Getting My Write On June 29, 2008

Yesterday, my drill sergeant appeared.

Most people know me as a DRILL SERGEANT. When I edit clients’ manuscripts, when I instruct writers in WRITERS BOOT CAMP, when I help friends with their writing, I’m the drill sergeant – the person who is constantly calling or e-mailing to see how the writing is coming…berating when necessary.

Well, my bestest friend in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD has moved back to Lake Chuck, and yesterday, she got on me. Demanded that I write, and I did – writing 6,000 words on my new project, EMPTY SWINGS. Bestest Friend is MY drill sergeant, so I’m stoked to have her permanently back in my life like that!

Another great thing to occur recently – yesterday, I received my Creative Screenwriting magazine, and there were two articles that sparked me as a writer: one discussed pitching TV originals and the second discussed the selling of spec screenplays. Both, very positive, sparked me to change my writing goals for the year a bit.

Right now, I’m reading and rereading a lot of book written by and about Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Anne Sexton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Toni Morrison. The goal? To work on a big literary project in the fall for NanoWrimo.

After reading the articles, I decided to continue reading, but do my project over my Christmas break. For NanoWrimo, I’ll be working on two screenplays so that I can get more of them under my belt. I have my six-episode miniseries and now my THE PROBLEM WITH BEING HAPPY script, which I plan to edit in the middle of July. I decided to adapt a novel I wrote and to do a new project in November.

I’m stoked….you never really know WHERE your inspiration will come…you just have to be OPEN to receiving it from literally, ANYWHERE!

How Important is the WORD to YOU? June 22, 2008

All writers have a love of the WORD and of LANGUAGE….read my piece, The Importance of the WORD: Death & Language (HERE) to see how much I love the WORD; this short piece was inspired by a quote from Toni Morrison.

Want to read something DARK from me? June 19, 2008

go here: https://chicklitgurrl.wordpress.com/writings/the-first-time-rush/; it’s under my WRITING link, 🙂

Leave comments.

What’s going on with the writing? June 18, 2008

Well, I haven’t written the last day or two, but I did ALMOST finish chapter two of my new manuscript, EMPTY SWINGS.

My goal is to finish this novel by the first, second week of July. It’s a smaller book, geared towards Harlequin’s Steeple Hill Love Inspired imprint, so it shouldn’t be hard to finish. I’ve outlined the book on note cards, so I’m halfway there, LOL

I’m anxiously waiting to hear what the readers of my screenplay THE PROBLEM WITH BEING HAPPY think of it. I’m going to take their thoughts and do a final revision/edit of the screenplay before submitting like a wild banshee.

My last BIG project of 2008 is a lofty one. For it, I have to do a lot of reading, rereading, and researching. It’s going to be a collection of essays and short stories based on quotes from my favorite women writers, the writers who have tapped into my womanly and writerly soul. The authors: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Toni Morrison. I’ll be busy this summer rereading stories and poetry and biographies, taking notes on material, gathering my quotes, and organizing the collection. It’s my biggest project to do in terms of all that it entails, but I’m excited about it, 🙂

What’s going on in your writerly world?

Have You Found YOUR Writing Voice? June 17, 2008

Have You Found YOUR Writing Voice?

Today over @ Blogging in Black, the original chicklitgurrl™ – MOI – discusses why it’s important for writers to find their voices; I also talk about how aspiring writers can begin to find their voices.

Definitely come back and check out my commentary, and PLEASE take the time to leave a comment – let me know you stopped by!

Here’s the (LINK)!!See you there!

Older Women….Younger Men June 11, 2008

Today, over at my ChickLitGurrl: high on LATTES & WRITING blog, I’m a guest blogger in the AGAINST ALL ODDS Virtual Book Tour for Niambi Davis and her debut novel, FROM DUSK TO DAWN.

Head over there now to read my take on the OLDER WOMEN/YOUNGER MEN issue, and then leave YOUR COMMENTS! Here’s the (LINK)! See you there!

Why Should You Subscribe to ChickLitGurrl™: high on LATTES & WRITING? June 7, 2008

Why Should You Subscribe to ChickLitGurrl™: high on LATTES & WRITING?

Initially, author-editor-educator-everywoman Shon Bacon created the blog ChickLitGurrl™ as a way to express her angst as she tried to break BACK into the publishing industry as a solo author, but she quickly realized that she cared more about words and writing and talking about writing with other writers than she did waxing pathetically about her rejection woes. Thus, ChickLitGurrl™: high on LATTES & WRITING was born.

Since 2005, Shon Bacon has interviewed several women writers to include Marissa Monteilh, Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, Abiola Abrams, Patricia Sargeant, M.J. Rose, Angela Henry, P.C. Cast, Brenda Janowitz, Electa Rome Parks, Libby Street, Bettye Griffin, Donna Hill, Kayla Perrin, Mary Castillo, Deanna Carlyle, Karen Siplin, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Melissa Senate, Reon Laudat, Alesia Holliday, Jennifer O’Connell, Bernice McFadden, Gena Showalter, and Carly Phillips.

Starting at the end of this month, CLG will be interviewing authors from various publishing houses: the first three houses/imprints will be Harlequin/Steeple Hill (Love Inspired/Love Inspired Suspense), Kensington/Urban Christian, and Simon & Schuster/Strebor Books…

In the future, CLG will also interview those people who help authors SHINE – publicists, editors, agents, etc.

To SUBSCRIBE to the CHICKLITGURRL group and be kept abreast on new interviews and CLG-related information, click HERE to apply for group membership!

The Importance of the WORD: Death & Language

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives” – Toni Morrison

I’m blessed for the WORD, whether it be the word of God or it be the words that I come in contact with as a writer.

One of the first classes I took while in pursuit of my MFA degree back in 2001 was Form and Theory of Poetry I. Even fiction writers had to take it, and I can see why. In this class, I learned to appreciate the word: the look of a word, the sound of a word, the way a word felt in my mouth when spoken, the relationship of a word to other words. I learned, truly learned, how to make meaning in a way that not only told a good story or revealed some great “truth”, but also revealed remnants of myself.

Toni’s right; we do die.

We live to die. That’s the big thesis to which the essay on the meaning of life is constructed; it’s the thesis we don’t want to talk about…no matter how inevitable it is.

Toni’s also right when she says we do language, too.

Our time here on Earth is not in vain. Through the LIVING Word, through OUR words, we can leave traces of our journey, of our time, of our culture, of our beliefs, of our loves, of our losses, of our joys, of our heartaches — of our TRUTHS.

And though we die, those who live, those who shall be born will be able to link themselves to our traces and build upon what we left behind.

Updated My WORLD June 5, 2008

Like I didn’t have enough to do…LOL…I’ve update this wordpress page. My ABOUT CLG link now has my WRITING RESUME instead of my ACADEMIC VITA. You can learn about all publishings of mine, my editorial works, my education, my presentations, and more!

The CLG-THE EDITOR page is now the NEED EDITING? page, and I’ve added the WRITERS BOOT CAMP information to that page, too, because this page consists of the services I offer to writers.

I now have a KUDOS page where I have blurbs from various clients who have utilized my services recently, and within the last two years. So now, I don’t have to toot my own horn! *smirk*

Check them out…leave comments, THANKS!

The Nubian Chronicles Magazine Seeks Submissions June 2, 2008

**PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CIRCULATE THIS TO ANY GROUPS YOU MAY BELONG TO**

The Nubian Chronicles Magazine (http://www.tnc-magazine.net) is currently seeking submissions for its SUMMER 2008 issue, slated to be released on Monday, July 21, 2008. The deadline for submissions is Monday, July 7, 2008.

DO YOU HAVE gripping stories, thought-provoking essays, engaging articles and commentaries you want the public to read? If so, then you definitely want to consider submitting to TNC’s column: NUBIAN belles-lettres.

N b-l is our column dedicated to short fiction, essays, articles, and commentaries written by African American writers.

ALSO – if you have a book that’s due out and you’d like to get a little promo for it, you may submit excerpts to your book along with other information for TNC to publish!

If you are submitting short fiction, essays, articles, and/or commentaries, please submit the following:
1) work to be published, no longer than 2,500 words (within the e-mail)
2) contact information (e-mail, website, myspace)
3) picture of you (if you would like)
4) short bio
5) one- to two-sentence teaser of your work

If you are submitting an excerpt of a published work, please submit the following:
1) excerpt of your work, no longer than 2,500 words (within e-mail or as a WORD attachment)
2) contact information (e-mail, website, myspace)
3) picture of you (if you would like)
4) short bio
5) book cover image (in .jpg or .gif file)
6) purchase link

@ TNC, we know that writers have their own individual literary flows, and for that reason, we do not limit writers as to types of work they can submit to us; however, we do not do PORN- or HATE-related material. If you wish to submit erotica, that is fine.

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Again, the deadline for TNC’s SUMMER 2008 issue is Monday, July 7, 2008.

E-mail ALL WORK to either submit@tnc-magazine.net or sdb6812@hotmail.com.

THANKS!

Da Management
http://www.tnc-magazine.net