Waking up to awesome news: another LitReactor student sold a story

Nothing makes me happier as a writing teacher than hearing that my students found my classes helpful and used them to get their work out into the world, so I was thrilled to wake up to the news that my LitReactor student Ashton Peal sold (trans-)lesbian story "The Second First Time" to Lizzie's Bedtime Stories Appetite Anthology edited by Ily Goyanes. I have permission to share this from an email from Ashton Peal:

Thanks so much again for the class. I didn't know if I could comfortably write erotica at all - much less for characters so very dissimilar from myself - but apparently so. It's definitely been an eye-opener and something I hope to keep on with.

Now, I don't think publication is the only indicator of a writing's worth; I've had plenty of work rejected and as an editor have had to reject countless amazing stories for various reasons (space, overlapping topics, etc.). But it's both validation and motivation when it happens, and one thing I worked extremely hard on with my first LitReactor class was making it practical. I got the scoop from editors and publishers on exactly what they were looking for, and updated the calls for submission section of our private message board repeatedly, hoping to encourage students to submit. When I teach in person classes, I don't have followup so I never know if those students have turned their test runs into final drafts and submitted them. With my online classes, it's built into the program, and I'm so honored that it's encouraged people to get their work out there, which can be scary and daunting no matter how many times you do it.

I am going to have even more Q&As and publisher information for my February-March LitReactor online erotica class, which starts February 12th. There's a detailed week by week breakdown on their site. It does require a bit of a time commitment as you'll be writing a story per week, with the option of reading and critiquing your fellow students' work, which I found an invaluable part of the process in terms of getting to see how different people approached the same topic and assignment. Registration is now open, and the class is limited to 16 people. The last one sold out, so if you are interested, please check out the information, let me know if you have any questions at rachelkb at gmail.com with "LitReactor" in the subject line. You can also read what LN Bey, who sold a story developed as a LitReactor erotica assignment to a Circlet Press anthology, said about my class.