An Ode to Νάρκισσος (Narcissus)

William Shakespeare never attained the honor of debuting one of his works in an online literary magazine.  As long as there are no follow-up inquiries, comments or logical thought processes, this statement stands as a blissfully ignorant but impressive fact and/or hallucination.

Many authors may claim that my heralding the acceptance of Jumper for publication in Apparatus Magazine as a huge success is a bit—I don't know—delusional, narcissistic and just plain sad.  I of course dismiss these claims, as they largely originate from published authors and working fiction writers with both commercial and critical acclaim.

If I could take a moment and be uncharacteristically serious, Apparatus Magazine displays some impressive talent from a wealth of amazing writers from around the world (my paltry contribution notwithstanding).  If you have a literary bone in your body, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  Personally, I'm both thrilled and surprised to be included with such an impressive group.

With all serious rubbish complete, I'll now don my "writer" hat (seriously?), regrow my writing beard, relight my writing pipe and anxiously await the inevitable avalanche of Pulitzer nominations, from my fortress of solitude nestled somewhere deep in the dark heart of Missouri (hint: it's inside a volcano).

Hemingway once said, "The first draft of anything is shit."  Of course he could make statements like that, he was a genius.  Regardless, if you'd like to see how true that statement is and get a glimpse into the writing process (not really) check out one of my earlier iterations of Jumper.

Then become my fan.  Quick!  Before I'm famous.

No one likes posers.

Image Credit.