Validation doesn’t come often for most authors, at least not when they’re first building their careers. My first real, measurable writing-related success came when I made my first sale to a professional short fiction market. My story, “Winter’s Spring” was published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine at the end of 2020. I had equal but opposite reactions to the publication. On the one hand, I thought, “wow, maybe I really can do this”. The other hand, though, held a slimier, more dispiriting thought: “why would they buy something I wrote, surely my work isn’t up to their standards”.

Now, I have a few more “writing wins” under my belt, but what’s really helped shift my thinking more firmly into the “maybe I really can do this” category is the community of fellow writers I’ve found. I’m a cohost of Writers Lunch, a weekly online chat where we discuss all kinds of subjects related to writing. I have a wonderful critique group that gives very valuable feedback on my work (and I hope I do the same for them). And my critique group members and I have recently taken our love of fiction and writing to a new level: in 2023, we launched our new editing business, Tomeworks, and are passionate about helping our clients improve their craft. It’s humbling to know that I have people I can turn to for support when writing gets tough, and who will work alongside me to make sure we all reach our goals.

So, to my community, thank you. I truly couldn’t do any of this without you.

<3 A.P.

I’ve been writing science fiction and fantasy for a long time, but I first started thinking seriously about turning my passion for storytelling into a career in 2017. At the time, I had just finished graduate school at the University of Houston, where I earned a Master’s Degree in plant community ecology, and was undergoing treatment for a chronic illness. I found myself a little lost, applying for jobs in my field of study but not feeling as passionate about the work as I’d expected.

In times like that, writing fiction was the one thing I could always fall back on. Even when writing was a struggle, that struggle motivated me to keep trying, rather than demotivated me. And after several discussions with my very supportive then-fiancé (now husband), I decided to give the writing thing a try for real.

One of the things I love about writing is there’s always more for me to learn. Nothing I ever produce will ever be “perfect”, as proud of it as I might be. When I started writing seriously, one of the first things I dove into was writing short stories. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the art of creating a short story is very different than creating a novel. For me, they were simply much more easily digestible writing projects. I could work on them in parallel to worldbuilding for a novel and have something concrete to show for my effort. After several years of practicing writing short stories, I have a much better understanding of how to craft them, though I still have a long way to go. Short fiction has become one of my favorite storytelling mediums, and I’m always excited when I come up with a new idea that will allow me to continue honing my craft.