According to a vast and slightly complex spreadsheet I keep, I first started submitting stories to magazines in 2013. I sent off around ten, and then stopped abruptly - probably because the company I was working for collapsed, and I had to divert my energy into finding, and then learning, a new job.
I didn’t pick up again until 2017 (six submissions) and 2018 (thirteen). Then, halfway through 2019 I got the most amazing email: someone actually wanted to publish something! Not only was it my first publication, it was in a magazine which I loved reading: Luna Station Quarterly. I was terribly excited about it at the time, and then again when I got the real, live, paper version in the post.
LSQ remains one of my favourite publications; every few months they print a selection of brand new stories from female-identified writers. Their most recent edition - number 50 - is an extra-length issue to celebrate the anniversary.
I’m honoured to be included in their pages again. My short fantasy piece Other Lives is up there in the table-of-contents, rubbing shoulders with beautiful love stories and weird tales of aliens on earth. I highly recommend getting yourself a copy - or at least reading a few stories from the website. Links to purchase, or to read, are all here .
People sometimes ask me if it’s OK to share links to my stories (with friends, or on Facebook, etc). To which the answer is yes! Yes, please do - the more the messier merrier.