Jeff Macfee

I love that I work at a place that produces something. And not a pants something, or a shirt something, at least not in the generic sense. Games. Music. Characters. Story. Art.

Neat fun stuff.

There were sacrifices to get here, but it’s been so worth it. It reminds me why I enjoy writing, and gets me off my ass such that I actually produce something of my own.

Enough of teh blogging. I must go make my characters do something.

For 18 months I submitted at least one short story to at least one publication. And then, in July, something broke.

Don’t know what, but it broke good. Short stories weren’t working. I was sick of all my work, especially the short cutesy work. I plowed back into my novel, but I’d been doing novel work off and on during the previous 18 months, so I’m not sure why my ability to do two things at once ceased to function. Thankfully I didn’t try to walk and chew gum at the same time.

But October has changed things. I’m back on the horse, so to speak. Two stories out now, and two of my strongest to date.

At any rate, fingers crossed. If these two fail, there’s always attempt number 41. And we all know what number comes after that.

Things are looking up over here.

I have some family additions on the way, and they appear happy and healthy.

I sold a non-fiction piece, which in the grand pantheon of writerly achievement may be small, but for me looms quite large.

I have a professional change coming up that I’m hugely excited about, and I think will shine some happiness into all corners of my life.

Just thought I would acknowledge all of the above. You never know when everything will go to crap, and I want to have this moment to savor.

I think so.

No I have not sold a story. Different life area entirely. But still exciting.

I have a spreadsheet I use to track the status of all my submissions. To date it’s been easy to fill out the columns, because they’re always the same columns. Date Submitted, Story/Piece Title, Submitted to, Response. And Response is always the same.

Until this last week. Response=Accept. Wohoo!

And I got to fill out a new column–Money.