Your Name in Print

When I was younger (and more naïve about the difficulties in getting published), I wondered why anyone would write for something that didn’t pay you for your writing. What was the point of writing for free? Of course, I didn’t even dream of the rise of blogging, where thousands of people write everyday for no reason at all except that someone might read it.

Of course, I was pretty wrong. Writers don’t (or shouldn’t) write just to make money. They write for readers. They entertain, they put abstract ideas into words, they share ideas, they share their life. Readers give you a purpose for spilling words out all over a page. And all writing gives you experience, and, possibly, feedback.

Anyway, the reason I’m writing this is that I recently had an article published in this magazine. [Update: the old link was to Roadside Assistance magazine, but the same article can be found in Clarion magazine at this link, on p. 366.] Considering I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been published (and some of that was poetry), I’m pretty happy with it. And resolved to write more.

Besides, there is a certain thrill to seeing your name in print.