Writing Announcement and Another Rare Poem

     Got some more good writing news recently.  "The Literary Hatchet" accepted another one of my stories, for their upcoming August issue.  You might recall that this same publication published a story of mine, "Sudden Death Overtime," back in April of this year.  The story that was accepted this time is titled, "St. Vincent," and it's about a decidedly unorthodox hitman.  This one is definitely only suitable for adult reading, as it's one of the more disturbing ones I've written.  I'll post more details when I get them.


     Just to fill out this post a little, I was revisiting some of my old papers from childhood.  Included in them was a poem I wrote in high school, in 9th grade as I recall.  As I discussed way back in my 2nd ever blog post (February 14th, 2012), I'm not much into poetry, either reading or writing it.  So with that negative endorsement, here it is:

I needed some money, that much was very clear,
To buy my family a Christmas gift.
If I did not, my mom would shed a tear,
And everyone else would be really miffed!
After searching for money in the park,
I still could not hit upon an answer.
I guessed I could have gone to a loan shark,
But dealing with them was worse than cancer!
I thought I might earn by shoveling snow,
But there was just none on the ground.
I soon did find it was a very tough go,
I realized there were no jobs to be found.
        But then a thought came to me on my deck,
        I could make cash betting football with Eck!


     I received an "A" and a "Nice work."  (Again, it was a small school, and I was only like 15.)  And to explain, the "Eck" in the last line was my teacher, Mr. Eck, and I did indeed bet football games with him (I think I came out ahead, too).
     For those not big on poetry, like me, this is an example of an English sonnet.  Also commonly known as a Shakespearean sonnet.  Ol' William didn't invent the form, but he did help to popularize it.  It differs from the classic Italian sonnet in that its end rhyme scheme is a-b, a-b, c-d, c-d, e-f, e-f, g-g.  Additionally, I learned that the term, "Sonneteers," for people who write sonnets, of course, can be used as an insult, apparently.  I plan to start using this myself, although presumably inaccurately.
     Finally, to end on a sad note, I recently found out that my teacher passed on about a year ago.  So RIP, Mr. Eck.  Thanks for being a fun, and informative English teacher, and for teaching us "Liar's Poker," which is a gambling game using dollar bill serial numbers.