CORRECTION: Lee Conell’s name is spelled correctly this time, plus she also has a fabulous upcoming Porch class: Magic in Flash Fiction. Again, use code EARLYBIRD at checkout to get 20% off if you sign up before May 17.

Hello from the Writing Attic!

The updates today are shameless sales pitches so gird your loins and prepare your pocketbooks. (Sorry, I just went to The Simpson’s Krusty Land theme park last weekend and the smarmy-ness has yet to wear off. Enjoy!)

I have summer classes on the calendar!

Submission Success Story:
“Kitten” for Pidgeonholes

Just when you thought the shameless plugs were over… PSYCH, this piece is actually a success story from a class I took with The Porch and cool writer friend, Lee Conell!

I took Lee’s class Writing The Weird through The Porch in the spring of 2019. It was a one-day class (much like the one I’m offering above and also Lee will be offering another Porch class as well, so sign up here) and let’s just say it was well worth the time. Lee encouraged us to see stories from a stranger point of view, to marry the normal with the surreal. We read some weird pieces aloud and then she encouraged us to get our own kind of weird going. Thus was born this flash piece, “Kitten,” where a woman wakes up to find her kitten replaced with a mangy, angry old cat and then some.

Here are the details:

Total time spent on submission: 47 days

Response time from Pidgeonholes: 29 days.
Total rejections received before an acceptance: 8; 4 form, 4 high-tier, 1 personalized
Pay: None. BUT, this piece did get nominated by Pidgeonholes for Best Small Fictions 2020, which is a very nice feather in my cap. Thanks Lee (and The Porch!)

Read it here.

Must-Listen: “Unlivable and Untenable.” Molly McGhee on the Punishing Life of Junior Publishing Employees — from Fiction/Nonfiction Podcast with LitHub

This month’s must-consume content is in the form of a podcast episode. I wasn’t on Twitter anymore to witness the grand editor Twitter fallout triggered by Molly McGhee’s resignation from Tor, but boy howdy did I love hearing her insight on this podcast from Lit Hub.

Molly is such a kind, thoughtful, and talented individual who had simply had enough. Enough with the demanding schedules, the expectation to work outside of working hours, to do the work of several editorial assistants while running her own editorial list. At a time when publishers are seeing record profits, the question remains: Why aren’t they hiring more people? And why aren’t those people being paid their worth?

“I am from a very low-income background myself, and it took years of single-minded dedication to get my foot in the door. So, once I was in it and realized how unlivable and untenable the pay is for the amount of work that you do, it was a very heartbreaking experience for me. That is true for a lot of people who don’t come from family money, and it’s especially true for junior employees who have to deal with the added thing of being very racially different. I mean, the whole publishing industry is the whitest place on Earth. So it could be a lot of high turnover that you see in these populations that already have a really hard time accessing entry points.”

Parting Shot

Yes, I really did go to Krusty Land.

! Access the Newsletter Archive !

One final word — it occurs to me that people new to the newsletter might like to be able to read past issues. All past issues of the newsletter are available here.