Getting Published

It's a dream of anyone who is proud of what they write, getting published. There are many ways to go about it, heck if you have the money you can publish yourself. I am not one of those fortunate ones. I rely on our local monthly newspaper, The Back Country Messenger.

Meeting Tony and Lynn Neff, the owners of the paper, was purely out of the blue. My husband and I were in town one day, at a quaint little shop, known as the Enchanted Village. I was speaking with the shop owner Shelly, as my husband Wayne, conversed with a gentleman who was exchanging the BC Messenger. We came to find out this man was none other than Tony Neff, the owner.

After a moment or two, I had asked who wrote for the paper, to which he asked if I am a writer... I laughingly said "Yes, Poetry." He gave me an assignment for the paper, TOLERANCE. I balked at first, with my non-political, non-religious ways, I wasn't wanting my first published work to be so radical. I write about gardens and rainbows for heaven's sake, I feared this assignment wasn't in me, but gave it a try none the less.

Tony and I set up a date for him to come over to our place to see if what I wrote was what he was looking for. When Tony arrived, I do as I do with any one that comes to our place, I took him on a tour of our garden !! He was very impressed, and as he took MANY photo's, he asked questions. That month, much to my delight, Tony wrote about us in the paper. It was extremely awesome !!! The month after that, I had sent Lynn a poem I wrote called AUTUMN IS GENTLY FADING, which was my very first published work !!!

I was so happy !!  (OK here is the picture... imagine a lady {47yrs old mind you} getting her first publishing.. JUMPING up and down, squealing like a child of ten, grinning from ear to ear, all at the same time, almost peeing, YEP that was me!!) Tee Hee Hee !! Well believe it or not, I'm am about to be published again. Lynn sent the automated reminder of when the submissions were due, and I really thought that she would like to read the most recent poem, {I liked most}, that I had written. HOW TO TRIM A ROSE... she said, and I quote, "That's very cute! I may use it on the Gardening page. I couldn't have said it better!"

So again, I'm jumping, dancing, squealing, grinning... well you get the picture !  Thank you Tony and Lynn for making my dream come true !! YOU ROCK !!! I'm a published poet... and I didn't have to spend a dime ! Maybe the next step will be that one of my poems get bought !!! My next dream... LOL...  for now, I'm that over the top happy girl, sending everyone I know a copy of the paper! It feels so great !

Time for today's Prompt Tease...Write an English Sonnet

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JL&B