Oscillation

I seem to be writing here more and more infrequently, and I wish I could say it was due to a corresponding increase in writing elsewhere, but I am afraid that would not quite be the truth. I considered making an end to it, in order to concentrate my efforts elsewhere, but I find I never like to end things, so for the moment I shall only continue in my sporadic way.

For the moment I guess I shall post a note I wrote elsewhere:

May 1st

Well I was just getting ready to fire myself, but I guess now I won't.

I was even thinking about doing it in a very official manner with a letter. I mean it doesn't do me much good to have a job at which I am not working, and I most certainly have not been writing lately, except for blog posts and letters in Tengwar, though there were a couple of times I attempted it. If I had been working at any other job I would have been fired a long time ago, so I thought it stood to reason that I should be fired as a writer.

I guess this just goes to show that I am not in control here. This very day I randomly decided to go out and check the mail—which I generally reserve for those who actually get things in the mail—and there was an envelope for me from Elder and Leemaur Publishers.

I opened it slowly, trying not to get excited. I already knew what it meant though.

I am going to be published! Or rather a piece of my writing is, which will make me a published writer.

Before I say anything further I should explain: this was in answer to a scholarship I had found. The requirement was for me to submit an essay under 500 words, for which topic I chose the following:

Topic #1: Over the past twenty years campaign spending has been increasing at an astronomical pace. Do you believe that this is good or bad for democracy? and why?

So I wrote the essay, worked on it, had a couple people read it, worked on it some more, (all of this within a few days of the deadline) and submitted it the day before the deadline, which was March 1st.

It is, however, rather ironic that I am getting it published. After all I have spent a good eight or so years of my life seriously working at writing fiction. I have written numerous stories and novels, I have read books about writing fiction, I have critiqued stories and had my own critiqued, and I have submitted numerous works of fiction to various magazines. Yet now I am going to have a non-fiction essay published.

I suppose it doesn't make too much difference what it is. The important part is that I am going to be published! I am rather excited.