I wrote a short story called “The Readers” that I unabashedly love. I do, I love this story.  I’ve sent it out to a few markets and contests to no avail.  Then I found the positively perfect spot, a lovely blogsite called 1 Bookshelf.

Although the blog is primarily essays about, you guessed it, a bookshelf, the tabs for submissions also included fiction.

Well, I don’t believe it’s a spoiler to tell you that “The Readers” involves a bookshelf.

Every anthology, blog, website, print or electronic has its own submission requirements. Don’t think for a moment that any two are close enough to just wing it and send. It’s part of a grand plan to be sure that you actually read the submission requirements, that’s the first of many secret passageways to publication you know.

One of the submission requirements listed on this site for fiction is that a non-fiction essay about a bookshelf is also submitted. So, I scratched one out.  I fretted a bit about what bookshelf to choose, then I dove right in. Surely this being a small hoop to leap through so that the editors would recognize that I read the submission requirements, move on to “The Readers,” and weep for joy that I chose to share this work of art with them.

Alas! An emailed acceptance, with the words “I’d like to actually publish it in the summer issue of American Athenaeum.” Included. Woohoo! I knew it. Then I was to go to the submittable site and proofread the copy before the publisher sends it to press.

Where I found the essay. Not the fiction.

Not the fiction?

No. Just the essay.things they carry

So the good news is this: You can read this essay included in the 1 Bookshelf section of the American Anthenaeum Anthology published by the Sword and Saga Press. There are several excellent works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry included.

It is available in e-book or print.

I also suggest to my writer and reader friends to submit.

Tell us about your favorite bookshelf.

And stay tuned while I continue to search for the right home for “The Readers.”