Well, I’m very glad and happy to have a new story of mine, called “5,000,” up with Johnny America. It’s interesting, because Johnny America published one of my first stories—both one of the first stories I wrote when I thought I’d try to become a real writer, and also one of the first stories I ever published. Or got published. However you say that. Anyway, that story, “Caveat,” you can read here if you want.
“Caveat” was a lesson in brevity and revision. The original piece was somewhat confessional, a much longer bit about OCD, back when I dealt with it quite heavily. In that form, the story had a lot of explainers, a lot of, so to speak, supporting points. The editors at Johnny America, though, came back with, “What if the entire story is simply your first paragraph?” Which is, in fact, only two sentences long. It became that. Much more of a gong strike, of a leaping cat landing on piano keys. Better that way. I appreciated back then, and do now, the keen editorial eye with which Johnny America has read my stuff.
Thanks for reading!