A little bit of happiness

Great news!

This morning I got a nice thick packet in the post . . . and as I was wondering what the heck it could be (all my online Christmas Shopping has arrived), it dawned on me that this package was kind of book shaped.

And indeed, that is what it was. A very beautiful copy of Flash Magazine (International Short-Short Story), and in it is my story: Ursula’s Roses.

I was literally squeeeeee-ing like a teeny-fan and jumping up and down. The children thought I’d gone completely insane and I’m not sure if they were laughing with me or at me (or just a bit nervous of the loony woman in the house).

It’s just exactly what I needed to give me a bit of a lift when my current writing is so blocked and stalled and unproductive. The only thing keeping me going is the backlog of unedited stuff, because for some reason I’m in a hyper-critical mood at the moment so I’m dead-sharp on the editing . . . but this is a big incentive to keep the inventory turning.

And thanks to Jay Lake, because his ’story a week’ and the commitment I’ve made to follow that (at admittedly a story-ever-other-week pace) has forced me to keep things churning no matter how low I feel, and I guess that’s what’s needed if I’m going to stand any chance of making it pro. Now it’s bearing some results (I’d just about given the story up and was preparing to re-sub in the new year – it’d been over 100 days) it gives me something tangible to hand on to.

I think I’m going to have a night off to celebrate . . .