You all know how I feel about Me!Me!s, but this one’s about writing, so I figured it was at least appropriate…

Describe the first story you ever sold to any publication. What was the title of the story? The name of the publication? The plot? The public reception to your work?

My first fiction sale was “Snowblind” to Lost Worlds, published in January 1993. Payment was in copies, but I was still thrilled. Small press publication, but nicely put together, at a time when there were few places that took high fantasy and finding those markets was extremely hard (ah, those pre-Internet days…). A few years later, I submitted another story, “Riding Into Faerie,” and they not only accepted it, but in the editorial for that issue, they said they’d been hoping I’d submit again. That was a nice warm fuzzy.

In late high school, I was taking a nap, and had the Paradise Theatre cassette on low on my boombox. As I drifted, I listened to their song “Snowblind” (an anti-cocaine song) and my mind took it in a high fantasy direction (strongly influenced by Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Birthmark”).

No public reception that I know of, but my mother loved my description of a frozen waterfall.

The first thing I ever sold for money was a nonfiction piece, a descriptive vignette of a concert audience that I wrote for my English class in senior year. I won an “adult writing contest” (meaning “not kids” rather than anything sexy) in a local magazine, Plattsburgh Alive, and still have a copy of the check (published 1984/1985, I’m guessing). It’s probably worth noting that at the time, I’d only ever been to one concert…you guessed it: Styx.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Except now I get paid. And several members of Styx know my name, or at least recognize me. :-)