Last night, I attended Ball State University’s In Print Festival XIV.
At this grand event, three authors (typically one fiction writing, one nonfiction writer, and one poet) will attend a two-day session for reading and a writer’s panel. This year, Maria Romasco Moore read her Ghostographs: An Album. Dustin Parson’s read from his book Exploded View: Essays on Fatherhood with Diagrams. And Chen Chen read from his latest collection, When I Grow Up I Want To Be A List Of Further Possibilities. All three of these authors made me laugh and others opened my eye to new concepts with their ingenuity and storytelling formats. I’ve never been much of a poet nor a flash fiction writer nor a nonfiction writer. However, these three authors made the hour fly by at the In Print Festival.
My main reason for attending, however, was retrieving a copy of Ball State’s The Broken Plate. Their 2019 issue is currently not on their main website; however, it will be uploaded soon and people are able to purchase their own copy online.
Within this Broken Plate issue is my very first short story, “75.22.” I’ve been waiting anxiously for my own copy, and I couldn’t wait to get my contributor’s copies. So I went and got a third copy. Holding the literary journal in my hands and seeing my name in the book (and on the back cover) made me feel like crying with joy. I finally understand the happiness and sense of accomplishment that comes with publishing a story.
I will be scanning my story and uploading it to my portfolio later! It’s about a woman named Kimberly, who sells the wishing stardust from a fallen star. It covers three days in her store, introducing various characters over the course of the weekend.
This has been a dream come true, and I have a second short story that should be published relatively soon! I’ve been submitting other short stories to various student-published literary journals and online literary magazines. I cannot wait to see where the next leg of my writing journey leads.