Today my short story Margarita Monday was published by Pilgrimage Press. Originally slated to come out last summer, months of delays due to COVID and other such things have finally come to an end, and now at last it’s out into the world.
I first wrote Margarita Monday way back in July of 2013. Based on a story told to me by a friend who works as a nurse, I did a lot of research to make sure the descriptions of this story were accurate, which involved a lot of watching Youtube videos of abdominal surgeries. This isn’t really something people tell you a lot about writing fiction, but it often involves a lot more research than you’d think to ensure the worlds you create are accurate. You know, unless you write fantasy or something like that, then all bets are off.
Anyways, never really feeling like Margarita Monday was one of my stronger stories, I only submitted it nineteen times over a six year period. This culminated in me submitting it to Pilgrimage Press in September of 2019, as one last try before including it in my short story collection Stumptown. Imagine my surprise when it was then accepted for publication in February of 2020, and now at last , nearly eight years after it was written, it’s out in the world. It just goes to show, you never know what might get published and you shouldn’t give up on something just because it was written long long ago.
Anyways, if you’d like to read it, just follow the handy dandy link below. I hope you enjoy it.
www.shawnwcampbell.com/short-stories/margarita-monday