From the Inkwell, From the Vein.....

That's 2 ins of solid ice folks, solid and unmoving Yesterday was my first official day of vacation , and what did I do? Watch the sleet and freezing rain accumulate and cover our entire little world---- surprising because it had been ~60 F the day before. Not so surprising because, well, it's bipolar season for the South. My husband didn't make it home last night. His boss convinced him to stay overnight for safety reasons, even agreed to pay him---wish I could get paid to have a sleep-over at work. Thankfully, we didn't lose power. So, the cat and I snuggled in the recliner, enjoying that we didn't have to go anywhere. I know the South gets a bad rap for our inability to cope with winter weather. But, give us a break, it's hard to deal with something you only see 3 days out of the year. Really, though, the issue isn't piles of snow, it's ICE. Because we have such bipolar weather, a 2-in "nothing" of snow will melt at noon, only to...

Today...tonight... 2 hours ago, I did something I've put off, procrastinated, and shied away from for the last 10 years--- I submitted my first work of fiction to a literary journal. When I first started writing (no, let me phrase that better), when I first began writing again, just after college, all I could think about was someday becoming published---one day I could call myself an author. It's funny, but when I was an 11-year-old poet, I never thought about using my writing to make a living. I just wrote because I wanted/needed to. And, while that want/need is still the same, 23 years later, now...NOW... I'm thinking of my writing with a career in mind. It isn't so much that I believe I can truly make a living from what I write---though I would love it if I could. No, what I'm thinking about now is the cold, hard fact that writing must be treated as a profession, and not a hobby, if I ever intend on doing anything with it. Every year I've accumulat...

So, I just went through my submissions spreadsheet for this year's Short Story contests.... somehow, I assumed I was woefully behind and had missed dozens of deadlines because I hadn't submitted anything in the month of January. There were about 3 contests whose deadlines passed in January that I was well aware of. Still feeling the draining effects of having survived another Christmas working retail, having prepared for a huge book sale and signing event with a local school and just getting over a mild flu, I agreed to allow the January deadlines to pass without a second thought. As much as it pains me to admit---- I really can't do EVERYTHING.... And, now February is well into its first week without a known deadline itching in the back of mind.... this is when the panic alarms started tingling in the depths of my subconscious---- if it's possible to have the Spidey-Senses version of writing 'alarm bells', then I gots 'em..... I'm one of those peo...

I've placed in my first contest..... I've received my first prize-money check.....I've had my first interview...... and all of this from one small, 741-word flash fiction piece, Charon's Lament. Had I known when I was writing and re-writing what I thought I would never be able to shave down below the 750-word max---that the piece and contest I almost gave up on---would land a 2nd place win, and on-line publication, I might have cursed my wordy sentences and my befuddled brain a little less. There was a point, somewhere in the middle of one of those sleepless nights where I almost said, to hell with it. I almost tore my red-inked pages to shreds, almost slammed my laptop shut caring not to save whatever I had just typed, almost flopped back onto my bed--relishing the sour mood of defeat, which would have been far easier to endure. Almost. Almost. What it was that kept me going, I don't know if I'll ever know. It certainly wasn't confidence in my writ...

Today my identity as a writer/author was confirmed and validated. Knowing that the actual writing is what defines a writer is easy enough to say, but it is immensely more difficult to believe. I have been a writer since I was eleven years old because I have actually written since I was eleven years old. But, until today, I have never FELT like a writer. Today, though, I received my prize money from the WOW! Women on Writing! contest in which my story placed 2nd. Today, I can call myself a writer. It's horrible to think that it takes a piece of paper with my name on it to assure me that I am, in fact, a writer. It's not enough that I have composed hundreds of poems, that I've written half a dozen novels, that I've created dozens of characters and given those characters names and lives of their own. It's not enough that I bleed ink from my veins. I must have a single slip of paper---with writing on it that I did not compose myself---to give myself the name o...

And, the fruits of labor sometimes yield more than a bushel...... Can't express how excited I am about this---- 2nd place!!!! My first placing in a contest, ever :-D The link below takes you directly to the winner's page... Link: WOW! Women On Writing Summer 2010 Flash Fiction Contest Winners

Two months can seem forever when so many things happen. 60 short days since my last post and suddenly we are at the end of October. Tomorrow is Halloween and for those of us that are NaNoWriMo regulars, it is our last "free" day until November 30th. Once the final bell rings at midnight on Halloween, we will be off and running in this year's race to complete our 50,000- word masterpieces---well, our 50,000-word first drafts :-) This month has been a roller coaster ride of emotion--- excitement with the impending NaNo adventure, doubt about completing the word quota, fear about the contest results from recent entries, elation about the results of one contest. Seems impossible to hold everything in perspective, impossible to continue the forward movement. But, it will continue, nonetheless. "Tangle of Matter and Ghost" is this year's NaNo title. The tiny kernel of a Southern Victorian Ghost/Voodoo story of cursed love and soul currency. I have a handful of...

Tonight marks the completion of another round of contest-entering. Two stories were submitted, one to the Once Written website, for their Midnight Hour "Halloween" short story competition....the other was a Flash Fiction piece submitted to the WOW! (women on writing) Website. After the initial rush that I had hit the "submit" button and could in no way retrieve what I had sent out, the realization that other contest deadlines were impending invaded. As I pulled 3 more stories out of my pile for the next 3 contests--- all of which have an October 1st deadline--- I suddenly realized something about my writing....... I have an increasingly morbid fixation on death.... Every story I've ever written, ever thought of, has been centered around death---- the tragic death, the lonely death, the vengeful death, the grievous death, the hopeful death--- if there can be a "hopeful" death.... I'm not sure where my writing disposition comes from, but, i...

So, I've been pondering an idea for a "short" fiction competition in December. There won't be any word about the last contest I entered until October, so what better way to pass the time than by preparing another piece for the next contest. I've never really limited my writing by classifying it to any specific genre, but I have found that most of what I write has a definite bent toward magical realism....more specifically, the darker side of magical realism. Is there such a thing as the macabre magical realism genre??? I don't normally consider myself overly preoccupied with death, but it does have a strong role in most of the themes of my writing. I've mostly attributed it to my upbringing. There aren't too many children that I know of that spent their formative years wandering the halls and rooms of a skilled-patient nursing home. But the lonely, pathetic halls of such a place is exactly where my brother and I spent many an after-school hour, wai...

The absolute hardest thing that a writer has to deal with, aside from endless edits, is the weeks and months of waiting. Query letters, submission responses, competitions.....the total wait time for every piece sent off can potentially add up to years of thumb-twiddling--- oh, the injustice of it all. Of course, this time can so often be filled with the moans of self-pity, doubt, nail-biting, etc. This is even more true if there is no work-in-progress or project to occupy the mind and imagination. I'm in the midst of one of those wait times right now. I have about 3 months of waiting to see if I manage to place in the Writer's Digest Annual Short Story Competition....fingers crossed. :-D In the meantime, I'm trying not to think about the possibility of placing/failing and am trying to fill my time with constructive endeavors. I'm currently working on another short story for a competition in a couple of months. Having a full-time day job helps also take my mind off...

It's always surprising the amount of time that can pass without us ever being aware. In the four months since my last post, so many things have happened in both my personal life and at work... many things happened even without my realizing it, some for good, others for the not-so-good. But, such is life. We are forced to take the good with the bad or to take nothing at all. As things change around me, it has forced me to re-evaluate my place in everything. I have had to make some decisions concerning which path in life I am best suited for. And, it has convinced me to refocus my attention to my writing and the direction I would like to see my creative endeavors take. It is clear to me, more now than ever, that writing is the path I want to take in my life. There are so many things that are welled up inside me, so many emotions, so many ideas, that I'm afraid I will tear myself apart if I do not find a way of expressing it all. With publication in mind, I've taken seve...

One more chapter to tie everything up and my NaNovel will officially be complete. Well, the first draft of my NaNovel will be complete, but that's still something. At just under 56,000 words this is the longest and quickest-written novel I have ever managed. Now what I have to look forward to in the coming months will be the dreaded editing. The energy and enthusiasm that went into this project initially will be needed more than ever as the edit begins. I just hope I'll be able to dig the energy back out. But, this will also make the third novel added to the stack of edits. I suppose I'll have to decide which direction to move first....which book to work at.... I suppose my next plan will be to reread all 3 books and try to decide which one is the closest to being ready for submission. If I don't start sending out query letters soon, I'm going to have an entire bookcase full of unpublished manuscripts. Plus side of that is I'll always have a spare novel to ...