39 & Turning Pro

I just finished Steven Pressfield's  The Art of War and Turning Pro and was quite moved-I highly recommend them for my writer friends and I'm also urging my wife to read them.

In a nutshell, Pressfield shares his experience to help the artist overcome resistance (anything that stops you from doing what you should be doing) and grow. To have the ambition to succeed and truly excel at one's ultimate goal requires a paradigm shift which he refers to as Turning Pro.

From Turning Pro ~ "Turning Pro is free, but it demands sacrifice. The passage from amateur to professional is often achieved via an interior odyssey whose trials are survived only at great cost, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. we pass through a membrane when we turn pro. it's messy and It's scary. We tread in blood when we turn pro."

I'm 39 today and taking stock of my writing career. Turning Pro is what I want and am doing, too long I have let my own distractions and self-doubts (a universal writers malady I believe) slow me down. Time to banish the shade I've let loom over myself and do the work I believe in.
As such, I need to look at what I have accomplished and be proud of that instead of beating myself up over what I haven't done yet. Time to live in the present and have joy.

My published works and awards so far.

April 2009:

LDStorymakers Writers Con - 1st place General Fiction First Chapter Contest

Dance the Ghost with Me

February 2010:

LDS Publisher Blog Short Story Contest

1st place Song of Saphir ~ 2nd place Covenant of the Scalp

April 2010:

WiDo Publishing ~ Heroes of the Fallen

October 2010:

IRON BOUND magazine issue #1 ~ Sailing to Valhalla

February 2011:

Shadows & Light II ~ The Hand of Fate

April 2011:

Monk Punk ~ Fistful of Tengu

May 2011:

Lovecraft eZine issue #4 ~ Curse the Child

October 2011:

Utah Geek Magazine issue #1 ~ Midnight Son’s part 1: Cold Comfort

November 2011:

Monsters & Mormons ~ Fangs of the Dragon

March 2012:

Sword & Sorcery Magazine #2 ~ Hel Awaits

June 2012:

Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope ~ Tangle Crowned Devil

July 2012:

Wandering Weeds ~ Garden of Legion

In Situ ~ The Dig

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And in some indeterminate near future (these have already been accepted for publication)

Blood of Our Fathers

Roar of the Crowd ~ Whispers of the Goddess

Challenge Discovery ~ The Serpents Root

The Evil Twin ~ The Cry of Carrion Birds

Dark Eclipse Magazine ~ A Good Home for the Spoon