An Authorial Milestone

I am now a paid writer. I have the check in my greedy, sweaty hand for a whole $85 for a freelance article I wrote. All about the Gila Wilderness and it's road/mountain biking activities geared toward the fitness enthusiast. It's not Pulitzer winning stuff, I know, and now that I read it in print I see a few awkward areas that could have been tightened up. They must have liked it, however, because they extended the story an extra 200 words to avoid cutting and offered me two more jobs since to be published in April and May.

Wow. Well, it's not a short story, not the fiction of my heart that beats the salty blood to my extremities and back again. But it is something, something heartening, something that could develop into more once I have a few clippings to my credit and that I could carry with me to any location, any schedule. It's something I can be proud of--I'm Gnomey and I'm a teacher and a freelance writer. My chest would swell with pride every time I had the opportunity to say that. So I shall make a copy of my medium-sized check and frame it for my wall next to my college diploma, soon to be followed by my grad school acceptance letter (cross your fingers!). It will make for a nice design balance between that wall of pride and the bathroom papered with rejection notices. Yin and Yang. Feel the flow.