Crazy Familiar

My life has been taken over by short stories.  Flash fiction, longer pieces, snippets that are on hold... and one special piece. 

The special piece is a Southern Gothic short story that I hope to finish in time to enter in a contest.  The deadline is April 30th, and I have a lot of crazy to pack into those pages before it will be ready to go.

I might have mentioned that my family has certain Southern Gothic attributes that may have contributed to my writing.  I definitely feel a need to memorialize the colorful quirkiness that so many try to stomp out of themselves.  I prefer to embrace it.

So I am both eager and terrified to actually be weaving together these bits of crazy.  I need to write at least 500 words per day for the next 10-14 days, and then spend the rest of the time available on re-writes and panic attacks.

Writers have such a glamorous life.  Glamorous and crazy.  See--Southern Gothic!

I have always loved Southern Gothic.  It just felt...familiar.

What about you?  What genres do you gravitate toward?

The Edge of Hell

Writers' Hell

I am in Limbo.  (Which, I just googled and found out was Latin: limbus, meaning "edge or boundary, referring to the 'edge' of Hell.)  Okay, maybe I am not literally in hell, but as close as a living, aspiring author can get to Limbo.  You see, I currently have a story entered in a contest over at Figment.  The winners were supposed to announced "on or about September 12, 2012."  So, like...any minute now.  But they haven't been announced yet.  I have nearly worn out my keyboard hitting the refresh button, to no avail.

I also have a short story that I just submitted to Shimmer magazine.  I am currently waiting for the lovely, Shimmery People over there to find it in their overstuffed inbox, read it, and (fingers crossed, knocking one wood, wishing on a star) decide they want more than anything to include it in their publication.  We shall see.  It takes three weeks or so to hear back.  In the meantime, I will write other things, and read, and obsess, and hit the refresh button, and wonder if my inbox is broken.

If you are so inclined, you should feel free to cross your fingers as well, maybe knock on wood, say a prayer or offer up a good intention.

I could use it!

For those that are, likewise, waiting to hear back on submissions, please let me know how you are coping and keeping your sanity...assuming, of course, that you are maintaining some precarious hold on your mental health.

Sidetracked for a Minute...

I got side tracked this weekend.  I meant to spend huge chunks of time working on getting the first draft typed into the computer and cleaning things up and fleshing things out.  But instead, I got totally sidetracked by the NPR Three Minute Fiction contest.  The concept is simple: Write a story of 600 words or less using their prompt.  If it wins, you get  interviewed on NPR and your story is read on the air!  

Stolen from NPR, but it is to promote their stuff so hopefully no one will sue.

 Three Minute Fiction has developed a huge community on Facebook that is incredibly supportive and encouraging of writers.  We all root for one another in our projects and our lives, and it has been are really amazing experience to learn from them all.

I hope that some of you decide to enter this round and join in on the experience.  Once the contest if over, a lot of us take turns sharing our stories and giving feedback (we don't  post them before the contest is over though...we don't want to risk elimination for "publishing" it).

And yes, I realize that, tactically speaking, I am ratcheting up the odds of NOT winning by sharing this with more potential competition, but I strongly believe that writers should support writers.  After all, we are all trying to do the same thing...to create the best story we can.