Hey! Looks like I'm getting published!

The short story I recently wrote, entitled "Paradise," apparently won the contest! I wrote it for Writer's Digest's "Your Story" contest, in which they give a prompt each issue and then have readers vote for their favorite. So about two months ago, the editors selected mine as one of the best, and then it won the vote!

I started reading Writer's Digest about a year or two ago. I did so after my mother encouraged me to take my writing more seriously. Since eternity, I've always joked about the uselessness of an English degree or hopes of becoming a writer. Well, my mother knew I (a) really loved writing and would love to make a living writing and (b) had the talent sufficient to succeed.

So thanks mom -- and thanks WD for encouraging me to keep writing! (Also, thanks to dad and all my friends and family, who have -- perhaps to my detriment -- never said an unkind word about my writing.)

The odd thing is I would not have discovered my winning had I not been vaingloriously Googling my own name. Take that narcissism!

So anyway, I stumbled on this:

So keep your eyes peeled for the January 2011 issue of WD!