Sometimes we succeed
It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group
The month of March has been good for me, so instead of venting my insecurities, today I’ll brag a little.
1. Two of my short stories have been accepted for publication. One, Hidden in the Mirror, is already published in InfectiveInk.com. You can read it here.
Another one, Tail to Treasure, will be published in November 2016 by Bloodbond. Both publications are paying markets. They don’t pay much, $10 and $20 respectively, but I feel almost like a jackpot winner.
I have had many of my short stories published but not recently. I had a few years break, when I didn’t write any short stories and concentrated on the longer form. Then I started writing shorts again. In the past year and a half, I’ve written a dozen short stories in various speculative fiction genres: fantasy, sci-fi, magic realism. I’ve been submitting them to magazines, not very aggressively but steadily. Interesting that both stories that have been accepted are themed. They fit the current theme of the publication PRESIZELY. I guess that’s why they were accepted first among the recent bunch. A lesson to learn, surely.
2. My Wattpad stories are doing well too. My Regency romance novella Fibs in the Family topped the 1,000 reads mark, and I had some very flattering comments. And my translation from Russian – the novella Scarlet Sails by Alexander Grin – crossed the 2,000 reads line.
3. In February, I participated in a Valentine blog hop (a theme, again). Every participant wrote something – flash fiction, non-fiction, or poetry – in less than 1000 words. My contribution was a flash fiction Hannah’s Rugelach. You can read it here. We all read each other’s posts and commented – you know how blog hops go. I received many encouraging comments. Then in the beginning of March, the organizers announced the three top stories. My story won the second place.
4. I learned a new skill. I now know how to have a text curve in an arch using Paint.net – the program I prefer to create my own book covers. I tried it on a few of practice covers, and it looks nice. Perhaps I should offer my services as a book cover designer. I can’t paint and I don’t know some complex visual effects yet, but if a writer has an image in mind, I can create a simple cover for her. I could also offer fiction editing – another possible service.
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Sometimes it’s therapeutic to look back at your life and list all your successes, even the tiny ones. We all tend to concentrate on failures (e. g. of my 12 stories only 2 got accepted so far) but successes are even more important. They infuse us with a dose of happiness.
What about you? Any successes lately? Big ones? Tiny ones? Tell me in the comments. Let’s celebrate together, folks.
