This is not a drill, I’ve got an upcoming publication in the works! I couldn’t be more happy to announce that my short story, Jexa, has been accepted by the Houston Writers Guild’s upcoming anthology, Journey Into Time. Life’s been so busy lately that I’ve scarcely had the time for writing—a disastrous state for me to be in at any point. It’s birthday season in my family this time of year. From May to the first week of July there’s a nonstop parade of birthdays, yearly celebrations and holidays that bog down any time I have to step back into my creative flow. Being away from my keyboard for a prolonged amount of time usually amounts to the stressful percolating of my brain that grows and grows until I’m about to burst. The bursting, thankfully, didn’t happen thanks to an unexpected decision I made earlier this year.
I was blessed with my first child in mid October of last year. The months following, not surprisingly, have been busy to save the least. I worried daily if I’d be able to get back to my writing at all. Thanks in no small part to the obsessive nature of my ADHD brain, the regret of missing writing sessions quickly set me back into a different but workable writing routine. This alone had me satisfied for the time between juggling taking care of my newborn, returning from maternity leave and still heading to critique group with my chicken-scratch pieces every other week.
But then I decided to do something more.
Maybe motherhood’s made me braver or the stress of losing handfuls of writing time’s made me desperate, but I decided to enter a short story into a writing contest this year. I’m notoriously cautious with writing I present for any eyes other than my own. Ask my husband. So in truth, I usually find ways to talk myself out of submitting writing and remain unpublished. It’s a hurdle I’m still overcoming as a writer but something in me clicked this year that I need to get more writing out there. Especially since I’m making headway in a novel I’m serious about publishing. To my surprise, my undertaking was braver than usual. I’m a fan of fantasy, historical fiction and horror. I’ve dabbled in literary fiction and returned to it here and there when practicing craft. All of these are my safe spaces. All of these are options I considered when I caught wind of the Houston Writers Guild’s Journey Into Time contest. Time was the theme, simple as that. The guidelines stated the entry could be any genre so long as that singular requirement was met. So naturally I whipped out my Storymatic cards and picked four of them to put together a prompt I could work with.
And ended up writing a sci-fi time travel story.
“What’s wrong with that?” You ask. “Sci-fi and time travel are the genre and concepts I struggle to write most !” I say. Yes, I’m proud of the story I came up with. As it turns out, the Houston Writers Guild likes it too since they accepted my entry and will be including it in their anthology once it’s out in October of this year.
I promise this post isn’t intended to be one giant flex. This post is intended as both to announce my success (so a tiny flex) and share a lesson recently learned. A major life change—like, say, having a child—doesn’t mean your writing life is coming to an end. Adaptation and major adjustment will be required, but it can be done. It also pays to challenge yourself to be brave. An obvious lesson to think on but actually practicing that preach can be hard.
A picture’s worth a thousand words so I’ll let what I put together below give you a little glimpse of what I have in store.
The above cover is not the official publication cover, only a cover
I produced using my own graphic design skills. All rights reserved.
I’m looking forward to life slowing down again as we approach the end of June and my moments to write become more available. Waiting to get my copy of this anthology, and a physical print of my short story, will be worth the agonizing wait. I hope you’ll consider picking up your own copy of Journey Into Time and see what my story’s all about. The Journey Into Time anthology releases on October 4th, 2024 at the Houston Writers Guild’s AuthorPaolooza Extravaganza Conference.
Until next time, from the Writing Nook!
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