The search engine came in with some doozies this week. In regards to the misdirected ones, I will rescue these poor orphan searches by providing them loving answers.
Search: What happened to Swink Magazine?
Answer: Good question. Swink was part of a boom in LA literary journals back in 2004, but now has been declared dead by Duotrope after the site wasn’t updated in a year and emails to the editor (Leelila Strogov) have bounced back. But this is the circle of life for lit journals. Short and brutal.
Search: Christian Short Story Publishers
Answer: Don’t know why you’re coming here, but you’re looking for the dodo. Or perhaps the unicorn — because the dodo existed at one point before going extinct. Just for kicks and giggles, I asked the Christian market publishers at Book Expo if they ever published Christian short story collections. Nary a one ever did. Which struck me as strange, because other genres — horror, mystery, romance — do offer short story collections. There are, however, several journals that might interest the individual searching for this: Image, Rock and Sling, Relief, and Ruminate.
Search: Is a slow response time for literary journals good?
Answer: Possibly. The optimistic view is that every editor loves your piece and they are showing it around the office for final decisions before an acceptance rolls your way. The pessimistic view is that after one ad in Poets and Writers the editor received 27 crates of manila envelopes and has to goosestep over them just to reach the computer and will take at least ten months to read your piece, at which time he or she will reject it in less than two minutes. Always believe the pessimistic view, because most of the time it is the correct one. Also, curtailing your hope will allow you to be pleasantly surprised when an acceptance does arrive.
