I expanded what I had written and wrote what I consider one of my more enjoyable stories, STUB, for the Western Times who featured it as one of their main stories in September of 2002. This story was the first to run in other magazines as well as it was also picked up by the River Traveler, Explore! and Trailrider.
By this time I was hooked. I began writing 1-2 stories per month. Most were okay and some were even better. I even dabbled in local newspapers such as the Tacoma News Tribune and the Puyallup Herald. About this time other easily resellable stories were written, including "Stuff" (a redo from the Christmas long ago), "A Horse By Any Other Name" and "Dear Den 10". This last one was picked up internationally by Family Camping Magazine in Ontario, Canada.
In early 2003, I luckily matched up with Highways. This magazine had some 980,000 in circulation - almost 2 million people read it. They took a rework of a nice story entitled "Road Trip" which had been run in Explore! Subsequently, they've taken another that is expected to run in January 2004.
Finally, in November of 2003 I approached a business magazine, CREDIT UNION MANAGEMENT, with an idea for a column on something serious, but with humor mixed in for good measure. Instead of them liking it, they offered me their final page for 2004 - a series of 12 issues and 35,000 people running Credit Unions across the globe.
One thing that amazes me is how fast this actually has gone. My first published work was in May of 2002. It's been a bit over 2 and 1/2 years of writing, but I've gotten my stories printed over 2.5 million times, roughly 1 million printed stories per year and that excludes the internet. A freaking gold record is what I am. Of course, I'm poorer than when I started, but at least I'm not obscure.
I still do plan to write, to keep up this site and to enjoy myself doing it. I've had a major setback this year, but every day feel like I can begin again.
To the Future, and my wife for NOT saying I stink (even when I do)