Chicken Soup Surprise

Your story “A Voice in the Desert  ” has made it to the initial selection round for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Angels and Miracles. Only a small percent of the submitted stories have made it this far.

Yep you read that right, one of the two stories I submitted to Chicken Soup for the Soul actually made it past round one. I must have read the email about 20 times before it sunk in. Now it does NOT mean it will be published I still have another round to go but as the email said:

Filling out the permission form does not guarantee that your story will appear in the book however we do need your signed form in order to consider your story. A vast majority of stories in this round will appear in the book, but we do not make the final decisions until about a month before the publication date.

I was so excited I forwarded the letter to all my friends who encouraged me to submit. I won’t know for sure if I am in until around October as the book is due out in November. I was stunned to be honest as I was not really sure they would want a story which took place in a war zone, no literally, in Iraq.

So it is some good news albeit surprising. I did tell the kids but they seem generally unimpressed. Ah well, maybe if it really gets published it will impress them.