After proudly telling the world (which is, literally, tens of people) I’d finally gotten not one, but two stories accepted for publication last month, next I did the only thing I could—I waited. And waited. I realized that I had no idea when either magazine/journal would actually come out, and started to feel a little uncomfortable that perhaps I’d tooted my own horn a little prematurely. Friday I finally got word that one of them is officially out, on the market and available for sale.
The Rusty Nail Literary Journal May/June issue is out now! Hard copies are available for purchase from Amazon here, and digital downloads are available at their website here. In it you will find my flash fiction piece “Aiden’s Acting Up Again.”
It’s a bit surreal, after all this time finally seeing my name and my words in a real-life, published product. It feels pretty cool.
“Aiden” is a bit of an anomaly compared to a lot of my other stuff. For one thing, there’s not a single curse word, which I can assure you, despite the generally PG-rated nature of the blog most of the time, is pretty rare indeed.
Also, no one dies, making it one of maybe two or three of my stories with a goose egg in the body count department.
This story began as part of my Reddit ‘No Sleep’ Experiment. I uploaded it to /r/nosleep and it was fairly popular, with readers asking for more ‘updates’ to the story. I ended up writing two additional pieces to bring the story to an end, but I rushed through them and don’t really like them. I honestly think Aiden is perfect as a stand alone story, ending the way it does on an unnerving note.
Check out the story (and the entire issue for that matter, it’s chock-full of other great stories), I hope you like it!
BooksofJobe.com 
Wow! Great story! Considering how short it was you did a great job of building suspense. Looking forward to your novel.
You are so kind. I hope you’re equally patient, because the novel is slow going. 🙂
Reblogged this on A Writer Begins by Darius Jones and commented:
Sometimes, people ask me what they can do to support Literature, writing, new writers, etc. One of the best and simplest ways is to buy their stories and support the magazines that publish new writers. So, it turns out this is your lucky day. Kenneth Jobe recently published his 1st piece (ever!) on The Rusty Nail Literary Journal. See his post below for more details. Then, go over to the Rusty Nail’s site or Amazon and buy the issue. And for extra, bonus points and much gratitude from us writers, leave a review or tell your friends (in cyberspace or otherwise). I know Kenneth and a lot of us other writers will be grateful. Thanks! DJ.
Thanks for the plug! You are quite right, these magazines and literary journal operate on a shoestring budget, they need all the support they can get. It’s a world I barely knew existed until I started getting ready to try and find homes for my work.