In 2026, my writing goal is to be more responsive to what editors seek out. While I’ll always shop around work that’s self-directed, I also want to prioritize calls for submissions this year, to see what I can produce relatively quickly.
So I was pleased to adapt a short story in progress, Pod Cast, for the inaugural issue of Sterncastle Magazine: Tales from the Sea. Sterncastle “is dedicated to highlighting authors on the verge of their own personal literary breakthroughs.” (I certainly hope that’s true!) The call for submissions requested that the sea be a major part of the story, but otherwise the direction was up to the writer.
In Pod Cast, set sometime in the 2050s, the narrator is a former tech analyst turned public works trash collector, a kayak her main mode of transport. After intense flooding and sea level rise has displaced her home and livelihood, her new line of work is entirely on the water – and she’s in a race against the clock to turn in her latest haul in order to get a much-needed bonus.
By much-needed, I mean she’s already spent it.
Thank you to the Sterncastle team for publishing my work! I’m excited to read my fellow “on the verge” authors in the first issue, as well as those in editions to come.
Read Pod Cast in Sterncastle Magazine >
Photo courtesy Wolfgang Tonschmidt via Flickr Creative Commons
Sarah Pascarella | Writer 