First Publication

Around 2005, I got my first publication. And as luck would have it, it was to the first publication I ever submitted to. Artis Magazine. And they called me on the phone to accept - not one, but three poems! It was an entire page in a printed issue of a magazine! And like that, I was hooked. That rush, I imagine, was like someone sitting at a slot machine, getting a jack pot the first time they pulled the lever. I was high for days. Even through the next 5, 10, 15 rejections. That one, that first one, was accepted and I was hooked. Researching small print presses, online, and in print journals and publications. Hiding in the literary magazine section of Barnes and Noble hoping I'd find a publication that I thought my work might be a fit for. Like gambling, it became a compulsion. Spending hours staring at screens and hoping for a "win." You have to know the game - know the odds, when to play and when to sit this one out. I'm still figuring out which ones my writing is actually good for, which ones are a reach, and which ones might accept my work more than once. But I am nowhere near giving up this game.