Short Story Contest

Today's Mood: Calm with just a tinge of melancholy. Today's Music: Mad Season- Matchbox Twenty. Today's Writing: Mary Monologue II. Today's Quote:

"The longest journey is the journey inward." -Dag Hammarskjold

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One of my colleagues passed this Short Story Contest on to me, and I'm passing it on to you. Shore Magazine is accepting short story entries between Dec. 1, 2007 and March 1, 2008. The stories must be between 3,000 and 7,000 words with no set subject matter or style. Stories must be submitted online with credit card or by mail with check attached. The entry/reading fee is $35. Each story should have a header on every page with name/story title/page number. You can enter as many stories as you want--as long as you pay the fee for each one.

The first-prize winning story will be published in the June 2008 issue of Shore and will be posted on the website http://www.visitshoremagazine.com/. First prize is $1,000, second prize is $500, and third prize is $250.

Not sure if I'm going to submit or not. I'll think on it. It is $35, so I have to believe in what I send in. Of course, as I always tell my children, I can't win if I don't play!

Take a number, please

Today's Mood: Harried. Today's Music: Matchbox 20-More than you think you are. Today's Writing: blog. Today's Quote:

"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."-Sylvia Plath (compliments of SJW)

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I need to learn how to be a pushy broad. Seriously, one of the parts of writing and trying to get published that I dislike is the need to keep putting myself out there. Again and again. I sent my Black Dragon manuscript to a publisher almost 8 months ago. I finally, just 2 days ago, sent out a letter inquiring as to the status of the manuscript. And I was tempted to let it go even longer (because I always feel like I'm nagging), but I want to send it to the Delacorte Press First YA Novel Contest and it can't be out to anyone else at that time. The deadline is coming up (Dec. 31) and I need to trim it down to 224 pages. Definitely doable--but it means I am no longer revising Free Lunch; now I'm revising Black Dragon.

And of course what I really want to be writing right now is IFFY. Or a second Mary Monologue. (after all, Christmas is coming up.) Sigh. Oh well. I'll finish the Black Dragon rewrite by Dec. 31, then I'll aim for finishing the Free Lunch rewrite by Spring Break. THEN I can work on IFFY. The Mary Monologue, well, maybe I can squeeze that in there somewhere. And I've got a poem I'm working on--but that comes whenever I'm stuck.

How do you decide what to work on when? And how do professional writers manage to keep it all straight in their heads? I mean, they have to be working on several things at once, what with rewrites, line-edits, and new stuff. How the heck do they do it?

Oh, and did any of you manage to take a break from family and get something written this Thanksgiving? Not me. I really wanted to, but somehow the time slipped away with family and cleaning and kids. It was fun, but now I feel like I need a vacation just for me. Ha ha. That's funny, trust me.

Contests

Today's Mood: Hot--okay that's a physical state, but it certainly affects my mood. Our library is not air-conditioned. Today's Music: Nothing at the moment--Shawn MacDonald earlier. Today's Writing: Chapter 5 of IFFY. Today's Quote:

"A book, too, can be a star, 'explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly.'" Madeleine L'Engle quoting British Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle

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Just thought I'd pass along this information on how to find writing contests. This comes from Children's Writing Resource Center.

How to Find Writing Contests
Writing contests are great ways to gain some recognition and find out exactly how you stack up against other writers. There are many, many contests these days, ranging from big national events to tiny niche competitions.
Want to find out if there's a contest you're perfectly suited to win? Try these hand-picked links....
www.writersdigest.com/contests/

www.writers.net/resources/resources_awards.php

www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm

Have you entered any writing contests? Good experience or bad? Do you think entering contests is helpful to your writing career--and I use the term career loosely since I am not giving up my day job any time soon.

Opportunities

Today's Mood: Still going. Today's Music: Robert Pollard--From a Compound Eye. Today's Writing: queries. Today's Quote:

"It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis." -Margoret Bonnano

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I just wanted to pass a few things along to those who might find them useful. First off the deadline for the Writer's Digest Writing Competition is May 15. Lots of categories. Come on guys, you have got to have something that will fit into one of the categories. Just send it out. What the heck? What's the worst that can happen? Not win? Why, I happen to know many wonderful people in that club!

Second--Delacorte Yearling Contest for a first middle-grade novel. Dates for submission--after April1, but no later than June 30.

Third--long way out, but worth thinking about--Delacorte Press First Young Adult Novel Contest. Dates for submission--after Oct. 1, but no later than Dec. 31, 2007.

Then from Children's Book Insider (which I am a member of)--Highlights is seeking science and nature articles up to 800 words, but short articles of 350-400 words are welcome. Puts high value on articles that show science as a process. Articles about animals that are high interest to kids. The article may cover a long period of time or just tell the adventures of one day, but info. about the animals and/or the research should arise naturally so our readers will learn something. Have enough articles on:birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and volcanoes.

For you teachers: April is National Poetry Month. I have a great student poetry contest from the American Library of Poetry. Let me know if you want me to send it to you. Also check out www.pinetreepoetry.com

Whatever you do, keep writing.

Post-Submission Depression

Today's Mood: Strangely let down. Music: n.a. Writing: Article for Inklings about this blog. Quote:

Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an
illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it. -David Sedaris

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Saturday morning I mailed out my manuscript to the Delacorte Press Contest for a First YA Novel. I should have been dancing. After all, I had spent the last three days in a writing induced coma. Grandpa and Nana had the kids, so I wrote non-stop, either skipping meals or eating leftover lasagna (it was an Italian Christmas on the Sirianni side) at my computer.

But instead of the expected elation, I felt (and still feel--although now it may be the ugh weather) strangely let down. The day was already Saturday--almost the last day of 2006. Things were growing in my refrigerator. The piles of laundry almost obscurred my desk (which is conveniently located between the cat literboxes and the washer and dryer). The children wanted my attention when I got them home--and needed to be fed meals, and bathed, and have their fights referred so that no one got bit or squeezed. It all seemed... anticlimactic.

Now, however, as I sit writing this (the laundry washed, the moldy items thrown out, the children quiet--which probably means a big mess is forming somewhere) I realize that this is the normal way of things. I labored and delivered, but that's not the end. The book (kind of like a child sent off to college) will come back to me (one way or another--although I'm hoping it's in a positive We want to publish this way!) and in the meantime, another story has been growing in me, waiting for the right time to be born. It's getting close, I've already been feeling a few twinges--names, descriptions, a few scenes....

So, as the end of the year rapidly approaches, I make the resolution to accept the labor of writing as on-going. I will never be done. I look forward to another year of writing (even more than in 2006--if I can manage to get out of bed on time!), and submitting, and marketing. Best of all, I go into the new year with a fresh reminder of how wonderful it is to be part of such a great writing community. Thank you so much to all the Peninsula Writers who have labored alongside me, giving me advice, encouragement, and support.

Keep writing!

Swimming hard just to stay afloat.

Today's Mood: Industrious. Music: Train-My Private Nation. Writing: revising chapter nine. Quote:

It is just as well that it came to an end. The endless cohabitation with
these imaginary people had begun to make me not a little nervous. Henrik
Ibsen (1828-1906)

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Hey-ho, check out the new links list! If you have a blog, or cool--even useful--website that you think should be on this blog, let me know and I'll add it. I check both the comments and my email so you can reach me either way. The Gliffy site I added because I've used it to make a floorplan of my MC's dorm room--I get a better picture of it in my head that way. After all, I can't have them doing something that would take twenty feet when they only have ten. (plus my memory isn't swell, so if I design a floorplan, then when I get to chapter thirty, I'll remember how the room was arranged in chapter twelve)

Okay, this is the fourth time I try to publish this post. Each time I do it cuts half of it out--not that I don't need editing, but hey! I don't want some computer editing me. Anyway. I tried to send a link to this video clip called Vision 2020 but it seems to screw things up, so I'll try putting it in the links on the side. Vision 2020 is a hypothetical commencement speech in the year 2020 and it looks at how education, technology and the world has changed in the last 15 years. Frankly, I find it both frightening and exhilarating. I'm not a technophobe, but often I feel like I'm swimming just to stay afloat. The thought of how to keep my kids not only floating but swimming in the changing future scares me. Yet the possibility of unilateral access to information appeals to me. Take a look (if I can get it working). It's about 16 minutes long.

On the home front we have managed to recover from the stomach bug AND get the christmas tree up and decorated. Not bad for the weekend. However, Friday's snowday meant that I played catch-up all Monday and therefore did no revising at all. So today I got up in the dark, freezing cold to come to work early and revise. The ONLY thing that got my little butt out of bed that early--THE DEADLINE. Seriously, what a great motivator! December 31 lurks closer and closer and fear of not finishing the revision works as effectively as a cattle prod for getting me out of my nice warm bed and off to work. This particular deadline is for the Delacorte Press first Young Adult Novel Contest. 25 more days to revise 22 1/2 chapters--and no, my math isn't that bad. Dec. 31 is a Sunday so I have to send it out on the 30th. Can she do it? Yes she can! (see, television isn't all bad!)

How's your writing going? Writing every day--even if it's only ten minutes? Is there any contest you can enter to create a deadline for you? (I'll make one up if it helps)

Oh, one last thing. About the quote, I'm been in Katie's head so long that I'm regressing back to adolescence--and it sure the hell isn't comfortable this time either!