Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Bon Appetit at the Keyboard

Yesterday I opened the door to a friend on my front porch holding this bouquet of flowers. Is there anything more cheerful and friendly than a fruit jar with handpicked zinnias from a summer garden, especially if it is in the hand of a friend? Today the heat index in our area is to reach 110. The temps are reaching for that number right now so I am driven inside to experience what another friend calls the winter/summer season, that is the hot season when we are as confined, limited, and lethargic as in the dead of winter’s cold and blowing storms.



I have plenty to read of course, but when I read on someone’s blog lately that she had a huge writer’s library I felt like I had to check my own out books again. When I left teaching, I gave away several writing books that I had used to inspire my student writing lab as well as my own work, but I thought I should check my shelf to see what was left. I found 41 writing themed books clustered like grapes on a stem near my desk. One was Stephen King’s On Writing which I pulled out. I had read it once in a hurried fashion, and I always meant to re-read it. Maybe now is the time. I notice the August issue of The Writer is reprinting one of King’s articles. It must be time to revisit King on writing.


What a wonderful time to write during this heat, but of course, that means the writer muse has to be co-operating. If she is hot or tired, bored or brain-dead, I can not get very far. Writer Sue Grafton says to be successful you have to put “your butt at a desk and get on with it”. That is easier said than done, the getting on with it part anyway. I can sit for hours, but if I don’t have that spark of an idea or some way of generating one, the butt merely occupies space—and in my case, a LOT of space! However, I do have some ideas beginning to stir again. They are not for particular markets which might mean no money, but they are words I want to capture on paper, a satisfaction for myself even though monetary gain is nil!

If money is not your focus right now, you might like to try the writing contest at Dear Reader. The prize is a colossal bag of books and maybe a printing in Suzanne Beecher’s next cookbook. Guidelines below and for more info go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/users/templates2/mweb/path25-9.html .


Deadline is August 9th, 2010


1. Maximum word count is 625 words, not including your recipe. (Please be sure to count your words.)


2. Please submit entries that have not been previously published. The only exception is if your story has only been published in a small local publication.


3. Feel free to submit more than one entry for us to consider. The entry must be solely your own work.


4. You must be at least 18 years old to enter.


5. Your story will be judged on style and content.


Right now I have to convince that muse she doesn’t have to chop and dice or boil or fry, but she does have to spur me on into thinking recipe stories! Bon Appetit at the keyboard!

9 comments:

BECKY said...

Hi Claudia! What a wonderful friend you have, to bring you the beautiful flowers!! And I can totally relate to your feelings about this heat, and humidity, and maybe not feeling like writing! I'm back into a motivational state of mind, though...and hope to keep it around for a long time!! Thanks for the submission info, too! Try to stay cool!

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