My wife is going to be published

Just a few days ago I got a text at my work. At that moment I think I was arguing with my shipping computer that there was no such place as 'No Name Needed' in the state of Texas, when I heard the happy, beepy/chirpy noise that my phone makes when someone wants my attention to their printed words. Normally texts at work are a nuisance, as a lot of them are about warning me that there's dog yak on the carpet waiting for me to get home. But on that day it was three simple words that brightened my whole day. 'I got accepted.'

A short while back friend of ours told Claudia and me about an anthology series that was being put together called 'Dirty Magick.' One of them is set in New Orleans, and is a cross-genre book combining fantasy and detective elements. While the idea didn't generate any spark in my head, it did in hers, and she was able to draw on the time she spent over there. She sat down and cranked out a story in just a few days, a nice one about murder and the voodoo loa that had a flavor I had never seen before. It has a bit of old-style noir and a dash of Constantine-style attitude, and it's what's going to be Claudia's first time published on paper.

Technically, she was published before me. Once upon a time she sent in a story to the CHUD website, and they accepted it. She let me read it, back when we were dating, and it was one of the things that made me a little more intrigued about this quirky woman I was trading e-mails with. Some random stranger read her story, and decided that other random strangers would enjoy reading it. That's how you get picked. This was years before I got 'Roaming' into Absent Willow Review. Rock on.

Not long after I got my contributor's copy of 'Hard Luck,' Claudia found a shelf in the house with some empty space on it. She cleared the whole thing off, and put 'Hard Luck' and 'Handsome Devil' on it. Then she told me that I better get busy and fill up the rest of the shelf. Now I get to tell her that we're having a race. Once the shelf gets filled up, we count who has more books on it. Winner gets, – well, we'll think of something.

So to keep the ball rolling I sent 'Dear, Sweet Edina' to Apex Magazine. I finished a really harsh short called 'The God Box' a few days ago, and my poor wife has already called it the most awful thing I have ever written. As soon as she finishes going over it I'll make whatever corrections are needed and get it sent out.

Then I'll write something else.