So after a long eight to nine years of plugging away at my writing I had a good lot of news in the past 24 hours. First, a short story of mine (one of my first, as until now I've been mainly concentrating on screenplays and full length novels) has been purchased by an admittedly small but good quality UK sci fi/spec fiction/horror/comic mag, the info for which I will post once everything's finalized.

Then, after having long given up on learning the fate of my Bane Malar entry in the penultimate round of the Hyperspace What's The Story feature, today we got a really nice update featuring all the winners...and including my Bane story, and the news that he's going to be an action figure! The coolness is unabated for me right now. Now if I can just get a certain writing job I applied for last week...but I am not one to take stock of my blessings. Thank God, the judges, friendly British editors and Pablo Hildalgo for my recent string of good fortune.

This is also my third successful entry in the contest as a solo writer. Read the byline for the last guy on the list, good old Yoxgit - "written by frequent contributor, caledre" - HA! Gives me chills.

I've written about what didn't make the cut on my other entries, m-HYD 6804 and Yoxgit (it's in my blog archives). Everything was pretty much verbatim on Bane Malar, but I did assign him a species in my initial submission. The original line in his origin was "born a Draethos and naturally telepathic..."

Those who've read the behind the scenes on my m-HYD droid know the 6804 is my daughter Magnolia's birthdate. Bane's special Czerka Noslo-19 projectile rifle is named after my son, Johnathan Olson and his birthdate added together individually - 4/22/92, or 4+2+2+9+2 =19.

Seriously though, couldn't be happier right now. I sold my first story and I wrote the backstory on a soon-to-be Star Wars action figure. I'm on cloud nine.