Bliss

My life has gotten blissfully busy. OK, maybe blissful is not really the right word, but I liked the alliteration. The holidays, old friends, new friends, and the welcome chaos of hearts beating has turned my life into a swirl of things to do and places to be, Christmas light to hang (and now soon to remove) drinks to meet for, friends to sit with, and family to visit.

So what have I to show for all this? Well that depends on where you place your value. I could beat myself up for not getting too much writing done in this past month, but on the other hand, I've been out in the world, soaking up material and experiences, strengthening friendships, and deepening my understanding of love, life, and family.

As the new year creeps up, I feel the need to make resolutions. At first I thought I should unbusy my life a bit. Maybe meet less often for a drink, or sit less long in a conversation, or go to bed earlier instead of seeing the kids to dreamland and staying up late with my husband.

But instead, I think I'll make my coffee a little stronger in the morning and maybe I'll miss an episode or more of my favorite tv show. Maybe I won't get all the laundry done in a timely manner and I'm sure my house will not be clean.

But I'll have stories to tell and some of them might even make it to the page.

Happy New Year!

You Need This Book!

I'm pre-ordering mine tomorrow. You've read me mention one of my good friends and awesome writer, Shellie Zacharia. Her short story collection is coming out and you need this book. Really. You do. You'll write and thank me later. You'll will. See the site below to pre-order. Shellie's stories are funny and hip and her characters say all the things you wish you would and then just when you think it's safe to keep laughing, POW, right to the kisser. Get it, you'll love it.

http://shelliezacharia.blogspot.com

Here are a couple of other sites to check out. Some contests and other things that have been e-mailed to me.

These two are out of Sarah Lawrence--call for submissions and a contest
http://pages.slc.edu/~lumina/submissions/
http://pages.slc.edu/~lumina/contest

This is a cool online journal for poetry and prose
http://www.zeroducats.com/

Check this out..new chapbook press that takes fiction as well as poetry.
http://www.highway101press.com/


Happy writing, kids.

Hamburger Day in Heaven

My 94 year old grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago. 94 year old grandmothers will do that from time to time. I work in health care with the elderly, so seeing someone pass is nothing new to me. None the less, it felt like an honor to be there with her when she left this old place behind.

It's strange to watch someone go. Not that it's a sad thing altogether. Most of the time it's better that they pass into something more beautiful and permanent. Still, at work, we watch them go (six in a week this month) and we're taken off guard every time.

"Did you hear Mrs. So and So died?"
"Why! It's hamburger day tomorrow."

But I don't eat meat and most of their food is pureed so hamburger day isn't really all it's cracked up to be. Still we wonder if we could have convinced them to stick it out one more afternoon. After all, they play Wii games on Wednesday.

But what I remember most about my grandmother was that she was the first everyday ordinary person that I knew who made up stories. As a child, I thought book just were. It didn't occur to me that anyone with a bit of talent and a ton of determination could write one. I don't think she every published anything, but I still remember the bedtime stories she told us. All of them made up from somewhere inside her head and her heart...that elusive thing called imagination.

Turns out, I have one too.

Thanks, Grandma. And I'm sure they have hamburger day in heaven.

I overthink, therefore I might be

So I'm thinking..first mistake..what do I want to be when I grow up. Then I realize, I am grown up.

Oops.

I've got a degree in english, writing and so forth, milling around about a book, yadda yadda yadda. I'm working as a nurse's aid in a place that will pay for me to go through nursing school, but I don't know that I want to push pills on old people for a living and I don't have the stomach for hospital work. I live near Warren Wilson where there is a great low residency MFA program, but if I can't get a scholarship I doubt I could come up with the money to go.

I don't know what to do.

I know what I want to do. I want to write. But what I have to do is pay the bills. Somewhere there must be a balance. I also have to do the laundry and raise two kids and pay attention to my husband and pick the tomatoes out of the garden before they plop to the ground, ready and wasted.


I've written three novels. The first one is a lot like my first love, naive and romantic and not very well put together. The second has legs but I'm not sure it knows where it ran to. The third, now this one, I'm happy with. It means something. (sidebar--that's actually a line from the first chapter of said first novel...but now, it too means something.)

So, what will I do.... I'll let you know.

meanwhile: check out this site if you're looking for an agent.

www.agentquery.com

Stay tuned, and try not to over think.

all writers need a hideaway

I've just come back from a week at Wildacres Writers Workshop. check it out at wildacres.com
For those who already take the time to go to workshops or retreats, keep doing it. For those that haven't yet, google retreats and residency programs and workshops and the like. There are plenty that are affordable and it's a great time to get away from the world and write (among other things--those that go to Wildacres know what I mean)

Seriously though...take some time to focus and reconnect with what you're writing.

Average American White Girl

So I wrote a novel. Trouble is, it isn't set in Sri Lanka or Pakistan. It isn't the least bit political. The main character isn't a drug addict or a cross-dresser. Worse, I myself am not a drug addict or a cross dresser. I wasn't adopted into a family of gypsies. I'm not from New York.

I'm just an everyday American white chick. My family is the normal everyday amount of dysfunctional. Not at all daytime TV talk show worthy and certainly not a Dateline contender. What can I possibly have to say? What would the writers magazines be interested in? What would my shocking headline be?

Here's what I know: What life feels like. (I bet you know it too.)
Here's what I write: What life feels like. (Isn't that what most of us really want to read.)

I hope so.

So, I'll not be discouraged by the writing mags. Let them feature what they want. I'll be writing what the rest of us know. And hopefully, one day I'll shock the world with

AVERAGE AMERICAN WHITE GIRL PUBLISHES A NOVEL

Contests

OK, folks. Just a quick list of some contests that look interesting. I go to a workshop in the mountains every year in July, and the approach of that week in paradise always gets me extra motivated to send more stories out, enter more contests, and brush off old ideas that have been beggng for their turn at the page.

Here's a few contests that I got from Poets and Writers--which by the way--if you don't subscibe to some or other writing mag, I suggest you do. I like P&W. It has great contest info, articles and a series at the present from agents and editors that will make you want to seek professional help for wanting to be a writer in the first place. But, despite that....it's a great mag. It's good motivation and good info.

Here's a few that looked interesting to me:
June 30th:
Atumn House Press: $1000 and $1500 travel for either book of poetry or fiction,
www.autumnhouse.org

June 3oth
Hidden River Arts
$1000 and pub of short story.
www.hiddenriverarts.com

July 15th
Santa Fe Writers Project: $1750 for work of fiction. Prizes for second and third also.
www.sfwpawards.com

Check those out, there is still time to enter.

Until then....