I have an announcement to make.

In my spare time, I have been secretly writing and trying to sell professional-level short fiction. (Specifically speculative fiction, which includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror.) At first I (very, very) naively believed that this would be a snap. Even though I tried to tell myself it wasn’t so, I still secretly thought I was a hot-shot natural who would type up a story or two and then the acceptances would start rolling in.

3 1/2 years and 132 rejections later, my eyes have been opened.

Writing a story that an editor wants to publish is a lot harder than I ever imagined. Even just getting down on paper the story you imagine in your head is a lot harder than I ever imagined. Furthermore, that’s not even the hard part; the hard part is finding time to keep writing when the rejections, dishes, and laundry are piling up, and you have two small kids who need 110% of your effort, to say nothing of a full time job.

Way back at the beginning, I decided to keep my fiction writing a secret “until such time that I feel this whole idea is not foolish. Or, until I decide that it is completely foolish and we can all have a good laugh about it.”

Well, I can finally say it is the former rather than the latter. I am pleased to announce that my story, “My Heart is a Quadratic Equation” will appear in the September issue of Redstone Science Fiction!

It feels so good to finally have a win (even if the score is 132 to 1) that I am “coming out of the closet” so to speak with my illicit, night-time fiction writing. Momentarily I will unlock the “Writing” category and all the posts contained therein. If you feel the need to go back and read them, please remember that 3 1/2 years ago I was more or less a clueless idiot when it came to professional writing.  (I’m sure that in another 3 1/2 years I will look back at this post and consider my current self more or less a clueless idiot when it comes to professional writing.)

So there it is. You can be sure I will link to the story when it goes live on their website, and from here on out, any other information about my writing.

The first of many!