Castaway to Appear in Boston Literary Magazine

Flickr photo by fiskfisk

On Thursday, I got word that my story, “Castaway,” will be published in the Summer issue of the Boston Literary Magazine.

The story is a recent creation, and a “literary” one at that, meaning that it doesn’t feature werewolves, vampires, private eyes, mobsters, purveyors of “the worlds most dangerous game”, hobbits, or quantum physicists from the future. Of course, I have found myself writing in and across most genres over the last few years, and I plan to continue to do so because I think that “genre writing,” when done with skill can be more cathartic and transformative of a reading experience than most straight literary pieces I’ve read of late, while being just as “literary.”

But I digress. I’ll save that discussion for another day.

Back to “Castaway,” the literary story. I really enjoyed writing this story and am pleased with the final result. It was rejected elsewhere, and the editor of the magazine originally passed as well, but included some great feedback for improvement and offered to take a second look if I wanted to resubmit. I was impressed with the critique of the story and instantly recognized the holes in it that she pointed out, so I tweaked the story, first making it longer, then paring it down a bit and raising the stakes.

The story was accepted after the rewrites, and I think it became so much more than it was when I first submitted it.

Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite:

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from “Castway” by Brandon Satrom

Sheila, Macie and Iona stood at the door. Each girl held a heavy wooden bat against a shoulder. Sheila rattled her car keys and held an extra bat out to Nikki, handle first.

“Where are we going?”

“To the batting cages at Green Acres.”

The black letters that blanketed Nikki sprung back into the air, this time swirling unformed around her roommates. Nikki stared at the bat Sheila was holding out to her.

“You can thank Santo for leaving these with me when he ran off with that reporter last year. I think payment of four signed Louisville Sluggers is adequate alimony, don’t you? He wants them back, of course. But these gems are The New Therapy for the girls at 514 Archer Drive.”

Macie and Iona laughed.

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The issue, published online, is due out in mid-June. If you promise to read it and comment on it on this blog, I’ll post a link when it comes out. I hope you like reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

In the meantime, go check out the great stories and poetry available online in the Winter issue of the Boston Literary Magazine.