First, my story "Red Man, Blue Man," is currently being discussed at The Los Angeles Review. I submitted it to them a few days ago, and the fiction editor reported back and said "I really dig this story." She suggested a few small revisions and is now asking the other editors if they are willing to accept it. I'm hoping they will, but even if they don't, it's really nice to get approval from the editor.
Second, I found out that my short short story "Sacred Bodies" is a finalist in Opium8's 500-Word Memoir Contest, judged by Tom Perrotta, the author of Election and Little Children. This feels nice for me because Opium Magazine markets itself as a humorous literary publication, and I've always been intimidated by the thought of writing something funny. Thanks to Proust I'm trying to be more funny--mostly by just being honest--and it's actually paying off. They are going to announce a winner of the contest at the end of May, but I'm quite content with knowing that I'm a finalist.
These two bits of news feel especially good because I wrote both of these stories very recently, after I felt like I found my voice. So, hopefully, I'm not just deluding myself, and other people can see my improvement as well.
