August Has Arrived

It's August and it's scary close to being the end of the year already. How did that happen?!

As you may have already heard on one of many other platforms, I did get an acceptance for one of my pieces this week. However, when it came to checking the final manuscript for issues, I noticed that the publication left off the last line of my poem. I contacted them to correct the error. I haven't heard back. I have a hunch that it'll be fixed in time, but if it isn't... oh boy. That last line is the difference between the poem being a bit of happy-go-lucky imagery and it being a bit of social commentary, which was the original intention.

I'm also back to work nearly full time (as full time as a writer can spend on creative projects) on Pieces. You'll be seeing weekly exclusives on Patreon again as well as new posts to the project on Wattpad.

Medium has a few pieces that you can peruse, all poetry and short fiction for now, but I'm trying to talk myself into getting some creative nonfiction ready. I've published essays before, but they seem great in the moment, then I read them the next day and they are either flat and boring or skip around too many ideas that don't make it as cohesive as it could have been.

I have a choice between some essays already drafted about my personal experiences in the public education system or I could pivot and start a fresh essay on why I haven't and probably never will read the Harry Potter series. The education ones would have to be scrubbed of as many identifiers of other people as I can manage, but I lived in small communities my whole life and that just may not be entirely possible. And let's call the Harry Potter idea what it is--a bit of click bait, even if it's a solid piece of writing.

That's what is on my agenda for August. What will you be writing or reading this month?

Dear Literary Journals: You Can't Have it Both Ways

The writers today that are sticking to some of the tradition of the publishing industry by submitting poetry, short stories, and essays to literary journals know that the landscape is changing. Some literary journals have moved to an online-only format; some newer ones never had a print edition to begin with. More journals are moving from only accepting regional authors to accepting writers from around the world. But there's one shift that really getting on my nerves -- reading fees.

Don't get me wrong. I can sympathize with any publication that's barely hanging on financially to keep publishing the work that talented writers send in, but the fact that I spent hours yesterday looking for new places to submit and could find only a few without a submission fee is ridiculous. It's not the reading/submission fee that I oppose--what is making me want to pull my hair out in frustration is that almost all of these "please pay $2-$5 to submit your work" publications also do not pay writers they publish. Let me say it again: THEY DO NOT PAY WRITERS. You as the writer get to pay for the privilege to grace their publication. And I'm not the only one that sees this as a problem, as you can see (article is from 2015, but the problem is only getting worse).

The big, fat secret that's staring writers in the face on this topic? A writer could publish anything they want on their own platform (social media, blog, website) and with a good marketing strategy could get just as many views--without having to pay anyone a dime if they don't want to. Yes, you don't get to say "this was previously published in" but unless your audience is a bunch of fellow writers, is your audience really going to be that impressed that some other publication wanted it first?

All of the major names in the literary world still let you send in work for free, with the exception being contest entries, but those are often fair because of the chance at a large amount of prize money. Keeping these submissions free is a good thing, but writers know that the well-established publications want to see that you've made it into the smaller publications first. I know they'll say it doesn't matter if you've been published before, but no one really knows what's going on in the minds of any particular editor. I would say that it does matter to some of them.

Here's the thing, literary journals: I would gladly fork over $2 for you to read it if there was a chance at being paid for all my hard work. I'm not talking earth-shattering prizes, but $50 seems reasonable for publication. You give the sob story that you're barely holding on, and the only money you make is from these submission fees. So what counterargument are writers supposed to give? Well, here's our own sob story--no one values the written word as much as other professions, so we are constantly being told our work is not worth the money we ask for it. So, dear reading fee journals, it comes down to this: the prestige you try to portray is not worth the money you are asking for it. Go find some other poor sap to pay you for their next rejection letter.

New Year, New Ideas

My writing life seems to have a predictable pattern. And I'm falling into the second half of that cycle this January. While I'm trying to focus most of my attention on finishing what I started for NaNoWriMo in November, I'm also plagued with a lot of new ideas.

I watch a lot of TV shows, but I don't make as much of a point to watch movies on a regular basis. I wanted to correct that, so I've been watching movies on Saturday nights (I know, I'm a wild child). And of course watching just one movie conjured up a big idea in my head for a movie script. I wrote out an outline and hope I don't lose steam on this one because I'm pretty intrigued to see where it goes.

An essay idea also crept up on me in the last couple of days. I think that came from reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem over the past couple of weeks. I'm also in the middle of Ariel, so who knows what kind of poetry is going to hit the paper over the course of the month. But it's all good--new ideas are always welcome. I know that with them I will never suffer writer's block.

When it comes to finished work, I'm trying to push more of those finished ideas out. That poetry chapbook is still sitting around, waiting to find a new home. I've looked at dozens of chapbook contests, and I think I've finally found one that will give me the best chance to get my work out there. The only problem? Entry fees. I have a hard time justifying spending the money just for a sliver of a chance. However, the particular contest that I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'm entering does provide a year's subscription to the journal for paying the entry fee, so I don't feel like I'm totally getting ripped off when I don't win--if I don't win. The real scary part about winning is that they provide five hundred copies of the chapbook to the author. Five hundred. That's a lot, knowing that most would sit around and collect dust.

In the midst of sorting out all of the new writing ideas and submissions, I've also added another reward tier to my Patreon page. At the $15 patron level you will get all of the great benefits that the other levels get (exclusive excerpts, digital ARCs, cover reveals, and more), plus now you can get digital copies of my entire backlist. Right now that includes one book of poetry, one novel, and three novellas--all for $15 a month. If you're interested, you can always sign up as a patron today.

That's what my January looks like. What are you working on this month? 

The Mid-Month Roundup

It's the same old thing around theses parts--having a lot of stuff on the to-do list, and feeling like a snail trying to check it all off. And to have to do it all in unseasonably chilly weather? Please. I've had enough of you, May. You can go home now.

My plan for May was to finish the first revision of In Another Life and finally finish up that novella I put off from last fall. I still have a good chunk of the month to see these things through, but I'm no superwoman (too bad... I'd love to wear a cape like it was no big deal). There are also poetry revisions that I would like to get to, another first draft I would like to finish writing, and of course there's always submissions--I need to set aside more time for that, or I'll end up like Dickinson with ninety-nine percent of my work undiscovered until my ultimate demise.

So that's all I've been vacillating between and not getting completed. What have I actually done? Well, I've developed a huge book crush on Real Artists Have Day Jobs (And Other Awesome Things They Don't Teach You in School) by Sara Benincasa. It's filled with lots of good advice for the artists, writers, comedians and non-9-to-5-ers of my generation. But it's also funny and honest (oh, and here I go again... you can read my review to continue this love fest).

I've also been inundated with free stuff (not a bad gig, if you can get it) and I've been starting to catch up on reviews of all the neat things like mud masks, snacks, lotions and the occasional sleep aid. I've just reviewed the latest Pinch Me box I received and my Influenster Bloom Vox Box review should be up by the end of the week.

And to fill up what little time I had left, I started writing an essay on birthdays. After I start typing away, I realized I had much more material than a single essay could hold. It's turning into a series of essays. Eventually.