Friday Freestyles: Noir Style

LOOK AT THIS...

LOOK AT IT!

It's something special, my beloved ATL at dusk, shrouded in something more sinister than darkness...

And it is an anthology. And one of my short stories was accepted for this anthology.

I rarely post on Facebook, but I posted about this, because it is special.

I can remember to this day where I was when I received news of my first scientific journal publication. It was 1992, and I was in my 2nd year of grad school at Emory University. The internet was not a factor back then. So imagine my shock when a friend ran into class and threw the complimentary author copies on my desk. The article was published in the Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry. I can remember my teardrops hitting the pages as I read the article silently to myself. I have had scientific publications since then, but none have excited me more than the very first one. Now, some 25 years later, i can announce that I have my first fiction writing publication credit. And as I sat at the kitchen table reading the galley proof copy for errors, my tears hit the page all over again. I shed tears over this accomplishment now as a creative writer, just as I did so many years ago over my first major accomplishment as a young chemist. I have a story coming out in Tayari A. Jones' Atlanta Noir, a collection of short stories about the shady side of our beloved hometown. It is not out yet (pub date August 2017) but do your Oldgirl a favor and preorder it. (Heck, Tayari's hilarious jacket summary makes ME want to run out and buy it. Let's hope I don't order them all, lol). 

Finally... I will have an officially published story. I am sooooo happy about that. 

It is available on August 1, 2017, but it is available on Amazon for  pre-order.  

Here is the jacket summary by Tayari Jones. 
 
"People who don’t know Atlanta don’t understand the codes and contradictions of the New South. Yes, Margaret Mitchell imagined the plantation Tara within the city limits, but it’s also the home of OutKast. Atlanta has captured the imagination of trash TV with Todd Chrisley’s magnolia-cream accent but also the decidedly urban antics of Love & Hip Hop. The ashes of the Civil War still hang in the air, but immigration is turning the South into the Global South.

With Atlanta Noir, my hope was to find the writers who could show the city in all of its dizzy complexity. These fourteen writers represent the city’s many neighborhoods and demographics—from the Southern punk scene of Little Five Points to the Junior League world of Peachtree City, where things are not always as they seem. There is more going on at the local Waffle House than just scattering, smothering, and chunking. This is a major international city but it’s still the Bible Belt. A megapreacher’s past catches up with him, and gentrification cannot tame the outlaw spirit of the city too busy to hate. Our airport boasts that it is the busiest in the world; locals declare that even on the way to heaven, you have to change planes at Hartsfield-Jackson. Let us think of Atlanta Noir as an after-hours welcome to the city where we serve our sweet tea with a shot of bourbon."

How awesome was THAT?


THAT makes ME want to run out and buy the book!


I am so excited. I can hardly wait. And I get paid for it. I get paid for my contribution!

This has to be the best thing that has happened to me all year. It has me all giddy.

And look at the list of contributors:

Brand-new stories by: Tananarive Due, Kenji Jasper, Tayari Jones, Dallas Hudgens, Jim Grimsley, Brandon Massey, Jennifer Harlow, Sheri Joseph, Alesia Parker, Gillian Royes, Anthony Grooms, John Holman, Daniel Black, and David James Poissant.

There are three authors  (Tayari Jones, Brandon Massey, and Tananarive Due) on that list that I read. I read EVERYTHING they put out. I have even attended some of their readings here in town.

To have my first official publication next to theirs... priceless.

I could wish for nothing better than that.

Ever.