which means some publisher somewhere liked my shit well enough to pay me actual money so he could print it in his anthology.
it does remove the worst concerns about "his English might suck", doesn't it?
You make an interesting point. How old are you right now and how much money have you made off of your writing in all of your lifetime?
A few hundred dollars, which is not much, but I have only started seriously writing short stories in 2015 and been treating it as a side activity rather than my main profession.
I've sold 7 short stories by now (of which, to be completely honest, I only consider 4 to be truly good) and the editors of the anthologies haven't changed much about them before publication, which means my command of the English language is competent enough that editors don't have to correct my grammar and use of words, which is what you're worrying about, right? So if that's what you're worrying about, no need to do so any longer.
Since the published stuff of mine is all short stories, there aren't any reviews I can point you to (since reviews of anthologies tend to review the anthology as a whole and not pick out single stories), except for this one:
Deluge: Stories of Survival & Tragedy in the Great Flood (Biblical Legends Anthology Series Book 3)
This One has Street Cred
I have a lot of respect for the work of the Editor of this multi-Author volume of Deluge related stories. Mr. Taylor has gone to a lot of work to put it together. I know this, for a fact. Getting multiple Authors to go along with any agenda not of their own making is like herding cats. The cats have lots of fun, but the corral gate never gets shut.
All of the stories and poetic prose in this book are excellent work. Do you want to know what a day in the life of God is like? Do you want to experience the slow flooding of the world with water, as you climb higher and higher to live? Do you just want to experience strange twists to the general theme of the Flood that you never thought of before? If you answered any of these questions with a 'yes', then this is the book for you.
Every story in this book was entertaining to me, but there were a few of them that I considered my favorites. Among these were Dreams of the Moon by Lorina Stephens, Aqualung by Anne Carly Abad, Fields of the Nephilim by Alex S. Johnson, The Sharptooth by Terry Alexander, and Angelblood by Frank Sawielijew. You might want to read the stories. You definitely need to keep your eyes on these Writers.
Aqualung is prose on the subject that tickled my meaning bone, Fields of the Nephilim is just plain funny (and a little bit randy), and the other three tales bring strange tones to the subject matter that most readers will appreciate.
The stories are all loosely based on the story of the Biblical Flood, but do not let that bother you. Even if you are intensely antireligious, these stories will bother you in their own right, not because of any religious content.
All in all, I would give this book a well-deserved five stars. Read it. You will not regret it.
Does that alleviate your worries somewhat?
I'm not saying your writing is shit yet. I understand how my posts could be misconstrued as such, but I'm not.
I'd like to understand where this brazen confidence is coming from.
Not sure where your impression of brazen confidence is coming from. I never claimed Realms Beyond's writing is going to rival Planescape Torment, but I am confident that I have the skill to create some engaging quests and an interesting setting for them to take place in.
I got a background in history and archaeology, been playing pen and paper RPGs for 6+ years, and have enough experience with CRPGs to know what works and what doesn't. So as far as world and quest design goes, I know what I'm doing.
Do keep in mind that I'm not the only writer of the game, either. We have some others working on the game too, with everyone focusing on one or two regions (my focus is on three regions: Pyrrhenia, the Wildlands, and Sabag-Hirar), and we're regularly communicating with each other to make the worldbuilding as consistent as possible and also forge some connections between the different regions (trade, diplomacy, and quests connected to those things).
For anything more, well, you'll just have to wait until we reveal a few quest concepts and see whether you like them or not.