I’ve noticed a distinct pattern, a rhythm to getting short stories published online. It’s nearly the same every time with only slight variations. Typically it goes like this: Write. Beer. Revise. Beer. Submit… Wait… Rejection. Beer. Revise. Submit… Wait… Rejection. Beer. Revise. Submit… Wait… Acceptance! Beer! Beer! Beer! Then there’s a pause, usually a few days, until it starts over with a new story and a sixpack. The fear isn’t that I won’t get published. I get published… sometimes… eventually. The fear is that I’ll become an alcoholic before I can assemble and publish an entire collection of short stories.

Jim Woessner’s writings have appeared in the Blue Collar Review, The Daily Drunk, Close to the Bone, and elsewhere. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College, and he works as a visual artist and writer living on the water in Sausalito, California.