You might be a writer . . .

Who remembers that Jeff Foxworthy bit, you might be a redneck? Good for rednecks, but how do you know if you’re a writer? Read on and see if this sounds familiar: If you keep a file on your computer of your murdered darlings that is the same length of your finished manuscript, you might be [...]

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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 [...]

Continue reading about A @*%!& Typo! »

I know I’m late to the party, but I just came across an interesting statistic – the average writer will write 1 million words before they are published. 1 million. Just out of curiosity, I decided to see how I matched up, seven and a half years into this crazy dream of mine – that [...]

Continue reading about Halfway there! And still livin’ on a prayer »

November is fast approaching, and with it comes the question – to Nano, or not to Nano? Usually, the answer is a quick and resounding “Heck yes!” But this year I have a lot on my keyboard. I’m currently querying “How to Speak to Spirits,” my middle-grade Nano novel of 2008. And I’m deep in the [...]

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That’s right, I added a hyphen. I’m an author, I’m entitled. Seriously, though, the hyphen makes sense. I find myself re-envisioning my latest manuscript on a daily basis. And I love it. So I’ve decided to change the word to better describe the process. Don’t get me wrong, ripping apart the manuscript, trashing entire chapters, [...]

Continue reading about On Re-Vision »

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 have not posted in quite a while, which I’m sure bothers no one but my mother. While I haven’t been writing here, I have been writing. At the beginning of the year, in an effort to improve my skills, I signed up for a great short story workshop over at Toasted Cheese Literary Journal. [...]

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Sadly, this is the title of my short story and not any sort of commentary on the sorry state of my work ethic! But seriously, The Flash Fiction Offensive has graciously agreed to publish another one of my stories. You can read it here: http://theflashfictionoffensive.blogspot.com/2010/02/working-stiff-by-shannon-schuren.html or click on the link under ‘My Stories’ on the [...]

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One of my (very) short stories was recently accepted for inclusion in an anthology of flash fiction.  Daily Flash: 365 Days of Flash Fiction is being put together by Pill Hill Press and will be available around December of this year. I am very excited about this one! Actually, I’m very excited about all of [...]

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