My Three Firsts

Hi Future Emily,

This past week has been busy. I've received three acceptances as well as a few rejections to match. Since you might be interested in the details, I'll leave the dates and such below.

Corvus - This is your first publication. Be proud, because you've been staring longingly at Corvus Magazine for a while, you love every story they publish, and it's a huge privilege to be in a publication you respect so much. I'm excited. It's only a small poem, and I think I should have left the title as 'Spilled Ink', but your/my writing is so obtuse, no one understands what the hell you're trying to say. Had to make it obvious.

It's called 'Boys and Writer's Block' by the way, fourth issue of Corvus.

Linguistic Erosion - So you know a couple people who've been published here. It has a decent acceptance rate, but you're still surprised they took your story. It was like trying to fit a triangle into a star, and you just got lucky. People can leave comments there and stuff, but since no one knows you write, it'll be hard to collect too many readers. I wonder how many viewers that site gets? Well, I'm sure you know, Future Me. Also, this is your first published piece of fiction. It's up on July 31st.

'Blue Valley Falls' was about a magician, remember? Murder and confetti, what a spectacle- though the story probably needs more work.

Three Line Poetry- They accepted your little poem, but the only comment they had about it was "Nice!". I guess that's good? You probably wanted a little more meat from it, but it works just fine for me. They offer a token payment per issue. Your first paid publication, though you do have the option of donating it back to them.

It doesn't have a title, but it's the one about angels and starlight. I pulled it out from one of those 60 page documents you have of poetry. I hope you're more organized, now. Really, it takes forever to wade through all that crap.

So, Future Emily, I hope it's nice to look back on these firsts. It's been a strange week. As I suspect I'll make a habit of doing, I've left out the rejections. I'm sure you don't want to look back on the negative stuff, besides, I'm still learning. Jumping headfirst into this whole "publication" thing can make a girl dizzy.

Happy reminiscing,

Emily

Diary of a Closet Writer

Dear Emily,

That's right. You read the title right; I'm in the closet.

Don't act like you don't know this. Six years I've been writing, and I've not told a single person. I even have some published pieces now, but nope, no one knows.

Maybe you're different now. Does anyone know? Does it even matter? I hope where you are now, you've collected a few more publications. Gee, I hope you're still writing. Maybe not a novel or anything, but the little things at least.

Best regards, future me.

Emily