Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Published x2

As you can see to the right of your screen, I scored another publication with Chicken Soup for the Soul. The book Touched By an Angel just came out earlier this month. It features my story titled "A Rose Without a Thorn." That makes two stories so far with Chicken Soup. Not only that, I got to meet the lady in charge, Amy Newmark, at a meet-and-greet in Houston. Yep, she paid the Houston-area Soup contributors a visit last month. We all met at Hotel Zaza in the Museum District and chatted about our stories, the future of Chicken Soup, and all the great things Amy has planned for the company, one being a new talk show in the works. I was thrilled to meet her. Such a cool and talented lady. I'm so honored to be a part of the Chicken Soup family.

These kinds of things just boost my enthusiasm toward writing. Seeing my work published plus being invited to such a prestigious event made me feel energized. And that self-doubt that tends to creep on aspiring writers after a while (if nothing big is happening) eases up.

The Chicken Soup experience has also encouraged me to write more personal essays. I seem to be good at it. Those are one of the few types of stories I find that I can finish in one sitting. I did a little research and found that there is a big market for essays.

In case you're wondering, I'll defer to this helpful blog post I found that goes into more details. Check it out!: 20 Great Places to Publish Personal Essays. I will be submitting some stories to a few places listed there. You never know. Amy told me that Chicken Soup gets anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 submissions per month, and they narrow it down to about 101. I made the cut twice.

Does that spark some inspiration or what. Now, on and on I go, fingers crossed for the next success story to come along sooner than later.