Leslie Karst

Long Story, Short

This is a story of rejection, perseverance, and generosity.

A few years back, the mystery writers convention Malice Domestic announced that the subject for their next anthology of short stories would be food and cooking.

I’d never penned a short story before, but given my love of all things culinary, I thought, “Great! I’ll try my hand at it and write a one about food!”

So I did. And I submitted it for the anthology. And got rejected.

Why?! I raged inside my head. It’s a good story.

Isn’t it?

So I submitted it to another anthology. Rejected.

And a magazine. Rejected.

And another magazine. Rejected.

Feeling, yes, very rejected, I set the story aside. Oh, well. I guess it’s not such a good story, after all.

Flash forward to last summer, when Sisters in Crime hosted an online auction to benefit the marvelous Innocence Project. There, among the offerings up for auction was a story critique by the one and only Art Taylor, master of all things short story. So I bid on it. And won.

Imagine my surprise when, after receiving my short story to critique, Art wrote me back and said, “I’ve read this story before.” Turns out it had in fact been shortlisted for the second anthology I’d submitted it to—of which he had been an editor—but in the end, he’d decided the story wasn’t yet there. Almost, but not quite.

In his critique, Art detailed why he’d ultimately rejected the story. And I had to agree; it did need more work, for all the reasons he specified. I’d just been too much of a short story newbie to realize it at the time.

So I revised and reworked the story. And Art generously agreed to take another look at it (which had not been part of the original offer of a critique). “Much better,” he proclaimed. And he even suggested a few places to submit this new version.

So I did.

And lo, and behold, one of those places accepted the story for publication!

So thanks to Art’s generosity, as well as some perseverance on my own part, my very first short story, “Curse of the Supertaster,” was published just yesterday by Black Cat Weekly. (Thanks to Barb Goffman for accepting the story.)

Here’s a teaser: Mark is a supertaster. And no, that’s not what you think it is, for this acute sensitivity to flavors is more of a curse than a blessing. But Mark never imagines it will lead to a devastating—and deadly—result.

If you’d like to read “Curse of the Supertaster,” you can pick up a digital copy of this week’s magazine here, for only $2.99

I so love our crime writing community.

37 thoughts on “Long Story, Short”

  3. Hestia here,
    I can’t believe you got a rejection. More than once!
    I can’t wait to buy the magazine so I can read it.
    Every last one of my short stories has been rejected except the one to the mystery online mag back in 2002, which seems to be the last issue they published. I always feel the same way. It’s a good story, why do I keep getting rejected?
    I promise to keep trying. I’ll look at the malice anthology rejection and see what might be wrong. If you can handle rejection, so can I.

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  7. Leslie, I love all of this–your perseverance, Art’s help, and your story’s acceptance by Black Cat Weekly–that’s awesome, wow. As are those hilarious pix of you, lol. Congrats!

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      1. It really is! I’ve been helped over the years by so many great people in so many ways. And I love this story, Leslie! I’m so glad you persevered! The idea of a supertaster kind of freaks me out, though. And it reminds me when I used to investigate insurance claims and had to decide on a monetary value for losing your sense of taste. What’s that worth??

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  12. So thrilled this story— a great one! — has found a home. And pleased to be part of the journey here too. Such fun working with you on these final steps toward publication!
    Art

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  16. What a terrific story–congratulations, Leslie! Can’t wait to read it. (Love that you were able to work with Art too. I have always said I would love to take one of his classes…) Your determination is inspiring!

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