ACCEPTED!

I've been accepted.

Go on, check my sidebar. Yeah, there it is: "My Brother's Own Words", accepted, as in "not rejected". As in - I didn't get sent a mysterious and unsettling envelope addressed to me, in my own writing, with nothing inside and no return address.

Accepted.

Someone liked my story. Someone wants to publish my story. It's not published yet - it has to go through an editing process and contract stuff, but I've still been accepted! By a magazine! A big, paying magazine that people actually subscribe to, voluntarily, and not because they'll get a free coupon book if they do!

Accepted.

I have no idea how this will turn out, but it's certainly much more exciting then another rejection letter and another "it just didn't do it for me". I'm very excited and nervous and enthusiastic.

I've been jumping up and down. My mother's making calls to everybody. I have a chance to be a real, published author! An AUTHOR!

I wrote that story over three days while I was recovering from wisdom tooth removal, and I sent it in, in September. In January, I received a yellow postcard back, saying that they were looking at it. And now, I've received a letter that says they thought my story was "fresh, poignant, and endearing" and that they're willing to publish and pay for it. "My Brother's Own Words" has been on a nine-month journey, but by God, it was worth the wait!

Because I want to be a writer for a living, and this acceptance means that I am one step closer to getting my absolute dream job!