Nathan Bransford - The Forums

We’ve all been through it: wondering if we should quit writing. I’ve been through the many ups and downs of writing, despairing that things might never improve. Well, validation came my way today. An anthology in which I have a short story published placed as Finalist in the Anthologies category of the 2009 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards. This time, our book placed as Finalist in the same category as many big names in literature. Other Finalist anthologies include work by Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury, Junot Diaz, and classics by John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe. Many other well-known authors are included in the other anthologies, plus one of the anthologies is edited by Peter Straub. I feel humbled and honored. And, strangely, this feels like a wake-up call for me. I need to buckle down and finish my novel. And I’ve been invited to write a short story for another anthology, which I hope to do. The writing life is hard. But sometimes a glimmer of light shines through the many dark hours in which we struggle to create.

Here are the Finalists, for anyone who’s interested:
http://www.bookoftheyearawards.com/fina ... nthologies

My short story, REPO GIRL AND THE FORTUNE FAERIE, is published in the anthology, TWISTED TAILS IV.

Congratulations, that's amazing!

Congrats!!! I am so happy for you. This is so encouraging to me as an infant writer.

I got a small bit of validation myself today and it really made me want to buckle down and keep working on my novel. Good luck on yours.

Awesome!!! Grats!

That's awesome. Will raise a glass for you this evening.

Thanks so much, everyone!

Congratulations, Marilyn! You have such wonderful, positive writing, full of the magic of nature. I'm not surprised at this at all.

Thank you so much, Holly, for your very kind words. I really appreciate it!

Thanks Marilyn, and congratulations! Your encouragement is exactly what we on this board need to hear - a reminder that not every author (in fact most) don't have an easy road to publication :-)

Congratulations Marilyn!

The one way to make absolutely certain that you never get published is to give up on writing. Glad to hear that you didn't and it ended up working out for you.

Congrats.

Right on, Marilyn! You go. Glad to hear about your success, and I'm glad you didn't give up either.

Great news - congrats!

Congratulations! That's quite an achievement. Kudos!

Thanks so much, everyone!