I love subTerrain!

I had a feeling today when I got home that I’d be receiving my copies of subTerrain — and I was right. Despite my raging hunger, I proceeded to rip open the package to find five lovely copies of the #66 issue. As I rightfully predicted, I stared at my name on the cover for a bit before flipping it open and finding my piece. There in front of my eyes, on page 50, was this wonderful artwork that accompanied my words.

A Case of Jeff, it said. “By Aaron Chan”. What a feeling that was, to see my name in print. I know people might think I’m being sentimental and borderline vain, but it’s a pretty big deal in my mind, especially since I didn’t think this would happen, and my parents never thought anyone would want to read my stuff and all these other terrible reasons that I feel like I’ve mentioned at least once on this blog. In the words of Anne Hathaway, this is a weapon against self-doubt.

And to top it all off, I received not one cheque, but two! One for winning the Lush Triumphant Literary Award, which I expected, but I didn’t expect to get a cheque for having my piece published in the magazine itself. That was pretty freaking awesome. I’d say today was a pretty awesome day.

Want to read my award-winning (god, it feels so weird and wrong to say that) piece? Go buy an issue on newsstands!

Staring at my name in vain

Poetry published!

Got an acceptance for a poem I submitted (that I wrote last semester for my poetry class, nonetheless) to a literary magazine today. I believe that’s four acceptance emails/letters in a row now.

What. The. Frig.

Published again!

A couple days ago, I got a package in the mail. I knew I hadn’t ordered anything from online since I’m not working at the moment, but the package was addressed (correctly) to me, and had my name on it, although the phone number was different. When my mom brought it to me, I told her I didn’t know what it was and we puzzled over it for a few minutes. Then she asked if I wanted to open it, and I said of course, since it was addressed to me and all.

Partway through opening, I saw that it was a book. “I didn’t order any books,” I said. And then I remembered: it’s a book that I’ve been published in! Oh yeah.

I know “Cinema Love” has already been published already in Best Gay Romance 2012 but I still find it pretty damn cool to see my name in print in a book. My mom, on the other hand, didn’t seem too impressed. Alas.

I want to thank Steve Berman for surprising me when he asked if he could include my story in the collection, which is starting to make me think that maybe people actually want to read my stuff. I think support and encouragement is probably the best thing anyone can do to a young writer.

CBC Short Story Prize

The deadline for the CBC Short Story Prize was today and although I wrote it in my agenda, I didn’t get around to writing anything just because this damn research essay for Sociology class is consuming my life and my soul.  Also, I didn’t have any ideas for any short stories, so I suppose I wasn’t inspired much to write one either.  Still, it was a little disappointing to not write anything for the competition since my goal for the last few months was to write a lot more and send things out.  Oh well.  There’s always the next competition, which is Creative Non-fiction, which I always have ideas.