No I haven't, but a friend of mine suggested a couple of sites to publish it on and get feedback. I may try those. I have taken out subscriptions to Poets & Writers and The Writer, so hopefully I can get some tips and ideas as well.

I've tried my hand at that recently myself; submitted a story for a anthology, but it didn't get picked. Gonna keep trying though. Hope you're doing well.

Welcome aboard! =)  Hope you're doing well today - I've done some writing myself (albeit in the newspaper field). Trying to branch out these days.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that you would have to focus on non-fiction.  It would just enable you to focus on non-fiction.  If you want publishers to take you seriously, you need either an extraordinary life experience (or need to be able to lie convincingly about having had one) or need appropriate scholarship.

Hell, I've known of college professors who have given a spectrum of papers to a class of their graduate students, each student's paper being a chapter of a book.  You could get your nonfiction written that way and spend your free time writing the fiction that you enjoy.  ^.^

Where you'd mostly run into issues is from friends and family members, I imagine.  "You got a Ph.D. to do this?!?!?"

Ohhhhhh, I can see the reference point, yeah, although it's been years since I've seen the show, of course.  One of my online tags (used on the Freethought Blogs, among other forums), Lord Narf, is similarly taken from a single episode of Pinky and the Brain.

Hi Misery Chick
Welcome to this world of rationality and peace, where pure common sense should be enough to lead to the open freethinking wisdom common to non-believers like you and us.
We invite you to join the busy group "ORIGINS: Universe, Astronomy, Life, Earth, Humans, Religion, Gods, Atheism, Evolution, Darwin..." with 700 discussion topics and 3600+ members.
http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/originsuniverselifehumankindanddarwin
Terry

Greetings! Welcome to the site!