"Celebrate the year that was and will be"

Isn't that a beautiful idea? Off an e-card I received. Let's all do that.

See you next year.

I just hit the big 6-0!

-- though 13 story drafts are just crazy ramblings I'll try to shape into something meaningful and coherent at a later date;-) but I'm 40 stories away from completing that goal of writing 100.

5 accepted/published; 95 to go (though I have 8currently in submission).

Not much writing will get done this week. Long days at work, it's looking like a 40+ hour work schedule, so I'll just keep reading-- the writing book up next is "The Art of Writing" from a writer's workshop kit and the short stores of Anton Chekhov.

Not too much writing, also, 'cause I'm just plain tired!

You're spoiling me

Another acceptance and I just submitted the story last night. "The Dying Room" will appear in Static Movement in January.

It's something different from me.

I'm loving this almost instanteous acceptance.

You're up

watching "A Christmas Story," aren't you?

Creative quote for 12/24/06

Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.

--Allen Ginsberg

Quote for 12/24/06

Love only works these days when entered into for loving reasons -- to extend and expand, to give and to grow, to bless and to be blessed.

--Katherine Woodward Thomas

Writing quote for 12/23/06

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

--Leo Rosten

Quote for 12/23/06

I guess it took a little time for me to see
The reason I was born into this world
And what I'd have to go through
Before I'd finally realize that I could be infinitely better than before, definitely stronger
I'll face whatever comes my way, savor each moment of the day,
Love as many people as I can along the way
Help someone who's given up, if it's just to raise my eyes and pray.

--from "Always Tomorrow"
by Gloria Estefan

I'm not the only one up late working

The editor at a pub just dropped me a note. Two poems accepted! Yay!
"Poem Written After Reading 'Eugene In Castillo'" and an untitled work upcoming in Lunarosity.

Zen In The Art of Writing

Almost finished Bradbury's essays.

Inspirational.

What he recalls about himself being a boy loving words and language and life pushed me to become reacquainted with that girl who'd jump a fence most days after school to get to the public library where she'd lose, and more importantly find, herself in a book.

Another acceptance!

Yay!

There was a time when it seemed every magazine wanted a Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz story. I rarely got rejected. And then there was a period when it felt all I was getting was rejected. I much prefer the yeses.

("Wading" will appear in Poor Mojo's Almanac(k). I like them a lot. Every five acceptances gets you something. Clothing or liquor. When I was in San Francisco, Morgan (one of the editors) paid up and bought me dinner. I got a cool t-shirt once. Maybe this time, I'll go for a margarita, frozen with x-tra salt.)

Sometimes it's just too early in the morning for me

The story was accepted and published yesterday. (I went back and read the whole note.)
Find "Panties" here. Click fiction and then new fiction.

The acceptance

is a micro called "Panties" and it's gonna be in Barfing Frog Press. Yay! 97 acceptances to go;-)

Step away from the computer, Gwendolyn

I am way tired. Realized that yesterday when I was thinking about a story I'd just submitted and realized I'd changed a character's name mid-story. And on the same day, I lost/misplaced/no longer had in my possession my notebook that I carry to jot down ideas and lines. I'd just bought it so there wasn't much in it, but if there had been. . .

So, this week, I'm just going to read about writing (next up: Zen in the Art of Writing) and work on writing exercises.

Work is kicking my butt 'cause there are Christmas parties and catering and I agreed to extra hours and then I get home and push myself to write. And sometimes it's a hit (just got an acceptance) or it's a miss (a very quick rejection of the above mentioned story. The editor pointed out a few inconsistencies, somehow she missed the name change.)

It's time to just step back. Next week, I'll plunge back into the actual writing of things.

"Writing from the inside out"

is the writing book I just finished.

Wonderful, wonderful stuff.
Find it here.

So let's celebrate!

Because, yes, I got my two stories out. I did miss one deadline, but got a story to the magazine that I'd really wanted to submit to. The second story went out later and to a different place than I had first intended but that was okay because it wasn't ready and I couldn't do anything to force the lines.

Believe me, I tried. But stories don't happen always when you want them to and sometimes that's a very good thing. Patience, patience, patience.

So I think I deserve something 'cause another story will go out tomorrow.

That bear at Sears was awfully cute.

So was that pair of black heels in the window at Cathy Jean.

Or a book! Where is that new Borders coupon???

I can breathe!

Wrong about the scholarship deadlines. A bit later. Then just two stories I will have to complete.

So I can breathe, though I'll still be up all night.

Not heavy breathing 'cause I still won't be up, you know.

That stinks, too

Reading period closes for two mags I want to submit to. Deadline to apply for some scholarships.

I will be up all night and it won't be 'cause I'm, well, you know.

That stinks!

A 40% coupon from Borders good only today and me with 13 cents to my name.

Writing quote for 12/08/06

I'm a writer. I don't cook and I don't clean. . .

--Dorothy West

Quote for 12/08/06

I am at peace with the community of life.

--Louise Hay

The headline reads "Bush says new approach needed in Iraq"

No sh** Sherlock.

I haven't decided if I'm going to rebraid my hair. In the meantime, I wear it pulled back in a bun.

The man on the bus, on the seat behind me, leans forward and tells me, over my shoulder, "I like that you wear your hair natural like that. That you don't color it."

"There's nothing wrong with a few grey hairs," I tell him, turning around to face him. "Means you've lived a little."

He leans back, stroking his chin. "I don't let my beard grow 'cause I don't want anyone to see all the grey."

He's quiet for a moment, then says, "So you've lived a little?"

I think of the entirety of my life and can't help but grin as I turn back around. Yeah, Mister, just a little.

Quote for 12/6/06

Live as though you had ten thousand years, or ten minutes.

--A Shaker saying

Writing quote for 12/606

If my relationship with a text is dyanmic enough, I am rewritten by what I write.

--Gruden

It's a nice story

the one I was about to submit to a mag today, but it wasn't a great story. So I decided to put it aside and dig a little deeper 'til/till/til I have what will make the story soar.

My ego was disappointed. It would have been 9 things out==9 possible publications, but I'm trying not to feed my writing ego these days. I'm trying to feed my writing soul.

Searching for a pot o' gold

Actually just some scholarships. Doing the financial aid thing and I won't be a grad student so the amount of $$$ I got previously to attend school will not be there. But there's money out there--I just gotta find it;-)



The school I'll be attending is a technical college, but an accredited college nonetheless, which means that come January I will be enrolled and eligible to enter the Atlantic Monthly writing contest for college students and the writing contest (for writers of African descent) sponsored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Those opportunities I am sooooooooo looking forward to.

Creative quote for 12/05/06

All serious daring starts from within.

--Eudora Welty

Quote for 12/05/06

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

--Harriet Beecher Stowe

No, I won't become a Dallas fan, but I gotta

give them props.

They're always playing on the tvs at the bar--what can I say? Yesterday's game was great to that last 6 seconds, wasn't it?

I not out to buy a blue and white jersey, but I'll stop referring to them as the plowboys;-P

how cool is that

a radio station that plays an hour of the Beatles every Sunday and a classic rock that gives you a Zepplin 'fix at six.'

till or til or 'til

We're talking about the shortened form of 'until.'

Which is it?

What I didn't get for Christmas

"Are you going to the Christmas party?" that guy at work asked me.

"I don't know," I replied.

"You know if you go, Gwen, you could have your choice of good-looking, young men, me included."

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

little boys

little boys

little boys. . .

Writing quote for 12/4/06

You're a writer and that's something better than being a millionaire--because it's something holy.

--Harlan Ellison

Quote for 12/4/06

Sound the note that calls your soul to you.

--Sanaya Roman

Yes, I did

write another work today. Yes, yes, it was a micro. Seems I'm doing a lot of that but it's still a story, so there;-p

I'm three for three. And I got a poem out.

And the moon is glorious and somehow the world seems right:)

But it hasn't been all butterflies and roses

The other night the city bus ran out of gas (really) and while we were sitting there in the dark, a line came to me and I started following its trail--it looked like it would be one of those stories that writes itself--but I made myself stop because I didn't have pen and paper to get it down. I thought I'd write it once I got home, but then when I arrived, I could't remember a thing.

And the deadline for a contest I wanted to enter came and went without my submission getting dropped into the mail.

I'm ambivalent about the photo I'm thinking of sending to Amazon.com for the short story, but I don't have another pic and I really need to get that contract back ASAP.

Darn it.

I like submission

Actually I like getting published, but the submitting thing has to happen first.

Poems (reprints) out today to an anthology and unpublished but older stuff out to a literary mag. Hopefully four more and the last of the "good stuff" out tomorrow, but it's a loooong day at work (double-shift) and the Christmas party afterwards which I may or may not attend.

Still have four micros ready to go out, but two of the magazines I wanted to submit to are closed to submissions. One, the second time I've missed the reading period this year!

One of my daughters did not like it here so the two of them left yesterday back to Las Cruces and the returning one has strict instructions to find my disks and rough drafts and bring them to me. About 11 stories I could tweak and get out. I'm almost a third of the way there (in terms of having stories). Almost. Gonna try for my month of flashes this month. It's the second of December. I've written two flashes. I'm on a roll;-)