Write now!

Hi writers.

Especially those with a great idea rolling around in their head and NO words on the page! Check out this site and get started.  National Novel Writng Month. It's FREE and easy to sign up and full of advice and pep talks, forums to talk to other writers in your area, a word count ticker, and all other manner of items to help you GET STARTED!

Stop going on about not having enough free time to write. Who has free time? Who are these people?

Write now!  Offical start is November 1st. But you can go on now and get signed up.

So go on.....

Old School

The other night, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was on tv and there was a scene where Sabrina was in her room talking on the phone to her boyfriend. My 10 year old daughter, with puzzled look on her face said, "What is that thing she's talking on?"

I turned to look at the tv expecting some strange contraption and there is was: an old school 1980's phone.

I said, "That's a telephone. That's what they used to look like."

She said, still puzzled, "Did they take those to school with them?"

"No," I said. "People used to go around with no phone on them at all. If you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you called their house."

"What if they weren't home?" she asked.

"Then you didn't talk to them on the phone," I said.

"Oh," she said. "Weird."

Later I retold this to some friends of mine and we got a good chuckle, imagining a backpack with the base tucked inside and the handset with curled up cord coming out through the unzipped top of the pack.

Ah, the world as our kids know it.

Report From Cloud Nine

I'm thrilled to announce that my short story collection Somewhere Between What Was and What Will Be (or What Is--as quick witted friend Bill Spencer joked) is slated for publication in the fall of 2012 from Press 53.

I'm excited to be attending Press 53's annual Wine & Words Festival tonight (Oct 22n) where Kevin Watson will be announcing the winners of their annual Open Awards Contest and debuting the 2012 Open Awards Anthology. A couple of my friends-- Debbie Daniel and Kristen Sherman--were finalist in areas of that contest Congrats!

I've been a fan of Press 53 for some time and I'm honored to soon be one of the authors in their house. Many thanks!

In other news, you may know about this site, but if not, I happened upon a contest site called Just a Contest that lists all manner of competition in many different categories. Take a look at that.

I was pleased to see my old friends Saturday Writers have a contest listed there. Check them out and pass that on to your friends.

The weather is getting chilly and for this warmblooded creature, that means outdoor activities are about to get limited. So I'll be taking that indoor time to write and check out that contest site. I hope you will too.

Keeping the Morning Glories off my Desk

The morning glories look so pretty, the way they have crept up the tomato stakes, covered over the low lying zucchini, and are now making advance up the porch railing. The white and purple blooms of neglect make it easy to shrug my shoulders and pretend I meant it that way.

It's been too hot to weed, too hot to cook, too hot to care that it's all going to waste. But it's been just the right temperature to stay inside in the a/c and write. Just perfect for haunting the publishing sites for submission deadlines and contest dates.

So, yeah--I've harvested a total of two green peppers, five tomatoes, and one big fat zucchini from garden that has yielded much much more to the ground, but I've been writing, submitting, entering, getting rejected--and yes, getting published too.

My garden is a bust, but the writing this season has been good. I've nothing to can for the winter, but plenty to chew on none the less.

Ouch! (and check out this new blog)

Was is me who was going on about "if you're not being rejected, you're just not trying?" Well, I must be trying pretty hard, because I'm getting a daily dose of rejection to remind me of my effort.

Gotta say, it's a bummer.

Ah well, such is the writing biz. I keep lobbing them out there and they keep going foul. Or some other misquoted sports analogy. :-)

Bright spot--In about a weeks time, I'm headed up to Wildacres Writers Workshop. I've been going there for 15 years or more. My husband and I met there, so it's always a time of reconnection for us. But writing wise, it's a time of rejuvenation for me. With kids and housework, a (very) part time job, and life in general--it's nice to get a week of devoted thinking and writing time.

I'm taking a novel that I'm excited about this year to work on a "final" ha ha draft before I query it up and send it out.

Wish me luck.

One of my dearest friends from Wildacres, Gary Floyd, has started a new blog that you should check out. I admit, I'm not always up on whats up in the real world-but he is and I'm excited about learning a thing or two from his blog.

Check it out! Labor's Pains the working class in this new economy.

Well, hang in there if you're getting rejected, and if you're not--jump in, the water is fine.

Solitary Confinement

Does it ever feel like writing is akin to being held in solitary confinement? Nothing but you, your imagination and a rock to scratch a note on the wall in the hopes that someone, anyone, will hear what you have to say?

Ok, that's a little melodramatic, but writing can be pretty lonely if you let it.

I had someone recently ask me to post some more links to contests and such--stating that they were new to all this writing biz. So that got me thinking about a couple pieces of advises that I'll join together.

I've been spending the last week alone in the bedroom (where my internet access computer is) hunting up agents for novels and markets for short stories, while out in the world it's a sunny day--and Saturday today to boot.

I suggest that if your schedule and circumstance will allow it--take a field trip every now and then. Get out of your hole--where ever it is that you write--and go to your local free Wi-Fi access haunt and spend the day out in the world. You may not actually talk to the folks you see--but seeing them is nice.

So if your writing plan (and I suggest you make some--more on that later) for the day is searching for markets, head out to a bookstore, coffeehouse,what have you, get a cup of coffee (or six) and plug in to something like newpages or duotrope and take some time to research markets. You may also find copies of some of these mags depending on the bookstore.

I like each of these sites for different reasons. Duotrope has a feature that lets you customize you search if say--you're low on funds and looking only for places that accept online submissions. The downfall here is that when you limit your search--well, you limit your search.

Newpages on the other hand requires a bit more plow through but as you're searching and paying more attention to the websites it leads you to, other avenues such as contests and chapbook presses and so forth cross your path.

This is why I say to plan to spend some time and make that time enjoyable. We tend to put alot of effort into the writing and no as much into the publishing and what that gets you is very much like the rock scratchings on the prison wall. They could be brilliant--but who will ever know.

So, since your goal is put your writing out in the world--spend some time out there yourself. Don't let yourself get distracted, you're there to work--but a change in senery can motivate you.

It's Getting Hot in Here

If I can keep focus that is. Was it Poe who said that writing success was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration?

I may have the numbers and the name wrong, but the idea is spot on.

I've been writing for 20 years. Off and on mind you--around college and kids and moves and career changes. But if I'm honest with myself it's been more off than on and more my own laziness that has seen that many years go by without the success that might have been.

Suffice it to say--I've yet to break sweat.

I've done ok, for not trying all that hard--nearly a dozen stories in print. Not a bad showing. But I haven't really tried to get my longer pieces on paper (that didn't come out of my own printer that is.)

So, now that I don't have a full time job (other than wife, mother, housekeeper etc) to blame for my lack of time--I really have no excuse not to turn up the heat.

At least I'll be able to say I tried.