2-for-1 combo deal

Last Thursday I got two acceptance letters for short stories in one day.

Um… WHAT.

Seriously, what weird cosmic fluke is this!? This isn’t me. Who am I? What planet am I on? How does… That is… What!

The first one I got in the morning, while I was at home, with the only one witness to the event being my dog. I started bouncing around the room, fist-pumping and squealing, “YES! YES! YES!” My dog had no idea what was going on, but her tail-wag looked victorious to me.

The magazine? Gingerbread House – one of my top favorites. The story? “The Selkie’s Husband” – one of my top favorites. Double whammy of WOOOOO!

The second one I got that evening while at work. It’d been a hair-pullingly stressful couple of hours into my shift (I was at my playhouse job, not the library – hard to imagine a bunch of bookworms causing anyone stress in any form. “You! With the Hemingway! You are being TOO quiet!”) Anyway, I was at the playhouse working box office and after every single technological thing that could go wrong… went wrong… and the line of patrons finally disappeared into the theatre and the show finally started… I let out a long sigh, got up from my seat to stretch my legs, and heard the buzz in my pocket.

I had to read the letter twice, three times. No. That’s impossible. Insane. … Really?

I grinned to myself but kept silent. While my first letter got outward expression of excitement – jumps and squeals – this one I held privately in cupped hands, let it bubble within me like a juicy secret. Mostly I was in disbelief.

No. Freaking. Way.

Way, apparently! “The Selkie’s Husband” will be up at Gingerbread House later this month, and “Margarine” will be up at Slink Chunk Press!

By the way, “Margarine” is a story I’d been trying to publish for a YEAR. After slews and slews of rejections, it’s such a relief to see it find a home. Persistence!

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