September is behind us now. I’m not sure exactly where the time went. It was far and away my most successful writing month so far with a total of three publications. It started with The Elephant on the Moon, a piece of science fiction weirdness that came to me in a still unexplained flash. Poor Flossy the Elephant. Then the last of my four drabbles went up on SpeckLit. Finally, A Few Simple Instructions Regarding the Proper Methods of Weather Control, which started its life as a random photoshop doodle almost ten years ago, was published both online and in the Mad Scientist Journal: Summer 2014 Quarterly. This gave me the opportunity to finally make a Goodreads author page and the strange thrill of knowing that something I contributed to is available on Amazon. These aren’t huge steps, baby steps really, and its more psychological than anything else. Even there, I’ll admit that the boost was only momentary and not half as grand as writing it down makes it sound, but it was real.
Of course, the real question is now what. Apart from being my most successful month, September also saw the last of my acceptances published. The cupboard is bare. Actually its very full, mostly with rejection notices, but there’s nothing special in that. About midway through the month, after the boost of making an author page and seeing my name on Amazon died down, there was a brief pause when doubt crept back in, as it does. Maybe that’s it. My year 2014 in writing done. A modestly successful year. Certainly my best year yet. But over now. I have two more stories held for consideration, but the longer they’re held the less optimistic, and paradoxically the more optimistic I become. It’s a knife edge and one I try not to think about.
In the meantime, Cinder & Smoke, an occult detective story set in Belle Époque Paris has been accepted in an anthology: Occult Detective Monster Hunter – A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests which should be out at the end of the year, and I’ve begun planning and working on my first novel in earnest, preparing myself for the next big push in 2015. I’ve even begun considering the behemoth that is NaNoWriMo, though I’m still undecided on that. I hope to be already started by then. Decisions decisions…
Antonio Urias 
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