Introduction: Metro Fiction - A Reading Nook for Moms by P.J. Kaiser
I've always been a bookworm. When I was very young, I can remember building a reading cave for myself - under the vanity of my bathroom. Equipped with a pillow, a snack and a good book, I would vanish for hours at a time. When I was an adolescent, I gave up the dark recesses of the bathroom in favor of the bright window seat in our family room with my nose in a good book.In my twenties, I worked as a consultant. The downside was that I travelled nearly full time. The upside was that spending weeknights in a hotel or corporate apartment with few, if any, friends around meant I had plenty of time to read. Even though I am a slow reader, I read at least one book each week during those years.
During part of my thirties, we lived in Mexico City. Reading became a team sport when I joined an English-speaking book club. I came to value books as never before because they became scarce overnight. English language books cost nearly three times what they did in the U.S. I became more discriminating in my book consumption, focusing during those six years on "finer" literature.
When we moved back to the U.S., I was pregnant with my son and I started a new job. An interesting thing happened. People talk about hormones and "pregnancy brain" ... I experienced it big time. It was as though my brain capacity was dialed back to conserve energy. The little remaining capacity I had was utilized in my job as an information technology manager. Nothing was left at the end of the day.
But just because I didn't have the brain cells to read didn't mean I didn't have the desire to read. I turned to short stories and light fiction. I listened to audio books going to and from work and in the wee hours late in my pregnancy when I couldn't sleep for more than a half hour at a time. Most people listen to audio books so they can multi-task. I listened to them so I could single task.
But after the baby came, even that reading foray ended. Between caring for a baby 24x7 and pure physical and emotional exhaustion, my mind couldn't even comprehend a comic book. And after my second baby came along two years later, reading (along with other things previously considered necessities like showers) became even more unthinkable.
Most of my mommy friends were in the same boat. The only reading accomplishments we could boast were graduating from "What to expect when you're expecting" to "What to expect the first year."
That's where Metro Fiction comes in. We have tried to anticipate the issues moms have with reading and address them.1) Not enough time to read? We publish a new story every other week that can be read in around five minutes. As the number of quality submissions increases, we hope to move to a weekly schedule.
2) Not sure what you want to read? We try to provide a variety of genres and styles of writing so there's always something different when you come to the site.
3) Don’t want to waste your time with bad fiction? Our editorial board works hard to screen submissions and invite writers we know our readers will love. And if a submission is close to the mark, we will work with that writer to polish their piece.
4) Don’t want to read anything too graphic? We do not publish erotica or horror, so there's no danger of any zombies jumping out from behind a tree.
So if our site is targeted at moms, are these all going to be fluffy pieces about mommies, babies and true love? We don't live in Tinker Hollow (for you Tinkerbelle fans) and our Feature Stories reflect this. A healthy mix of happy endings and drama is necessary for a compelling selection of fiction. Our goal is to make readers think, not to fill their minds with cotton candy clouds.
By visiting Metro Moms Network, the parent site of Metro Fiction, our readers have already demonstrated their thirst for knowledge. Metro Moms features articles about parenting, health, events, work life, entrepreneurship, thoughtful product reviews and other content.
So, if you're a reader (and who isn't?), please stop by to peruse Metro Fiction.
And if you're a writer, hopefully this post gives you a good idea of what we're looking for. If you have some polished fiction that you think could be a good fit, please consider submitting. We are a paying market and our readership is strong and growing daily.
You can connect with PJ Kaiser, editor at Metro Fiction, via her personal blog "Inspired by Real Life", Facebook, Twitter, Google+ , or email.
