Anniversary Of A Literary Memory...

 A friend's novel drops today. She's worked years and years on it and it's finally something you can buy in a store and hold in your hand.

What a feeling!

As I meandered through social media this morning, I was tagged on a post, a memory from this date in 2013. It brought back so many memories for me. It was the first time I saw the cover of a book that contained a story I wrote. It was the first time something I wrote was published...in a real book you could hold and read and smell and enjoy and just look at and realize it is a physical manifestation of a dream brought to life.

What a feeling!

That spring and summer everything was new as far as my infant literary career was concerned. Signing my first contract, working with an editor to make my little story as good as it could possibly be, opening the box and grabbing the book and seeing my name on the front cover. It was wonderful. It was something an unpublished writer dreams of happening.

The book, Mechanized Masterpieces: A Steampunk Anthology, went on sale April 19, 2013, but the first time I saw the cover was on the 6th. I thought--and still think--the cover is beautiful and of all the anthologies I've been fortunate enough to be included, this is one of my absolute favorites. Yes, in part because it was my first anthology, but also because each story is a home run. The book is still for sale...if you're interested, you can order it by clicking: HERE.

The experiences from that book taught me a lot. It also opened so many doors, and those doors have opened other doors. In a way, it changed my life.

I had forgotten all about that memory until this morning when I saw the post. I'm glad my fellow author Megan Billings shared her memory that became my memory, too.

"Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel"...Comes Out Tomorrow!

Last year, a brain trust got together and thought up an idea for an anthology, a collection of stories highlighting an untapped literary genre of unlimited potential. And thus, the Mormon Steampunk Anthology was created.

A call for submissions were sent out and the stories came rolling in, so much so, an envisioned "one book" became three. Tomorrow, Book #2 comes out, Immortal Work's Put Your Shoulder the the Wheel.

I can't wait!

If you're interested in this particular collection, here's the book's lineup:

Goat in the Machine Scott William Taylor

A Reckoning in the Night Angie Taylor

Rachel’s Prayer Megan Rupp

Sisters Sorenson and the Mechanical Man Scott E. Tarbet

The Shop of the Clockwork Master Finlay Lofthouse

Blackhand Christopher Baxter

An Incident at Oak Creek Bryce Moore

The Miracle of the Gulls D. J. Moore

Solids Don’t Evaporate Mindie Erb

Many Hands Heidi Wessman Kneale

By Ailad’s Bootstraps Kurt F. Kammeyer

Painted Ghosts Kim May

Dame Ginny McLaserbeam and the             
Dastardly Duke                                               Judith and Michael Collings

I knew I was in this particular collection, but I didn't realize my story was the first. There's a lot of pressure being the first story--the first impression someone gets when they pick up the book and scan the first lines of the opening story.

Being a part of an artistic project is an amazing thing. Today Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel doesn't exist--tomorrow it does. Being human means creating. There's a drive within us, a need to make something, write something, bring into existence something that didn't exist before. I know it's just a little story in another book, but for me, it's an honor to have my name included with others, all trying to create something good. 

A special thanks goes out to John M. Olsen, Dave Butler, James Wymore, and Jason King at Immortal Works (and anyone else I'm forgetting...) for including my tale. I hope you get the book, and if you do, I hope you like my story about a man, an airship, and a precocious goat.