once upon a dream

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to write.  My preference is fiction; even as a child I wanted to create stories.  I started making up my own "episodes" for TV shows I enjoyed.  (I have since learned that this is called "fan fiction", and there is a ton of it out on the Internet.  If you have a favorite TV show or movie, look on Fan Fiction.net to see if they have it there.  I've read many stories on that site for shows I love.  Some are amazingly good.  Some are abysmally horrible.  Most are somewhere in between.) 

But I digress.  The point is I started to make up stories.  At first, I used a tape recorder and "dictated" my tales.  Then I moved on to completely original fiction and writing on paper.  Later still (much, much later!), I switched to writing on the computer. 

I was probably in about third or fourth grade when I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.  God bless them, they never once told me what a completely unreasonable, outlandish dream that was.  They honestly seemed to believe that I would someday "make it."  I don't know that I ever told them how much I appreciated the fact that they didn't shoot me down, so here is public acknowledgement and a great big thanks.

I have by no means "made it" now.  But in the last few days, two things happened.  One, a random stranger emailed me about how much he liked this blog and how well-written he thought it was.  He wants to advertise here.  I have not decided whether to accept his offer, but I am incredibly flattered nonetheless. 

The second thing is by far the cooler.  On Money Saving Mom's blog, she mentioned a company called Textbroker International.  I applied and sent in a writing sample.  I received the highest rating possible for a first-time review.  I applied for my first assignment.  The client bought my article, no revisions necessary.  I am now officially a "paid" writer.  Don't get me wrong: I got paid very, very little for this article.  But I got paid.  I can't even begin to describe how excited I am about that.  I can now browse other assignments at Textbroker...and continue to get paid for them.  I feel like I am finally starting to fulfill the dream I had as a kid.  It feels pretty good.