Metazen.com published a story of mine written in the 3rd person with simple sentences. It’s called Miso Soup (This is the link).
Update: Seth Siegal had a story published on Metazen, a year ago today, actually, weirdly enough. Here is the link. I like it.
Congratulations to you both! In the academic world, every publication (I’ve none so far) and every conference presentation (I’ve got one so far) counts, both in so far as they fill out your CV, and in so far as they provide a certain momentum of their own which propels one on to further work. Hopefully a similar effect is had on your end of the spectrum!