Publication

I have always written. It is part of who I am. Mostly, I write for myself. I started this blog in 2012 with the idea of publicizing my charity swim, the Chicot Challenge. The blog had been good for me because it made me write more often than I did and now, I blog everyday. Last year, I posted 428 times which means sometimes I write several times a day.

In August, I will become a published author. My boss, Renee Moore, asked me to submit to her a piece of my writing. She was working with a publisher to produce a new English Composition textbook for our department, and any other department that wants, to use beginning this fall. She liked the writing, "RIP Louise Roberts," but also expressed that she wanted a piece about the area, about Mississippi, a local color piece. "RIP Louise Roberts" is a tribute to my mother-in-law that I wrote after she died.

After a bit of mulling, I remembered one I wrote called "Webster County" composed when I was on my bicycle riding craze. That piece is a pretty clear description of one of the lightest populated counties in Mississippi. She liked it and said that both writings were going into the book.

I guess I am already published, technically. My dissertation sold one copy. I know this because I received a royalty check for $9.51 about a year after I graduated. It was not Mid-America who bought it because they got a copy for free. I don't know who purchased it, but I sure wish I did know.

Now, I have another publishing project. On Instagram the other day, someone made a call for writers. This guy publishes a quarterly magazine in both digital and hard copy form. He gave instructions on how to contact him, how to view the magazine, and he invited writers to make him a pitch. I emailed him with links to my blog and YouTube so he could sample my writing and see that I was indeed a home gym owner (a necessity to publish with his magazine). 

I made him a pitch on three articles for his magazine Home Gym. He wants two of them and gave me the specifications and deadline for the first. He even pays a whopping $100 bucks per article payable sixty days after publication. Three guesses what I will do with that money. No, Play It Again Sports in Jackson closed. Yes, I cried. I will spend it with Titan Fitness.

Last night, I wrote the first draft of the piece entitled, "How I Built the World's Best Backyard Gym." I am like I little boy the night before Christmas.

Thank you, Jesus.