Bringing this Blog to a Close for Now, but Keep Writing!

As you may have guessed from my abysmal updating record since the spring (perhaps even last winter), my other commitments are really encroaching on this blog. Once I updated daily, sometimes twice, like a good blogger! I'd rather not go out in a haze of "Sorry I haven't posted for three months" posts (which I may have been doing in any case!) So, for now, I accept reality, work on my other projects, and say a fond farewell.

Meanwhile, please do peruse my earlier posts and archives; there's some advice there for beginning writers on things like finding agents, getting published, carving out time, and making sure you're not scammed. And I want you all to keep plugging. Good luck to my friend Cathy, who's taking two weeks of vacation, not to gamble it away in Vegas, but to spend a chunk of time writing. And I leave you with this thought of Cory Doctorow's:

"People today spend as much time as they can possibly drag themselves away from the real world to sit in front of the screen reading text, and I would argue that the text they are reading, the thing they are treating like a book, is a book."

So think on that, start a blog, and write a novel. Email me if I can answer any questions. And good luck!

Very Short Story Contest at Glimmer Train

Close to my heart, as I love short short fiction, and it's a reputable outlet and a reasonable reading fee. Hey, in the time it takes to post to your blog, you could have a short short story to send in. Here's the info, or go to their site:

Competition: Glimmer Train's Summer Very Short Fiction Award.

Eligibility: Open to all themes, all subjects, all writers, published and
unpublished. Your original, unpublished story must not exceed 2,000 words.

First-place winner receives $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories,
and 20 copies of the issue in which it is published. Second- and
third-place winners receive $500/$300, respectively, and acknowledgement
in that issue.

To submit your story, go to our site, Glimmer Train Press Online Submissions,
log in, and click on VERY SHORT STORY AWARD. Reading fee (payable by visa
or mc) is $10 per story.

Entries will be accepted through July 31st. Winners will be called by
November 1st. Top 25 list will be emailed to all participants by that
date. Please let your email provider (ISP) know that you want emails from
glimmertrainpress.com and glimmertrain.com so we can reach you.

From the Renaissance Park Hotel, Very Posh

Are We There Yet? Yes, We Are.

Me on the deck of our new home! (Thanks, Murphy, for taking this!)  

Live from the I-5

A Really Great Writer's Web Site at, of All Places. BBC News

This site is so much fun! It has mini-courses on all kinds of writing: radio plays, fiction, horror, everything, each with some good useful links; online community, message boards; humorous, earnest encouragement; places to post your work and get workshop comments; advice on publication; et al. Go to BBC - Get Writing - Homepage and poke around. They even have a BBC - Get Writing - Screen Saver, with drawings based on classic books and a way to make reminders about starting and finishing writing projects pop up on screen. I could spend all day on it.

National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo

Re: the book I mentioned in my last audblog, below. I love these guys. They've been mentioned in other blogs, too, including Neil Gaiman's. Their philosophy is that you take a month to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. It doesn't matter if it's bad. You can fix it later. But it helps you get past all the self-doubt and perfectionism and have fun. I can't possibly do justice the charm and humor, and all-out usefulness, with which they approach this, so go to National Novel Writing Month. They do it in November, in an on-line community, but you can do it anytime. I may do it myself, just for fun. It could be very freeing!

Greetings from Starbucks - and No Plot, No Problem