Nuyorican Obituary

Two years ago I multipley submitted a short story to about 30 magazines and was privileged to have it quickly accepted by a journal out of Texas called Sulphur River Literary Journal. But there was a catch — it wouldn’t appear until spring 2008. Fine, fine. Just send me my copies. Well, I dawdled in getting back to the other journals I’d submitted to, and before long the story was accepted by four other outfits. This was, as you might imagine, great for my ego. But at the same time I had to write to each of these journals and, cringing, inform them about my bad form and laziness in getting back to them. In any case, I knew the story was going to be printed somewhere.

Then this spring came and went and heard nothing from Sulphur River. So I dug out the old acceptance letter — which was no easy task, believe me, buried as it was under a blizzard of rejection notes. I got their number and called and, as I feared, the journal had ceased publication. Sigh.

Now I have the story back in my hands and will set about sending it out. Maybe to one journal at a time this time.

In not-so-similar news, the great literary crime magazine Murdaland also ceased publication recently. They accepted a story of mine for their second and, sadly, last issue. I hope to see them revived soon and am keeping my balls crossed for them. And I hope this doesn’t start a trend in which every journal that accepts me goes kaput!

The Asinine Poetry Crime Poetry Contest just wrapped up on AsininePoetry.com. We received some very good and funny crime poems. The payoff: $50 for third place, $75 for second, and $100 for first. Probably because we raised the payoff, we received more entries than ever before. Not any better than usual. And not enough to turn any profit. Still, they were all about crime. Except for the one about Jesus. We cut those entries down to 12 finalists. We subpoenaed Tim McLoughlin–author of Heart of the Old Country and editor of the Brooklyn Noir series of books–to be the judge. The top entries will be considered for inclusion in the next issue of The Lineup.

Walking away with the contest loot are:
3rd: “Poor Rudolph” by Natalie M. Dorfeld, PhD
2nd: “The Dick” by Ray Freed
1st: “Last Supper” by M. Lee Alexander

Receiving honorary mention:
“Love and Murder” by Eileen Budd
“the prose of cons” by J.C.
“Pretty Clerks Are Pretty Bad” by Frank Hubeny
“The French Soccer Case” by Dave Kessler
“Love Strikes Twice” by David Ochs
“Petty Crime” by Judie Rae
“Crime Is Too Crunchy under Your Feet When You Walk Around” by Gregory Lawrence Stewart
“In Love with a Stripper Named Lynn” by Gerald So
“A Crime Scene” by Albert Van Hoogmoed

No, Phil did not enter the contest.

“Something tells me we’re not through yet.”