#IWSG for August 2016

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

The awesome co-hosts for this month's IWSG are: Tamara Narayan, Tonja Drecker, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Lauren @ Pensuasion, Stephen Tremp, and Julie Flanders!

This month's question: What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

I was writing since I could make sentences. I still have a poem about the moon I wrote when I was five which won a ribbon in my town's fall festival. I have the binders of short stories I wrote about the neighborhood kids from when I was eight through my teen years.

The first short story I tried to get published was rejected, and I threw it away. I was eighteen, and I had very thin skin. I remember it was about a college aged psychopath killing the boys who didn't love her back, and who really didn't know she existed at all. That rejection kept me from letting anyone else see my writing for over twelve years.

I did keep writing, though. When I finally started submitting stories to venues again, more rejections came my way, but I was older and wiser more stubborn. I kept putting myself out there until a little drabble about alien pet care was accepted. My first acceptance. And I made a dollar from it! I would have been ecstatic without the dollar, but I keep it in a frame on my desk to remind me to never give up.

The Thrill of it All Blogfest

The fabulous Heather M. Gardner and Tara Tyler are our hosts for this awesome blogfest. They're celebrating their own publishing thrills. Heather with MCGUIRE'S CORNER and Tara with POP TRAVEL. Congratulations, ladies! I'm eager to read both books.

The rules are simple: on June 24th, share a big thrill. It can be real or fiction. Just keep it to a paragraph or two. Tara and Heather will be judging the posts, and they're offering great prizes.

1) An e-copy of MCGUIRE'S CORNER.
2) An ARC of POP TRAVEL.
3) A $20 Amazon GC.
4) A banner or caricature by Tara.

Make sure to sign up on the linky list and read everyone's big thrills!

Now onto my big thrill!

It was only a buck. The story was about alien pet care. A silly thing called "Pretty Bows." It was a drabble. Just 100 words. I wasted hours on it. But it was the first piece I ever got published.

I jumped for joy. Ran around the apartment. I was on cloud nine for days. Something I wrote was published. I was afraid to submit anything for years. Yet this one little acceptance was the biggest thrill in my writing career.

I still have that one dollar. (They paid in cash!) It's in a frame beside my writing desk. Never has a buck been worth so much to me.