The headline speaks the truth.  My first freelance article for Lansing Capital Gains was published today, marking my first ever pro sale (15 cents a word). 

It isn't fiction, but it is step in the right direction--getting paid to write.  And better still, they gave me another assignment last night:  a story on a used music/video game/movie store that has video game nights and Lansing's gamer community (video games, not card/board/or RPGs).

In the fiction arena, there is this science fiction short story contest I'm considering writing a piece for.  But, I have less than a month to put together an 8,000 word story and it is a bit outside of my usual style: realistic sci-fi (at least in the sense of space travel) that promotes good things about space travel and science (so, no science run amok stuff here).  I'd like to give it a shot, but between all of the podcast stuff I'm setting up and working on that new freelance piece, I don't know if I'd have the time.  BUT, if I get an idea I'm sure I can crank something out.  Inspiration has a way of firing me up.

RE: the podcast stuff, I picked up my copy of Podcasting for Dummies from Everybody Reads Bookstore (recommended to me by the creator of this podcast), which I had special ordered.  I'm certainly glad I did, I'm not even done with the first chapter and it has given me a few helpful tips.

I think for episode #2 (which I almost have the script done for) I will record everything separate in GarageBand, save each file to the Loop Library (thus writing each track to disc) and then put everything together in a new GarageBand file.  Having already found where the Loops are stored, I can back those up (they are .aif files). This should also make putting together an epsiode easier to run in GB, as I won't be recording stuff, just adding Loops to the timeline.

I attended the Oscar Party at the swanky Cadillac Club in downtown Lansing last night. It was a fun time. The event was hosted by everyone's favorite entertainment reporter, Jim Fordyce. I had a blast, I love going to the Cadillac Club because it is a very unique place (and good food too).

While watching the Oscars on the big screen, I had the pleasure of sharing a table with WILS' Jack Ebling as well as local musician Mike Skory and his wife.

Mike told me about this new event he'll be having at the Exchange starting next month, Skory-Oke. The premise is that you contact Mike early in the week and let him know what song you want to sing to and on Skory-Oke night you get to sing along with a live band. I think this is a great concept. I'm for sure going to check this out once it starts up in March.

Jack and I discussed me being on his radio show, which would great. I told him I'll send him a copy of The Magic of Eyri to look over. And the best part - he's doing a show from Everybody Reads Bookstore on March 21st, the day before my signing at Bestseller Books in Mason along with jimhines. Scott, owner of Everybody Reads, pitched that idea to me and I of course said yes. Being able to promote the signing on the radio the day before the signing is a great stroke of luck.

I was actually happy with how (most) of the  Oscar  awards turned out, which is a rare thing.  I loved No Country For  Old Men, so I'm glad it won Best Picture. The one thing that bothered me is that this year it seemed there were more than a few people going up at once, and too many of those groups didn't get to say anything - yet they'll show a bunch of time-wasting video segments. C'mon people, at least let them say Thank You.

I came home tonight to find a comment on a post over in eyriblog which didn't really make much sense (it was on my post talking about how excited I was when I found out Barnes & Noble had some copies of The Magic of Eyri for sale). It was an annomynous person but they left a name and on a hunch I Googled it.

Looks like I wasn't the only one hit up today.

All of the people in the thread above had the same comment applied to their blogs and I had the exact same message " very interesting, but I don't agree with you" from someone calling themselves Idetrorce. Although in my case I guess it could kind of make sense, because I mentioned that Barnes & Noble having my book is pretty neat and how uncommon it is for them to carry Print on Demand books - and I know from personal experience that it is uncommon - I've had several stores tell me right out no way because it was POD and I even submitted the book to Barnes & Noble's Small Press Department for consideration to get the book in B&N stores. I got back a very nice rejection letter. You can however, special order it through any B&N store and on their website.

I guess it was either just a prank or some kind of spam thing, so I deleted it just like the others in the link above mentioned. Heh.

I should also mention that the first "big" book store to actually order my book for their shelves (that I know of anyway) was Schuler Books in Lansing at their Eastwood Towne Center branch. They are a great store and just as good  as Barnes & Noble (actually better because they are independent). I stop by whenever they have my book in stock and gladly sign them because I appreciate their being one of the first to take a chance on me (along with Everybody Reads).