Avatar has sold!
My first publishment! Me! I sold a story! I'm a published author (or I will be, as soon as I sign the contract -- never count your chickens until you can link to them).
Avatar's going to go up at Dunesteef - an audio fiction magazine not dissimilar from EscapePod. I'm not sure when it'll be up, but they said they have two months worth of stories in the hopper. So probably around November/December, just in time for the yearly Christmas letter.
Last night, I checked my e-mail and saw an email from Dunesteef. I thought I was about due to get a rejection notice, so I clicked it. At first I thought it looked awfully long -- maybe they were giving me some feedback? Then I saw the words "we have decided to run it". Squee!
Then I ran around the house telling everyone. The only person in my house was my wife though (and the sleeping baby would not have appreciated it on my level). I'm doing tap dances in my head, writing my acceptance speech.
So they're going to send me a contract in a few days, and they want me to write an intro (basic credits) and an outro about the story (why I wrote it, what inspired me, etc.) That should be interesting, but I love writing about my works. "The Big Idea" on Whatever is one of my favorite features. But they also would like me to record it myself (although they give me the option to decline, but they like it because the audience feel closer to the author). This is fine by me, although I have crappy recording equipment -- I think my microphone was manufactured in the mid-nineties. I rarely use it, and I have no idea what it sounds like.
But this doesn't mean Avatar's done making the rounds. I think they only offer audio rights, so that means I can still tout it to print mags. But this time, it'll have a publishing credit behind it.
I'm really surprised this made it to the gold bar. I can see why it works as an audio fiction -- I was listening to a lot of EscapePod at the time. But this story went through two Critters submissions, multiple dropped characters, and massive restructuring, and it doesn't even resemble my original idea of the piece. But you know what they say about gift horses and mouths.
Not to sound like a Lisa Frank-adorned diary, but finally, my dream is coming true. The first step is the hardest. And finally, I've been validated that I'm a competent author.Labels: getting published, Playable Character