This has been a great year for me in many ways. I now have a son, I get to stay home with him most days and watch him grow, and I have finally started to apply myself to my writing. I sold my first piece, the first piece I sent out this year, right off the bat. I was flabbergasted, but I knew I’d earned it. The few stories I’d sent out previously had been incomplete or lacked polish. But I had been determined to publish something this year and I set myself to that goal from story one. I went through probably six or seven drafts on that first piece, needing it to be the best it could be.
Of course I knew it couldn’t last, as no one sells everything they write unless they’ve made a huge name for themselves. I was right in this, but I did get some helpful feedback on that second story and I think I’ll be reworking it at some point. I’ve been too busy chasing calls for anthologies and themed issues, though, deadlines haunting and taunting me. I’ve made some decent progress.
Last night, though, I received an email I truly didn’t think I’d see in this first year. Of course, this isn’t really my first year writing. I’ve been telling myself stories since grade school and writing down (at times) coherent stories since junior high school or so. I’ve been hardening myself against rejection, and even sent out a few pieces I ‘knew’ wouldn’t make the cut because something was a bit off, even though I couldn’t place the issues. Others, I felt were very good pieces, but perhaps I’d aimed too high as I did back in college when I sent some of my first submissions to places like Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.
Thus, I opened a response email from a pro market online magazine expecting to see the usual, “We really liked this story, but it just doesn’t fit into this issue/ we can’t use it at this time, best of luck placing it elsewhere.” I hoped to see some kind of feedback I might use to hone or redirect the story, but while I had psyched myself out, this story was indeed ready for prime time. I am very happy to say that I have had a story accepted by Crossed Genres magazine for their Second Contact themed issue, due out in January of 2014. This is my first professional sale, for which I am grateful and excited on a number of fronts and which I hope will be the first of many.
In other writing news, I’ve done some interviews for the upcoming Capes and Clockwork Steampunk Superhero anthology in which I have a story, “Aeolus, Chiron and Medusa.” I’ll be posting interviews I’ve conducted and links to those in which I’ve been interrogated soon.
I would also like to point out that my Mad Scientist story also went live Monday here! It’s free to read.
In and Out of My Mind 
woo hoo! Way to go! I know that feeling of working so hard on something and finally it comes to light! Now you just need to make sure you plug that piece and that magazine as much as you can to get your brand of writing out there or just your brand as an author
Thanks! It has been tough working through all kinds of issues just to get to this year of sending out stories regularly. Recently, I’m doing interviews and having a much more interactive experience with my writing and publishers. It’s been great and I look forward to more, as well as the experience of getting a book or two out there soon.