So I Submitted Something…

…to the Los Angeles Review, a publication that comes out in print once a year and posts regularly online.

I’m nervous.

I’m going to submit something to one of their contests.

I’m really nervous about that. It will take two to four months for me to get an answer. In the meantime, I am searching for places that might get me published faster.

R.I.F.

When growing up in elementary school, there was a program that came once a year.
Reading Is Fundamental.

Every year we would line up and classroom after classroom were allowed to pick from the many books that were laid out for free. I didn’t really talk about it back then, but it was one of my favorite times of the year.

I didn’t have a lot of friends back then, and I was bullied a lot. Reading was a safe place to get away from the constant attacks at school as well as my father’s problem with alcohol. I was a Rory Gilmore level book nerd. To top it all off: my Mom worked at a library.

The older I became, the more sophisticated my appetite. I remember bringing the book “Sleepers” with me to read between classes back in 8th grade. I took my Mom and one of my classmates who kind of became my movie buddy out to see the movie version of it, mostly because it had Brad Renfro in it, who I had a huge crush on. Coincidentally, this movie was one of my favorite actor’s (Jeffrey Donovan) first movie roles.

RIF gave me an escape route.

I always wondered if I had a daughter (I secretly wanted a daughter badly) if she would become a book nerd like me. It remains to be seen, but I do know she developed my love of music, which is fine by me. Since she is non-verbal, I have no idea how good of a reader she is. I can only hope that one day she’ll show me.

Do kids still read in this day and age, or are they glued to social media instead?

I suppose we will have to wait and see.