Looking for a gift for the person who has everything? How about a unique book on his or her hometown, or the city where the person currently lives, or a favorite city? I just finished reading Chronicles of Old San Francisco by Gael Chandler and am very excited to share my hometown via this excellent resource. Whether an armchair traveler or a get-up-and-get-going kind of person, Chronicles of Old San Francisco informs, enlightens and inspires visiting Baghdad By The Bay, as columnist Herb Caen called his favorite city. Gael collected a monumental amount of research and with attention to detail, created intimate stories about historical figures, as if she interviewed them in their huts, ranchos, schooners, theatres, residences, offices, stores. I wish she had written history books when I was in school. I would have paid better attention. From the back cover: “Chronicles of Old San Francisco tells the story…
American Short Fiction Magazine
“American Short Fiction publishes work by emerging and established voices: stories that dive into the wreck, that stretch the reader between recognition and surprise, that conjure a particular world with delicate expertise—stories that take a different way home.” “Our goal here at American Short Fiction is to respect . . . involvement by offering consistently intelligent, engrossing, and beautiful reading, in print and on this website, and we appreciate your company. “Stories! Stories, stories, stories!” cried the narrator on the final page of that first Spring ’91 issue, in a work by W. D. Wetherell. Stories, indeed.” American Short(er) Fiction Contest The prize recognizes extraordinary short fiction under 1,000 words. The first-place winner will receive a $1,000 prize and publication, and the second-place winner will receive $250 and publication. All entries will be considered for publication. Submission period ends: February 1, 2016. Guidelines for contest. Submission Guidelines for regular submissions….
Rewrite Your Holiday Scene . . . Prompt #210
‘Twas the night before the party and all through the house, everyone was hurrying with too much to do, even the mouse! Sound familiar? I was frustrated with too much scurrying before I learned strategies about how to manage holiday stress. As I gathered ideas, I felt calm and at peace. Let’s create an enjoyable holiday season. It does involve list making. So get some paper and a pen. These lists will help you focus on making your holidays less stressful and more enjoyable. The six key steps to reduce holiday stress are inventory, decide, accept, choose favorites, enlist and manage. Take inventory. Make a list of all the extra activities you do during the holidays. Be sure to include baking, making crafts, decorating, cleaning, helping at church, attending parties, shopping, wrapping, making travel plans, driving around to see decorations and meeting guests at the airport. Next: Go through your…
Does failure weigh more than success?
Guest Blogger Rachael Herron writes about successes and failures. It’s December! I know this for a fact (I just rechecked the calendar). No matter which hemisphere you’re in, regardless of season, this year is getting ready for her final bow. It’s completely impossible that 2015 is almost over because about seventeen minutes ago the year was just starting, full of potential and wonder and pale spring-green hope. I’m prone to doing what everyone else does at the end of a year: weighing the past year’s successes and failures against each other. But you know what? Failure weighs way more than success. When you put things on that imaginary scale, each small failure weighs as much as a wheelbarrow full of rocks while each huge success weighs almost nothing. Success makes you lighter—it makes you able to float for a minute or even an hour—while failure drags you so low your…
What hurts right now? Prompt #209
You! Yes, you. What hurts right now? Write about that. Or write about what is hurting your fictional character. Writing Prompt: What hurts right now?
“Challenges always present themselves . . . “
“Challenges always present themselves in any creative undertaking, but you’ll never get far if you let doubt rule you.” Susan Bono author of What Have We Here: Essays about Keeping House and Finding Home.
Personal Essay is Memoir in Short Form
If you have written your memoir, or are in the process, and it’s not shaping into what you envisioned, you could transform it into a personal essay. It might be easier, at some point, to concentrate on writing a personal essay, rather than a book-length manuscript. There are many posts on The Write Spot Blog about how to write personal essays. (Please scroll down for the how-to posts). You may be writing vignettes to satisfy your desire to write family stories. You can publish these with the help of many do-it-yourself publishing companies. If you want your personal essays to be published for public consumption, there are many opportunities for submission: Big Brick Review, Chicken Soup for The Soul, The Christian Science Monitor, Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction and so many more places. Check the back pages of Writer’s Digest magazine. You can submit your writing to be included in…
Rose of Sharon by Arletta Dawdy
Arletta Dawdy‘s strong writing skills are evident as she gives life to the fictional characters in Rose of Sharon. Arletta deftly weaves scenery and characters, using her extensive vocabulary to create a vivid backdrop for lives unfolding in this novel that reads like a true story. From the back cover: Mark Wiederanders, author of Stevenson’s Treasure: “Arletta Dawdy’s Rose of Sharon is a delightful, wonderfully-imagined prequel to John Steinback’s The Grapes of Wrath. . . Depression, racism, forbidden love, birth, death, heartbreak and lots of hard ranch-work are all part of Rose’s daily experience.” Susan Nunn, author of Song of the Earth: “Characters are born out of the fabric of their landscape, and when a writer has a sense of place, knows place like none other, it all comes together so well.” Kay Mehl Miller, Ph.D,, author of Love Comes At Twilight: A Love Story for Seniors: “Whether it’s with…
Colorado Review
THE COLORADO REVIEW accepts short fiction, personal essay, poetry, and book reviews. FICTION & NONFICTION Colorado Review considers short fiction and personal essays with contemporary themes (no genre fiction or literary criticism). POETRY Poetry of any style is accepted. Please limit poetry submissions to no more than five poems at a time. PRIZE FOR POETRY NELLIGAN PRIZE BOOK REVIEWS If you would like to submit a book review, please send query to respective editors. SUBMISSION DATES AND FORMAT (Scroll down) Nonfiction manuscripts are read year-round. Fiction & poetry manuscripts are read from August 1 to April 30. Simultaneous submissions are accepted; writers must notify CR immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. CR considers only previously unpublished work. Colorado Review purchases First North American Serial Rights; all rights revert to the author upon publication in CR. We pay $10 per page ($30 minimum) for poetry and $200 for short stories and essays. Authors…
Deep but not profound . . . Prompt #208
The name of the game is: Deep but not profound. Apples but not bananas Boots but not shoes Carrots but not potatoes Door but not window Eggs but not chickens Have you figured out the formula? Here’s a clue: Look at the letters in the first words of each line above. More clues: Sleepy but not tired Sleep but not slumber Greet and hello and goodbye but neither here nor there. Solution to this riddle: The first word has double consonants or double vowels. The rest of the words don’t matter. Two more: Matter but not material Correct but not right I’m becoming addicted. . . Hope you have fun with this little brain teaser! What lines can you come up with? Writing Prompt: Choose a line or a photo and write.