This is an easier question for my answer!

Backstory #1 (feel free to skip): I had my first story published in 1988 in Autoduel Quarterly (Steve Jackson Games). This led to a couple of gaming articles and a fiction fanize, ending with cowriting GURPS Autoduel 2nd edtion.... And then Life happens: kids, out of work, new profession, schools, starting everything over.

I didn't realize how well I had it before then. Skip ahead a few years...

Backstory #2 (feel free to skip): for many years, I used to go to Lunacon in Rye, NY, which was New York's longest running SF con (over 50 years, and I was at 25+ of them). I "knew" many people up there but not as well as I should have after this time. A writer named C. J. Henderson passed away and there was a memorial/party in his honor at his house. His wife hope for a big showing... He lived a mile from my house, so I went. Talked to people, fanboyed a little... Talked to an editor

TL/DR: I checked the editor's website and there was a flash fiction contest. I entered it and tied for first place (won a free ebook). That got me going again, and over the next year or so, I won a couple more times. My one setback was finding out that one month toward the end, I was the only entrant, but she would've canceled if she didn't like it.

This snowballed into my getting a flash fiction collection published by them. At the same time, I started doing quite a few more prompts here, which may or may not, get turned into another book of stories by the same editor.

Either way, I'm moving forward. I have a bunch of stories circulating, and a couple have gotten an extra sentence or two in the rejection letter. But sadly, mostly rejection letters.

Last year (2022) was a down year for me, and I want to pick it up again this year.

-- If you're still reading, please check out some of my stories on r/xwhy, and leave any feedback (there, here, wherever).