Originally Posted by
FrankLapidas 
First of all, congrats on getting published! That ain't easy. And that wasn't your high point - that is yet to come when you get sober and start scribbling again. Why do I know that? Because you said you "had fun with" writing. I've never agreed with the theory that a writer tries to write until there is blood seeping out of his forehead. I think it has to be fun, even though challenging.
When I grew up there was a romantic image of writers, sitting at a desk next to a typewriter and a bottle. Think Hemingway. It was a false image. You can't write while you are drunk.
And if I might be presumptuous, here are a couple of books you might like to read: 'The Red Hot Typewriter", by John D. MacDonald; 'On Writing', by Stephen King (even though I'm not a Stephen King fan).
The "Tragic Writer" become a big part of my drinking, I admit. Hemingway especially, but also Fitzgerald and Carver and Bukowski--- every writer I've loved, basically, was an alcoholic.
But it's ridiculous, because you're completely right. Even if there is an idolization of these people alongside drinking, it has nothing to do with either the art of writing, or the quality of writing. It's just a costume, and I wore it because I guess I thought it validated me.
Thank you for the kind words, seriously. I would really love to start writing again, and hopefully once I've cleaned up I can find that passion again. I'd really love to believe that my lapse in writing is something external like drinking, and not completely internal. I miss it a lot.