On Being Published

I AM PUBLISHED! Ok, enough smiling back to work!

This is a post I expected to write, I just didn’t expect it to be today nor did I expect it to be this year:

Today, my work appears in Brain Harvest. It’s a short story. Just 750 words. I hope you enjoy it!

Read “How Duane Came To Be In The Bathroom” in Brain Harvest, an Almanac of Bad Ass Speculative Fiction.

I’m not really sure where 2009 will rank in the years of my life, but I’m fairly certain it will be hard to top it as a year of change. I left a job of seven years. I made my living by my wits (which is a huge accomplishment given my limited supply of brainpower). I moved across the country without my family. I wrote a novel. I worked myself raw. I forgot how to sleep.

But last night, in the middle of a snowstorm, I slept.

I slept for nearly twelve hours and when I woke I was published and my wife was 500 miles away making buttercream frosting with real Mexican vanilla. The sun is shining and someone finally figured out that salt melts snow and everything is dripping both above and below.

It looks happy outside and I am happy too, but now is the time to start again. Another story is waiting. Time to write…

Editor’s Note: Wow… With a lead in like that, you’d think I’m laying claim to being the next Alice Munro. No, I’m no Alice Munro. I admire her work, but I find the universe far to funny to ever write a story like hers. Besides, as far as I know, Ms. Munro has yet to write a comedic story with overtones of necrophilia. So, I got that going for me, which is nice.