Partly because of my health, but not only, my writing has really slowed down. Dinner in Berkeley last night with Lynn Mundell and her husband inspired me to think about ways to jump start it (she does short DIY retreats in hotels on the coast and gets a lot written). So today when Grant Faulkner mentioned an accountability group through Left Margin LIT in his Sunday newsletter, I impulsively joined. Two hours every M and W evening, writing to a prompt or on your own project (I'm thinking the latter). Like the daily 25-minute walk I'm doing for my heart, it's not very long but in fact it's a lot longer than I've been doing most days.
Small Press Distribution (SPD) has suddenly closed its doors, affecting hundreds of small presses who relied on them to handle distribution of their books and royalties. BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS, who published my chapbook The. Missing Girl and who has long been one of my favorite presses, is taking a blow it may not recover from: on their GoFundMe, they estimate a loss of over $17,000 for the books SPD has and the royalties SPD owes them. Give if you can.
Kathy Fish, flash guru—a brilliant flash writer and brilliant flash teacher—told me that she's teaching my microflash "Because I Couldl Not Stop for Death" in her 3-in-90 Workshop today! I'm so honored and touched. I'm reading proofs for the reprint of "Doorbells" today, and noticed in my slender pending pubs file that I had an interview with WOW (Women on Writing) forthcoming. Turns out they published the interview last November and I missed it.
I missed "Shoplifting" when it came out last week in Current. Really a nice place for it, since it emphasizes a political context that might be lost in a flash zine.
Within minutes twitter flagged the post for "sensitive content." Why? I have no idea. The warnings apply to "nudity, sensitive content, violence, gore, or hateful symbols." I don't think stealing clothes years ago at age 18 really applies. DOUBLEBACK REVIEW (Sundress Publications) wants to reprint my long-ago essay "Doorbells"! I've always loved that essay, which was published in South Loop Review and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. At the time, South Loop Review was my dream publication, and I was so disappointed when they went defunct a couple of issues later. "Doorbells" will be out on April 15.
I've been very hard at work reading 80 finalists for the CRAFT Memoir Excerpt/Essay Contest, developing a short list for the judge, a long list, and a list of honorable mentions list with my associate editor Shara Kronmal. This is the first year I've had an associate editor and it's a great relief. The title of a William Carlos Williams' book that I particularly like and probably haven't read since grad school. Not a lot to report here. Lots of heavy rain has the yard so green that the weeds look gorgeous along with the plants and flowering trees. Dinner last night with an old friend was followed by a late night trip to the ER that lasted all night. I'm off the new medication for now, calling two specialists on Monday. Steve and I fell into bed at 8am and slept until 11:30am, when I woke to find an invitation from Hannah Grieco to visit her class via Zoom for a CNF editors' panel and a note from CURRENT with edits on "Shoplifting," which I haven't looked at yet. Finished up edits on a group of micros on teachers' pets yesterday that I think might be ready to send out. Need to do more research on Virginia Woolf but I think I have the outlines of the chapter/essay/flash completed. Courtney sent me Helene Hanff's 84, CHARING CROSS ROAD and it was perfect reading for the ER. I hope I never have to go there again. Exercising 25 minutes a day on instructions from the new cardiologist. It's surprisingly hard to fit in just 25 minutes, but invigorating. Steve and I have been walking at Lake Chabot. I've been listening to music on the exercise bike the last couple of days because it's been raining. Here's Lake Chabot.
I've always admired Francine Witte's FLASH BOULEVARD, which publishes groups of micros or flash by one author once a week. I'm thrilled to have a group of creative nonfiction micros in FLASH BOULEVARD this week under the title "I Dream You Are Alive": "So Long Ago,” “The Umbrella,” “We Could Have,” “Family Ties,” “Sex Education,” “Something else,” and “Returning to the Wreck."
I love Flash Fiction February at FICTIVE DREAM. This is the sixth year I've been included. Love the art work by Claudia McGill every day (acrylics and ink) and all of the flash so far have been stellar. This year and last I wrote my flash with FICTIVE DREAM in mind, since I know the editor Laura Black wants stories in contemporary settings, generally character-driven. It was a lot of fun to write about this dislikable character in "Pretty Penny."
I hadn't exactly thought of "January 25, 2014" in PAST TEN as an essay, though of course it is. It felt more more like a journal entry that I wanted to give some shape and depth to (read: an essay) by using the theme of "perhapsing" and the idea of the heart as literal and metaphorical. I had a due date, and I was in the midst of health problems and ER visits and hospital stay so I had hardly any time to work on it. And maybe that actually helped. At any rate I've gotten some very kind responses to the writing, some from writers I don't usually interact with. And not the barrage of medical advice I'd feared, just a private DM exchange from someone who's gone through the same medical problem themselves, which was very useful. I think my pub also generated a lot of interest in the journal, which is always nice.
And CURRENT accepted "Shoplifting," and will pay for it, and I greatly enjoyed publishing there before, even though they're not strictly a lit mag, or a place where friends publish. It was great being in a different sort of journal. Bailey Gaylin Moore invited me to contribute to her cool site PAST TEN, where writers answer the question: "Where were you on this day ten years ago?" There have been some great contributors, most recently Kathy Fish and Grant Faulkner.
My take on "January 25,, 2014" is overshadowed by my current health anxieties, but it was fun to take on a "perhapsing" challenge (since that's undoubtedly the exercise that my creative nonfiction students were engaged in that week). Nice to take my mind off my health, which nevertheless overshadows the piece. Loved learning that Bailey teaches the collaborative essay that I wrote with Steve ("Imaginary Friends") in her nonfiction classes at the University of Missouri. |
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