Two acceptances

Because of the holiday this week, and with family visiting, I decided to take the week off from doing the paid writing work. I would continue to write, of course, but only when the time allowed and when an idea struck. This kind of writing would be something I wanted to write, not something I HAD to write.

That said, I figured my e-mail account for the writing stuff wouldn't be very active this week. I thought that other people would be taking a break, too. Not so!

Turns out, my e-mail account was pretty busy this week. I got two acceptances!

The first acceptance came before Thanksgiving. I got an e-mail informing me that my short story, "A Phone Call Away," has been accepted for publication in an anthology. Hooray! The anthology is called Inner Fears. When I saw that call for stories, I thought that this particular story would be perfect for it, since the theme really is about our inner fears! I'm so happy I finally found a home for that story. Woot!

The second acceptance came on Thanksgiving Day. I have so much to be thankful for this year, and on Thanksgiving Day, I was blessed with something MORE to be thankful for! My poetry book, Love Is Like a Rainbow, has been accepted for publication by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. Woo-hoo!

This book has had quite a long journey on the road to publication.

The first time it was accepted, in 2005, there was something that came up with an editor I was working with and since she is friends with the editor at that company (based in France), I guess that's why they decided to drop plans to publish my book.

Then another company had plans to publish the book, but financial hardship changed those plans.

I decided then and there I would publish this book myself. After years of being told this book would be publish and then being told it wouldn't, I was fed up. I was also concerned about putting excess financial hardship on book publishers already straining under the trials of the recession. I didn't want to be an extra financial burden.

Still, with my failed attempts to self-publish a book behind me, I was even more wary of attempting this route once again. Believe me, I've been boning up on everything to do with self-publishing. But, the financial thing was an issue. How would I be able to afford it?

I started asking around. One self-pubbed author, L.K. Hunsaker, shared ideas with me about the self-publishing thing. She later told me about Gypsy Shadow Publishing, so I thanked Loraine for the reco and sent the manuscript to them.

With this acceptance, I am hoping, and praying, that my dreams of seeing this book published will finally come true. I've been trying to get this book published since 2005! And that short story that I have received an acceptance on was written a few years ago, at that. (I also have a novel I have been spending years trying to find a publisher for. I am hoping that I will find one soon. Right now, it is being reviewed by Eternal Press.)

It makes you really think about the long journey we must embark on to write certain stories and books. Writers aren't kidding when they warn aspiring authors that they could end up spending a year or more writing their books, then longer than that to find an agent or publisher. The road to publication can be long and trying. I hope those trying times of finding publishers for my books will be less and less in the future.