The last post I wrote was one year and two days ago. I have to apologize for the tardiness of my posts, but a lot has changed in that year.

1. I changed jobs.
2. I had a blood clot which led to a few other minor health discoveries.
3. There were other personal problems that I’d rather not discuss on this blog.

Since that year, I’ve started working at the local newspaper as a staff writer. I cover county and city meetings and other events around Marshall County. It’s pretty fun. I work my own hours, I cover interesting events including concerts, meetings, etc.

I even get to write my own editorial pieces. It’s sort of like an old time blog. Maybe I’ll repost some of them here.

The question is: what about my professional author status? Burning Willow Press is still publishing my series. The first of which is coming out February 2017.

I have two short stories that have been submitted. I had one other short story that was accepted into an anthology, but the publisher suffered some setbacks and the anthology is probably in stasis for good.

Sometimes I randomly open Stephen King’s “On Writing” for inspiration and insight. Today I opened it to page 141 and found the following:

“Writers form themselves into the pyramid we see in all areas of human talent and human creativity. At the bottom are the bad ones. Above them is a group which is slightly smaller but still large and welcoming; these are the competent writers. They may also be found on the staff of your local newspaper, on the racks at your local bookstore, and at poetry readings on Open Mike Night.”

Regardless of the fact that I think Mike should be Mic, King has an interesting point. On his scale, I am a competent writer. That’s good news since, by his scale, I’m not a bad writer. On the bad news, I’m on the second to last place on the pyramid. Above me lies the really good writers, Shakespeare and Faulkner to name a few examples by King. What gives me hope is that King states that competent writers can become good writers. Something to shoot for.

I’m not sure if King is right in his assessment or if he’s right on the money. Only time will tell.

I will attempt to write a little more on this site so stay tuned. If you’ve read this blog and if you are a writer, then I pose the same question I asked myself. “What kind of writer are you?”