My first paid publication ever, and for that matter the first story I wrote as an adult, was a dark, trippy short story about the spaces between realities called "How to Light a Cigar" published last fall in Walking Bones Magazine.



I was sitting in the logic class one day a little over a year ago, checking my e-mail while the students were taking an exam, when I got the acceptance. I had to read it over several times for it to process, since in the time that had elapsed since I started submitting that and subsequent stories in early August of that year, I had grown convinced that e-mails only contained *rejections* and that reports of *acceptances* were like Yetti sightings. The concrete knowledge that in the real world I might actually write something publishable somewhere by someone was a revelation to me, and one from which the confidence to do a lot of things since then (e.g. apply to Clarion) grew.

(Also, relatedly, because my sister told me when she read "How to Light" that if I ever wanted to go to Clarion, "that story would probably get you in." Although ultimately I ended up using some later stories for my application instead, before she said that it had never ocurred to me as a conceptual possibility.)

And, while in many ways (I hope) that some sort of progress has occured and I'm a better writer now than I was then, its still one of my favorite stories in many ways, one that I see as totemic of a lot of what I've been trying to do in my writing.

Unfortunately, while contributors were eventually paid, after the issue in which my story appeared (the second one they put out), the magazine pretty clearly lapsed into non-existence, the editors going incommunicado and failing to update the web-site in almost a year.



Since the story and the sale both had tremendous personal significance to me, and because it's nice to see sf publishing going on in the little corner of the world from which I originate, I was delighted to see this morning that Walking Bones has, finally, updated their web-site and announced a release date for the new issue. (With reduced pay rates, sadly, but still paying.) Also, they've finally moved the November 2005 issue (the one with my story in it) into the back issues section, where it can be downloaded for free.

(So, although the rights have long since reverted to me anyway, in an effort to promote sf publishing in the little corner of the world from which I originate, I am taking down the copy of the story I had posted here a while back and just directing anyone who's interested there.)

It remains to be seen how long the second run lasts, but I am cautiously optimistic about their revival.