Thoughts about writing, and the universe.
After graduation, campus changes. Half the students depart, and we are left in a quieter place as the rest of spring unfolds, as the days stretch longer and longer (it's still light at 10:30pm now; I haven't stayed up late enough to check, but I think we have now entered that period of light when... Continue Reading →
Sending out short story submissions is an endeavor. I devote a number of hours each month to identifying journals that are open for submissions and cataloging where I've sent which story. A new free tool for finding journals has recently come to my attention. Today, let's explore Chill Subs and see how it can help... Continue Reading →
On the second of January, I had a flash fiction piece published with Electric Literature's The Commuter. It had been about two years prior to this since my last publication, and I had been feeling discouraged. I am feeling grateful and reaffirmed to be able to get this piece out there, and it has been... Continue Reading →
Routines get upended during the holidays. My eight-month-old nephew, who is so sweet, has had his routines disrupted this last week by the Christmas festivities, as well as by his visiting and overly-excited uncles. He gets cranky. He refuses to go down for a nap. I've been privately saying to him, "I'm with you, mister!"... Continue Reading →
As I continue to explore different venues for submitting short stories, one publication different than the others has been Sixfold. Traditional literary journals have a team of readers and editors who vet submissions and curate the publication. Sixfold, instead, has the writers who have submitted stories or poems read, comment, and vote on one another's... Continue Reading →
Over these last couple of years, I have learned the power of goal setting to push my writing forward. In 2021, I set goals for monthly word count, submissions, and publications, and as I could have foreseen, met only the two goals I had meaningful control over. That was a good lesson learned. In 2022,... Continue Reading →
I am writing this afternoon from home in Norway. We made it back on New Year's Eve after a beautiful and wonderful Christmas together with my parents on the island of La Palma. I feel so fortunate to have been able to do this trip. Everyone has now made it home safely, and we'll start... Continue Reading →
The term ended in a flurry of hard work, and winter break has now opened up before us. Instead of going home this year, we have traveled to Spain, first to Madrid to visit friends of my husband's, then on to the Canary Islands off the southern coast of Morocco. In this post I will... Continue Reading →
Sometimes in my writing journey these last several years, I have taken issue with old writing advice--the mandate to show, don't tell; the focus on active verbs that overshadows the great work other verbs do; Western literature's myopic focus on conflict--these are all pieces of inherited writing wisdom that, with deeper thought on my own... Continue Reading →
As the end of May approaches, I have been springing ahead to try to meet my monthly writing goals. I set these goals at the beginning of the year in order to keep myself making progress on my writing journey. I posted an update in January, but the months have been racing by and it... Continue Reading →
Words like trees 