Add It Up: Coming Soon!

I can now announce that my contribution to the anthology will include my surreal literary story Add It Up. This was not finding a home, until now, and I mean it has really found the right home when Lemana told me how much she loved it. Other editors have shied away from the combination of elements included, no matter how I present trigger warnings. Many submissions calls automatically exclude it for any hint of certain elements. But the reason Lemana loves this story is the same reason I know this anthology is the right place for it. It is POWERFUL. My brain is very complaint, and this story was a product of a dream. This is the only story I've written with a male main character, but he's observing the story of another character through his lense of objectivity. This is not a story I sat down and created. I woke up with this linear plot and wrote it down. In doing so, it did require me to fill in some pieces like WHY the events happened. AND! I had to create a fake game show, and that is HARD! Lemana loved that everything is told through the action of the game. So why was it getting rejected? Because the surreal scene is a literary technique. The scene of the game show, is actually very reflective of how adults process trauma, trying to piece logic together. However, it's too literary and not fantasy or sci-fi, and it's too speculative to be literary. In addition, I mentioned those themes. This story is about a high school boyfriend and girlfriend meeting accidentally ten years after she tried to hurt herself, which isn't revealed until the end of the game show. Ben hasn't seen her since that day, because her father prevented him from visiting. He has been left with unanswered questions, which the game show helps him piece together. When he bumps into his ex, she's rescuing some teenage girls from a dangerous situation. This is one of the themes I mentioned get excluded in submissions automatically. I am glad we are not avoiding difficult topics!