In July 2018, almost eight years ago, I finished writing the first final draft of one of my favorite stories, Bumblecat. I submit it to a journal and was rejected three months later. The timing worked out so that I could then submit to one of my favorite publications, Glimmer Train. They had a call out for their final issue, and I dreamed of being included. They also rejected me. Undaunted, I sent it to an online publication where I got my first ever negative rejection. I had paid for feedback from the staff reader. That was a mistake.

If this is sci-fi, it deosn’t pass the test of plausible science. If it’s an allegory, I’m not sure what of.

The opinion of this single person, who deosn’t even consider my feedback worthy of spellcheck and ends sentences with prepositions, was enough to make me quit. I mothballed Bumblecat.

Six years later, I was a different writer. I had three publications under my belt. I was a different person. My ten-year-old had grown old enough to drive. I had a longer view of motherhood. I had just ended my 20-year career supporting the Federal Government. My life experience meant I knew behind the scenes workings of scientific grants and technology commercialization. I knew how different facets of intelligence — scientific versus political — can conflict. I knew that being smart and being successful were not the same. I knew the conflicts between ambition and altruism. I was in an altogether better life place to tell the story of Bumblecat.

My first task in 2024, as a fulltime writer, was to rewrite Bumblecat, and develop a plan. I would submit to all the big magazines: the ones that won awards. An acceptance there would jumpstart my writing journey. Bumblecat got rejected six times in four months.

While “Bumblecat” isn’t quite right for us, many on our staff were impressed with your writing, and your submission merited additional consideration before we reached our final decision

I found this to be such a unique story!

I agreed with these rejections. It was good writing and a unique story, but why did everyone say it wasn’t a fit? Having exhausted my list of elite publications, I took the summer off from submitting.

My daughter is the muse for Bumblecat. I have this big puffy stuffed animal bumblebee. When she was little, she and I were lounging in my bed and one of us, I don’t know who, came up with this idea that my huge bee was a bumblecat. The story’s opening scene is an homage to that goofy mother/daughter chat.

During my summer submission hiatus, my family traveled the East Coast and Midwest searching for the perfect colleges and universities for my now seventeen-year-old kiddo to apply. Where would she go for her next life adventure? We looked at elite colleges, and they all felt icky. We looked at big state colleges, and some of them felt good, but not all of them. We looked at small business schools, and some of them felt good too. We made her application list not based on prestige, but based on where she thought she would fit. My daughter continues to teach me.

My first fiction publication was with Luna Station Quarterly (LSQ). They published Grork Dentist in 2019. I’ve been a loyal subscriber ever since. I love that they publish both online and on paper. I love that they focus on women writers. I’ve lurked in the editor’s Patreon long enough to be impressed with not just the stories Jennifer Lyn Parsons publishes, but how she’s handled the advent of AI, how she protects her writers, protects her own work, and has curated her publication. Maybe, I thought, she might appreciate some of the quirkier aspects of Bumblecat. My story is about a working mom balancing her family and her dreams while battling the establishment. Distilled down it’s about women experiencing the female condition. Could it be a perfect fit for LSQ? When they opened for submissions, I sent in my story. I got the best response.

LSQ would love to publish Bumblecat

I would love to announce that LSQ has published Bumblecat. I’m delighted to be back home between it’s covers and can’t wait to hear what you all think about the story, the characters, and the bumblecats.

The publication is available in a variety of electronic formats and in print. Be sure to check out the beautiful artwork by Sve Yurchenko, a Ukrainian artist, on the cover. I love it. It’s such a great match for Bumblecat. Read a few of the stories. Let me know which ones you love. I hope mine is one of them.