My previous post was a publication announcement, and so is this—Lite Lit One put my story “The Real McCoy” up about a month ago. So like with that last post, this one is a bit late. But also, this is MY SECOND PAID STORY FOR THE YEAR, and I also think the “The Real McCoy” is pretty darn good. If you’d like to read it, please click here!

Now if you’d like to know more about this piece of flash fiction, “The Real McCoy” presented some troubles for me when it came to publishing. I staunchly fall into the camp that it’s satire, but at least one publication said that “The Real McCoy” was fanfiction. This led to the only time I have ever sent a (somewhat heated) reply back to an editor after getting a rejection—how they wrote their feedback was, in my opinion, rude. Much to my surprise, and to their extreme credit, that publication replied back in a constructive way and we ended up having a great conversation.

I send a few stories off each week, and my rejection rate is above 95%. I’m used to rejections, from form letters to personal ones, and it’s all fine. But that previously mentioned conversation with an editor was a first, and it’s probably what I’ll always associate with this work. And the fact that another publication told me that they loved the story, but were passing because they were afraid publishing “The Real McCoy” would spawn imitators. Ha ha, well one can only hope? Anyway, hope you enjoy!

–Jeff and Leah