Writer-Dad

Without any of the fanfare that I was hoping might surround such an event, I am now apparently a published writer. I know this, because three of my Mennonite friends now claim to have seen My Ensemble Experience in the June 2nd issue of The Mennonite. Sure enough, when I go to their website, it is linked from the main page. Yeehaw!

I had sent it in about a year ago, and the editor gave me a vague promise that it might appear in some future issue. I contacted him again a few months ago to ask about it, and he said it could be any month now. I guess I’ll receive official word any day now, plus hopefully a check, since I’ve already blown most of the payment on a family ice cream trip to Cozy’s Custard to celebrate.

My definition of a professional writer is merely that I get paid for the work I do. It’s not unlike being a professional computer scientist, garbage collector, or prostitute. Although I’ve had a column with a real editor at Smile Politely for a few months now (which I’ll be sure to claim as professional experience for the next query letter I do), getting paid and being in a print magazine seems like another step beyond that.

For all of you who have been regularly checking my occupation listing in my blogspot profile, you’ll note that I’ve now changed my occupation from “blogger” to “writer-dad.” Making the edit turned out to not be nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be. That’s probably because one paying gig in a year isn’t exactly the pace I had planned to make. Nonetheless, it's a start.