Today “Foliate Oak Literary Magazine” published my short story “Everyone’s Favorite Couple,” which you can read by clicking here. The last few pieces of fiction I’ve gotten published were very short—“drabbles” (writing under 100 words). At 640 words this new piece is a developed story, with a clear narrative, some decent characters, and humor (hopefully) that is not just the result of extreme brevity. Not to say I don’t like very short fiction, but this here is a different beast. I hope you can take a few minutes to click on the link because I’m really proud of the story. Also, it isn’t at all based on my marriage at all.

Or actually…. some parts of the story might be based on Leah and I, but I’ll let you figure out what parts are and aren’t. Moving on to a different topic, I think the greatest non-living short story author is O. Henry. I’ve written a little about him before, because he actually is from Greensboro, NC, where Leah and I live. This story has a few connections to O. Henry, which you can also try to catch. Below is a picture from the lobby of the O. Henry hotel, where Leah and I stayed the night we got married. It’s a nice hotel for a lot of different reasons, though I really just like the fact that in the lobby “The Gift of the Magi” is written on the walls.

I was quite thrilled that “Foliate Oak Literary Magazine” accepted my story. The exact definition of “literary fiction” has been debated in many a graduate school course and publisher’s headquarters. My definition: anything that doesn’t fit into a set writing genre is literary fiction, i.e. if it isn’t scifi, or fantasy, or romance, or comedy, its literary fiction. There’s a bit more to it than that (usually literary fiction is pretty grounded in reality, and set in the modern day) but I’d love to hear your take on the term. I would call my story humorous, so I am glad “Foliate Oak” publishes a number of different things. Check the magazine out—they have a lot of good stuff!

–Jeff and Leah