In Print

Things come in “threes,” or so we all hear.  Pigs, bears, blind mice. Celebrity deaths. General happenings. One work day a few years ago, I returned to my desk and spilled my morning coffee everywhere. My co-worker arrived late, because she had spilled coffee all over the inside of her car. A while later, one of my bosses arrived for the day and – you guessed it – spilled his coffee everywhere. That was one weird trifecta.

So how should I feel about being published in two places within one week? Raw expectation, or quiet hope for a third?

1 for 1

The October issue of The Conservationist magazine came out this week with my essay, Discovering Adirondack, as the “Back Story.” I knew it was coming, having been told of the schedule by the editor earlier this Summer. When I learned in May that I had won the Great Outdoors essay contest held by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, I was elated at the honor, loved the fine art print that was my prize (and hangs over my desk), but it was the prospect of publication that thrilled me.

To open the mailbox, pull out the magazine, and turn to the back page to see my essay there in print is divinely validating. And then the next day my by-line was in print again.

2 for 2

I am the author of a feature in a local newspaper! Full Disclosure: The editor of said newspaper is the mother of one of my closest, oldest, dearest friends. All I did was “put myself out there,” and she answered with a project. Is it really that easy?

Perhaps the answer is “yes…and no.” I do tell myself that she would not have assigned me an article on buying and restoring an old home for the special Fall Home section of her newspaper if she didn’t think I could write well. Getting paid to write is fairly awesome.

This is credibility. Now when I say, “I’m a freelance writer,” I will have an answer for the follow up question, “What have you written lately?” Because even though I know in my soul that I am a writer, it helps that other people think so, too.

3 for…?

So what’s Number Three? There are twenty-two days left to October. I am hoping for a letter from a certain magazine where I submitted a short story earlier this year. In the meantime, I plan to find an opportunity and seize it.