(c) 2014, Phil Giunta

Well, tonight is the night. Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity launches at the Shore Leave 36 convention. Words almost cannot describe how excited I am – almost. At the moment I am about to bubble over with a thrill that overshadows most events in my life. This has been the one thing that I have wanted more than anything in the world. With over 20 years of work, one of my pieces is published. All those years of labor, countless stories that have maxed out 37 flash drives, hours upon hours of editing, and an unimaginable amount of sleepless nights spent just writing has all come down to this very night.

But, oh how the learning experience has been wrought with despair. For I suffer with an affliction that causes much turmoil in my life. The affliction is perfection. The single reason which has caused the act to hoard my stories, a reason that evokes the feeling that these stories are not yet good enough. The constant thought that there are better ways to perfect the tale: better word choices, room to tighten prose, grammatical errors — these are the thoughts that continually run through my mind. Which is, of course, complete and utter bull shit.  I have yet to pick up a publication that does not have at least one grammatical error or an area where the prose could be more concise.

With this single published story, I have come to realize that I need to let things go in order to become published. I just need to turn a piece over to an editor, say “Sayonara”, and allow the editor to work his or her magic. I must no longer agonize and fear perfection. As Salvador Dali once said, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”

Very true words. A story will eternally have room to improve, but perfection will never be reached. In order to allow your story to live, you must let it go.

Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity anthology, which contains my short story Parallax, will be available online from all major booksellers on August 4^th.

ISBN: 978-0-9773851-6-4