Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Writing Life Update


I've had some good news lately about some articles I packed up and sent off to seek their fortune in the big, wide world:

1. Dreamseeker Magazine accepted "A Brief History of Love and Suffering," an essay about Christian love gone bad. It should be published sometime this summer.

2. I'm one of six finalists in Geez Magazine's "Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest" with "The Bliss of Ignorance," which describes how useful ignorance can be when visiting a foreign country. I may not be terribly daring, but I make up for it in awkwardness. It's due out this month.

3. I got an email from The Mennonite magazine yesterday, telling me that "My Ensemble Experience," published last year, got 3rd place in the Associated Church Press "Best of the Christian Press" awards in the humor category. It's always nice to place in a contest that I didn't even know I was enrolled in.

However, I would be failing in my Mennonite humility if I did not also mention that my 3rd place finish was a tie, and there were 11 total entries, meaning I'm only in the top 36% of the funniest Christian writers of 2008. To what extent that is like saying I'm in the top 36% of the most fashionable farmers, I dare not judge.

Maybe I should have a new tag line: "Dan Schreiber: Funnier than 64% of other Christian writers in 2008."

Nonetheless, I'm going to wear a tux around the house for the rest of the day and demand that all my beverages be served in champagne glasses.

9 comments:

David Wright said...

A toast to you, Dan.

Jenna said...

You're a real writer now! Congrats.

brownie said...

You are certainly blessed by good fortune and a good mind, not to mention all your hard work that (I know) goes into your writing.

You go Dan!

Fingtree said...

I think those press passes and all of this writing success has gone to your head. Your Narcissism has ballooned to the point of head swelling Elephantitist. You might consider being waterboarded to humble yourself Dan. Waterboarding yourself may increase the amount of writing information out of you too, making you a better writer.
You have become your own worst nightmare; A "knee jerk Liberal Bill O'Rielly Republican type".

Patrick Gabridge said...

Congrats, Dan. Keep up the good (hard) work.

Dan S said...

Thanks everyone. Today I take off the tux and get back to writing. :)

Fingtree, I may try out that waterboarding idea. Not to humble myself, since my humility knows no bounds. I want to prove to you that it doesn't cause elephantitis and is therefore a perfectly reasonable thing to do to people with big heads, who we all know are on the terrorists' side.

Tonya Ricucci said...

congrats! woohoo!

joel said...

Yay Dan!

John O'Neill said...

Go Dan!

Based on your snowballing success, I have a new vested interest in you becoming a successful writer. I've decided it's too difficult to become a writer myself - instead, I will become your biographer, and become a bestselling bigwig writing a tell-all about your early days struggling in annonymity.

If you could oblige me by dying right at the peak of your success, I could rake in even more bucks selling off your unpublished manuscripts (of which I've started a decent collection).

Carry on.

- John