Jessi Cole Jackson

Back in July I posted about receiving my first rejection. On October 1, (two months and 17 days later) I had my first acceptance!

Kyle bought me beautiful roses to celebrate.

I’ve very excited to announce that my story, “The Rum Cake Runner,” will be in Crossed Genres Magazine‘s YA themed issue, currently scheduled for December. It’s the first time I sent out the story AND it’s a professional rate ‘zine. That’s not too shabby for a first sale. I’m extra pleased that CG is my first publisher since they choose one new author per issue to interview for their Spotlight Author feature and they chose me this time!

In case you’re interested, a little synopsis: “The Rum Cake Runner” is the story of Nesi, a 15-year-old girl, living and working in New Rio, a multi-cultural, international city in futuristic Brazil. In this future sugar is an illegal substance. Nesi’s family runs a black market pastry business and she’s their runner, delivering the yummy baked goods to customers. The story contains a chase through a crowded market, a loud-mouth Irish nut-seller, robot dogs, and of course, pastries. 

I’ll be sure to post here (and everywhere) when it’s live. I hope you read it, love it and love Crossed Genres. They’ll definitely always have a special place in this writer’s heart.

Say a prayer/do a rain dance because provided the area gets the rain they need, this will be my view in approximately three weeks:

Kyle and I are going sailing!! I’ve never been on a sailboat before, and considering I have thing about small boats, it makes me a little nervous. But it’s vacation! You’re supposed to do fun/terrifying things and I love the water. I love sunsets. I love not sitting in my hotel room and worrying about the upcoming week. 

We found the company through a groupon deal, but after exploring their website we decided we didn’t so much want to learn how to sail (what the groupon was offering) as we wanted to have the experience of going out on the boat. So we signed up for a sunset sail instead of the class. I have high expectations of it being gorgeous. (It is also my hope that I don’t fall off the boat.)

But first: they need rain. The lake is at a record low and if the heavens don’t open in the next few weeks, we’ll be seeing a movie instead. And I see plenty of movies in New Jersey. 

When I was little I believed that it rained when God cried. So say a prayer, do a rain dance, send good thoughts into the universe–and hope with me that God’s tears will fill Utah Lake in time for our trip.