology in a different direction which my piece didn't quite fit into. That seems like a particularly soft way to turn me down, and I appreciated it.
I also have a new story called "Truth and Rules" up in the magazine Lost Balloon today. Thanks to Chelsea Voulgares for having me!
But, you know, they can't even spell so. JKJK.
BOAAT declined the story I sent them.
This is where you'll be able to find me in June and July.
The Laurel Review let me know they don't want the long story I sent them, which is too bad, BUT I was accepted to a 6-week residency at the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Schwandorf, Germany, so I have zero complaints. I'll be there with two visual artists and a composer, and I'll be within a few hours of the castles I want to research for the new novel. Great luck all around!
Thanks to Fifth Wednesday for reading and considering my big long story, even if it wasn't a fit.
And even bigger thanks to StoryQuarterly for including my story that's an ode to Shirley Jackson's style, "Half Dollar," alongside work by so many people I admire, including, but not limited to Wendy Ortiz, Claire Vaye Watkins, Alix Ohlin and Stephen Dixon. Such an honor. All gratitude to Paul Lisicky. Order your copy here!
Alaska Quarterly Review turned down the paper submission of a story I sent them.
Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), Borne and City of Saints & Madmen had really kind words to say about The Grip of It though!
"The Grip of It is a stunning, smart, genuinely creepy page-turner that I couldn't put down. It's got depth, thrills, twists, and great writing. I'd recommend this novel to anyone. One of the few haunted house stories that sticks the landing."
I google-imaged "no rules" and it autocompleted to No Rules Parmesan Pasta Outback, so this is what you get.
I received a rejection from New Ohio Review.
I received a really personal, encouraging note from the Missouri Review. It was for the really long story, so this was especially affirming.
#blessed
Bomb sent the nicest rejection, and that made my morning.
The Grip of It also received its first blurb!
"I mean this in the best possible way: Jac Jemc gives me the creeps. The Grip of It deserves a spot on the shelf beside Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, and Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves -- not only because it is a masterful haunted house story, but because it, like its literary predecessors, is elegantly written, psychologically rich, and damn terrifying."
-- Benjamin Percy, author of The Dark Net, The Dead Lands, Thrill Me and Red Moon
It also got a nice call out in Nylon Magazine, which I'm supremely grateful for: http://www.nylon.com/articles/best-new-books-2017.
2017: Going fine despite all evidence to the contrary.
Washington Square Review declined the story I sent them. Their form letter is very kindly worded.
I've been reading Best American Short Stories 2016 and I think I'd tuned out of what kind of stories get that kind of recognition for a while. It's helpful to think in those terms again, and to decide if that's something I'm interested in/capable of pursuing. The stories feel very different from what I write and that seems fine. Diaz's picks are pretty spectacular.
