Monday On The Deck

It was cool enough for a flannel robe this morning as Storm and I once again headed out with a tea pot under a cozy and an oatmeal muffin. I also took a stack of “work” along. I set up my laptop, put cell phone at the ready, arranged notepad and pencil, and I began to wade through magazines and saved articles while jotting down ideas I wanted to pursue. No one was mowing and neighborhood was quiet. I gave up on attending a morning meeting, and once “free”, my mind got down to business generating ideas and possible paths for exploration.

The August issue of The Writer was extraordinary with so many great articles. An interview with Elizabeth Stroud really primed the pump of my brain. I love her novels for the most part, but I think Olive Kitteridge is the best. The voice this author found to write in is challenging and unique.

I learned Natalie Goldberg has a new book out. I loved her Writing Down the Bones but have been disappointed in some of her later works. However….my fingers and Amazon went to work to get the new The True Secrets of Writing on its way to me.

Interesting lines about internet use from the magazine:

“If we stop exercising our mental skills, we do not just forget them: The brain map for those skills is turned over to the skills we practice instead."

"...the Internet can become the antithesis of creativity."

I studied True West and found this issue of that magazine great too. With eighteen train rides in the West, I think I have one or two we might want to check out soon. DH loves steam trains! We have ridden at Chama, New Mexico; Alamosa, Colorado; Van Buren, Arkansas; and Durango, Colorado to name a few.

A writer group in Edmund, Oklahoma is running a unique contest. It is 750 words or less in NOTHING but dialogue. I want to try this.

I never got to novel reading today, but there is always tomorrow which is to be a cool day too. I am already making my plans, writing my list!

What about you? Have you ridden steam trains?

 

Writing OpsThe After Coetzee Project, an anthology of fiction, seeks short stories that bring forth a new kind of writing about animals, one that disengages from speciesist fictional strategies (animals as metaphors and allegories) and reimagines animals as subjects.

Please see the full call for submissions at http://aftercoetzee.com. Deadline to submit is December 1, 2013.
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Minerva Rising is an independent literary journal celebrating the creativity and wisdom in every woman. We publish thought-provoking fiction, non-fiction, photography, poetry and essays by women writers and artists. We are now open for submissions for Issue #4.

Minerva Rising Literary Journal is seeking short stories, essays, poetry, creative non-fiction, original prints, graphics arts and photographs for our next issue themed "Mothers". Please visit our website for additional submission guidelines: http://minervarising.com/submissions/
Deadline: August 15, 2013
Award: $50 for literary works, $35 for poetry and artwork, plus contributor copy
Reading Fee: $15 per single literary work, 3 poems, or three photos/pictures

Feel free to contact us with any questions at infoATminervarisingDOTcom.

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