Some Of My Old Amateur Photography
The advice to “just keep writing and good things will happen” can be difficult advice for a young writer to accept. I was a young writer once and like many young writers I wanted things to happen fast. I wanted fame. I wanted big money.
Well, things did not happen fast. I was never famous and I did not make any big money.
But good things did happen to me because I was a writer who kept writing.
I got a Liberal Arts Associates degree around 1973. I was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh as a sophomore writing major around 1999. I graduated with a BA in 2003. I was accepted to the graduate writing program that same year. And in that same year I was awarded a fellowship that not only paid for my graduate studies but also gave me a generous stipend to live on for three years.
After I graduated with an MFA, a local newsweekly started publishing my flash fiction stories and articles and paid me for them. I published over fifty pieces in a two-year period and was offered the paid position of fiction editor. Unfortunately, the weekly folded before I could take up my position.
So I took early retirement to become a full-time blogger. Money is tight, but after three years I can say that I am the editor, publisher of what may be the most dynamic flash fiction magazine in the world.
Just keep writing and good things will happen to you.
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A Tribute To Hugh Hefner And Playboy Magazine
Woman As Art
I was born in 1946. The first issue of Playboy Magazine was published in 1953. I probably did not become aware of the magazine until I was well into my teenage years; but I sure knew about the magazine by the time I joined the army in 1964. You could say that I grew up with Playboy Magazine.
Even in the radical 60s, Playboy Magazine was risqué. It was sold over the counter and had photos of naked women in it. Millions of young men loved looking at those photos. And millions of young women fantasized about being naked in Playboy Magazine, naked, well paid for being naked, desirable and famous at least for a little while.
But Playboy Magazine had a lot more going for it than just photos of naked women. It had in-depth investigative reporting. It had fiction from well-respected writers with international reputations. It had interviews with everybody who was anybody including presidents of the United States.
The first issue of Playboy, published in December of 1953. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Even as a kid, I knew I probably would never live the Playboy lifestyle. And as things have turned out I was right.
But the magazine had a life changing impact on me. It gave me a vision of what a cutting-edge magazine could be: a mixture of brazen sexuality and serious writing at the same time. Finally, because of the Internet, I’ve been lucky enough to make that vision a reality.
Hugh Hefner, the Old Soldier salutes you!
*****
Tell all your friends about the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the most dynamic flash fiction publication on the Internet.
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Filed under: Commentaries | Tagged: brazen sexuality, famous, Hugh Hefner, life, naked in Playboy Magazine, Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, Playboy Magazine, serious writing, young women | Leave a Comment »