On-line magazine Lies With Occasional Truth has published my short story “Hybrid Love”. I was about to retire this piece last year when I gave it a tweak and sent it out. Tada!
I was taking a creative writing class at the time I wrote this. When I met with the teacher to discuss my story he very seriously said to me, “After reading your story, I wondered if you might be crazy.” Thankfully, he wasn’t my first writing teacher and I had an ounce of confidence to tell him I wasn’t and that I gave my readers a little more credit than he was willing. I dropped the course as he was unprofessional with other students as well.
Great news! My story “Hybrid Love” will be published in the next issue of Lies With Occasional Truth. This is an older story that I was thinking about retiring, but alas, was fond of so made some revisions last spring. I signed up for a writing class shortly after I had written this story, and immediately took a dislike to the teacher. He was a condescending braggart. He would give individual workshops instead of an open forum. Instead of withdrawing immediately, I decided to do a one-on-one with “Hybrid Love” the following week. Maybe my shit detector batteries were low. The next week I walked into the empty classroom and sat across from him. He said, ‘After reading your story, I actually wondered if you were crazy.’ He said this deadpan. I told him I wasn’t. He then said readers would have no idea what I was talking about. I told him I gave my readers more credit. I dropped the class, and felt sorry for the kid who said he wrote sci-fi and was told ‘you won’t be writing any of that in here.’ Thank god that guy wasn’t my first writing teacher.