The Year of Writing Dangerously

Something has shifted in my writing perspective, and I thought I’d share.  My story begins last year, when I penned a piece of flash about a reformed prostitute who keeps the cards of her former clients hidden in her recipe box. It was a story I loved, one of those that just bubbled up and [...]

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Last week, I entered a gnome pun contest at Ricki Schultz’s blog based on Chuck Sambuchino’s book, “How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack.” And today I found out – I won! The prize is a five-page manuscript critique, which I am totally stoked about. (Does anyone say stoked anymore?) Anyhoo, here’s my pun: Does [...]

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So I entered a pitch contest over at Market My Words – a fabulous blog run by author Shelli Johannes-Wells (find link at right).  I stumbled across the contest purely by accident, when my son was home sick on Tuesday and I was procrastinating on revision yet again. The setup was simple – give your [...]

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What I’m Working On: I did one more final polish on my Lily Island story and sent it off to Writer’s Digest this morning. I’m feeling good about it, so good that if it doesn’t net me anything at WD, I’m going to try and submit it at Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It’s been one [...]

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This is a post that will appeal to no one except the writers in the group. In other words, no one. But if that intrigues you,  read on. I’m working on a short story. I’m calling it a cross between Northern Exposure and Nero Wolfe. Which sets some impossibly high standards, but I’ve always been ignorant of [...]

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I entered the 24-Hour Fiction Contest over at Writer’s Weekly this weekend. The concept is simple: they email you a paragraph with the theme at noon on Saturday, and you have until noon on Sunday to come up with a story. Here is this year’s topic: From her lap, his shiny black eyes stared up [...]

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  What I’m working on: I’m working on a new story, the plotline of which I’m keeping to myself for right now. Unfortunately, it has an impossible deadline of Tuesday. I want to submit it to the Good Housekeeping Short Story Contest, which is being judged by Jodi Picoult. Grand prize is $3000, and while [...]

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Today’s the day! The topic is emailed at noon, and we have 24 hours to come up with a riveting, original, think-outside-the-box kind of story. Here’s today’s topic: She was licking the cotton candy crystals from her fingertips when she felt the first raindrops. She joined the other visitors in racing for shelter as the [...]

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The results are in. I did not make the cut to 100 semi-finalists. I am currently drowning my sorrows in lots and lots of chocolate. Can sorrows drown in chocolate, you might ask? Answer – not easily. It’s actually more of a choking than a drowning. But seriously, congratulations to all who made it. There [...]

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As some of you may know, Amazon.com, in conjunction with the Penguin Group is offering a $25,000 book contract to the lucky winner of their Breakthrough Novel contest. I am currently one of 500 quarter-finalists, with my entry of “Bedeviled Glass.” Here is the pitch that landed me my spot: Since its discovery, glass has [...]

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