Professional recognition

You can control how you go about seeking professional recognition but you can't control how or when it comes — or what you'll be doing when it arrives.

The news of the biggest and most exciting contract I ever won came just minutes before one of my best friends called to report a horrible family tragedy that ended with his mother's death. My teammates went out to celebrate getting the contract; I went to my friend's house and stayed sat him through a long, sleepless night.

Yesterday morning I sat down to eat my Cheerios and read the Wall Street Journal and was thrilled to find in the Journal an extensive article by jazz critic Nat Hentoff praising Yizkor, the new album by David Chevan and Afro-Semitic Experience with cantor Alberto Mizrahi. A old friend from New Haven, Stacy Phillips, plays in the group. Stacy, a teacher, writer, and performer, is a "musician's musician" — renowned in the upper echelons of bluegrass, Western swing, and klezmer, but (despite a Grammy and 40 years of professional work) not a "name" who could sell out a venue like the Triple Door or the Moore Theatre.

"Never before have I heard this lyrically powerful a fusion of Jewish and jazz souls on fire," Hentoff kvelled over the group's performance. At last! I thought.

Sometimes recognition comes and you're so sure you won't get it that you fail completely to react. That happened to me yesterday. I've recently begun writing short speculative fiction; the SF field is replete with contests and small magazines for the beginning writer, and I submitted stories to two contests. My goal was to place in one of the two contests.

The first contest, part of Fencon V in Dallas, had the results announced at the convention last weekend. However, I wasn't at the convention, and had no way of finding out how I'd done. Tuesday evening I contacted a Twitter friend who had attended Fencon and asked him to check the convention program for the contest results. He wrote back:

"The 1st place short story winner was "Dark Running" by Justin Macumber; 2nd place "Undying Love" by K. G. Anderson (you, congrats); 3rd place 'The Color of Midnight" by Dan Hiestand. Alas, only the winner's tale was published in the Fencon V booklet. I don't know if they will post them online."

I found out in such a roundabout way that it didn't really sink in. All I could think was: OK, it didn't get published, all rights remain with the author, so I should workshop this, rewrite it, and submit it to some small 'zines.

It was only after I told a friend about the contest results and he replied "What shall we do to celebrate?" that it sunk in: A story I'd created had placed in a contest, and I'd met my (admittedly modest) writing goal for the year.

I celebrated by harvesting the basil and making pesto. So there.

Welcome to Writer Way

After three years of writing a personal rant-n-rave lifestyle blog and two years of "ghost blogging" for corporate clients, I decided it was time to create a blog for my professional life.

And just what is my professional life?

To paraphrase Mark Morris, "I'm a writer; I write!"

I sold my first article (to a New Haven alternative weekly) at 21, and have made my living as a writer since then. My BA is in psychology, but in my mid-20s I took the year-long Master's program at the Columbia Journalism School. Since then I've worked as a newspaper reporter, freelance travel writer, communications director, desktop publisher, developmental editor, communications consultant, newsletter editor, magazine managing editor, book reviewer, web content writer, and website managing editor. I currently write for a search engine optimization marketing company and edit ebooks for an online publishing house.

So, this blog will be about writing and editing, right?

Not exactly. It'll be about being a professional writer/editor. As Mark Lewis of Painter Creativity points out, being great at what you do is only 25 percent of the creative person's equation. The other 75 percent is about honing and applying business skills such as self-discipline, financial management, marketing, organization, decision-making, client communication, ethics, and common sense.

It was Lewis' post "Top 10 Lies Told to Naive Artists and Designers" and his advice on protecting yourself from the liars that inspired me to start blogging about the writing life. This blog is where I'll write about what's working for me, what I'm struggling with, and the tools I discover along the way. I'll get to say some of the things I want to say (but don't) when newbies in my business networking group start chanting their blue-sky mantras, like the one about how you must bend over backwards to please prospective clients, no matter how flaky and unreasonable those clients are.

I'm hoping that wisdom such as Lewis' (no doubt hard won) can save us all some pain; I'll be posting more such stories, tips, and reviews as Writer Way evolves.

(Thanks to excellent writing blog Finding the Right Words for pointing out Lewis' site.)