Yellow Bird--Published Again

by Catherine Giordano

I received three acceptances in one month .  I've already posted about my acceptance into two anthologies: Not Your Mother's Book--On Parenting and "It's a Crime."  The books will be relased in September 2013 and October 2013, respectively. 

I also had an essay accepted last month by The Florida Writer, a magazine published by the Florida Writers Association.  The magazine came out last week.  My story is entitled Yellow- Bird. It a nice piece about a special moment I shared with my son on his 21st birthday and how the song "Yellow Bird" brought me back to my own youth.

There's an interesting story about this acceptance.  One evening I received an email from the editor of the magazine saying she could not accept my story because I quoted from the song.  Did you know you can not quote more than six words of a song? I didn't. I quoted two lines and that doomed my essay. I quickly rewrote replacing the quoted lines and resubmitted via email with a note saying I hoped that it wasn't too late to be considered for publication. It wasn't.

I've submitted to The Florida Writer three times and been accepted three times.  Dare I try for a fourth.  Yes, I must submit again because the theme for the next issue is a brief encounter with a stranger and I have at least a half dozen pieces to fit that theme.  

I have these pieces because I'm working on a book to be titled People I Have Almost Met.  It will be a collection of essays about brief encounters with strangers. I started doing it as a blog, but I discontinued the blog because some publishers will not accept previously published work.  And "previously published" sometimes includes blogs.

So I will dig out those essays and spiff them up.  The deadline is July 1st so I after to hurry.  My day job pays the bills, but it limits my time for writing.

Top Ten

by Catherine Giordano

OMG! I got the news last night, and I am still jumping up and down and screaming for joy. 

About a week ago, I got the news that my submission to the Florida Writer’s Association annual anthology got accepted. Every year there is a theme; this year the theme was crime, hence the title of the collection, It’s a Crime.

My story is titled “The End of a Marriage.” Hint: It doesn’t end well.

Every year after the 60 stories are selected for inclusion in the anthology, an “author of renown”—this year Michael Wiley, author of award winning detective mysteries—makes his pick for the ten best stories. I made the top ten! Not just that, I was ranked #2!!

Maybe it is a good thing I wasn’t ranked #1. It gives me something to strive for next year. I just hope I am not a one-shot wonder.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a writer.  Now I’m a senior citizen, and I’ve been doing creative writing for about two years. As I say in one of my speeches, it is never too late to follow your dreams. 

The book will be released in October 2013.  

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Galleys Humor

Galleys before the internet

by Catherine Giordano

I reviewed galleys for the first time this week because my story “Figuring it Out” will appear in the anthology Not Your Mother’s Book—On Parenting.  The release date for the book is September 10^th 2013.

It was also my first time working with an editor from a publisher.  It was an interesting experience.  At first I may have been too much “I defer to your judgment”—I didn’t want to rock the apple cart—but later I realized I had to stand up for my work. 

In one case, an edit was made for space reasons—a couple of lines had to be cut to prevent the story from rolling over onto a new page. I thought the editor had cut lines crucial to the story. I explained my reasons and offered to cut different lines. The editor gladly accepted my suggestions, and I saved my story.

It took a lot of back and forth to get the story just right. It was so simple because I looked at a pdf of the pages instead of getting them on paper, and all the discussion was done by email. What a chore this must have been back in the days of paper and mimeographs. 

The editor had 60 stories to review for this anthology and she was simultaneously working on another anthology of 60 stories. Dealing with 120 authors all at once can’t be easy. I hope I made her job a little easier.

P.S. No humor in this post—I just couldn’t resist the pun in the title.

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