Creative quote for 8-30-06

Creativity can never be explained by appeal to reason alone. Like the birth of a child, creativity compels us not to explanation but to wonder and awe.

-- George Vaillant

Quote for 8-30-06

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!
--Amanda Bradley

Checking out early

Have a safe holiday. I'll be back sometime next week.

Rain, rain go away

Only half-heartedly singing this. It's still coming down intermittently, but the weeds!

And the bugs!

Scratch, scratch.

Tug, tug.

A new online magazine

Swill went live today. You can find it at http://www.swillmagazine.com/ (I'm too lazy to provide the direct link.)

They had solicted work from me for their first issue but I procrastinate. They are currently looking for work for Issue 2 so maybe you and me both can get in there.

Russell Bittner is there. I'll be meeting him (hopefully) when I get to Brooklyn and Corey Mesler is in there.

Quite frequently, I'll find myself published at the same time in the same publications as Corey Mesler . Sometimes I think he's following me.

Although I read (when we were both poets of the week at Poetry Super Highway) that he was going to have SIX (!!!!) chapbooks published this year.


Hmmm, maybe I'm following him, hoping to learn something--HA!

Writing quote for 8-29-06

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

--Rita Dove

Quote for 8-29-06

You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.

-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Anudder short-short contest

VERY Short Story Contest
http://www.lunchhourstories.com/very_short_story_contest.html

Lunch Hour Stories short fiction magazine is now accepting entries for
its
2006 VERY Short Story Contest, deadline December 31, 2006. We're
looking
for REALLY great, REALLY short stories in nearly ANY genre, 500 words
or
less. (Narrative prose poems will also be considered!) We offer cash
prizes, publication, and free issues! Submit as many unpublished
stories
as you wish. Simultaneous submissions accepted!

Send one printed copy of your story, along with complete contact
information, a $5 non-refundable reading fee per story, and a SASE for
list of winners to:

2006 VERY SHORT STORY CONTEST
Lunch Hour Stories Magazine
22833 Bothell-Everett Hwy
STE 110 - PMB 1117
Bothell, WA 98021-9366

Electronic submissions will also be accepted as long as the story is
sent
in the body of an email, and not as an attachment. Send stories to:
mail(at)lunchhourbooks.com.
(replace (at) with @)
Specify CONTEST ENTRY – LAST NAME in the subject
line.

Reading Fees may also be paid online via PayPal by logging on to
www.paypal.com, clicking on "send money," and sending your payment to:
payments(at)lunchhourbooks.com (replace (at) with @).

PRIZES

First Place: $75, publication in Lunch Hour Stories magazine, and five
(5)
printed copies.
Second Place: $50, publication in Lunch Hour Stories magazine, and five
(5) printed copies.
Third Place: $25, publication in Lunch Hour Stories magazine, and five
(5)
printed copies.
Finalists: In addition to the three contest winners, up to nine (9)
additional stories from finalists will appear in the magazine. Each
finalist will receive five (5) printed copies of the anthology.

Winners will be notified no later than March 31, 2007. Winning stories
will be eligible for publication during 2007.

Complete contest entry information is available at:

http://www.lunchhourstories.com/very_short_story_contest.html

Willing to accept

This day you will be provided with precisely what you are willing to accept. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

You are immersed in an endless sea of abundance. The treasures of that abundance are yours to the extent that you choose to bring them into your life.

There are opportunities branching out in many directions from every little detail. At each fork in the road, accept and explore the path that most closely resonates with your deepest purpose.

To achieve the life that you desire, fully and sincerely be the person who will live it. Anything you can imagine is possible for you when you truly accept the possibility and sincerely bring it to life.

With the thoughts you think, with the words you say, with the feelings and actions that fill each moment, you are accepting what is already available to you. The person you choose to be, comes ever more richly and fully to life as each day passes.

Consider carefully and thoughtfully what you are willing to accept. For whatever it is, you will most certainly have.

-- Ralph Marston

Creative quote for 8-28-06

When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity. So play with your intuition.

—-Linda Naiman

Quote for 8-28-06

It all begins when the soul would have its way with you.

—Emerson

Quote for 8-27-06

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.


--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing quote for 8-27-06

What is written without effort is in generally read without pleasure.

--Samuel Johnson

short-short contest

Semi-Annual Short Fiction Contest
Canadian Writer's Journal

FIRST PRIZE $100
SECOND PRIZE $50
THIRD PRIZE $25
Prize Money & ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION
to Canadian Writer's Journal & Publication in Choice Works

HONOURABLE
MENTIONS Receive ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION 
to Canadian Writer's Journal
&
Publication in Choice Works

Entries must be original, unpublished stories, any genre, maximum
length 1,200 words (accurate word count please).
Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, and prepared in standard
form except that no identification of the author is to appear on the
manuscript itself.
Name, address and a short biography of the author are to be submitted
on a separate sheet to accompany the entry.
Manuscripts will NOT be returned, they are destroyed at the end of the
competition in our fireplace. Send #10 (business size) S.A.S.E. for
contest results only.
Entries received too late for one deadline will be held over for the
next deadline date. If you include an email address, an email
confirmation that your entry has been received will be sent. A
self-addressed stamped postcard would also be another way for you
receive confirmation that the entry was received.
Winners to be announced and prize winning stories are published in the
Canadian Writer's Journal. Entry gives permission to include all the
contest winners in a chapbook called Choice Works which is published
and available separately.
ENTRY FEE: $5.00 for each story.
Entries must be postmarked by September 30th or March 31st.
No extensions. Entries received after the deadline for one contest will
be held over to the next deadline date unless you give us different
instructions.
Decisions of the Judge(s) are final, and NO correspondence will be
entered into concerning them.
Send entries to:
Short Fiction Contest
Canadian Writer's Journal
Box 1178
New Liskeard, ON
CANADA P0J 1P0

Longing for goodness

You've made mistakes and yet you are able to recognize those mistakes for what they are, and to learn from them. There are times when you stumble, and wander away from the path, yet you're always able to get up and find your way back.

There is within you the longing for truth, for goodness, for excellence, substance, and integrity. Though your actions sometimes contradict and compromise that longing, it never goes away.

The very best of who you are is always somewhere within you. Choose often to connect with it, and to let it resonate throughout the details of your life.

As each moment unfolds, remember the good and valuable things of which you are capable. Pay attention to that longing for goodness, and follow where it leads.

Hold in your heart those times when you've experienced how beautiful and blessed life can be. Treasure and strengthen the part of you that draws pure joy from those moments.

You have known the goodness of life and you know that it is as close to you as you wish to make it. Choose to keep it ever close by.

-- Ralph Marston

Writing quote for 8-26-06

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

--Ray Bradbury

Quote for 8-26-06

Your life can be no larger than your heart allows it to be.

--Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz

My heart can hold the world

In a comment in a post down below, someone brings up the issue of my giving. It made me wonder and explore that aspect and I have come to realize this about myself and the world I find myself in: giving is a good thing.

I shouldn't go into nursing 'cause I'm not looking for monetary reward.

Are people so much a stranger to their own hearts that they aren't motivated and moved to help, to give, to serve. I'm not trying to save the world, I have no ideas that I'm that big or powerful. But I do believe, and strongly, that I can do something in my daily life that helps someone other than myself and that I should do that very thing. The possibility that I may get nothing, or at least not what I want, in return should not come into play.

When I first read the post, I thought, "Whoever, save your pity or sympathy for yourself." Life, I have learned, is not about deals.

Life has given me enormous pain. Life has given me enormous joy. The common factor: Life has given me something. What I do with it is my choice and I try to always choose the higher road.

Life is fair. Life is unfair. The common factor: Life is. There's no great mystery. It simply is; acceptance of this gives me the strength to go on no matter what.

I am not like most people. I so don't want to be like most people. Sometimes others find it hard to believe that I am who I am; I've been told I'm "too good to be true." But what I'm trying to be is so true that I can't help but be good.

I'm sorry if some people don't get that. And I'm not perfect. Believe me, I have a side that can wish and imagine the most horrible on individuals, but I never act on it. I choose not to act on it.

I'm not looking for pity and I haven't even told you the whole of what I've been through--'cause I can tell some more stuff like how in a four-year span my brother was murdered, my boyfriend was stabbed to death in the course of an argument, how my best friend committed suicide and another friend was killed in a motorcycle accident -- but what I'm trying to share is that the experience of life is not what happens to you externally, but what you internally choose to believe and what you then choose to do with those things.

My intentions are pure. I'm not doing anything for any other reason than it's the right thing to do (except manifesting the love of my life; I confess I'm doing that so I can get sex). Otherwise, I'm not looking to gain one thing. Maybe some have become so tainted that this concept is foreign.

I've given because I thought I could earn or get something in return, but all I got was bitterness and more fuel for my angry sense of entitlement. As I learned to give to myself, to care for myself before I thought about caring for others, I learned that giving to others could be a joy. And I'm not stupid about it. You can't overstep my boundaries 'cause I know when to say "no" and even then, in my mind, I'm giving you something because that "no" might help you learn in some way.

If you don't choose to be that way, okay. I'm not asking you to be. I only have to answer to God about the person I chose to be. But don't look at me through your narrow vision 'cause I can guarantee who I am will never come into view.

Relief!

I've been stressing and you know that. Yesterday, finally, I got my relief.

It's a very long story which isn't over yet and I will tell you the whole of it when it's finally, completely resolved but I will tell you this now: my mug shot is cuter than Mel's and I've got an appointment with the FBI on Tuesday. Yes, I was arrested, back in April. Shocked? Well so was I -- not as shocked as say Chris Daughtry when he got booted off "American Idol" but I was surprised just the same. No jail time (papers to bond me out arrived at "county" before I did) and I'm kind of ambivalent about that. Not a pleasant experience, but not the worse that can happen to a person. The situation, though, has flagrant civil rights violations that the FBI deems worthy enough to send to the Dept. of Justice. It's not on the scale of Rodney King, but in relation to the situation, way out-of-control.

And, yes, the whole situation came about because I WAS TRYING TO HELP SOMEONE. (But I'd do it again because it would be the right thing to do.)

Yesterday, when I should have been flying to NY to read at the Stain Bar, I was sitting in a courtroom, wondering if I was going to spend the next two years of my life in Dona Ana County Detention.

I learned a bit more about the legal system and I have a greater appreciation of how language and words can be manipulated to create "story."

When I was first arrested, I thought it was only Life giving me something to use in my novel; my book deals with the common issues of black life in America and I thought I was being given the opportunity to gain some first hand knowledge about how the police treat individuals, well it turns out maybe that and a bit more, Gwendolyn.

I can't tell you some things just now because an investigation into the Las Cruces Police Dept. by the FBI has been initiated, but I will tell you that the story has the proportions, the twists and turns of a freakin' police television drama. (A Supreme Court ruling just months before my trial--not largely known, even to my lawyer--provides me an out when I'm thinking it's "checkmate." I appreciate that but I still hold them responsible for their actions in 2000.)

Every stage I'm thinking the case will be dropped, it isn't. Made me crazy--living a dual life: I'm packing and planning to move all the while knowing that I may not be going any-damn-where.

I am breathing this morning because I was found not guilty of the violation for which I was arrested. "You are so innocent," a juror told me afterwards. Uhm, Ms. D.A. if you have to keep bringing your witnesses up to the stand to "clarify" and "reclarify" maybe there's a problem with their story.

Anyway, like I said in my posts about God, part of this was just a lesson for me to move closer toward Him. I appealed to the absolute highest court. I have a good knowledge of the Bible and you'd better believe I went to Jehovah using so many of the instances where He chose to act for what was good and true and just. I was reminded that He does act and for us, that He is loyal, that He does care-- even when I'm screaming that it's unfair-- what He allows in my life. I am humbled by the fact that He understood and that He acted on my behalf.

So this story still isn't completely over, but I've got two essays, two new short stories, a chunk of my novel and the beginnings of a news article that came out of this experience begging now to be written. And I'm gonna go write 'cause I am "free" to do so.

What to wear, what to wear

I think I've decided on what I'll be wearing when I read in Washington, D.C. next month during Gilda's and Lolita's Burlesque Poetry Hour.

And I've decided what I'm gonna take off during Gilda's and Lolita's Burlesque Poetry Hour.

Oh, no, I'm not telling; you'll just have to wait and see;-)

Creative quote for 8-25-06

We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies - in the minds of those closest to the work.

--Jack Welch

Quote for 8-25-06

He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to.


--Harry Emerson Fosdick

Every day I enter the Daily Dividends Sweepstakes from U.S. Airways

and every day, I do not win :(

Kicking Pluto out of the planethood

Clyde Tombaugh is credited with discovering the planet Pluto. But today's headlines say it's no longer considered one.

From an article on msn.com:


"The public is not going to be excited by the fact that Pluto has been kicked out," Brown said. "But it's the right thing to do."

The astronomy building at my alma mater is named after Mr. Tombaugh because he taught there for many years. There's an elementary school named after him!!!!!!!

What do you tell the children?

I am no scientist but really can a planet be downsized??

Creative quote for 8-24-06

What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

-- Eugène Delacroix

Quote for 8-24-06

Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.


--John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Summer's ending and that means

that I've got to get to Walmart and buy up any ice cream mixes, probably now on clearance.

I need them for my snow party.

What's that, you ask.

It's semi-homemade ice cream and hot chocolate and hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks while the snow piles up and then it's snowmen and snow angels and frolicking. . . followed by more ice cream and hot chocolate while you drip dry.

I'm almost back on track; I can see the end of this fork in the road I've been on and I should be in New England just in time for the white stuff coming down!

Will I invite you?

Well, hell, of course. Bring your mittens. I've been living in the desert and I've never had the chance to be in a snowball fight.

DUCK!

Submission #7

"We'll pass but do send something else."

boo hoo

My son punched me in the mouth

We were play-boxing and I was done and had turned away. But I then turned back abruptly to say something and turned my face right into his fist! OUCH!

Now my lip is even bigger!

Maybe I don't know the *&^%$@# I'm talking about

In a post yesterday, I wondered if my writing was "enough." Perhaps it's just old insecurities cropping up. Anyway, today in my box a message from someone who's reading my work posted on the net.

"I've liked about everything; some of it makes me cringe from the truth of it, which I feel is a mark of a great writer."

Wow. That's so cool.

Define amateur

Family Circle is sponsoring a fiction contest but you have to be an amateur to enter. What does that mean? Like Beginnings sponsors a contest but asks that if one has a list of credits and awards to not enter. Well, I have a list of credits but to some, they might not be credits that matter.

Am I an amateur?

Am I a beginning writer? Or am I an emerging one? And what publication credit qualifies me as "arrived"?

Who decides this stuff and who gave them this authority? Why is being published in x magazine more important than being published in y? Why? Why? Why?

Short-short contest

The 1st Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Prize
http://www.quarteraftereight.org/contest/

Deadline extended: Sept. 30, 2006

This year our competition turns a new, small leaf; we will focus on
prose in brief. Submit your prose-poem, short-short fiction, essay in-brief,
etc. of 500 words or fewer. The only criterion (besides length) is that all
submissions present an innovative address to the prose form.
Include a title page with your name, address, phone number, and the
title of your submission(s). Your name must not appear on the manuscript(s). The
reading fee is $15 for three pieces and includes a copy of Vol. 13
(spring 2007).
Please make checks payable to Quarter After Eight.

Previously published material is not eligible. Manuscripts will not be
returned. The contest deadline is Sept. 30, 2006. Include a SASE for
notification of
contest winners. Prize money will be awarded upon publication.

first prize:
$200 and publication in volume 13 of QAE

second and third prize:
$50 and possible publication in volume 13 of QAE

Send manuscripts to:
Prose Contest, Box 3
QAE
Ellis Hall
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701

When the hell does he write?

Another contest and Robert Olen Butler is the judge. I can't tell you how many contests I have read about and he's the judge or Aimee Bender is. Or Amy Hempel.

So I ask, just when the hell do they get their own work done?

Artistic quote for 8-23-06

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

--Vincent Van Gogh

Quote for 8-23-06

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

--Steve Jobs

I suck!

A figurative expression in regards to my writing. (ain't confessing to nothing intimate here)

Finished up the anthology of short shorts and am feeling like my writing is lacking. Kafka, Borges, de Maupassant, Garcia Marquez, et al. incredible works that capture an essence of the human condition in deep ways in a short span.

Now, there are works of my own that I like and I think I've accomplished something but reading this particular collection has me wondering if I need to go deeper in my writing and I'm also left wondering what that means and how it might be accomplished.

I wonder too if what I'm feeling is because I live in America. I am more intrigued most often by the work of writers from other countries, as I find much of the works in the U.S.--as evidenced in the New Yorker and the BASS and O.Henry series (though recently less frequently) and this is just my opinion--is about neurotic white people. Updike is championed but what I've read of his (and it may not be enough to venture froth an accurate opinion) bores me. zzzzzzzzzzz

I think what we are granted in the United States makes us collectively (and again this is my own opinion which could be way off and even down right wrong) unchallenging in our approach to art, what it truly is and/or could be.

Forgot about Bianca

In my post about the Rolling Stones last week, I mentioned the nationalities of the three women Mick had kids by but this weekend I realized that I'd forgotten about Bianca. Don't know where she originates from but as long as she's not Brazilian, then Mick's got yet another couuntry/ethnic group covered.

Two Russians, an Irishman and a Japanese guy

I'm continuing to read "Short Shorts;" this weekend two stories by Tolstoy, one by Chekhov, Joyce and one by a famed Japanese writer named Yukio Mishima.

"The Three Hermits" by Tolstoy is wonderful and should be required for anyone who claims him/herself as a religious leader. Tolstoy's " Alyosha the Pot" is sad but I found it less interesting the "The Three Hermits."

When I was much younger and quite insecure, I took an independent writing course and refused to read anything the professor proposed. I think I was afraid to see that my writing was truly lacking. One of the works I refused to read was "Dubliners," but I later had to read some works from it for another class. What an idiot I was. Fell in love with the stories I read. So I fully expected to love Joyce's "Eveline." I did. Another emotional beauty. Very, very evocative in such a short span.

Yukio Mishima's "Swaddling Clothes" was remarkable. A head spinner. Foreshadowing but when the climax comes, this reader was totally taken by surprise. Wow wow wow.

Think something was lost in the translation of Chekhov's "After The Theatre." Huh??????????

Creative quote for 8-21-06

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

-- Mary Lou Cook

Quote for 8-21-06

Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.

--Marian Wright Edelman

An open letter to Paul and writers like him

Dear Paul,


You wrote me to let me know that you had discovered my blog, found it interesting and thought that it might serve as an inspiration to you as you were a “writer not writing.”

In my response, I questioned this since, by virtue of definition, one must write in order to be a writer. I asked why you weren’t.

You responded and cited what you called the usual “excuses.” You have a wife, children, and a job. When I responded, I deliberately meant to trump you. I am a single parent with seven children, 1 ½ jobs and still I make time to write.

I won’t lie and say that I write every day, but I do engage myself in some activity that relates to my work—every day.

There are many excuses, reasons, what-have-you that can keep one from writing. Fears, trauma, one’s living situation; so many factors can affect the process. Perhaps I will have an opportunity to discuss how any of these (because I've experienced much) can keep one from doing one’s work. Right now, though, I want to talk about obligations.

I don’t doubt that you are busy. A marriage takes time, the needs of children, at least 40 hours at a job. Perhaps you have a home and there’s the upkeep there. So much other you have to do, so much other that is more “important” than just sitting there, writing. And you won’t make money from it, so what’s the point?

But I know I don’t have to explain its importance to you, Paul. What I will tell you is that you shouldn’t deny it by denying it the rightful place in your life by not making the time to engage in it.

To accomplish this, what you will have to do is forget. And remember.

Forget that you are a married man. Forget that you are a father. Forget that you have a part to contribute to some organization. Remember only one thing: you are a writer.

For years, due to personal tragedies and struggle, I couldn’t write. I didn’t write. Oh, I got ideas that I jotted down, I imagined works that never made their way onto paper. I wrote for a newspaper, but that was not the writing I wished to do. I did the arts pages and every time there was something involving an author –and Antonya Nelson and Robert Boswell live in my town so you know it was quite frequent---I felt a part of me dying.

I kept telling myself that there would be a point where I would be free to write. One day. One day. Those days became years. Paul.

I was to interview a writer who directs the annual book festival for the newspaper. I had always been jealous of her; she seemed to always be in the news with some new work. During the interview, I confessed my jealousy and she laughed. She told me all of the struggle that she had endured including sporadic teaching jobs and caring for a father with Alzheimer’s. Still she wrote.

She invited me to take part in the festival and standing before an audience, enchanting them with my words was such a thrill, I decided to write.

I had a part-time job lined up as I planned to quit my full-time one to give me the time to follow my dream. As soon as I did, the part-time job fell through and my car engine blew (again). I panicked and spent the money intended to keep me going ‘til Oprah stamped her approval on the novel I was planning to write on a used car that turned out to be a lemon. I needed to find a job.

The world seemed against me. My stresses were suddenly multiplied. But I wrote.

The writer I interviewed had told me I had to commit to my writing. Declare yourself a writer and then commit to that, she said. Committing meant writing no matter what. And what you commit is your time.

My life did not settle down completely, but it became tolerable. For a year, I sat my butt in a chair and worked on a novel. It was a trying, invigorating year. My lights were turned off. I wrote. My children complained that all I cared about was my writing. I asked the point of their comments and continued to write.

I wrote.

I wrote.

I wrote.

Looking back, I will say I was unfair to my children. I needed to learn balance; but I was no longer willing to put what I needed to do –WRITE—aside. I arranged my life so that there was time for what mattered and my writing had to have its part.

And you, like me, need to write. You need to work. You make the time for that. You need to be a husband. You make time for that. You need to father. You make time for that.

A few minutes, Paul. An hour. You must find the time in your schedule and then use it. Ernest Gaines wrote during his lunch hour. Perhaps that’s an option. You don’t need hours on end in order to do your work. There was a time when all 24 hours of a day were available to me to do nothing but write, but I chose to do other things. All that is needed is a place and a commitment to that place.

Carve out the time. Show up. Yes, I guarantee that Life will send something to test you. Be gentle with yourself if you stumble a time or two. But if you will show up, so will the words. Maybe not immediately. You will have to earn the trust of your muse, but once you do, Paul, the words will come.

There are stories you must write. Once you have decided it’s time, so will they.

Show up to that sacred place at the arranged time. Do it time and again until you feel that tug. And when the words start to come, forget all the other and remember only that there are stories coursing through your veins. When the words come, give yourself the permission to play Paul. Just go play.

Done!

Sure I did my share of procrastinating. Checked the e-mails sixty-two point six gazillion times, surfed the web, contemplated computer games, hmmmm block breaker, bookworm, chess. . .

but I kept going back to the story and it's done. And sent out.

Work now. And then sleep. And I guess manana, we'll just do this again. Close my eyes and pick a story to revise. Sure -- why not that one.

But after I post Paul's letter 'cause what I said actually served as inspiration to me!

I don't wanna!

Do anything, especially write this mornng.

Last night, a huge thunderstorm. Electricity went out. It's kind of cold and all I want to do is get back under the covers and zzzzzzzzzzzz but alas, there is a story that must go out.

The magazine I want to submit it to sent out their "call for submissions" yesterday. They called, I must respond. Onward, dear writer.

Quote for 8-19-06

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.


--Albert Einstein

Writing quote for 8-19-06

The young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.


--William Faulkner

Short shorts

I love flash fiction. I'm currently reading an anthology of works edited by Irving and Ilana Howe. It includes works by some of the masters of literature and it covers a range of what flash (or short-short) stories can be.

James Thurber's "if Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox" is hilarious.

I prefer the poetry of William Carlos Williams but his story "The Use of Force" is interesting.

Jerome Weidman's "My Father Sits In the Dark" is an emotional beauty.

I love what I've read from Grace Paley but her story "Wants" left me confused and unsatisfied as a reader.

A feeling echoed, and I must say greatly, when I read Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-lighted Place." What was the appeal of that guy?

Short-short story contest

2006 Short-Short Story Contest: Sonora Review
http://www.coh.arizona.edu/sonora/contest.html

Judge
Steve Almond

First Prize
$100 + Publication

Ten Finalists
Notation + Possible Publication

Postmark Deadline
December 1, 2006
Reading Fee
$10 per set of 1-3 stories
Guidelines
For our purposes, "short-short" means 1,000 words or less. Stories over 1,000
words will not be considered. No previously published works, or works
forthcoming elsewhere. A $10 fee is required; entrants may submit up to three
stories (each 1,000 words max.) with each $10 fee, payable by check or money order
made out
to Sonora Review. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but fees are
non-refundable. Cover letter must include name, address, phone number, and
title(s) of stories submitted.
Manuscripts need not be left anonymous. Postmark deadline: December 1,
2006.
Contest is open to all writers, except those who are currently students
or instructors
in the University of Arizona's MFA program. Contest results will be
announced on our website in the spring, and in our Spring 2007 print edition. All
entries mustinclude an SASE for notification. Manuscripts will not be returned.
Judge's decision isf inal.
Send entries to:
Sonora Review Contest
Department of English
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Steve Almond is the author of My Life in Heavy Metal, Candyfreak, The
Evil
B.B.
Chow and co-author of Which Brings Me to You.


--

The Stones are coming, the Stones are coming!

The Rolling Stones will be just down the road in El Paso in October. With the Dave Matthews Band. Oh, yes, PRICE - Y.

But Mick is having throat problems and some concerts have been cancelled.

But if he does make it, do you think he'll be looking for another notch on his bedpost? And he had children by a black woman, a white woman and a Brazilian-- do you think he'd try for one half Mexican 'cause Juarez is just there across the border.

And if they make it, Keith is safe! He can climb all the cactuses he wants 'cause they don't get that big. But watch out for the prickles, Mr. Richards.

Writing quote for 8-18-06

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.


--Lord Byron

Quote for 8-18-06

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.

--Abigail Adams

That god-awful sound

is my reminder that it's time to go to work.

Later.

Thanks to the rain

my grass is really green, though some of it is weeds (uhm, tug, tug). I'm glad my grief is limited to that. In communities nearby and in El Paso, flooding has set in. Yikes.

What I need to be writing is poems

The African-American/Black/Negro/colored/women of color magazine-- Essence-- appears to have a more lenient submission policy in regards to poetry. I think the fiction they publish now is only excerpts from published or soon-to-be published novels.

Years ago, when I attended the Sarah Lawrence seminar for writers, I recognized another attendee from somewhere.

The woman who drove me to the airport for my flight home told me that the woman was the editor of Essence.

That's right. That's who she is, I said.

I was told then that the (former) editor (she's been bumped up to some other title) had taken all the African-American/Black/Negro/colored women attending the seminar to dinner.

I looked for you so you could go, but I couldn't find you, the woman who was my ride told me.

I was hiding out in the dorm room.

Now that was an opportunity blown!

You can get all crazy waiting for a response

I check my e-mail fifty gazillion times a day. I just want a "yes." I know I shouldn't fret over those works currently in submission (I have other works that I need to be working on) and "no's" come back quickly so I should be thankful and hopeful, but I want my "yes" (and my byline, thank you) NOW!!!

Somebody.

Anybody.

You've received my story and you're pleased to tell me. . .

Paul is a writer who isn't writing

He's looking for inspiration. This weekend I'll have a response to his e-mail to me that talks about that and some other things.

Maybe I'll do a series of them.

Call them "Letters to a Writer Not Writing."

Hmmm, what originality, don't you think?

But look for them; comment helpfully. I want Paul (and writers like him) to write.

Quote for 8-17-06

The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.


--Nathaniel Branden

Writing quote for 8-17-06

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.

--William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing"

"I'm glad I never proposed to you"

There's this guy that I have a really nice relationship with; he is a good, good friend.

He likes me and he's open about that and I tease him about it. He sometimes introduces me to people/co-workers as his "almost-girlfriend" because he says if he didn't already have one, I'd be it.

Yesterday I was telling him about the difficulties getting where I want to be and I ended my part of the conversation by saying that I wasn't giving up--that I was gonna hold on like a bulldog.

"I'm tenacious like that," I said.

"Well, I'm glad I never proposed to you," he replied. "We'd be married and then you'd go from sweet to bulldog mean."

I laughed with him and shook my head as he walked away. He didn't understand.

I know that things don't go as one wants but you keep trying anyway, and my tenacity is a quality that would be an asset. I think every man needs a woman who understands and who's willing to not give up--and esp. on him.

What I understand

A comment appears in response to my post about God and what He allows in the world.

I'm not sure what the point is that the author of the comment was making. It's still early for me, but I will say only this:

I don't understand the length and the volume of the incredibly atrocious acts that are committed on this earth. But I do know that the Bible says that the world is in control by someone other than God right now. So I have no other choice but to accept the allowance of whatever --and sometimes I'm crying because of the things happening to others not just me-- because I am choosing to believe that there is something being accomplished and that God is just *that* much smarter than me.

yet another new story

A new story is upon me. It's one of those stories that writes itself. All I gotta do is have a pen and paper nearby, which is what I'm doing. Up before morning, jotting lines down in the dark. (Much too lazy to get up from under the covers [the nights have suddenly turned very cool] and turn on the light).

It is also one of those stories where I'm in love with the main character and it saddens me because the character is going to die in the end. I know that already and, though I wish I didn't have to kill the character off, I have to for the story and for the level of emotional involvement I want from the reader.

I got a new book from the Writer's Digest book club. It talked about raising the stakes in a work as well as the ways that that's accomplished and one of the ways was by death-- in the example given in the book, it was said to kill off someone close to the main character but I think it also works in relation to the reader.

The other day, I read one of those headlines on the msn or yahoo sites where people were urging Rowlings not to kill off Harry Potter. But if she did, damn what the emotional impact there would be for the reader.

Creative quote for 8-16-06

Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.


--Rita Mae Brown

Quote for 8-16-06

Our distrust is very expensive.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes I ask God to answer to me

Yes, I have that audacity. I know I'm not alone in that.

The example of Job is put into the Bible to serve as a guide for us, for the behavior we should exhibit toward the Almighty.

I am going through something that is huge (I will share it when the time is right because it's the reason I'm still here and not in Vermont).

Why God, why? I kept pleading and crying and arguing and pretty much being irritated with what He was allowing in my life. Jehovah doesn't cause things to be but He does allow them.

I decided I was done arguing with God. Purposeless. Dumb. To no avail because He does not answer to me. So I surrendered and when I was no longer ashamed of how I'd tossed the blame (for allowing this) onto Him, I went to Jehovah and I humbly asked why.

And He told me. It was revealed why it matters and how it directly relates to my relationship with Him and whether or not I will submit to His will.

Submission has to do with trust and I have real issues with that. And being my issues means I have to deal with them, not blame God for my issues' existence.

And of course, Life sent me a situation immediately-- I have to decide if I can trust someone. But that's part of the story I'll tell you later.

No I am going to share it. Really.

*Trust* me.

ahhh

Kids back in school.


Listen.

Yes, absolutely no noise.

None.

No rock music.

No rap music.

No annoying noises from a video game.

No sound from the front and back doors opening and closing and opening and closing and opening. . .

Nothing.

Only silence.

:)

Writing quote for 8-15-06

What's this business of being a writer. It's just putting one word after another.

-- Irving Thalberg

Quote for 8-15-06

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

--May Sarton

Submit!

Yesterday I got distracted. The work I was hoping to have ready to send somewhere turned out to be a no-go.

But hold up there before you think I was a slacker, I worked on a flash piece and today I got some feedback on it via an online workshop/ A quick reworking and I'm sending it somewhere.

(No, not the wastebasket, stop being so mean.)

School resumes tomorrow

Hallelujah!

Artistic quote for 8-13-06

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

-- Albert Einstein

Quote for 8-13-06

We wake, if ever at all, to mystery.

--Annie Dillard

Do you think it's possible?

That artists are meant to write, draw, compose certain works? I mean, could stories be dormant in us and then reveal themselves when it's time?

I ask this because yesterday I realized that a prologue to a novel I wrote was actually a scene from a story that,at that time when I wrote the prologue, I had not even thought of.

I LOVE the work of Reynolds Price. In response to one of his stories, I was inspired to write a novel. The prologue always seemed out of place. The characters, Ada and Hollis, felt stilted in that first scene. The piece was simply awkward, but not completely because the dialogue worked, just not coming from the mouths of Ada and Hollis.

That scene belongs to an unfinished work called "A Baptist In Texas" and when I considered the dialogue between the characters in this work, Kyle and Dolores, it works. The whole scene works.

But how could I have known?

And another thing, events in my life gave me the experience and knowledge I needed to in order to bring a certain authenticity to my work.

Certain events that I wrote about in the rough draft, I later had experiences in my life which mirrored them so then I had the emotional knowledge of how the character would feel; having experienced the event myself and in one instance, it was perfectly mirrored, I could go back and raise the level of the work because of my firsthand emotional knowledge -- How could that be?

So is it possible that certain works are within, waiting to be born and that Life will orchestrate events so that we as creators have the complete knowledge and experience to bring that very work forth and with honesy and credibility?

Quote for 8-12-06

I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit.

--Dawna Markova

Writing quote for 8-12-06

I wrote from a sense of need. I needed something to do. You can't just sleep all day long.

--Snoopy

Plodding along

The story I wrote the other day (yes, so it was a micro--it's still a story) went to a different magazine than I wanted, since that magazine's reading period is closed at the moment.

But I'm trying to get stories out.

Plodding along toward 100 sometimes seems impossible from this view although I've got rough drafts and ideas for 57 and am submitting as I finish work. (A good month of flashes and I'm inching toward 90 so I know it's possible.)

Maybe another out today (no, it's not a micro, thank you)

And if your summer wasn't hot enough. . . .

Get yourself a taste of Carmel Flava

pssst...


In case you didn't notice, Susan's got a story in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Artistic quote for 8-11-06

If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul,
life ceases to have meaning. The creative process shrivels in
the absence of continual dialogue with the soul.
And creativity is what makes life worth living.

--Marion Woodman

Quote for 8-11-06

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.

--Eleanor Roosevelt

Your thoughts create your life

They really do. I feel so much lighter today! And all i did was readjust my thinking-- well, actually it's ongoing. I have this tendency to revert back and I have to remind myself no, we're going this way now but once I do that, I feel like the world is going as I desire--HA!

Transformation

I've been enlightened! One of the things bearing down on me was not resolved as I wanted and yes, I was upset and furious (WHY CAN'T THE WORLD BE AS I CHOOSE????? heh heh) but I asked Life what I was supposed to learn and Life told me. I know the flaw I have to change, I know why and I know why my thinking needed adjustment.

I'm not happy this particular situation didn't go as I wanted but I see where there is something larger than me that Life is calling me to fulfill.

I've decided to let Life use me -- I will be a better person for it and what I'm learning i might be able to help someone else along the way and that's all that matters, not my feelings of being uncomfortable, put out or whatever.

Writing quote for 8-10-06

For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.

--Catherine Drinker Bowen

Quote for 8-10-06

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

-- Jean Jacques Rousseau

A new story but the mag's reading period is closed!

So wait for them to reopen or send the story somewhere else.
Hmmmmm...

Again Maurice?

Man, I hate seeing young black men going to the slammer, but if that's their choice, then who am I to argue?

flash contest

The Heartland Review
Would like to announce our
second annual

Short-short Fiction Prize
1st Place $100
2nd Place $75
3rd Place $50

and publication in
The Heartland Review’s winter issue

Submissions should be no longer than 1000 words,
typed, and double-spaced.
There is a $5 entry fee for each story.
(Checks made out to The Heartland Review)
Send cover page with name, address, and word count.
Name and address should not appear
on the pages of the story.
Submissions are juried blindly
by THR’s Editorial Board.
Post-mark deadline for entries is September 1.
Winners will be announced in November and invited to
read at the
Morrison Gallery Poetry Series.

Include Self Addressed Stamped Envelope
for results.
Mail entries to:

The Heartland Review
Short-short Fiction Prize
c/o Mick Kennedy
Elizabethtown Community & Technical College
600 College Street Road
Elizabethtown, KY 42701

For more information e-mail Mick Kennedy at
mick.kennedy(at)kctcs.edu
(replace (at) with @)
or call (270) 706-8407

Artistic quote for 8-9-06

There's an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.

--Bertrand Russell

Quote for 8-9-06

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.


--Frederick Douglass

I've been writing this morning, Paul

have you?

This is the part where I learn what I'm *really* made of

It is only when we are tried, that we learn what we're made of.

That's the point I'm at and have been for awhile. Frustrating me and angering me--enough already!-- but I know that, like gold I am truly being refined. There are parts of my personality that do not serve me, or the world. I have to transform them.

So it's back to me. I can choose to take this opportunity to learn what I need to and become someone a nth much better. But I don't have to. Life doesn't care; it'll just flunk me and give me another lesson another time. But I don't want to flunk or do summer school. I want to graduate!

It always ends up back at me. What I choose to do is what I ultimately choose to become.

------------------

I didn't have this perspective earlier, not until I opened my mailbox and found this message from a member of a group I belong to: (Life often throws you the rope--you just gotta hang onto it)

The way forward
+++++++++++++++++++

Sometimes the world appears to be spinning out of control.
Sometimes there seems to be no end to the distressing news.

Sometimes it feels like troubles are being piled on top of
troubles. Sometimes it can look as if there could never be a
way forward.

And yet, that way forward is always as close as your next
thought. For no matter how difficult and discouraging life
may have become, with each dawning moment, a new world of
positive possibilities opens up to you.

From the darkest depths of despair, hope does indeed grow
and take flight. Out of difficult situations, new strategies
emerge for creating real value and spreading life's
goodness.

Remember that the future does not have to be an extension of
the past. For you can act right now to create that future
out of the abundance of positive possibilities.

Life always has its challenges, and those challenges are
what enable you to bring real value to life. Whatever the
circumstance, step boldly forward and choose to move the
world positively ahead.

Ralph Marston

Quote for 8-7-06

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

=- Joseph Campbell

Creative quote for 8-7-06

Art is nothing but the expression of our dream; the more we surrender to it the closer we get to the inner truth of things, our dream-life, the true life that scorns questions and does not see them.

--Franz Marc

Somebody wants me

Four solicitations in the last month-- two online mags, one print anthology and this morning, an online woman's poetry pub.

And I think I've only been published three times this year-- how do they know me?

No matter; I've got an invitation to the party. Maybe they'll end up uninviting me later, but for now I can at least get in the door.

But on the other hand

There is something that might happen this week and should it occur, it will set the stage for the whole foundation of my life to change in a positive manner.

We'll see.

Quote for 8-5-06

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.

--Author Unknown

Writing quote for 8-5-06

When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.


--Otto von Bismarck

Submission #5

A contest entry is no winner.

But it's the story that wasn't really complete so now I have the chance to send the reworked version elsewhere.

It will remain submission #5 on my list of 100 submissions.

I will submit 100 different stories as originally planned. Not this summer, way too ambitious there, but possibly by October.

Maybe November.

December. . .

Have you ever read this:

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

By Portia Nelson

Chapter I

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in
I am lost . . . I am helpless
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter II

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter III

I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in . . . it’s a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter IV

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter V

I walk down another street.


In some areas of my life, I am living chapter five; in others, damn it, yes, I'm stuck in chapter one (probably on page one!).

Deep breath. Regroup. Persevere.

Momentarily lost

You want to get somewhere. There is a destiny awaiting you. Complete the trip.


You shouldn't take a road that you know is dangerous or one that you know is a dead-end. If you've been handed the map, use the damn map! Sometimes shortcuts cost you more.


You should pick your travelling buddies with great care.

*******

Little reminders I need stapled to my forehead.

The NFL should

tell T. - O.
to G - O

Quote for 8-4-06

Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

--Albert Einstein

Writing quote for 8-4-06

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.


--Catherine Drinker Bowen

I am way wet this morning

Forgot my umbrella!

It is coming down like the ark's door has just been shut.

And it's supposed to rain awhile (heh heh)-- into early next week.

I love it. Not hoping for the sun anytime soon, but I am eager for the rainbows.

Fidel?

On a Cuba watch.

I have a story I was working on called "Barcardi Dreams." Only got part of it done. It involved Barcardi, the rum company, and I'd contacted them 'cause I figured I needed permission to use the info since it came from their website and the rest of the story was dependent on their response. They passed me off to their public relations office.

Stuck in traffic there. Put, not on hold, but "ignore," but that turned out to be okay because when I went to Miami to read, Didi the incredibly wonderful publisher of Mipoesias and other literary endeavors,who is of Cuban descent showed me how I was way off about the all-important characterization.

So maybe my story is about something else-- something that's occuring now. Watching. And waiting.

Quote for 8-3-06

You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.

-- Barbara De Angelis

Writing quote for 8-3-06

Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

--Tom Stoppard

Smokers should not only be concerned about their lungs

I think they should also consider what nicotine evidently does to their vision 'cause so many can't "see" a waste receptacle when tossing away the cigarette butts.

A quickie

A fast rainstorm this morning that got me all excited.

But now the sun's out.

Still wet momentary pleasure.

Flash fiction contests

NEWPORT REVIEW FLASH FICTION CONTEST

TNR awards $100, $75, $50, and
publication. 750 words maximum,
$10/single entry, 3 for $20, check
payable to Newport Review. Judge is
prizewinning writer Kathryn Kulpa.
All entries considered for
publication. SASE for winners'
issue. Newport Review, 94 Sandy
Point Farm Rd., Portsmouth, RI
02871.
Deadline: Sept. 1, 2006

----------------------------

The Finger is a chronicler of art, music and activism in the Northwest;
documenting the
technological, ecological, political and cultural happenings in our
region.
By covering
bands, artists and organizations largely overlooked by available media,
we
hope to
build community among those leading creative, alternative
lifestyles--and
those just
trying to live.

Shut Up: The Finger's Flash Fiction Contest
Word limit: 500
Deadline: September 5th
Guidelines: Short fiction can be a spectacle; a sudden accosting of
conceptions and
emotions. Succinct and surprising. Stories like olives. Something
small,
something
feisty. Pedantic fools be damned.
Winners: Top five will be printed in the next issue of The Finger, and
receive secret
gifts of wild and uncommon variety.

Email: editor fingermagazine.com with 'Flash Fiction Contribution'
in
subject line.
www.fingermagazine.com


-------------------------

LASH FICTION CONTEST: GHOST STORIES
www.ligoniervalleywriters.org

Ligonier Valley Writers, in cooperation with West Overton Museums, is
sponsoring
its second Annual Flash Fiction Contest. First prize is $50, second is $25
and third
is $15. Three honorable mention winners will also be announced. All winners
will
have the opportunity to read their stories for attendees of Other Worldly
Weekends
at West Overton, Scottdale, PA, on October 20, 21, 27, 28, 2006. In addition,
all
winners will have their stories published in the 2006 version of the
Loyalhanna
Review Online, the literary journal of the Ligonier Valley Writers. LVW
members will
read the winning stories of those who cannot attend the readings.

Contest Rules
Stories must be 1,000 words or less.
Stories must be on the topic of ghosts.
Only one story per applicant.
Type story double-spaced using 12 point type and a standard font like Times
New
Roman, Courier or Ariel on 8 1/2 x 11 white paper.
Type the title of the story and the word count on the upper left corner of
each page,
but not the author's name (for judging purposes).
A cover page with the story title and author's name, address, phone number
and
email must accompany the story.
Include a copy of the folloring statement and sign it for publication and
reading
purposes. "I (signed name) give Ligonier Valley Writers a one- time right to
read my
story (title) and a one-time right to publish the story in the 2006
Loyalhanna Review
Online. The rights revert back to me six months after the story is
published." No
story will be accepted without this statement attached.
The submission fee for the contest is $5.00. Send the story and a check made
out to
Ligonier Valley Writers
TO: 2006 Flash Fiction Contest
Ed Kelemen, Contest Chair
195 Ninth Street
New Florence, PA 15944
(ed.kel(at)verizon.net--replace (at) with @)
Deadline is August 15, 2006

Found this old ad in some stuff. That's my youngest daughter. I don't know how long ago this was. She's a teenager now. Nose and lip piercings. Her hair, naturally dark brown, has been black, blue, red-streaked, and it's no longer bouncy curls-- straight with bangs in her face.

She wears black clothing most of the time.

Her looks have changed, but she's still a sweet girl. Frequently.

Last night I finally went through this box of stuff that I've been stockpiling. I would just throw stuff in it-- mail, misc. things found on my desk any time I cleaned it, stories I printed out, intending to read-- DAMN! Was that a task going through it all.

Separated it into three new piles--stuff I must deal with NOW; stuff that has to do with my writing that I must deal with NOW; and stuff that can packed into a box and stamped: CAN DEAL WITH IN VERMONT;-)

Creative quote for 8-2-06

Art does not come from thinking, but from responding.

--Corita Kent

Quuote for 8-2-06

"You must work to become the miracle you are seeking."

--Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz

Quote for 8-1-06

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

--Galileo

Creative quote for 8-1-06

It is better to create than to be learned, creating is the true essence of life


--Barthold Georg Niebuhr

Rain quote for 8-1-06 (Yep, again!!! I think somebody loves me)

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow