writermag.com • The Writer | 39There were five of them, which
was two more than I’d been
expecting. Five little lamb skulls,
fragrant with star anise and
salted broth, permanently grin-
ning with their tiny herbivore
teeth. Five little lamb skulls, all
in a row.“I got lost in the first page and for-
got I was an editor,” LaBounty says,
and points to two other stories in par-
ticular that continue to “enchant and
delight.” One is Ryan Molen’s “Problem
Solving Exercises,” published in Fall
2016, which begins:
Mrs. Morrison was too busy to
die. On an average week in the
office, Stephanie Morrison
interacted with 39.4 people.
These interactions were broken
down into 11 meetings, 51
calls, and 62 emails. (The aver-
age is given without countingabsences; she had none for the
past 11 years).The other is Gabrielle Friesen’s
“Crocodiles in Wake” from the Spring
2015 issue. It begins:Fairy tales hardly ever come
true for quiet girls. Chime was a
quiet girl. She hadn’t spoken in
close to two years, not since the
move. In the absence of moun-
tains, words had become mean-
ingless. The marsh and its
buzzing, chirring, slurring
miasma made her silent.Advice for potential contributors
It may seem minor, LaBounty says, but
he urges writers who’ve had their sto-
ries workshopped with a “track
changes” feature online to accept all
changes and delete all comments
before they submit them to editors.
Writers may not alter the first line
in any way, nor may they submit sto-
ries with the quarterly’s first lines to
other journals or post them online on
public sites until after the print journal
has been published.
Contributors are invited to write and
submit as a package a four-part story
using spring, summer, fall, and winter
sentences posted on the journal’s web-
site. “They have to arrive in February,”
La Bounty says. “We rarely publish all
four, but sometimes we’ll publish one or
two of the four if they’re not completely
tied together and can stand alone.”
Six years ago, LaBounty and his wife
started The Last Line, which comes out
once a year. “As you would expect, all
the stories have to end up with the
same last line,” he says. “It is just as dif-
ficult as it sounds.”Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the
author of Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books
to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Accep-
tance in Tweens and Teens (Sasquatch, 2019).
Twit ter/Instagram: @WildMelissaHar t“An exercise in creativity
for writers and a chance
for readers to see how
many different directions
we can take when we
start from the same place.”
Genres: Fiction, poetry, and
nonfiction.
Reading period: Year-round.
Length: 300-5,000 words.
Payment: $5-$25.
Submission format: Email
submission as MS Word or
WordPerfect attachment to
[email protected] or
send via USPS.
Contact: Editor David LaBounty.
The First Line
P.O. Box 250382, Plano, Texas
75025-0382. thefirstline.comGOTHAMWRITERS.COMOctober
2020
October
2020
GOTHAM
CONFERENCE
THE
WRITERS