New publication

I have a new story online today, gang. It’s called “Please Know Our Loving Thoughts Embrace You,” and it’s a love story, a classic romantic tale of boy-meets-corpse.

No, seriously.

And before you all start frothing at the mouth in Walking Dead glee, no, it’s not a zombie story. And no, you more twisted horror fans, it’s not a necrophilia story, except maybe in the strictest translation of that word. It’s just a love story. With flowers and everything.

If I haven’t turned you off by now, can I just take a moment to tell you how much I love Eunoia Review? I stumbled across this magazine the new old-fashioned way — trawling Duotrope — but I latched onto them and started submitting for all the old old-fashioned reasons: I read the work they were already publishing and loved it, and I wanted to be a part of that. It is humbling to me that I’ve been invited into these digital pages three times now — humbling because I’m still a fan, still a reader, and I love the writers I’ve been allowed to share space with at Eunoia, including, as word has spread about how great Eunoia is, some good friends of mine.

But I think the best thing about Eunoia isn’t just the quality of the writing, it’s also editor Ian Chung’s willingness to take risks on the work he publishes. My first story at Eunoia, “Summerplace,” is unusually long for an online magazine — at just under 10,000 words, it’s unusually long for most print magazines! — but Ian took a chance on it. My second story, “Curl Up and Burn,” was even longer, and it plays with a kind of fictional journalism, both of which were risky for any publication,  yet it’s become one of my most popular stories. And now today, a story about a man who finds a murdered woman in the woods and then finds love.

Huge, HUGE thanks, Ian Chung, for supporting my work. But you know what? Even bigger thanks for supporting ALL the work Eunoia publishes — it’s an amazing magazine, and reading it every day these last couple of years, it’s become an important part of my literary life.