So!  Did you catch that?  I just published a short story (technically, at just over 10,000 words, some people would call ‘Because the Desert is a Great, Broad Beast of Memory’ a novelette – but I’m not sure I’m ready to consider myself quite that fancy).

Now, you might be asking: Published? Where?

Answer: Here.  On my blog.  This really does count as publishing.

Merriam-Webster defines ‘publish’ as “to disseminate to the public” (and it defines ‘disseminate’ as “to spread abroad […]” …with roots that tie it to the word ‘semen’, so…that’s interesting…).  My blog is publicly accessible, and my story ‘Because the Desert is a Great, Broad Beast of Memory’ is now wholly available on my blog, so it has been published!  It doesn’t matter that right now less than ten people besides myself know this blog exists.  This is still my first published short story!  Huzzah!

(Also note that legally this also really, definitely counts as publishing.  If I had had some idea of trying to sell this story to any place that requires First Publishing Rights, that would be too bad.  I have already taken and used those rights for myself.  They are now gone.  (I.e., don’t post or let somebody else post a story you hope to sell with First Publishing Rights.))

Next interesting aside: Although, if I so choose, I can now identify myself as a ‘published fiction author’, I still cannot identify myself as a ‘professional fiction author’ – because I haven’t made any money from my fiction (free blog and all).  Until I have made (any) money from it, I remain an ‘amateur fiction author.’  Part of me wishes there was some stronger criterion for moving from ‘amateur’ to ‘professional’ than the making of any money.  But there’s not.  And anyway, I don’t actually have to worry about it yet.  Because I have not yet crossed that surprisingly low bar.  (And it’s gonna be a while before I do.)

Anyway.  Yay for my first published short story!  At some point I plan to make a STORIES page on this website, so that anyone who wants to find my (one!) published short story can go straight there.  Until then (and, really, either way), I would like to direct anyone interested in reading my story to the first post in the sequence.  Please start from there (if you haven’t already) and the Next buttons will take you along to each installment in sequence.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, ‘Because the Desert is a Great, Broad Beast of Memory’ is a sort of story I call an SSCS (Serial Stream-of-Consciousness Story), which is an informal sort of story I like to work on while I’m mostly focused on other projects.  I have another one of these done for which I plan to post the installments next year, but I will also be showing a very tiny sneak peek of it next week.

Stay tuned.