A New Venture -- Near and Dear

For a long time I have lingered over the idea of starting a literary magazine. After serving as a Slush Editor then moving up to Copy Editor for the Oddville Press (since shut down I'm sad to say) I felt a literary magazine would really give me an opportunity to immerse myself in the craft I hold so near and dear to my heart -- and help others get the exposure they need!

And thus -- with my fellow friends and writers -- we have birthed The Abstract Quill!

Thus far I have been surprised, supported, humbled, and invigorated by reading the submissions we've received so far as well as the community support demonstrated by local businesses. I have been posting fliers in "writerly" places, including the University of Montana campus, and the response has been good. There is still work to be done, pages to be edited, rejections to be sent -- my, how it feels to be on the other end of the writing process! But I can honestly say I look to each submission with renewed interest and contemplation. I know how it feels when you feel your work hasn't gotten a fair shake. So I try to give that attention and respect to each writer and artist. We all do and our strength is in our dedication to the craft.

My fellow editors include Nick Walsh, Matt Funston, and my beautiful wife, Whitney Espeseth.

I hope you will all take a moment to visit our site, poke around, and see what we have to offer.

See you on the pages!

Publication WHAT?

I just realized today through fortune and fancy that my short story "Red Lights" was accepted for publication by Foliate Oak Literary Magazine! The magazine uses a submission manager and I received a brief email simply stating the status of my work had been updated. Well, I didn't directly remember the password for the manager and didn't check it right away. In fact, I didn't check back on it until I received an email from the magazine asking contributors to proof their galleys for errors before the end of the month. And I thought to myself.... what? Contributor? Wait.... WAIT! *scurry scurry* Logged myself in and lo and behold!

Accepted.

That's a major win any day of the week and I am especially excited because I quite liked my little story and worked hard at the revisions. Quite pleased indeed. This is my 3rd short story publication -- hopefully the first of many, yes? Stay tuned for the November, 2011 edition of Foliate Oak Literary Magazine!