Reflections on a Decade-long Journey to Getting a Flash Fiction Story Published

This story took a long time to place. I don’t think it took so long because it was poorly written. In fact, I’ve had some compliments on it over the years. The editor at 34thParallel (one of the first magazines I ever submitted to) sort of gushed over it:

Dear R.E.
Let me say I’m impressed by your story…