In the beginning....

Well, this isn't really the beginning. It's taken a long and winding road to arrive at this place in time. If I'd had a bit more about me I might have hit this spot many years ago.

I've started blogging and designing a website because I've decided to take myself seriously for a bit. And why, you may ask, has this turn of events taken place? Well, because two editors have taken my work seriously enough to publish it.

I'd always wondered how it would feel to get an acceptance letter. Truth is, I didn't feel much really. Apart from a deep down, warming the cockles of your heart, satisfaction that I can actually write something that someone would want to publish, I felt like I'd simply stepped on the first rung of a ladder, the top of which is way up in the clouds and undoubtably far higher than I will ever be able to climb.

Writing is a lot like painting the Forth Bridge - as soon as you've finished it's time to start all over again. It's a constant and neverending uphill battle, especially if you want to be published.

I've had but two short stories accepted so far, both within two weeks of each other. I'm hoping they aren't flukes. HALLOWEEN EDDIE'S will appear in Wicked Karnival's Halloween Special Edition which should be available on or around October 15th 2005, and FROM THE CORNER OF MY EYE which will appear in a future, as yet undetermined, issue of All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society

When Wicked Karnival accepted my story, I thought it might be a good idea to get myself a web presence. Tom Moran over at WK asked me to write a bio and send a photo to go along with the story. "Yeah, sure, no problem," I said. Then I tried to write it. Ever written about yourself in third person? It is weird. I sat there with my fingers poised over the keyboard with what seemed like the most pretentious openings to the bio sliding through my mind. In the end I turned to my wife, Debbie and said, "What should I say?"

My wife is a nurse. She is the practical sort. When I read her a story and ask for an opinion she'll say, "Yeah, it's good." Stories are black and white to her: if she likes it it's good...if she doesn't it's bad. Anything more has to be teased out of her with leading questions. I didn't expect her to know any better than I, but she just looked at me and said, "Tell them what you've done. Tell them about the writing and the sculpting and the masks and models you've made."

I almost had to take a step back. Hell yeah, I thought, I have done some stuff over the years. If a few people like reading HALLOWEEN EDDIE'S, maybe they'll want to take a look at what else I've done (he says hopefully).

So I registered a domain and fixed a 'Coming Soon' plate to it. In a while, anyone with nothing better to do will be able to see some photos of the masks and sculptures I made in my 'sculpting period', and maybe some of the drawings I did when I was a teenager. Hopefully they'll be able to read a bit of fiction too.

I don't really feel comfortable with the things I am doing at the moment (taking photos, writing bios etc) to try and promote my writing, but it seems it’s something you have to do if you want to get noticed these days.

So though it has taken me a long time to get here, it is a beginning of sorts. If it all comes to nothing…well, little is lost, except maybe for a few dreams.

Until then, I hope the journey will be entertaining, if nothing else.

Best
Alan