Published in Portrait of New England

My quest to find many publications with prestige to submit to has worked out even better than I thought. I was searching for more publications with more prestige in order to bolster my resume. I truly thought I'd try this for a year and not get published anywhere... maybe if I was lucky... in one of them. And I was OK with that... I was just going to try again the following year, and the year after that, and so on.

Well, I discovered, and got published in Adelaide Literary Magazine. I already felt ahead of my perceived schedule. Another literary magazine I found, Boudin Literary Magazine, got published there too. So far ahead now! I entered a contest for Adelaide Literary Magazine, got published with them again! Couldn't believe my luck. And another one I had discovered, Portrait of New England, submitted to them, and got accepted by them as well!

The artwork is incredible, I look at that and I feel New England. It reminds me of living there. Volume 8 finally came out, you can head here to this link and read the December issue FOR FREE now.

My story "Do Caribbean Songs Always Smell This Nice?" can be found starting right there on Page 58! I gotta say, there's a lot to this whole "getting published" thing that feels incredible... but seeing your story and your name in the Table of Contents, that part always gets me. It's realizing you're a part of something, I suppose.

I'm especially excited about getting into Portrait of New England because, it not only is this incredible literary magazine, but it's New England! I'm from New Hampshire. I was born there, and lived there until I was 22, when I moved to California. I love New England, and though I don't get to visit as much as I would like, I often think about it. Not just my hometown Merrimack, but of many towns and cities I've spent ample time in in New Hampshire. And not just my home state New Hampshire, but times spent in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Of course, plenty of time spent in Boston that's given me many memories. It's a great feeling to be a part of a New England based magazine.

And even more so, because this particular story takes place in a small New England town like the one I grew up in. It isn't so New-England-centric, but the setting does play a part in it. The story centers around a teenager who meets a girl, but the setting is important in that he is white and she is not. If you aren't extremely familiar with New England, it is predominantly white, more so than a lot of other parts of the country. And especially in some of the smaller towns... even in places that are well enough populated.

Last time I checked, New Hampshire's population was over 90% white, and my hometown of Merrimack was over 97% white. So, when people grow up and live mainly around white people, that becomes the norm. That is what you are used to. You can imagine the way people start to think... and by the way... most of it is not horrendous. Most of it isn't even bad. It's just not always right. You get used to seeing only white people all the time, that when you see someone not white, it is such a change. It's a surprise to the system.

Now, every human being has the ability to look deep inside themselves and ask who they want to be and make changes and find that certain things they are doing may be incorrect and just following a pattern. Every human being can realize they are following a pattern and break it if they desire. But it isn't always easy. These themes are part of the story, they're not an overwhelming part of it, but I still think they're integral to much of it. And along with many other small town quirks, it gives it a New England feel.

So, with all that said, I'm so proud to be a part of Portrait of New England, and so grateful that they included me. I hope, if you are able to, you can go and read the story. Maybe before the holidays really begin, maybe after. And there are plenty of other stories and poems in the magazine as well, and I hope you'll enjoy many of them, and always remember to support indie artists and indie publications.