The Usual Path to Publication

One writer’s résumé

Photo by Eli Francis on Unsplash

So you want to be published? Congratulations! The path to publication is clear, straightforward, and exactly the same for everyone.

And if you believe that…

As a published writer myself, I heard so many unusual stories over the years, I eventually collected a bunch of them and (yes) published them in an anthology a couple of years ago:

The Usual Path to Publication: 27 Stories About 27 Ways In

Here, for your amusement and edification, is my story — adapted and updated from the “afterword” of that book, because of course there’s always more to tell.

Years 0-Teenage: I wrote stories in crayon on construction paper when my peers were drawing pictures. I voraciously consumed story — library books, school books, anything I could get my hands on. Journal-keeping began at age eleven, with a lengthy description of a rather wacky Fourth of July (all of which was true).

High School Years: It wasn’t called fan fiction then, but that’s what I was doing: writing the further adventures of characters I loved in worlds I didn’t want to leave just…