2013 was very good to me. I brought out a new book, learned a lot about how to use social media, and finished my novel, What is Found, What is Lost, which will be published by She Writes Press late in 2014. I had some individual short stories published, too. Short stories once comprised my whole writing career, and in some ways I feel as if I’ve moved on. Not that I don’t still write the occasional short piece. Or have ideas for future story collections. It’s just that novel-writing has taken me under its wing, and I think I’d like to stay there awhile.
There are a number of people who really helped me a lot this year. In no particular order, I’d like to start with Brooke Warner of She Writes Press. Brooke is very dedicated and committed to making the press she founded in 2012 with Kamy Wycoff a success. Her efforts resulted in signing a distribution agreement with Ingram, no small thing for a brand-new publishing venture. Next I need to thank the two fellows who provided back-cover blurbs for my story collection, Our Love Could Light The World (She Writes Press, 2013), Ross McMeekin, editor of Spartan, and Craig Lancaster, author of Edward Adrift and other novels. While I’m thinking of back-cover blurbs, Mary Akers, editor of r.kv.r.y and Leesa Cross-Smith, editor of Whiskey Paper, graciously have agreed to read and comment on What is Found, What is Lost. I couldn’t have learned all about social media this year without the help of publicist Kelsye Nelson, co-founder of Writer.ly. Anesa Miller, a fellow colleague and author of the essay collection, To Boldly Go, gave both of my story collections great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Other generous reviewers include Paula Sophia Schonauer, author of Shadowboxer; Joe Clifford, author of Choice Cuts, and Deepak Maini, long-time friend and writing associate. Lisa Sanchez gets thanks for publishing my short piece “By The Wayside” in Nomos Review. Special regards go to Tom Dooley, my co-editor at Eclectica for the care and respect he shows each and every story submission that comes through our queue. Carolyn Alessio and Jon Tribble at Crab Orchard Review have a ton of gratitude for recognizing my story, “An Act of Concealment,” and declaring it a finalist in the 2013 Jack Dyer Fiction Prize. Leah Thompson also gets a warm thanks for publishing my “how-to” on narrating emotion in the Yeah Write! Review. And Renee Nicolson, fiction editor at the new literary magazine, Souvenir, did me a huge honor by asking me to submit a piece for consideration, then publishing “The Professor” in their inaugural issue. I owe Pam McGaffin, fellow novelist, more than she knows for her endless patience reading my novel through all its revisions. I’m also indebted to Liz Kracht, at Kimberly Cameron and Associates, for the great things she said about my writing at the She Writes Press kick-off event in Berkeley last May.
Well, there you have it. A long list, and I suspect an incomplete one. Endless apologies to anyone who is not mentioned here. I hope to cross paths with all of you, one way or another, in 2014.
Cheers,
Anne Leigh Parrish