40 Of My Favorite Things: #39

When My Work Gets Published! 

Poetry Anthology 1998 edition

Speaking of writing, there’s a joy I get when I see my work get accepted for publication. It’s one thing to self-publish my work, but when my work has impressed editors to where they want to publish my work, the thrill is more grand. I’ve been published in my hometown newspaper, poetry anthologies (like the one you see above), short story anthologies, and, most recently, in newsletters. (All those pieces were written under my real name or a pen name, by the way.)

**Note: there was another favorite I originally posted for #39, but I’m choosing to save it for later in this list.

40 Of My Favorite Things

Forty days from now, I’ll be turning 200 21 40, and rather than bemoan about it a la Edie Monsoon, I’d like to do a list on 40 of my favorite things! This daily countdown will be exclusive to my blog here, and the list won’t be in any order. I’ll kick it off with the first fave: writing! 

Who didn’t see that coming. Writing is my therapy, my art, my creative outlet, and it’s also made me a little money. Just don’t ask me to write my work by hand these days; my penmanship has gone downhill over the past 10-ish years.

Yes I Wrote That

Just published: my essay in the latest issue of Bi Women’s Quarterly! The theme for the current issue is “Childfree” (the theme was given back in the spring this year, and it means a lot more now), so if you’re not JD Vance or a crazy breeder, please give my piece a read! (Click on header pic) I actually submitted two pieces to the newsletter, and maybe I’ll share the other piece here another day.

Also, something I noticed: many of the other submissions in the current newsletter have the author’s profile pics as the header image. Kudos for BWQ for not doing that with my piece 😆 although it would’ve been hilarious and fitting if they caught me on a really bad day😆

When September Had Style

I used to enjoy fashion magazines and September was THAT month for titles like Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, etc. If you’re an old like me, you remember seeing the Fall Fashion Issues that were thick as an old school phone book (because of all the ads 😆). And their covers were 🔥🔥🔥

WTF happened???

I got my theories over why fashion mags (not just for September but for all the months) have been slipping in quality for the past decade or so, and I’m not holding my breath over wanting to see top-tier imagery featuring subjects with personality and life in their eyes again on and in the glossies these days. Like legacy media and their handling of political facts, it’s a damn shame to see the once-prestigious fashion titles phoning it in like a spoiled rich nepo baby, from cover to editorial. And if you think I’m full of it, here’s a thread dedicated to vintage issues of Bazaar from the 90s. Compare the imagery from then to what you see from Bazaar nowadays and you’ll know what I’m talking about.