I was playing with the setting here on Blogger a little while ago and found out that I could make stand alone pages in addition to traditional blog posts.
"Cool!" thought I. "I can make a page that links to my published works for folks to go see."
So I set out to collect some links and set the page up. That was a depressing night, let me tell ya. One of my first publications seems to have removed me, and a bunch of older pieces from their archives all together. My one paid, print publishing credit is now out of print. Then there was that local dog newspaper, that doesn't have anything online to send anyone to. All I was left with was my book reviews from an independent arts and culture paper that I wrote over 4 years ago, and just learned has closed down too. Who knows how much longer that archive will be around.
So even though I'm still writing, I haven't published anything in so long, stuff is starting to disappear. They say to be careful because stuff on the internet lasts forever. But it turns out, it sometimes only lasts as long as they want to pay for hosting.
It was a wake up call. I need to get submitting again! So I did. So far, no sales, but some very nice and encouraging rejections. And, naturally, some not so encouraging rejections. That piece I mentioned awhile back that I was very hopeful for was rejected. I almost gave up on it. I felt like I'd sent it everywhere. Thank goodness for the
Duotrope submission tracker. It gave me another reality check - I'd only sent it out four times. So out again it went. And I just sent out two other stories tonight. Hopefully, I'll get to make that 'Publishing Credits' page up later sometime this year after all.
Even better. I finished a new story. And - if you can believe this- it's more than 300 words long. I'm a big non-finisher, so I'm proud of this little achievement. So after a little polish, it'll be sent out into the big world of slush piles too. Wish me luck! (Is luck okay for writers? I'm pretty sure I don't need to break anything. Humm. . . )