I have neglected this blog for a couple of months (shame on me!).  My excuse:  There were the two months in Michigan, helping my brother through medical problems.  And then, there were a couple of months fighting with revisions/additions to a novel–now complete.

BUT, happily, I have just had published a flash fiction, “In Our Country,” in Daily Science Fiction. 

The journey to publication of this piece is instructive.  I had sent it to some contests.  It only placed in one–an honorable mention in the New Millennium contest.  (They do not publish honorable mentions, but noted that I should consider myself to have bragging rights, having beaten out ninety percent of the submissions submitted.  So, close, but no cigar.)

I submitted it to another publication that expressed interest, saying how good they thought the piece was.  But they asked for a  slight expansion, which–although I felt it would change what the story was saying somewhat–I was willing to do.  But then, although they kept saying how good they thought the piece was, they wanted more, specific additions.  I made some, but explained that I could not make others because of how they would change what the piece is saying.  (As explained in the author notes after the published story, I was trying to flip the societal burdens of potential victim and potential perpetrator.  I think they wanted an expansion along more conventionally “feminist,” lines.  I felt this would lead the story into a simplistic “women smart, men dumb; women sophisticated, men only good for physical labor.” Perhaps they were influenced by the recent resurrection of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to expect a reverse version of that.)

Truth to tell, I was not terribly happy about the first set of additions, but when I declined to do all of the second set, the publication declined to take it.  Just as well.  Because Daily Science Fiction took it exactly as it was originally.  The moral of the story is that if you are confident in what you are trying to do with your work, don’t make compromises that are unacceptable just to get published.  Wait until you find the venue that understands what you are doing.