My Return to Publication: The Indie Pioneer, The New Literary Magazine, and the Necessity of Creation

Anne Childress
Dec 1
3 min read

I'M BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN, but first....

This Blog is dedicated to the late Harvey Wilson:

Christian. Friend, Writer.

I’m a writer with two feet firmly planted in two different worlds—the traditionally published and the indie press. I'm a hybrid author.

Yet, my training began in the pre-digital age: I trained as a journalist when the Internet wasn't even a common word, and concepts like digital publishing, indie writing, or citizen journalists were completely foreign. The literary landscape has changed utterly since then, but the fundamental need to create has not.

I became a school librarian, and it was there that the seeds of this new world were planted. As far back as 1996, I was meeting and befriending the first wave of indie authors. I cherish those friends, and I must dedicate this blog to one a wonderful brother in Christ that passed in the last year: Harvey Wilson of Griffin, GA and Zebulon, GA. To his endless encouragement of my writing, I owe so much.

Harvey taught me the early years of the indie movement. His "mouse stories" are beautiful, and he would always visit my schools, for free, to share his writing methods with the children. Harvey was a true pioneer in indie authorship. I treasured his visits, and he was an inspiration! This is his obituary, and I send my love to his friends and family. I was his grandsons' first librarian, and that is how I met Mr. Harvey!

https://www.moodyfuneralhome.com/obituary/harvey-wilson

You can access his books here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/17543.Harvey_T_Wilson

This history of traditional-meets-indie is why my recent success feels so significant and so timely.

My short story was just accepted into a lovely, new, cutting-edge, and excellent literary magazine: Infocalypse Arts and Literary Magazine. The art below is from Ortega Castro. You can read more on this literary magazine at https://www.infocalypse.press/

Infocalypse's mission speaks directly to the moment we're living in. Their publisher's note: "In Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, information itself becomes a virus... Thirty-three years later, we’re living in that metaphor made real... Literacy isn’t dying; it’s mutating. We graze the net, half-reading, half-dreaming through the scroll. Infocalypse is a pause—a space to explore what meaning becomes when art crosses mediums." The literary magazine's images are credited to them below:

I read their request to submit art, poetry, and short stories that fall into this much-needed area of creation, submitted, and three days later, I was part of their mission.

You may read my winning short story, which is included in this month's magazine, online here: https://www.infocalypse.press/prologue-8/

Thank you to the editors and publishers for selecting my short story. You have made my world so so happy! Hayley Moore created the gorgeous image below, which is from Hayley Moore, and she is credited and thanked for opening my short story. When I get links to her work, I will add it here!

My short story has a backstory, as all creations do. When I learned of Infocalypse's call, I was coming out of what felt like a decade-long hiatus from public writing.

I had been caregiving and quietly creating for hours each week, but I had ceased to share. I pulled a story I wrote between 2015 and 2017 from my digital cloud, edited it to meet their requirements, and sent it to the publisher.

My decade "break" was only a break from the public seeing my creations. My loved ones and I saw them often. And in all honesty, it was my writing that saved my mental health during the intense years of caregiving for my parents, walking through a loved one's addiction and voyage to sobriety, and navigating changing family dynamics. Thank God for that quiet creation.

No matter what stage in life you are in, hear this: Create something. Keep a writing journal, blog, or do SOMETHING for your soul.

I'm Back in the Saddle Again. Insert some Aerosmith, with cheering! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdKgwgURHj8

Thank God for Harvey Wilson, who saw me in those years of silence and would tell me to keep on writing. Thank God for literary magazines that create space for creators to submit work, permitting us to hit play to share. And thank you, God, for keeping me creating, as all I do is to glorify and praise Him.