In today's mail, I got the check for Of Rum, Madness, Thunderstorms and Prayer. Not a *big* check, mind you, given Atomjack's pay rates....but....still...I'd forgotten just how good it feels.

I've only gotten six stories published in the two and half years that I've been writing, and none of the last three before this one sent checks. (I got paid via paypal for Three Perspsectives on the Role of the Anarchists in the Zombie Apocalypse and "Dreaming of a Gray Enemy," and the contest win for David and His Zebra "paid" via the barter system in the form of a t-shirt and a box of books.) I got checks for "How to Light a Cigar" and "The Star Inside the Swastika," but those were both...well...a while ago. In fact, due to an extreme delay in the (now-defunct) Walking Bones Magazine sending the payment for "How to Light a Cigar," I didn't get that check until four days before I got DKA's check for "The Star Inside the Swastika." I got the latter on February 7th of last year, the day after, just to put this all in chronological perspective, I got my e-mail letting me know I'd been admitted to the PhD program at Miami.

So....February 7th, 2006 to November 27th, 2007...it's been a while, and I'd almost forgotten what a nice feeling it was to have an actual physical check to hold in your hand--on the way, mind you, down to the bank to cash the damn thing...I am a starving grad student--as visible proof of some tiny measure of writerly success, like, "wow, I actually got *paid* for writing. Neat."