I'm proud of myself. Today I took a giant leap and entered the Pitch Wars contest, a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions on how to make the manuscript shine for an agent showcase. WOW. So I believe I have a …
The Psychic Sunburn
Writing </ I got my short story published today, and the magazine sent me an email to let me know I will receive this hard copy. I am truly honored. Maybe, I tell myself, I can finally call myself a writer. My ultimate goal is to finish the revisions on my memoir - but the …
Why Don’t I Celebrate This?
I recently submitted a short story I wrote. I'm rather new at this, so I sent it out to twenty-four magazines, believing my little story would be published in a widely circulated magazine. For two or three months, I waited hoping for that magical moment when I read "Congratulations," but the only thing I received …
Staying the F Home
Over a month ago, I flew home from a visit with my daughter, with tentative plans to meet her and her family in South Dakota this summer. We’d visit Mount Rushmore! I was imagining what it would be like, when everything changed a few days after I got home. A month has now passed since …
Mothers of the Special Ones
The more I talk to mothers who have disabled children, the more I understand the immense challenges we've all had to deal with. It reminds me of what we all have in common, the loneliness we've experienced, and the common thread that links us as mothers of special ones. I wrote this post after I …
Latest project: Entering new land
So I had this problem, right? A bewildering experience, in my opinion and now it's over, rather barely over, I can talk about it. Or at least provide some details. It has to do with my female anatomy, which I won't go into detail about. Suffice it to say, I had my bladder sewn back …
Baby Give It Up
Caution, this post is meant to be therapeutic for me. Yesterday and today were one of those days lots of us have, where you feel like whatever you do isn't right. And since I am blogging about writing, I feel like nothing I've written is any good and I should just 'give it up'. Again, …
Victory!
In late October, or early November, after I came back from the Florida Writers Conference, I decided to use Submittable to send out a couple of my chapters as short stories. A couple of the entries were free, a few of them cost under $5. Altogether, I sent out twelve entries. People in my writing …
The Struggle
I am struggling. Oops, I used the "ING" word! And I've only written three words. Dave, the wonderful editor who has patiently tried to teach me how to write, is surprised by how many times I use words that end in "ING". I thought the editor was (oops I used another word I'm supposed to …
