So THIS Happened…

I am now officially a published author. This was completely unexpected. I never dreamed that this would ever actually happen, but it has.

So, how did this happen? Well, obviously, I submitted a piece that got selected for publication. When I submitted the piece, I never dreamed that it would be selected.

What did I write? It was a short story that I wrote a long time ago. In fact, until I started writing this blog, I had not written anything in years. The piece that was submitted was written in 2010 when I was living in Deep River, during the darkest part of my life. From 2009 to 2014, more things in my life went wrong than went right and there was little I could do to stop or prevent the trainwreck. As a result, the piece is a reflection of that time and is dark and twisted. For that reason, I did not expect it to be chosen. Yet, it was.

I was notified in June that the piece had been selected for this issue of the NorthWord magazine. I almost fell over in surprise. The theme of the issue is humour. I’m not sure I would consider it to be funny. Twisted, definitely, but funny? Okay?!?

I had never submitted a piece to a literary magazine before. I have been published. I did go to graduate school and part of doing graduate work involves presenting and publishing your work. In March 2000, I attended a Canadian nuclear student conference where I had submitted a paper. So, I have a paper that was part of the conference proceedings. A short story is not quite the same thing.

During my dark times, I had a lot of unexpected free time. I needed something to do to fill my days. I wrote a few short stories and poems as a way to pass the time. I also spent lots of time playing trumpet. My trumpet skills really improved during that period. And, I ended up with a pile of writings - some of which I shared on Facebook and some of which just languished in a notebook or on one of my hard drives. They laid dormant, but not forgotten.

This past winter, one of my musician friends and bandmates was selected to be the guest editor of the local literary magazine, NorthWord. He had selected humour as the theme for this issue. He kept telling me that I should submit something. I kept telling him that my writings tended to be dark and twisted. He told me to submit them anyway. He might find them funny.

I think a part of me was curious. Would someone else find this stuff interesting?

I fired up my old 2006 Macbook and found the one piece that could potentially be considered humorous. I found an old memory stick and transferred it to my current computer, after doing a quick read to ensure that it read well. And then, with a bit of trepidation, I wrote the email that sent the story to the managing editor of the magazine.

The submission deadline passed and I was super focused on my grade 10 piano exam and my trip to the Jazz Retreat in Nashville, Indiana. On the weekend of my exam, I got the email notifying me that my piece had been selected. It was pretty surreal. I kept reading it over and over. I needed it to sink in before I could send my reply to the request to publish it. I was shocked. Still am.

The magazine launch was Saturday afternoon and it was the first time in my life that I had ever attended one of these. As a musician, I am accustomed to open mics, but a magazine launch where I am asked to read my work? This was a first.

I did get up to read. I did not read the entire story. I just read the first third of it from the printed magazine where I saw my name right under that title of the story. It was not something I ever expected to do.

My story is dark and twisted, as I have mentioned, and told from a female perspective. It was interesting to watch the audience’s reaction. The women were visibly engaged and you could see that they got it and connected with it. The men’s reactions on the other hand spanned from blank stares to actual chuckles. It was a reminder for me of how women experience life so very differently from men.

This week, the magazines are going to be distributed around town at various locations. Working in such a male dominated industry, it is going to be rather interesting to see if there will be a response from folks at work and what that response will be. Whatever it will be, I’m sure that it will provide me with more material that I could eventually use in future writings.