My short story “The House of Cards Began to Quiver,” which examines how the arrival of a young, pretty, mentally ill woman threatens the stability of a homeless camp in the underground flood channels, was recently published by The Leafline Magazine. Thanks to author and teacher Kris Saknussemm and the incredibly well-read and smart Laura Shannon for their guidance on the story. Also, thanks to The Leafline’s editor for publishing it and for his or her kind note at the end of the piece.

All fifteen of the vignettes, flash-fiction pieces, and short stories I have written related to the streets of Las Vegas have been published, most of them outside of Nevada. But it did not come easy, y’all.

The project dates back to the COVID-19 pandemic. After writing a solid first draft of each story, I shared it with two trusted and experienced readers. I took their feedback and worked on another draft—sometimes two or three more. Then, closely monitoring a handful of email newsletters, including Freedom with Writing, Authors Publish, and Sub Club, I submitted the stories to literary journals.

Occasionally, the story was accepted after only five or six rejections. More typically, it was after ten to fifteen or more. Occasionally, I was paid a few hundred dollars. More typically, it was zero to fifty bucks.

Despite the fact that all of the stories have been published—or maybe because of it—a few smaller, independent presses are interested in releasing them as a collection. I recently arranged the stories (which share settings, characters, and themes) in chronological order, got rid of repetition, created a sense of movement/progression, and built bridges between the individual pieces. I also penned an intro.

If the collection does find a proper home, you’ll be the first to know.

https://theleaflinemag.wordpress.com/2026/06/17/the-house-of-cards-began-to-quiver-fiction-by-matthew-obiren/

My short story “The Copper Thief” is live on the DarkWinter Literary Magazine website. As I explained in a previous post, the story is about a homeless, drug-addicted recycler/scrapper who stumbles on a dead body while casing an abandoned apartment, forcing him to reconsider his lifestyle.

Thanks to my Las Vegas CityLife ex-coworker Meredith McGhan and my high school classmate Bryant O’Hara for their feedback on the first draft of the story and to DarkWinter editor-in-chief Suzanne Craig Whytock for publishing the piece!

https://www.darkwinterlit.com/post/the-copper-thief-by-matthew-o-brien

Two more of my short stories have been accepted for publication. “The Copper Thief”—a homeless, drug-addicted recycler/scrapper stumbles on a dead body while casing an abandoned apartment, forcing him to reconsider his lifestyle—is set to be published by DarkWinter Magazine later this month. And “What Seemed Like Silence”—a down-on-his-luck adjunct professor is harassed by a gangbanger while grading papers at a fast-food restaurant off the Strip—was just accepted by Be About It magazine. (Yeah, I like the name of that mag.)

So, fourteen of the fifteen pieces have been published or accepted for publication. The one that hasn’t been? “The House of Cards Began to Quiver”—the arrival of a young, pretty, mentally ill woman threatens the stability of a homeless camp in the underground flood channels—which I envision as the title story of this potential collection.

Are writers the worst judges of their own work? Possibly. But, more likely, it has something to do with the story’s length (5,462 words). It is the longest story of the bunch, and very few literary journals accept submissions that are more than 5,000 words.

Nonetheless, I remain confident that the story will be published, though it may have to run in two parts. Also, the collection has been well received by smaller and independent traditional publishers. I hope to have more news on this soon.

For my editing service, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month, I am beginning to line up work for the “summer” break. I have one big project confirmed, but I should have room for a few other big ones (books, screenplays, websites, etc.) and a handful of smaller ones (résumés, cover letters, bios, poems, etc.).

If you’re looking for fast, personal, professional editing at an affordable price, or are interested in a book or writing coach, please peruse the OES website and let me know if you have any questions. You can contact me via the OES site or this site.

Thanks for your time!

https://www.obrieneditingservices.com/

The publication of this story, titled “Table for Two,” is timely. The lead female character is based on my friend Ivy, who passed away recently. The lead male character is based on me. (Essentially, the story is about two longtime Las Vegans from very different backgrounds who, over a spontaneous lunch, realize they have quite a bit in common.)

I view this story as a tribute of sorts to Ivy and I hope it captures her resilience, intelligence, and personality and helps break stereotypes. An editor of a well-paying Substack journal passed on the piece because he felt the female character was not believable. She’s too clever for a street prostitute, he suggested. I told him the character was based on a real person, but, indeed, Ivy was hard to fathom.

Thanks to my high school classmate and fellow writer Kris Herndon for her suggestions on the story, and to Teach. Write. editor Katie Winkler for publishing the piece. (Teacher/writer friends, you may want to consider submitting to this journal.)

The spring summer 2026 edition is at the top of the home page. The story starts on page 123.

https://teachwritejournal.com/

“I think the ending of ‘Moving Metal’ is one of the best endings to a short story I’ve read in recent memory, and I’m including stories in magazines that pay a lot more than we can.”

So said the co-publisher of On the Premises literary journal. But don’t take his word for it. Read the story, which centers on a phone conversation between a formerly homeless couple who’s now sober and speaking for the first time in a year, and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Oksana Marafioti, Meredith McGhan, and Todd Moffett for their feedback on the story! And thanks to Bethany Granger and Tarl Kudrick, co-publishers of On the Premises, for their interest in the piece and their meticulous care of it!

https://onthepremises.com/issues/issue-46/issue-46-guest1/

I wasn’t in Baltimore this weekend for AWP, but I did sign two publishing contracts. For a total of $50.

For the past several years, as many of you know, I have been writing and submitting vignettes, flash fiction, and short stories to literary journals. In my experience, if you get a story accepted and a little money in return, you are doing all right.

Stories forthcoming in On the Premises (mid-March) and Teach. Write (early April). I will post the links, if they are available.

It’s nice to see a little more green on the screen. My short story “Moving Metal,” which centers on a phone conversation between a formerly homeless couple who’s now sober and speaking for the first time in a year, has been accepted by On the Premises. It should appear in the online literary journal in the next few weeks. More on this soon, I’m sure.

It has been a busy start to the year. I got married. I’m shopping around a short story collection, while continuing to submit the stories individually to literary journals. I’m editing a book and have two more in the queue. Etc.

I have no idea what 2026 will bring, but I like how it has started and I’m optimistic about the months to come. I even posed for updated publicity photos, courtesy of Gilberto Campus, hoping to use them for more than just my websites and social media.

I, of course, will keep you all updated on everything. And I hope your year is off to an active and promising start as well.

Five years ago, after leaving my previous school and preparing to launch my editing service, I decided to dip into my “short story ideas” folder and write a few of them and submit them to literary journals. I’ll see what kind of response they get, I told myself, and go from there.

Initially, they did not get much of a response. But I continued to click on the folder, write out ideas that appealed to me and fit certain themes (the streets of Las Vegas, humanizing the homeless, a sense of longing for change, etc.), and submit the stories. I now have finished fifteen of them—ten of which have been published—and the folder is empty.

I think these vignettes, flash fiction, and short stories could form a strong collection, and I plan to start pitching it to smaller and mid-level publishers in the new year. If you know a publisher who may be interested in it—think Las Vegas/the West and Southwest, homelessness/social issues, literary fiction, short collections (about 40,000 words), etc.—please let me know. Thanks, and happy holidays!

PS- Photo by Gilberto Campos circa 2020, when I started to work on the collection