first short story published
My short story, The Siren’s Song (complete with a Latvian translation for the mighty audience of Latvian readers) is now published in A Cappella Zoo Spring 2010 issue. It’s a magazine of magical realist & experimental writing. Go ahead and purchase it if you can afford it–judging by this review, the short stories and poems are quite diverse so there could be something for everyone. I haven’t read the magazine yet since it takes a loooong time for something to ship to Latvia, but I can say that at least one story in it is a proof that an ESL writer can, with a lot of help from her friends, actually publish something. Here, my biggest thanks go to critters for first-draft-critiques and to Russell Adams for very patient and thorough second-to-fifth draft critiques (I couldn’t have made it without you), as well as Vilis Kasims for Latvian version editing (milzīgs paldies).
For those who are not purchasing the magazine – both Latvian and English versions will be available online at some point.
A curious tidbit: the reviewer Vince Corvaia says that “Melgalve has a potential to be a playwright” which is quite accurate since I started writing by writing stage plays. I actually have no idea why Siren became a short story instead of a play; I think that it was mainly my insecurity about whether or not I’d be able to handle a stand-alone dialogue, without getting into anybody’s head. One thing I hate about plays is inserting all those remarks that should be obvious from the text spoken (like “sad” or “happy” or “extatic” or “smiles”), and, Siren being among the first stories I wrote in English, I was quite sure that I wouldn’t be able to deliver the emotions through text alone. Anyhow, if somebody wants to stage it, go ahead (and let me know if I can be of help with that).
