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I’m embarrassed.
I completely forgot about “Among the Invisibles”.
This tale was written as an exercise, an example of the “automatic” writing celebrated by Andre Breton and the surrealist crowd. No pre-planning, just put pen to paper and see what happens. Interesting what surfaces from the subconscious. What’s revealed.
Wrote this story, put it away for awhile but I couldn’t quite get it out of my mind. Brought it out again about a year ago, polished it up and sent it off to a British anthology. This week I received one of those form notes from the editors saying “thanks but no thanks”. It was the last tale I will ever submit anywhere. This blog is my exclusive publishing venue and, therefore, this is the world premiere of “Among the Invisibles”.
Give it a read and, as always, I welcome your thoughts and input…
That was a good read. It feels like something that wouldn’t be out of place in The New Yorker. Thanks for posting it!
I liked it a lot, very nice. I don’t think you should give up on submitting things though. This was good, I bet if you keep sending it out it will be published.
nice. coinkidintilly, i, too, just received what i consider my last rejection email. done.
Vivid and interesting story, Cliff. There was a nice, terse, storytelling vibe about it. Magic realism put to the purposes of dark social commentary — quite the little tale for just letting ideas flow.
Haunting piece. I liked that you never really identified where exactly Little Po was- that it could have been any city. In fact, I kept expecting a revelation moment when the reader find out it is somewhere in the first world (U.S.?) and is meant to be disturbed by that.