Patricia Stoltey

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The First Time

June 9, 2009 By: Patricia

Oh, don’t get your hopes up. I’m not writing about that first time.

I’m talking about the first time I was published. It was April 1990. The magazine was Popular Communications. An article I’d written on ham radio was incorporated into The Ham Column: Getting Started as a Radio Amateur.

The article, What’s a Neat Lady Like Me Doing in a Shack Like This? described my journey from complaining spouse of a ham radio operator whose radio shack looked as though it has been hit by a tornado to a General class operator who no longer cared much what the radio room looked like. I was too busy making contacts around the world as N4UNE.

Kind of makes you think of Twitter, doesn’t it?

Getting published that first time was a great feeling. I ignored the fact that my article was chopped up and apparently not copy-edited after the changes were made. I filed the tear sheets away because I couldn’t use them as an example of my excellent writing, not with errors such as “irratated” or “to” used instead of “too.” And I didn’t get paid for the article.

That was a one-time adventure in article writing, related to a specific niche from a unique point of view. It was fun, but fiction was my thing. Over the next few weeks, I’ll write more about my writing experiences and my unique journey to publication. I never do things the easy way.

More from my site

  • X is for Xray (and Qiu Xiaolong and X by Jack Croxall)X is for Xray (and Qiu Xiaolong and X by Jack Croxall)
  • Why I Spent the Night in the Boys’ Locker RoomWhy I Spent the Night in the Boys’ Locker Room
  • Q is for QuickQ is for Quick
  • Is Self-Publishing For You? … by Susan GourleyIs Self-Publishing For You? … by Susan Gourley
  • Editing — The Sequel  by Richard S. KellerEditing — The Sequel by Richard S. Keller
  • The Velveteen Rabbit and Me …. by Catherine DiltsThe Velveteen Rabbit and Me …. by Catherine Dilts

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Patricia Stoltey says

    June 9, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    Tune in tomorrow, gang. I decided to carry this story right on through to the bitter end. I hope my long, long road to publication doesn’t discourage anyone.

  2. julielomoe says

    June 9, 2009 at 8:10 pm

    Good topic, and I enjoyed your post. My first published piece was a feature in The Milwaukee Journal about the School of Jazz in Lenox, Mass., which I attended after my sophomore year in high school, and where I studied piano with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. My being published was in part due to the fact that my father was Managing Editor, but he wouldn’t have let them print it if it wasn’t any good – he was a very exacting editor.

    Julie Lomoe
    Julie Lomoe’s Musings Mysterioso
    http://julielomoe.wordpress.com

  3. Stephen Tremp says

    June 9, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    Hi Patricia,

    Looking forward to hearing your stories. I’m always interested in reading how authors got to the place they are and the trials and tribulations they had to overcome.

    – Steve Tremp
    http://stephentremp.blogspot.com/

  4. N A Sharpe says

    June 9, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    Sorry – I had been tweaking my blog and forgot there was code for one of the gadgets when I went to add my sig above. I hit enter before I realized, hence the delete…

    sorry 🙁

  5. N A Sharpe says

    June 9, 2009 at 5:10 pm

    It is so cool to hear everyone’s stories of the paths they took to the world of publication. Can’t wait to read more about yours!

    Nancy, from Just a Thought…

  6. N A Sharpe says

    June 9, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  7. Galen Kindley--Author says

    June 9, 2009 at 11:47 am

    Is Popular Communications Still being published? If so, how fun would it be to try to write something for them now. A followup maybe? Anyway, it could be fun.

    Best Regards, Galen.
    GalenKindley.com

  8. alexisgrant says

    June 9, 2009 at 7:32 am

    This is fun! I’d love to hear about other writers’ first times… I don’t remember mine distinctly, but I do remember being published for the first time in my hometown newspaper. That counts more than anything!

  9. Karen Walker says

    June 9, 2009 at 7:27 am

    I so look forward to hearing more about your journey. You sound like so much fun, Patricia. Hope we get to meet in person some day.
    karen
    http://www.karenfollowthewhispers.blogspot.com

  10. Elizabeth Spann Craig says

    June 9, 2009 at 6:23 am

    I wonder what’s happening with ham radio now? It does seem like Twitter could really eat away at their users.

    I’ll look forward to reading your path to publication.

    Elzabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel is a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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