This week I found out that I have been nominated for the Best of the Net by the Wild Word magazine for my short story, Vacuum!
To say I’m gobsmacked is an understatement. Honestly I had no expectation or even hope of having one of my short stories nominated and certainly not one of the first stories I ever published!
The year 2020 has gobsmacked the entire globe. First the pandemic, then the collapse (or terrifying slow down) of economies, no school, curfews, lockdowns that shuttered businesses and sent many out of business and so many millions out of work. In this context, something as esoteric as a ‘Best of the Net’ nomination can seem meaningless and unimportant.
But for a writer, it is an incredibly significant moment of validation and an encouragement to keep going. Writers face rejection on an almost daily basis. We are masochists in this regard. We work and work and send our words out into the world and all too often have them deflated, defiled or worse, simply ignored.
I climb Kilimanjaro every day, daily trying to find time and energy to write. I work full time, homeschool my children, manage my family and also volunteer.
Many days I am just too exhausted, emotionally, mentally and physically. I want to give up the ambition. But there gnaws, insatiable and pulsating in the seat of my stomach, a beast that will not be quiet.
The only way to shush this beast is to write.
I write because I have always written, because when I was nine years old I fell in love with words, with the music of poetry, with the jazz of novels and the uniquely-human mystery of story. That love endures.
For a few painful years, I stopped writing due to personal reasons and the deep-rooted belief that I would never be good enough.
I’m still not good enough and I may never be good enough. But I realize now that I cannot NOT write and live a fulfilled, meaningful life.
So I have finally I’ve started writing again and even in the midst of a pandemic, even in the midst of a global economic crisis, even in the midst of family turmoil and personal uncertainty, I write.
That is why the Best of the Net nomination is incredibly important and validating to me and I want to thank Wild Word Magazine and its founder/editor Kusi Okamura for this incredible honor.
This is wonderful! Congratulations! I really relate to you you right now and feel the same and I am incredibly happy for you. Vacuum is a great story.
Thank you Stela! I’m so glad you enjoyed the story and thanks for reading!
Wow! Now I know why you always are tired when you come home. I will start trying to keep up on my school work. Promise.
-Your daughter, Sabel π