How far am I along on the road to writing fame and fortune? This last year, 2011, was a good year. I had 8 speculative short stories accepted, 5 of them at professional rates, and the remaining 3 of them at semi-pro rates. By my count, once all the pro-rate stories are published, I'll be eligible to join the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)--makes me feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of O z getting a chance to see the guy behind that curtain. I'll discuss the writing and marketing of each of the published stories in other episodes, and I'll discuss the other accepted stories in later posts when they are published. While I was still teaching college mathematics, I had some publishing credentials in non-fiction: three mathematics textbooks with West (about 1995) and one with McMillan (about 1975). I knew I could write complete sentences and whole paragraphs. After all, my undergraduate major was not just in mathematics, my second major was En...
Herein, I blog my writing experiences. What does that have to do with a mimosa? Not only is the mimosa a drink, it is also a tree. A paper in a scientific journal from 1917 suggests the mongoose uses mimosa leaves to treat himself for snakebites. This blog is my way of doctoring my writing mishaps. - Ronald D. Ferguson