Author: Chris Cocca

The Summerset Review’s Recommended Reading Can Help You Take the Slushpile In Stride

~ Chris Cocca ~ 5 Comments

You’ve finished that short story. You’re sure it’s ready. You send it off into the world. It comes back void.

You let it sit. You read, you write. You question your life choices. You pull the story down and edit with new eyes. You start to submit. You are developing thick skin.

You wash and rinse. Repeat.

I don’t know of any shortcuts. I asked the #WritingCommunity folks on Twitter how many rejections they have in their Submittable accounts. The answer was almost always hundreds. You have to keep going. You have to edit. You have to re-see your own work. You have to keep submitting.

We all know the folk definition of insanity, but we keep going.

Why?

Well, for one thing, it’s not like we can stop. You know what I mean.

But we can, as people say, fail better.

We can read more. We can do a better job reading what’s already out there. Not to copy, not to steal, but to be better writers. To be more patient, empathetic. To cut ourselves some slack.

Most journals say to read an issue or two before submitting to get a feeling for who they are and what they publish. The idea isn’t for you to reverse engineer your work. It’s to help you see if you’re a fit, which, among other things, can damper disappointment. Of course, if you really don’t like the things a given journal tends to publish, you’ll have to decide if it makes sense for you to submit there. Editors change, tastes change, and maybe you’re doing something novel. But go into the submissions process knowing what to expect (hundred, maybe thousands, of rejections) and realizing that there are many brilliant, brilliant writers working just as hard as you are.

With that said, The Summerset Review offers a recommended reading list that not only helps writers know if their work might be a fit, but also curates the craft in general. Reading deeply and widely always helps.

In the time it took me to write this, I got a new rejection. It won’t be the last. And that’s okay.

We could do easier things, but that’s not really who we are.

No Sports Sports Review #3: The Eagles and Kelly Green

~ Chris Cocca ~ Leave a comment

This is one in series of quick takes on various logo updates for 2020. No one has the energy for clever deep dives right now, myself included. So I try to get right to the point.

I don’t know if it’s just in PA, but “Kelly Green” has been trending off and on for a few days. If you don’t know, Kelly Green is the Ideal Form for all Eagles colorways. It’s not even close.

The team’s current shade, Midnight Green, was introduced in 1996. It holds up, but it’s been 24 years since the classic colors worn by Bednarik, Jaws, Randall, Reggie, Keith Jackson, Seth Joyner, Jerome Brown, Dick Vermeil, Buddy Ryan and more took their rightful place as the team’s defining visual element.

Fans and even players have been clamoring for a return, typically hoping for a Kelly Green alternate set. The problem? The NLF mandates that every team have only one helmet shell (facemasks can be changed, and decals are changed after every game) due to safety regulations. Kelly Green jerseys with Midnight Green helmets is a crime against design. Short of a rule change (which may happen next year), the only way to keep both shades of green in rotation is to change helmet shells to a more neutral color.

Of course, the Eagles have rocked white helmets before, and they could make for a good throwback. Silver is another possibility, but that feels too much like Seattle and Dallas.

The answer, of course, is to get rid of Midnight Green all together and do this:

Problem solved.

No Sports Sports Review: Bethlehem Steel FC Becomes Philadelphia Union II (Yawn).

~ Chris Cocca ~ Leave a comment

This is one in series of quick takes on various logo updates for 2020. No one has the energy for clever deep dives right now, myself included. So I try to get right to the point.

This one is a little personal for me. Union II was, until last year, a new iteration of Bethlehem Steel FC. I live in the Lehigh Valley, and Bethlehem Steel, the company (which officially closed in 1996) remains iconic in local and American history even now. In its heyday, it employed thousands and thousands of locals, pumped out steel that helped win WWII and build the Golden Gate Bridge. It also sponsored the original Bethlehem Steel FC, a legendary club from the days of the professional industrial leagues. My great-grandfather worked for Bethlehem rival American Steel (owned by JP Morgan) and was, himself, an industrial league semi-professional athlete. Family legend says he once out-pitched Satchel Paige in a barnstormer, and I’ve decided to take that as fact.

Anyway, I’m not a huge soccer fan, but am I huge mark for anything historical. I liked having the Bethlehem Steel FC iconography revived, and I thought the team’s logo was good. It incorporated the classic Steel imagery with the Union’s excellent snake.

Here are the reasons for the team’s departure. It’s a bummer, especially considering that the Lehigh Valley metro is, according to many metrics, able to support an MLS team of its own.

As for the new logo of the rebranded squad, meh. It’s just a rehash of the Union’s (very fine) visual identity.

No Sports Sports Review: New Chargers Uniforms

~ Chris Cocca ~ Leave a comment

This is one in series of quick takes on various logo updates for 2020. No one has the energy for clever deep dives right now, myself included. So I try to get right to the point.

Have you seen the new Chargers unis? They are good. Each and every one of them:

Seriously, there’s not a single misstep here. Yes, incorporating at least one blue helmet would be even better, but there’s a league rule about only one base color.

The four combinations on the left are obviously my favorites, and it’s hard to pick a winner between them. If I had to cut one, it would be the all-white, which makes the white jersey/gold pants my road choice. Both home combos are outstanding.