It's not really a secret. As an aspiring writer, the desire for success (just a smidge of it... just a single acceptance letter at a time...) is immense, but the odds of it happening are so very small. However, earlier this summer I received that smidge from a publication called Forge magazine.
My essay
Between Stone and Air
, the story of my second ascent of Hermaphrodite Flake in Yosemite National Park, was published in issue 6.1. The
digital version of my essay
has been available since July, and now
the paperback hard copy of the magazine is available for purchase
($12.99). The issue includes short stories, essays, and quite a few terrific poems. And in case you need any further enticement to pick up a copy, check out the great mission statement forged by Forge (including a pretty fantastic classic film reference, if you ask me):
We imagine each issue as a bus traveling between destinations, with our contributors adding to the experience of the journey. Think of the bus trip in the movie It Happened One Night, with characters and landscapes flying by like cinema. We aim to publish interesting, quality works, and every issue has a unique flavour.
Climb On
: By way of reminder, I do post
climbing trip reports
on a separate page of this blog. So far there are three, but I've got many more in the works, including a post on Happy Girlfriend, a 5c+ route in the big cave (Grande Grotta) on the island of Kalymnos in Greece, which Jonathan and I climbed just this week. More on that whole trip soon!