An Author is Me?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 26, 2013

“If you really like it you can have the rights,
It could make a million for you overnight.
If you must return it, you can send it here
But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer.”
– The Beatles, Paperback Writer

In fourth grade, my class was assigned a creative writing project. It was supposed to be about a magical dolphin that appeared in a swimming pool that leads us to a magical land. We were given the first two sentences or something. My classmates wrote stories that were around one or two pages long, a few of them ending with the protagonist (the narrator, as the opening sentences were in first-person) waking up from the dream.

I wrote about eight pages, as I recall. Yes, even back then, I went on way too long. But I had a blast. I loved writing, but after discovering the Colossal Cave Adventure the following year, and Dungeons & Dragons the year after, storytelling and gaming became woven together in my mind. I kept up the writing through high school, but in college I dropped it as a priority. Gaming substituted for writing.

Much later – well, I had this blog, and I had writing for my games. It scratched the itch… mostly. I even managed to get other articles published – including two at The Escapist (“Going Rogue” and “Weekend Warrior“). But those weren’t fiction. During the development of Frayed Knights, I assumed that I’d still be able to draw upon my old talents in writing tons of dialog and story. It was much harder than I’d expected. I needed more practice – and feedback.

I learned about the quarterly anthologies published by Xchyler Publishing, and spoke with some of the authors at a steampunk convention over the summer. I also purchased one of their anthologies, Mechanized Masterpieces, which to me seemed like quality steampunk fan-fic for classic literature. I enjoyed it, and thought the regular competition would be a good motivation to force me to work on my skills. Besides, it sounded really fun to actually get published in an honest-to-goodness print anthology.

Unsurprisingly, my first attempt didn’t make the cut. I’m looking forward to reading the upcoming anthology, which should have fantasy stories involving time travel. It was a great learning experience, at least, which was my primary objective. I imposed on a lot of folks I know for feedback.

But earlier this week, I was informed that my short story for the spring Steampunk anthology had been a competition winner. Assuming things go as expected, I should be published just before summer, along with six other steampunk-flavored tales with a loose theme of “Around the World in 80 Days.”

While it’s a small thing, I’m pretty excited about it. It’s fun working in a different medium, and a nice change of pace once in a while from game development.

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