By the Drink was published Sunday by Blue Ridge Literary Prose. I was excited to discover the new online literary magazine.
It is my first contemporary story to be published, and my fifth creative publication.
I wrote the original draft of By the Drink in June 2011. It was the first contemporary story I considered to be of any worth. By the Drink was the first story in which I wrote about those who would suffer as a result of the economy.
I have edited the story multiple times.
Editing is a process I have learned to perfect in the last three years.
I call my editing style the turtle approach.
For example, I have worked on Sons of the Edisto—my book—for six and a half years.
By the Drink was an experimental piece as I originally incorporated play script writing. I did not see anything similar to what I had written until I read F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s This Side of Paradise. By then, I had already stripped the style of writing out and replaced it with dialogue.
I had sent the story to a few journals, and received very encouraging rejections. It became the story I wanted to see published the most. I kept editing and making changes.
The story was, without planning, my first to feature satire. It captured sarcasm; a part of my personality not seen in my historical fiction. The second major editing I undertook last fall and winter was to eliminate the amount of sarcasm. As I improved the story, it evolved.
By the Drink finally made the next round.
I am thankful Blue Ridge Literary Prose’s editors had faith in my story. I hope you will click on the hyperlink above and check out other authors and poets’ wonderful work.
By Rebecca T. Dickinson
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By the Drink, “Blue Ridge Literary Prose”
