Most of today I started writing a blog series on Secrets to Success with some of my insight to what makes a person successful. Usually I get a few thousand words in and think “Oh really? What makes me a pro at this?” and I set it aside to never hit publish. But then I found this blog linked from Melanie Meander’s Facebook page:

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/what-are-the-odds-of-success-really/#comment-71046

The gist of the article is that really success is about doing things most people never actually do. Yes A LOT of people dream of being a writer, but very few actually DO the things it takes to “make it” and that’s such a huge part of success. We’d like to think it’s luck or good networking, but really, come on…It’s also the doing.

So I guess I’ll be diving into the doing.

Kristen Lamb is author of We Are Not Alone–a non-fiction book for writers on building an audience/platform. I can’t wait to read it. Just what every craft book junkie needs–another good book.

I love comments! 5% of all comments will elevate to greatness. Okay…you really have to read Kristen’s blog to get that one.

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog, she says sheepishly. And a lot has happened in my writing career. Most people who even read this blog (hi mom!) will know these things, but just in case a random web surfers decides to look up “most awesome person ever” and finds my blog they’ll know the latest gossip on a nobody aspiring writer…. Who also happens to be awesome, thank-you-very-much.

(sorry, working on my “confidence”)

At the kick off of 2013 I sold a short story titled Today I Am Nobody to a professional science fiction and fantasy magazine, Galaxy’s Edge. It’s a newish magazine edited by Mike Resnick, who is NOT new to the SF/F field.

I then spend the rest of the early months preparing for the Writers of the Future Workshop, approving galleys and doing copy edits to my story Twelve Seconds Man it feels good to finally reveal even just the title name. I had to keep it super sekrit for so long. Twelve Seconds is a story about a man with autism who archives the last memories of homicide victims. He’s pulled into a mystery when he discovers a memory that is incomplete. I received first place for the first quarter of the contest in the middle of last year and then had to wait for the other three quarters of judging to complete. Then all the first place winners are re-judged for the grand prize.

I got the grand prize *throws confetti*

But rewind. I didn’t get to tell the good parts. So a month before I left for Writers of the Future (WOTF), I’d been working on short stories and second drafting the first few chapters of my novel. I thought since I’d written a cross-over novel (cross between science fiction and romance) that wouldn’t it be smart to also try to enter it into some romance contests as well? So I looked a few up, found one I really liked and had been impressed with winners in the past–The Daphne du Maurier Awards–and entered the first few chapters of my novel.

Then Mike Resnick asked me to write him two novelettes in a week (or novellas, but I pretended not to hear, because novellas are soooo long. So I plugged my ears and said “Lalalala”). I had one that was in good shape, but had to write a second that could impress, according to Locus, “the all time award winner, living or dead, in short fiction.”

And because I have a failure complex I immediately started to panic, because he’d know I’m a total fake. He’ll see right though all my smoke and mirrors. It’s easy to convince someone to buy a short story, but a novelette?? I’d have to keep up my singing and dancing act through sixty pages—that’s a lot of nouns and verbs!

Well, I wrote it. Then I gave him the stories before I left for the WOTF workshop. He read them and when he attended the workshop he offered me a chance to collaborate on a Stellar Guild novel. I said “holy crap!” in my head, but managed to keep my cool and say, “yes” in real life. I might have muddled the two phrases together; I might have just nodded my head enthusiastically. Heck, I might have just passed out and filled the rest of reality in and have yet to still wake up. Because from that point on things continued to get better and better.

Later that week I won the Writers of the Future Grand Prize (as I mentioned before). Then I flew home and a few days later got a call from the Daphne Awards that I was a finalist for their contest too.

And that’s what you missed on Smashed Picket Fences.