Here are many of the places my work has appeared over the years. This isn’t everything, but it’s everything I was able to put my hands on after scrounging through the bookshelf and magazine rack. I’m happy with the variety, and particularly pleased (embarrassingly so) that I placed a story in Highlights, everyone’s favorite dentist office magazine.

I was about to type not bad for an amateur, but then I remembered something. Last year was my 40th anniversary (I was the very first employee) at a small ad agency here in Cleveland, Rosenberg Advertising. They’ve been wonderful to work for, and kind enough to keep me gainfully employed, for which I’m forever grateful. Anyway…as part of the anniversary festivities, my coworkers prepared an infographic about my time here, and it included this tidbit—I’ve written more than a million words of copy in the course of my work. That is a lot of words. It includes ad copy, hundreds of tv and radio commercials, and more website copy and blog posts than I can comprehend, even though I’ve written them.

Add to that the other, varied writing projects I’ve been a part of, from greeting card sentiments to ESL test passages, and my conclusion is that, while I’m still a rank amateur when it comes to fiction writing, I’m probably not an amateur overall any more. And the fiction thing is coming along—there are three or four anthologies coming out this year that will include my work, which feels good. I’m definitely going to keep writing, and see where it goes.