New Imprint and New Publication at Tootie-Do Press!

’Tis late to hearken, late to smile,

But better late than never;

I shall have lived a little while

Before I die for ever.

~ A.E. Housman, “You Smile Upon Your Friend Today”

Tootie says it’s my own damn fault that I didn't announce our new imprint and new publication in July 2023 on Wordwhacking Dreams. She’s really not being cheeky when she says she has no opposable thumbs and so can't be responsible for some hands-on tasks around the ranchita. She tried to keep me on task, but alas! So much to do, so many distractions!

Since its inception in 2014, the Tootie-Do Press mission is to publish quirky speculative fiction with a romantic twist. But every now and then, we've considered sharing publications outside that parameter. After all, I write in various styles and genres, and not everything I write is accepted for publication in literary magazines or by conventional presses.

After giving it much thought, Tootie encouraged me to share a much more serious literary short story (no opposable thumbs needed for editorial encouragement!) I began writing "The Respect of Stone" long ago when I began learning the art and craft fiction writing. Years later, I enlarged the story and polished it during my graduate creative writing program at Aberystwyth University in 2009. That particular seminar piece earned my highest score of the program's five-week seminars, and contributed to my earning a "With Merit" status on my MA diploma.

Subsequently, the story placed as a shortlist semifinalist (something like #50 out of more than 500 entries, if I recall correctly) in the SLS Kenya Literary Contest in 2010. This placement included a discount for the December 2010 SLS Kenya - Kenya Between the Lines - Kwani Litfest gatherings in Nairobi and Lamu Island, Kenya. Attending this notable conference was the thrill of a lifetime!

The story was a longlist semi-finalist in the 2011 Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, also an honor and a surprise.

But alas, university degrees and awards and near awards don't equal publication. The edgy theme of child molestation is something many presses decline to publish in fiction to avoid triggering readers, with some exceptions for edgy memoir. For some reason presses like edgy reality but avoids harm to children in fiction. So after many years of intermittent submission and revision, with some praise but no offers of publication, I finally decided to call it quits and indie published the story as an Amazon exclusive.

I'm glad I waited because I wouldn't have discovered this amazing artist  - Viergacht - nor published the tale with this lovely cover if I'd rushed it to publication earlier. Tootie says that procrastination and indecision sometimes works to our benefit! I agree. Sometimes the time has to be right to cast a project into the light.

So without further adieu, here's the cover and link to the Amazon sales page! 

~*~

Normally at Tootie-Do Press we “publish wide” our full-length works and you can purchase those internationally from dozens of venues in ebook and in print from Amazon and IngramSpark, but we've shared a handful of short stories as Amazon exclusives. This is our first literary short story that falls outside our press mission, so we created a new imprint called Canid Craft in honor of our canine friends both domestic and wild. There is a dog mentioned in the story that doesn't play a major role in the plot, but the big barn owl on the cover has some strong metaphorical significance. 

We hope you enjoy the tale!

 ~*~

*2011  Longlist semifinalist, Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Short Story Contest

*2010  Shortlist finalist, SLS Kenya Literary Contest

*2010  Attended SLS Kenya, Kenya Between the Lines & Kwani Litfest, Nairobi & Lamu Island