I AM FREAKING PUBLISHED!!!!

Check it out, dudes!!!! The August 2010 issue of Skive Magazine – the vampire issue! http://www.skivemagazine.com/ The story is titled “Luna,” and I’ll not really go into what it’s about, save that it’s obviously about fanged people.

I’ve been published before, but never for fiction. This is a first! Sweet! This is the beginning of my published fiction history!

A friend of mine commented on my announcement, and our friendship goes back a few years, with an initial shared interest in writing. She said we were discussing writing while she was in her old apartment, which she moved out of in 2006, “so it’s been a while.” I guess I’m seeing the payoff of persistence here, and it’s good to know that rather than sitting around and worrying about what the outcome might be, I just went ahead and wrote!

Okay, now I think I’ll celebrate by writing and submitting more stuff!

Back in the game

It’s been hard to keep up with posting pics, partly because I don’t seem to be turning out any notable pics lately, at least not ones that I find to be particularly moving or exciting from my own perspective. That, and, well, it’s just really hard to keep up! The effect that has had on the blog related to other postings is that I…haven’t posted. I’m trying to change that a little, and since I have news today, I’m not going to wait until I’ve gotten caught up on a month’s worth of photo postings to do it.

Yesterday was a pretty friggin’ awesome day in the world of personal accomplishments. For one, I FINALLY put the R90S up on Ebay after having posted some internet ads and gotten little interest. Ebay was kind of the final choice, and it’s a little scary having that thing up there and knowing that in seven days (hopefully) it will be sold. It’s been a big responsbility owning that bike, and it feels like a big responsibility selling it. I’ll be glad to let it go and move on to other pursuits, not to mention using the cash to pay some bills. That’ll feel good, freeing.

In news directly related to creativity, yesterday I made another story submission! Woohoo! Rock! *bows to self in admiration*
I was writing in my journal yesterday morning things like, “I really haven’t done anything creative related to sculpture or writing in at least two months, and this is the stuff I REALLY want to do! I need to do it!” Somehow that got me all revved up, and that afternoon I took a look at Duotrope’s Digest and realized that there was a deadline for a vampire anthology coming up in 1.5 days. Lucky me, I had just such a story in my files (Ah, the benefits of finishing things! Now I have files of completed stories!)

I checked the submission guidelines and realized that my story was going to need some serious editing if it was going to make the requirements. The word limit was 2,500, and mine was at 3,700. Ack – just a little on the high side! However, I was determined, plus I thought the story couldn’t hurt from some editing, and I wanted to see what would happen if I grabbed a machete and started hacking.

It took a while, but a few hours later I found myself sitting in front of my screen looking at the word counter which read 2,456 words. Sweet! I put together a quick email, added some probably unnecessary biographical info, and shot it off into the etherwebz. There’s no pay for this thing, even if it does get accepted, but at least it got me off my butt and got me writing/rewriting. Now I’ve sent in yet another submission for this year. I may be at a record of TWO whole stories submitted within a year. Woah! Yeah, I think I’ll try and shatter that record with an additional submission. I’ve found another that looks likely, and I think I’ll try my luck there. That one even pays. Payment for writing – what a concept! We’ll see. For now I’m happy to be back in the process. Good times.