well i've thoroughly wasted an afternoon. i tried to catch up a bit at the hg forum and then i zipped over to spoiled ink for a bit. i saw they are taking submissions for an anthology, so i dusted off one of my favorite stories and after making sure everything is indeed how i want it, i'll throw it to the wolves. with all the talented writers over there, i won't hold my breath, but what the hay, i'm quite used to rejection.

the story is, as i mentioned, one of my favorites and the first fiction story over 1500 words i ever wrote. it comes in just barely under 5000 words. i first wrote it a few years back when i was working for the now defunct 3F Publications, for their first signature series, The Decay Within. the owner(man, i'm getting senile, why can't i remember her name?) declined it, and i'm not sure what liz thought of it. i guess in retrospect, it's a good thing they didn't take it, as i doubt i'd ever have seen a cent from the sales since they went under. hell, i'm still waiting for my copies of books they promised me for working there. i don't think liz even got her copies.

i remember being so excited to write it. and when my excitement level is that high, when i can't sleep and become so obsessed, i'm usually very pleased with the outcome. i've shopped it out to a few places since then, but it really kind of defies any sort of classification. it's dark, but not really all that dark, it's historical, taking place in the first part of the 20th century, so not really all that historical, and it is of course, southern in flavor and voice.

that is my voice. i've struggled to come to terms with this, because i'm no faulkner or o'conner. and even tho the blue collar comedy guys have made it a little more hip to be southern, it's still a small, underwhelming market. i, personally, like my little tales but no one else seems to.

a year or so ago, i started gathering my southern stories in manuscript form, thinking maybe i could publish a short story collection. however, from all my research, a writer will publish a novel for the first time long before a short story collection.

that seems kind of backwards to me. i mean, most writers don't start out writing novels, they practice their craft with short stories. we don't learn to run before we learn to crawl, do we? but unless you're a well known (or at least published) novel writer, you've a better chance of getting struck by lightening than having a short story collection published first.

i would rather read a collection of short stories. maybe it's my short attention span, but i like that i can take a collection to the doctor's office and read one or two stories while i wait, instead of being interupted at a critical point in a novel.

at any rate, my manuscript is up to 67 word pages and i have a few more stories already written that need to be added.

for at least a year now, stacy and i have been kicking around the idea of publishing books, possibly both print and e-books. i finally got my hands on a pdf(or is it pfd?) converter, and hopefully soon we can start the process. we hope to publish a best of chick flicks and heavyglow, but i also think i'll offer up my cookbook, and maybe even possibly my southern tales. i mean, really, i've nothing to lose and maybe i'll make two bucks.

so now ya'll go find a short story to read and enjoy it. it's time for me to start cooking dinner.