avatarKL Simmons

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COLLECTION OF STORIES AND PUBLICATIONS

A Few Key Lists of the “Best” For Your Ease, Learning And Enjoyment

Making my lists and checking them twice

Photo credit KL Simmons

Since I have published 44 stories to date (this will make 45), I have decided to present 3 lists for those of us who like a bit of organization when it comes to reading stories.

The first list, “My Favorite Stories” is a compilation of what I feel are my 3 “best” stories. These are ones that are more personal and what I believe reflect who I am as a person and writer.

My Favorite Stories

1This one pulls at my heart strings every time I see it. It’s about the journey of owning my 2 loveable cats and finding a new home for one of them before I moved to Europe. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

2 I first wrote and published this story last year as an exercise in writing fiction, which does not come easily to me. I decided to give it an overhaul and publish it again. I’m very pleased with the results.

I took the advice that Toni Morrison gave in the documentary, “The Pieces I Am”, and created a character that was very different than anything I’d written before. It’s based on an amalgamation of real and imagined experiences. The best part, to me, is that many people think that it’s a true story, which I love.

3 This was one of the most vulnerable pieces I’ve written. I was painfully self-conscious and cared way too much what others thought of me. Some cite the teenage years as “the best years” of their life, but no one could pay me enough money to relive them. This is a very revealing story in which I plan to write a “Part 2” sometime this month.

My Best Performing Stories on Medium

These have all received a high amount of views, reads and earnings

1 This one has done twice as well as the next two. I never expected that to happen, but that old polaroid photo of my mom holding me with my brother looking over her arm is pretty damn adorable.

2 Most of us have a crazy tale to tell about one of places of employment. This is my craziest. I’m not at all surprised that this one has garnered a lot of attention. The experience of it still blows my mind to this day.

3 The following 2 stories are so close in performance that I decided to include both of them. The first one about the southern accent didn’t receive as many claps as the second, but it has 3 times as many comments, which I like. I will write another piece in the future about regional accents and people’s reaction to them.

Lastly, I wish to list the 3 publications that I have used over the past month or so that I feel have give me their best in terms of timely publication (usually within 12 hours) and audience reach.

1 This publication has given me the best overall results. I’ve repeatedly submitted a draft to them and had it published within 1–2 hours. For a publication with 40k+ followers, that’s impressive! I’ve also had the most amount of stories “chosen for further distribution” (for those care about this) with them.

There is a team of editors that are used to publish stories for Illumination. However, Dr Mehmet Yildiz is at the helm, impressively churning out his own well-written, cutting-edge and informative stories on a regular basis while running multiple publications.

His comments, along with one of his editors, JS Adam, have given me extremely valuable feedback that has helped me spread my wings and begin to soar as a writer on this platform. I know that they have done this for others as well. It’s quite impressive considering the demands on their time.

2 I don’t know how Joel Mwakasege manages to do all that he does for this publication as well as his own outside of Medium, but he does. I like that I can self-publish my stories and have them published via this publication afterward within a short amount of time. Joel has also given me valuable feedback on my stories and is very open to what he allows to be published.

3 This was one of the first publications that I used when I began publishing through publications. Robert Ralph works a demanding full-time, has 2 children and still makes time to write and publish other people’s stories.

He’s not so quick at publishing them as the other 2, but it’s perfectly understandable, especially as his publication has grown. He also wants writers to only submit drafts. Like it’s name says, this is an ideal publication for those starting out on Medium and want to give publications a shot.

I hope that you found some of this information useful and/or enjoyable.

I have.

Photo by KL Simmons

To put a smile on my face, if you haven’t already done so:

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Best Of
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Collection
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