Last fall, I submitted two works to be considered for publication. The first was a fictional short story which I entered in the Asian American Writer’s Workshop and Hyphen Magazine Short Story Contest. In the months since then, I’d periodically check the website to see if they had chosen a winner. Knowing full well, that they probably call or e-mail the winner, my visits to the website became much less frequent, as there is part of me that believes as long as you don’t know… anything is possible.
Well, last weekend, I decided to search again, and noticed that the winner (and ten finalists) had been chosen. My name wasn’t among them. Mind you, I did this checking when I was supposed to be spending some uninterrupted time working on my current writing project. So, I sat down to plug away at the computer anyway, trying to shelve the thoughts of my other story.
When one door closes, another door opens… so the old saying goes. Some call it God’s will, karma, fate, or just coincidence. In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron calls it synchronicity. So after spending a good couple of hours clicking away at the keyboard, I decided to take a break and check my e-mail.
Lo and behold, there was an message for me from the editors of the publication to which I had submitted my other piece. Yep, you guessed it. They’re going to print my essay Dirty House, Clean Conscience in the upcoming anthology Lavanderia: A Mixed Wash of Women, Wash and Word. The book will be published by San Diego City Works Press in October of 2009. But until then, you can get a sneak peek at some of the other works that will be included at www.lavanderiahome.net
So call it fate, luck or providence. I’m just honored to be part of a project that seeks to find meaning in the messy details of our lives.