Happy Thanksgiving!
Today I am thankful for the publication of my first short story!
A few months ago Fuse Literary put out a call for submissions for a sexy holiday romance anthology, and I thought, “Why not?” Having never actually read any romance, nor attempted to write it, I thought, “How hard can it be?”
Turns out, kinda fun, actually.
It was as much a personal challenge for myself to write something that didn’t have magic or demons, aliens or dinosaurs in it. Just a sweet, sexy story about a post-cancer woman getting her groove back.
I think it turned out pretty cute.
And apparently, so did the fine folks at Fuse Literary, because they chose to include it in their anthology.
Today it got published. Writer becomes published author with the push of a button.
It just happened overnight, so I haven’t even had a chance to read the other stories. Can’t wait to dive in and see what everybody else sent in.
It’s kind of funny to me that my first official publication is this one…my other soon-to-be-published short stories are quick, snappy little numbers–one of them a sci-fi, and the other, suspense. And the one that’s out there first has the word “penis” in it. I debated long and hard (ha) about that word. It seemed to me as I was writing the story that its inclusion changed the story from sweet and sassy to graphic and erotic. But that’s what they asked for in the submission, so “penis” stayed put.
I also debated about using a pen name, and decided that if I was willing to put a story out there at all, I should be willing to sign my own name to it. People like to talk about “author branding,” and the worry is that publishing in disparate genres will confuse people about who I am as an author. My answer to that is, “As an author, I write a lot of different stuff.” Maybe someday if something hits really big, I’ll get pigeonholed as a Sci-Fi writer, or a Paranormal writer, or a Fantasy writer. And I’ll be just fine with that.
Meanwhile, enjoy my sexy little Christmas story.
Love this!