On Acceptance to Lamplit Underground

Lamplit Underground

I am grateful “The Perils of Reading the Classics When You're No Holden Caulfield" was accepted into issue ten of Lamplit Underground which launched today.

It was probably sometime in the middle months of our stay in Portland, Oregon when I first wrote “The Perils of Reading the Classics When You're No Holden Caulfield.” Admittedly, I don't remember writing it. What I suspect, though, it must have been during those months when we lived in SW Portland, and I worked at the kitchen table in the mornings and worked in the restaurant in the evenings.

I remember very specifically that at this time, I was writing short stories almost exclusively. I have no idea how that happened. I felt compelled to write short stories, I suppose. Writing for me at that time was very much in the vacuum. I was reading and I was writing, but I was not around other writers.

“The Perils of Reading the Classics When You're No Holden Caulfield” centers around a character named Ted who lives in Portland with his brother and his best friend. Ted meets a girl and they decide to read or reread classic literature. Ted is loosely based on who I was and where I was in the waning days of the twentieth century.

What never ceases to amaze me is what an editor of a magazine will like. I have written so many short stories and I have varying sentiments with them. I have submitted short stories, some more than others, and so much of the time the stories come back to me with rejection. Whereas I don't mind the rejections, the acceptances feel much better.

When I submitted “The Perils of Reading the Classics When You're No Holden Caulfield” to Lamplit Underground, I did so because it seemed to be a good fit. And, as I've said, an acceptance feels much better. And to be honest, I'm not sure how many times this story has been submitted over the years, but I think more than once. If this story had been previously submitted and rejected, then it has gotten subsequent revisions and reworkings, ultimately into the version it is now, the one in Lamplit Underground. The reasons why I don't mind rejections is because it's an chance to change. But, for a third time, acceptances feel much better.