Are you writing for publication?

My name is Mike White. As most of you here, I'm looking to be published and make some money at it. I've been interested in writing for a long time, but never thought I had the talent until my college professor told me so. I still don't believe him, but hey, it's nice to be told.

You've actually reviewed one of my items already, Chris ("Invalid Item" ). I'm currently working on the suggestions for that one. I've also written a new one that I've been told needs a market. I don't know if it is saleable or not ("Invalid Item" ). I know. I need to do something about the paragraph breaks and such for this site. Just hard to edit two copies at once.

I guess why I'm here though is to try and break into writing as a second career. I plan on being a high school teacher, but I also want to write because I enjoy it tremendously. Any ideas on how to do this? I am completely new to writing for money.

I do own Writer's Market 2005. I just can't seem to find a market that would fit my pieces. I guess I don't know how to look through it properly or something. And my professor deals mostly in literary fiction, so he doesn't have a clue either. Any help would be appreciated.

I know the rules of submission (down to how to fold the envelope if you're submitting poetry), I just don't know WHO to submit to.

Thanks for your time.