Life is Now

I am thrilled to announce the publication of "Life is Now" at Literary Orphans.

I wrote this story from a prompt at Nancy Zafris' amazing short fiction class at the 2016 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. I am thrilled to have been selected as the Peter Taylor Fellow for Nancy's short fiction class in 2018. I can't say enough positives about this workshop. I've had the privilege to attend the last three years - first in Nancy's novel workshop, then Nancy's fiction workshop, and again last summer in Lee K. Abbott's short fiction class. My writing has leveled-up every time I've attended. It is worth every dime for sure.

In 2016, this story won 2nd place at a local writing contest that paid really well and also received Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train's March/April 2017 Very Short Fiction contest. I'm happy to finally have it available for people to read.

I don't think I mentioned it here, but I am so excited to have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Streetlight Magazine for Invisible Girls. It sort of feels like being nominated for a Grammy. Usually these things make me feel excited for an hour, then I get back to work, but this nomination feels better than that and the high has lasted for weeks. Same with being selected to be Nancy's fellow.

Now, back to work....

Tonja

New Web Site and Publication

I don't remember if I posted here, but I have a new website. I used to be a software developer and probably can do better than this if I had some extra minutes to devote to it, but I did a simple Wix site for now. 

TonjaMatneyReynolds.com

My last post got corrupted with huge blocks of white space between each paragraph. Not sure how that happened, but I deleted it.

I was notified today that one of my short stories, "Life is Now," was accepted for publication by Literary Orphans. I am so happy. This story won 2nd place at a local contest that paid big money and received an Honorable Mention by Glimmer Train in one of their very short fiction contests. I was starting to feel like my style of quirky, humorous writing was not going to survive the current political climate.

I am literally out of stories to submit. I have committed to finishing my novel by the end of the calendar year, so I don't have time to work on short fiction until I finish drafting the next 23,000 words. It's just me and the dog today, and she is being very chill. Definitely a good day to write.

First, I need to research iodine.

Tonja