Original fiction and creative nonfiction. Starting March 6.
Sharp-eyed readers will know that I love a great story, and it’s with enormous excitement that I’m bringing the first ever original short story to Turn and Work, in a (hopefully) recurring feature I’m calling The Spotlight.
I’ve been thinking about doing this for several months now. I was worried about the amount of work it would add to the site but thanks to some tools I’ve built, a lot of the nuts and bolts here have been streamlined to allow more time for reading and listening to music.
So here we go:
Welcome to The Spotlight.
What’s the big idea? No clue, bud. I have no plan, no editorial calendar, no strong vision. I will happily run things that get sent to me that I like. I guess that means I’m open to submissions which worries me a bit because I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. I’m sure I’m going to learn a ton and wish I’d done this very differently. Whatever. Let’s do some learnin’.
I’ve spent a lot of time reading and researching how different literary publications do it, and I’ve decided to keep it simpler. I will have a submission process, but you can also just email me. Depending how that goes, I’ll adjust things. I don’t to be a writing journal, any more than I want to run a record label.
My goal here is the same as with the music I write about: simply to share the type of things I’d like to discover elsewhere. If that means one story a month by someone who I know personally? Excellent. If it means four short stories a week or more? Awesome, I better find some help.
There are so many great writers out there, and if I can help them find an audience at my little website, I’m in.
What to expect
Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ll publish the new section and the main page, with some information about how it’ll work. It’ll have submission guidelines, which will surely change quickly and frequently, by the seat of my pants. That’s how we’ve always done things around here.
I’m going to publish the first story on Thursday. It’s called Zen. I can’t wait to share it.
It’s a barnburner, and the author is new to publishing short fiction. It’s one of the best stories I’ve read in a long time. It’s also quite long. I’ve designed a special page type to make stories read easier, and I’m working on making it print really nicely for offline reading.
I’m still going to publish The Shortlist on Fridays. I’m not here to compete with anyone. We’re all here to support great writers, and there’s room for all of us.
If you’re reading this, and sitting on a story that you think should be in the spotlight, come at me.
Or just sit keep an eye out for Zen on Thursday. The story behind the story is almost as interesting as the story itself.
