The Stoneybatter Files
A collection of short fiction by Aiden O'Reilly
Stoneybatter
Stoneybatter |
Photo courtesy of Daria Michalska |
Kudos to The Missouri Review
I've had a run of rejections from The Missouri Review. Eleven in fact, but as I generally fire with a double-barrelled shotgun that makes six replies.
I have a good feeling about number 12 though.
We received your submission "Dermot" and it was read by a member of our fiction staff, who ultimately decided not to use it. Please be aware that our editors receive over 15,000 submissions annually and publish less than one percent of those received. We welcome all submissions and try to handle them with care, but sometimes we make a mistake.March 6 2007
Thank you for your patience.
Dedra Earl, Office Mgr.
The Missouri Review
Thank you for submitting to The Missouri Review. We enjoyed your submissions, particularly "Like a Good Boy," which made its way through our ranks up to a senior editor, where it was ultimately rejected.Jun 22 2007
Though it must be a hassle for you to continue submitting to us, we would like to encourage you to do so. You have a great feel for dialogue and timing, and we are excited to see your future productions.
Thank you for your patience,
The Missouri Review
Aiden,July 23 2007
Thanks for your short fiction submissions to The Missouri Review. As always, there was some interest, particularly in "The Package." What an odd, interesting piece of writing. In the end though, we've decided to pass.
We always look forward to taking a look.
Best, Kris Somerville
Mr. O'Reilly,May 9 2007
Thank you very much for allowing us at The Missouri Review to read your two recent works "Scrapyards" and "To the Trade." Both are interesting and have a lively voice, but unfortunately do not suit the needs of the magazine at this time. We do appreciate that you thought of us and hope you'll remember us in the future. You're a strong writer, Mr. O'Reilly, and we wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. Thank you for submitting.
~John Hendel, The Missouri Review
Dear Aiden,July 9th 2008
As of October 2007, we have changed our system and you should now be able to submit online. You can try submitting again this way if you chose. Understandibly you have had a lot of trouble and for this we apologize. We enjoyed your stories "*** ******" and "****** ******". Your writing is very strong in both of the stories and "*** ******" was very interesting to the editors. We ask that you do submit to us again. Next time I hope that it is easier for you to do online.
S.N.O
Thank you for submitting both "Roman Empires" and "****** *******" to The Missouri Review. Both stories peaked our interest -- the intellectual and delirious dialogue in "Roman Empires" and the poignant sense of loneliness at the end of "***** *******." Though the two stories do not meet our current needs, we appreciate the opportunity to consider them for publication. We wish you luck in placing the stories elsewhere.
Keep up the good work.
New Stories
How I became a Millionaire is my latest story. Every word of it is true, except the part where I become a millionaire. In this piece I try to give the reader what I imagine he wants, rather than what I like to write.
Shoestring Collective and me
Saturday Night In at the James Joyce Centre is a night of music, film shorts, and perhaps drama pieces, comedy, poetry, dance, acrobatics ... at the James Joyce Centre at 35 North Great George's Street. Starts at 8.00 - get there on time. There have been three of these monthly cabaret-style events to date. It's €10 in at the door, with a cheap grey-zone bar and free cakes.
The line-up on Saturday 22nd March was:
- DAVID McSAVAGE
- ... one of Ireland's best stand-up comedians. Can be seen regularly in Temple Bar. He has a Polish wife.
- CATHAL ROCHE
- Irish premiere of 'GRAB IT!' performed on solo tenor saxophone and ghetto blaster. An amazing counterpoint of harsh speech rhythm (extracts from a doumentary on prison life) and sax.
- DAVID MOHAN
- David read some powerful poems on the night. His work featured recently on Oxfambooks' calendar, 'Poems for 2008'.
- the iciclethieves
- Built around the song writing partnership of Sandra Adams and Colm Cunningham. The intimate sound of this duo is perfectly suited to the open fireplaces of the James Joyce Centre.
- AIDEN O'REILLY
- That's me. I was billed to give a reading, but as the piece was only 1,200 words I memorised it and performed it. The audience was just beginning to appreciate the black humour, and I was just getting into my stride - I felt like repeating the whole thing with gusto.
4000 & Naked Thighs & a new story
The Story of C is my latest offering to the public. When I picture the public I picture a fat-assed pampered white-bread eater lying back in a settee kicking his heels screaming entertain meeee, who would like my work a whole lot more if I killed myself or at least had some extreme violence or substance abuse in my biography. The public is a ghoul whose self-confidence has been fattened and fed on a thousand opinion polls. Fuck you public.
Visitors to my site are approaching the 4000 mark.
One of my stories appears in the anthology Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks, from Leaf Books of Wales. Click on the cover to go there. The collection gets its name from the first story in it. The good people at Leaf have been choosing and promoting new short stories and poetry for two years now.
More editing notes
3am magazine will shortly publish a story of mine, the second this year. Their motto is Whatever it is, we're against it. I've been browsing online literary sites for over a year now. Only recently I've started submitting to a few of the American magazines: The Missouri Review, Zoetrope, Kenyon Review, McSweeney's, the Mississippi Review.
I was at first reluctant to submit to literary magazines in a distant country - magazines I knew nothing about and which I couldn't even afford. The only reason to submit would be to get another entry on my publications list. Two things changed this. Firstly I felt a stronger contact because I started reading these magazines. Secondly I noticed in Joyce Carol Oates collections of short stories, every single piece had previously appeared in some periodical or literary journal, often small or obscure.
I had gotten used to my work meeting utter silence or stock replies from both magazines and agents this side of the Atlantic. I expected no answer at all from the American magazines, particularly since there was no question of a SAE. I would write my email address and request a reply by email. These guys get a lot of submissions. One wrote me: Please be aware that our editors receive over 15,000 submissions annually and publish less than one percent of those received.
But the editor also added: On the other matter of seeming unwelcoming to writers from abroad, we assure you that we do welcome writers from abroad.
To my surprise other magazines also personally replied, offering encouragement.
McSweeney's: We rely on stories like yours, since a good portion of what we
publish comes to us unsolicited. But please feel free to submit more work in the future, our tastes change, and we're always looking.
Mississippi: You write well. I spent a good bit of time reading both of your stories
Missouri: Though it must be a hassle for you to continue submitting to us, we would
like to encourage you to do so.
Missouri (again): As always, there was some interest, particularly in *** **** What an odd, interesting piece of writing. In the end though, we've decided to pass.
Missouri (yet again): You're a strong
writer, Mr. O'Reilly, and we wish you the best of luck in your
endeavors. Thank you for submitting.
Pindeldyboz: Thanks for your submission.Ý Unfortunately, we cannot use your work.Ý The major reason was the character transformation, which seemed unearned. We get a peek, in exposition, that the Stefan character could somehow redeem Asha from her position in the village but nothing in the backstory suggests his evolution except for the narrative statement.
.
There are real people out there. You just don't encounter them often, if at all.
Editing notes
The Killer is an early story of mine, from a time when I felt obliged to try my hand with an Irish theme. I sent it to Ireland's Own. They said they liked it, but theirs was a family-oriented magazine.
At the time I wrote it I hated putting in Irishisms like "not a haet about it." But now it is decades since I heard such phrases, and they are getting as distant to young people from the area as they are to an American reader.
The story itself is true.
Editing notes
Don't Look has been extensively re-edited. Now that the working of our minds is exposed in the atomic light of pyschology, the only place to hide is in depravity.
I am in the process of redesigning the website. Many stories have been updated to their latest tuned version, including The Woman, Japanese Row, Three Friends, and Dermot.
There are some stories that proceed inevitably from the initial premises. The reader feels no other conclusion was possible; the writer feels that the story must have been written already somewhere in the world. The Woman may be such a story. It seemed to demand the name A Story, but I had already used that particular title, indeed more than once. The way it is in the second collection has been extensively edited. It is my favourite for the moment. Smoke Rising is good for a laugh.
Recently I found the first story I ever wrote on a CD I burned before leaving Poland. It's in the extra pieces section.
Why?
So why is my fiction thrown here, on this very plain website, for all to see?
When I first set up this website in 2004 there was no magazine in Ireland to publish short fiction, (The Stinging Fly had temporarily vanished) nor any prospect of a publisher welcoming a collection from an unknown, unconnected writer. It seemed as though I was condemned to write for years, and every year watch a new cohort of TV presenters, actors, and journalists be acclaimed for their first books.
Some six or seven of the above stories have since been published. The reader does not need to know which.
Aiden used to read with the idea that each story has a message, a meaning hidden inside it that must be pierced. The story was only a means to reach that illumination. He has since changed his views.
This fiction grows out of an attempt to value experience itself apart from any knowledge or wisdom it brings.
"When I write I feel that we have not evolved to be able to live comfortably with this extension of our minds. Aiden with a writing pad is not the same as Aiden without. I remain dissatisfied with this. It is different with spoken language. We can happily babble nonsense all day without using our reasoning."
The second collection is more varied and plays around with ideas more. If you read only one story then let it be the title story, Greetings Hero.
If you enjoy these stories send a message of support - it may help get them published eventually.
Contact
I welcome emails.
my_name@my_name.com
where my_name is replaced with aidenoreilly (this is a measure to stop spam)