Motivational Monday!

Usually, September gives me some extra oomph.  Maybe it's all the back-to-school hoopla...although the kids here are back to school in August.  Maybe it's the leaves starting to go gold and red and the crispness in the air and...oh, wait.  The palm fronds are still green and the temps are in the 90s.  Hmm.  Maybe this explains why I don't have much oomph after all.

At least I'm not alone.  Apparently, a lot of writers suffer burnout.  Just check out Nathan Bransford's post, "You Tell Me: Have You Faced Writer Burnout? How Do You Escape It?"  The comment section is full of good ideas and suggestions.  And step right up to the Creativity Carnival for Writers in the newest issue of WOW! Women on Writing.  Good timing!  

Congratulations go out to pal Stacy Post!  Her story, "Sister Calamity," was nominated for Best of the Net by the fine folks over at Referential Magazine! 

Also at Referential Magazine, poet Laura McCullough referenced my story, "If This is Crazy," in her poem, "When Wonder."  Love when that happens!

Have a great week!

Motivational Monday!

Well, here it is, another Monday.  Are you ready to go get 'em (whoever or whatever "'em" is) this week?  I am!

As I continue work on my novel/novel revisions, I give you a wonderful guest post over at the BookEnds, LLC blog all about perseverance. 

Pal Gay Degani has two more stories up and ready for reading.  (I swear she doesn't sleep!)

Another reminder to check out Cathy C. Hall's excellent article about "voice."

Thank you to everyone who commented or emailed about my latest publication, Rooted in the Past, over at Referential Magazine.  I really do appreciate it!

Have a good week everyone!

Rooted in the Past

I am thrilled to let you all know that my story, "Rooted in the Past," is up at Referential Magazine!  It's my second story up at Referential - my Contributor's Page has the link to "If This is Crazy" - and it's been a pleasure working with everyone over there. 

I love how all the pieces refer to another piece in some way - not only connecting writers to readers, but also connecting stories to poems to art.  I'd appreciate it if you'd give my stories a read, but also check out some of the other work.  You'll be glad you did. 

Motivational Monday!

Here are some good news items from last week to jumpstart the good stuff for this week:

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner posted How to Become a Better Writer:  11 Completely Non-Writing-Related Ideas.  My favorite is "Be Creative Any Way You Can" - this includes building something with Legos!  In the comments section of that post, someone mentioned that these were good ideas not only for writing, but also for life.  I couldn't agree more!  Go check them out for a positive boost.

Stacy Post won a Versatile Blogger Award.  Congratulations, Stacy!

As for myself, I found out that Referential Magazine accepted my story, "Rooted in the Past" for publication!  And, since I will then have two stories up over there, I'll get my own Contributor's page.  Yeh!  I'll do a post when the story is up and ready for reading. 

Have a good week, everyone!  Let's keep up the momentum!

If This Is Crazy

I am thrilled to see my story, "If This Is Crazy," up at Referential Magazine! And, there's a story behind the story, or at least the publication of it.

The cool premise at Referential Magazine is that each story or poem or artwork builds in some way on one published before it. Now, when pal Gay Degani's story, "Madeline in Her Coffin," appeared, you know I had to do something with it. (I asked her, the next time she uses the name "Madeline" could she please make the character a rich and famous writer and not have her be dead from the start?) So, not only does my story refer to a line in Gay's piece, my name also refers to the title. Whammo! The whole thing just came together. (Plus, editor Jessie Carty and I share the same taste in colorful socks, so there you go.)

I'd love it if you checked out my story and let me know what you think. While you're there, stop by and read Gay's story, too. Heck, just go ahead and look at the whole magazine.