I need to sit down and write.

I just realized this fact.  But it is a good thing.

It’s not that I’ve been lazy. The day job has been hella busy, and thank God I am still employed, so I‘ve been putting in the time needed to keep ahead of the workload. Writing has to take a backseat to my career at this point, unless somehow writing can miraculously become my career. And since we are in a recession, I doubt that’s happening anytime soon.

I’ve been blessed in the past six months - a lot of my fresh work and newly revised pieces have been accepted. Right now, I only have a few short stories and a handful of poems to circulate around, and I don’t want to over-submit those pieces. Believe me, I’m far from being a shotgun submitter.  I try to learn all I can about most places I’m considering submitting to, read past issues, study their website, etc. So I don’t want to overextend the pieces I have and flood the same poems and flash fiction pieces to every place on earth.

Being an active writer and also an active submitter has put me in an envious position amongst most emerging creative-types:  if I’m going to continue submitting to magazines, online journals, and contests, I need to generate new material.  I also need to get back to reading more.  For me, reading begets writing.

So I’m focused on this weekend coming up. Going to get some good music ready and spend a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday trying to read and/or write myself out of a creative funk. Hopefully this goal will evolve from theory to reality.

Acceptance.

Quick note:  my poem titled Instructions (for Reading this Poem) will appear in an upcoming edition of The Broken Plate.

The Broken Plate is a literary magazine produced at Ball State University featuring poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The magazine accepts submissions from writers around the world while continuing to devote pages to the work of Ball State students. The Broken Plate is beginning an exciting new phase in its growth toward a more diverse representation of the creative community. Looking at excerpts from the 2009 plate, I'm excited to see what this issue will look like.

Personally this acceptance makes me really happy, since Instructions (for Reading this Poem) is one of my favorite poems (Wait...is it vain to have favorites of your own work? Oh well...) from my unpublished manuscript The Blues Almanac.

Thanks to the editors for the opportunity to contribute – I’ll have more news as publication nears.

Winner.

My poem If Love is a Big City, Lately I've Considered Relocating recently won the Third Annual Burning the Midnight Oil poetry contest over at The Write Helper!  Big thanks to the Amy Harke-Moore for creating and judging this contest opportunity.

You can check out If Love is a Big City, Lately I've Considered Relocating on The Write Helper’s website by clicking the link below:

http://www.thewritehelper.com/id65.html

I was also given the opportunity to write a short profile about my writing on The Write Helper's site - you can read it here:

http://www.thewritehelper.com/id66.html

I better run and take this rare opportunity of Sunday afternoon free time to get some writing done.  Be good…

Experiences With Editors

In these posts on the Emerging Writers Network blog, authors share their good and bad experiences with editors (the comments I read were mostly positive) and what they learned from them.  I found this to be a good read; click the link below to check it out.

http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/emerging_writers_network/experience-with-editors/

Three Poems Accepted by Front Range.

I’ll have three poems in the next edition of Front Range: A Review of Literature and Art. 

Front Range (formerly MO:  Writings from the River) is an annual nationally-circulated literary journal which features work from writers and artists from all around the world, many of them award winners.

I’m especially proud of this acceptance because two of the poems are prose poems – so they symbolize the growing diversity in my published works.  In other words, I’m like growing as a writer ad stuff.

Thanks to editor Fredrick Bridger for the chance to contribute.  I’ll post more info once the newest Front Range comes out in 2010.

Interrobang?!

The second issue of Interrobang?! is now online, and you should check it out.  Trust me.

Interrobang is a web and print ‘zine for the arts based in Providence, RI.  The second issue features a wonderful mixture of poetry, fiction, and art.  And if you happen to visit Interrobang online, you could also take a moment to read my experimental piece called A Condensed History of Anger, with Footnotes.

Salamander Cove.

My poems Hello Songs and I Hate Poetry are numbers 1 and 3, respectively, on today's postings at http://salamanderpoems.blogspot.com.

Salamander Cove is a blog for poets to connect with other poets, read one another's poems, and share the joy of creating with words. 

Big thanks to the editor of this blog for sharing my work with the blogosphere (my God, how I hate that word).