For the life of me I can’t remember what I wrote in my bio-post. I know its a simple click back to look, but my mind is running a million miles a minute. If I don’t get it all out now I never will. If you follow my social media you already know that I received an email yesterday morning from a literary journal.

If I haven’t already said so I’m a student at Full Sail University. I’m studying for my BA in creative writing for entertainment. I had a class (I wanna say back in May) that we were given prompts/images and told to write our own versions. Write a flash fiction (completed stories containing 1000 words or less) about what you think happened.

So I did.

I was excited to have the professors workshop (read through and “grade” it live in class) my piece. When the words, “you should send this out,” came from my professors mouth I was speechless. No one else had been given this advice and it took my breath away. So after a few alterations and grammar fixes, I did just that.

I sent the story to four publishing companies. I was really excited to just writing the emails. I was so nervous to press the send button though. When my first rejection came in I celebrated. MY STORY WAS READ! I didn’t give a damn that they said, “no.” The fact that it had been read by someone in a publishing company alone gave me a sense of accomplishment.

The second rejection was a bit painful. I got lost in this web of, “I’m not good enough,” and it sucked. I chose though to not let the rejection get to me. I still had two other publishing companies to hear from. I continued on school kept me busy. As did summer with the kiddo, fishing trips, family get together’s, I threw a party for my mama, and spent an entire evening in Luke Bryan bliss.

Come end of August I had forgotten about my entries and was pumped for getting kid ready for school. We were starting private school this year and the whole family was so excited! I also just completed my first story on Wattpad.com. It was all falling into place. Then we get word a terrible hurricane (Dorian) was headed our way. I hate to say it but I kinda laughed, I’ve been very, “blah,” about it.

Now don’t get me wrong, we prepared for it. We did the shopping and made the plans, but didn’t panic. It’s Jeff’s first so he’s been really excited. All that chaos and panic and it ain’t even gonna make landfall… In Florida any way.

Hidden amongst the junk emails was something great. At 6:54am August 31st, 2019 I received my first, “yes.” I didn’t see the email until early on the first of September but that didn’t matter. The Editor In Chief wrote to ME! I’m at a loss for words. MY story is getting published. Hopefully the first of many but it is usually the first that means the most.

Just like that all my fears about my writing disappeared for just a moment. I shared the news everywhere. When I get the notice of when and where it can be read I’ll share it all again! I screamed when I read the email, my kid came running in. And though I’m not sure he really understood what I was saying he hugged me and said, “I’m happy for you mommy.”

That was the best congratulations I received.