The progression is simple:
Write, submit, acceptance, payment, author interview.
The perfect sequence to an author’s life, yes?
The writing was difficult. This particular story found its beginnings in Story a Day in May 2012 as part of the Circus stories. It was a rather long-winded short story about Jarod, the Elephant Man. Oh, not the original man from my research, but my attempt at bringing Joseph Merrick to life. After many revisions and eventually cutting it down to a flash fiction piece, Jarod was ready to be submitted to Spark, A Creative Anthology.
The first volume of Spark. I waited the requisite sixty days, heart pounding. No answer. Okaaay. As day sixty-one bleed into sixty-five, the nerves set in. Should I email them? No. They had quite a few hundred submissions to go through. Day sixty-nine. I opened my inbox in the morning; then hourly. Day seventy. Nothing. It was time to write to the editor–see if there was a problem. Wrote the email. Couldn’t send it. Day seventy-one. An email arrives. Now I’m afraid to open it. Is it a ‘yes?’ Or a ‘no?’
YES!!! Oh, the excitement, the thrill of not only an acceptance (my second one), but a paid one! I really didn’t care how much that check was–this one was getting framed.
Contract signed, little editorial details taken care of. Spark makes its debut on April 2, 2013. How thrilling is that, to be part of a new endeavor? One that I know will continue, because I know Brian Lewis. A man of dedication and vision.
That was it. I ordered e-copies for Kindle and Nook. Forgot to get the hard copy. Crap. Ahh, taken care of by Brian. Ordered three copies for the family. All set now.
Then a Scrib-mate, Lucie Lastic, not only put up a great review on Amazon, but also asked if she could interview several of us for her blog. This is it. Right here: http://cjjessop.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/an-introduction-to-spark-a-creative-anthology/
What could possibly be better than this? What could expand that circle of achievement in the life of an author?
Who cares? I’m ecstatic to be where I am right now.
standard ishue--Katie 