The package in the mail was unexpected: The May 2018 issue of the California-based Penumbra Art and Literary Journal, which includes my  “Sweet Charity”. I’d completely forgotten the short story had been accepted.

   More than a year ago a friend asked if there shouldn’t be a law against panhandling in a nearby town. I said no right away, but continued to think about the question. “Sweet Charity” was the result — and I owe the ending to my Fairfield MFA pals, who didn’t like my original and sent me back to the keyboard.

   Counting three stories that will be printed in the next month, by the way, this brings me one shy of an even four dozen stories published.  You can read this one at page 86 of the online version of the magazine, but it’s easier found ==>right here