Your name in lights

The odd thing about submitting stories to various publications is that you do and then you forget about them. It's best to let it go, not think too hard about it -- the most you do before sending your babies off into the void is to mark it down on the spreadsheet that this story went to this publication on this date and then maybe a brief note if there is a follow-up. But then, after that, it's best to forget that you even sent it out; if you have memory like mine, this is very easy to do.

I came back this weekend to find a story of mine in print. Since I'm big on following my own advice, I'd forgotten even sending it in. It's always nice to find the magazine and your name right there below the story title. And it was even artistically decorated. With fish. And no surprise to some of you, but I couldn't remember the story either. So I was reading along quite nicely until I tripped right over a typo.

You know me. I'm the typo queen of the western world. In fact, I'd like to say it's an expression of just how my brain moves compared to my fingers. Or I could say it's some kind of experimental kind of writing -- how many words can I leave out and still have the reader 'get it'? So you see, really, there's an art and intelligence behind my typos.

This is what I tell myself.

Anyway, so there's this typo and I stared at it and then put the magazine down. I haven't read to the end of my own story so I really don't know how it ends, it's been so long. But it was nice, very nice, during this long pin-prick wait for SNW results to come back, to see my name in print for something other than work.