T-SHIRT

Good news today - my t-shirt arrived from Necrotic Tissue (they only accepted my story Monday of last week!).

The t-shirt is really cool, with "published" on the sleeves, and their name on the front and logo on the back.

I'd like to wear it but I don't want to wash it - would hate the text to fade!

Maybe I'll frame it, the first t-shirt of many!

DISAPPOINTING MONDAY

For the first Monday in - oh, weeks! - the DNs have received no exciting news (to the best of my knowledge, anyway).

Have to get back submitting again, slowing up here!

TO ALL THE DOGS...

The house was empty this weekend without you all.

I expected Rags to be gracefully curled up on the couch, Janna to whine excitedly when she saw me in the hopes of me taking her out to play, and Toffee to lick my face to pieces!

I also expected Woozer to drag herself up to greet me, and I still thought of our doggie friends who have moved on (Angel and Muffin) as well as Cino and Sheba.

It was nice to see Blueberry & Fudge still in residence!

INKPOT VS VALPOT

I know in our anxiety to get published, it may come across as a competition, but it's not. At least, not against each other - against the world maybe!

Recently I was musing on our success and drew a few similarities.

Both Inkpot and I had the same experience with our first acceptance - publication was a long way away but we would both be paid for our work afterwards (yet to happen for both of us).

Our second acceptance - for both of us - was for unpaid Micro Fiction.

We have also both sold Micro Fiction.

Necrotic Tissue has accepted both of us, and we will both be in the January 2009 edition!

So far this April, we have both had three acceptances (if I count Toffee's photo).

For both of us, the majority of our publications have been paid ones.

Now the differences. Inkpot has sold a short story (I've only sold micro-fiction).

Three of mine have already been published. Inkpot has to wait until May 20th for her first.

I've been paid twice, Inkpot once so far.

All Inkpot's acceptances are fiction. Almost half of mine aren't.

All these things are accurate (as far as I know!) as of this moment, but we both have a lot of other things out there, so who knows what will happen by the end of this month.

I know acceptances will come pouring in for Inkpot in the near future. I only hope I'll be able to keep up with her.

CRAZY APRIL

April has been such a busy month. Inspired by the success of Inkpot, I submitted 6 stories this month. As you know, dear reader, 1 microfiction has already been published, and another will be published next January.

As if that wasn't enough, I am trying to enter a competition with a closing date next Thursday, edit a novella for next Wednesday and get a lot of work done on my chapbook. Other competitions and deadlines are looming up in May so May will be busy too.

There is also the tiny matter of doing some MOS exams and getting a job to fund all this writing. The only problem with that is that a job will leave me with little time or energy to write (that was the case with my last job anyway, I know lots of people can do both.)

I hope I can keep up this productivity!

THANKS, TOFFEE

Got a cheque in the post today from My Weekly. I hadn't expected it because some of the letters had £25 on them, and others - including the Toffee pic - hadn't.

So thanks, Toffee!!

£25 plus a contributor copy for a readers letter and photo - not bad! Who needs to write fiction?? (Only joking)

First Fiction Sale

Those lovely - no, those WONDERFUL people in Necrotic Tissue have accepted my micro fiction tale 'Reflections' for their January 2009 issue.

This is my first PAID fiction publication. Better still, the stories of both Inkpot and I will appear in the same issue!

Yippee!