New Fiction and Non-Fiction Up

My story, "Socks," is up at Metazen this month and I also have a piece on craft up at Flash Fiction Chronicles called Using Essay Techniques in Fiction.

I'm back from much traveling about and anxious to get into the groove of writing everyday. After a wonderful experience at Tin House, I have several stories and my novel that I want to complete and have some new approaches to try.

Steve Almond

was a terrific help to all of us who were part of his class in July. I urge those who need an emersion experience to consider attending the Tin House Writing Workshop next year. Three lectures a day, workshop time, and readings every nice can rev up anyone's motor--and commitment. Now go out and read Steve's book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us.

EVERY DAY FICTION Reads for August

Every Day Fiction features a new flash story 365 days a year.

August’s Table of Contents

Aug 1/Carol Ann Fears/Existential Snare
Aug 2/Brother Greg/Art Moron
Aug 3/Kit Lamont/Seeds
Aug 4/Milo James Fowler/Captain Quasar and the “If Only” Elixir of Opsanus Tau Prime
Aug 5/Trish Bowcock/Confinement
Aug 6/Joshua Tate/The Easy Target
Aug 7/Oonah V Joslin/Moving Times
Aug 8/A. S. Andrews/Wherein Fear of Karma Dawns Too Late
Aug 9/Cat Rambo/The Investigation
Aug 10/Pam L. Wallace/When Pigs Fly
Aug 11/Jason Stout/Her Cousin
Aug 12/Ben Langdon/Forget, To Live
Aug 13/Victorya/Pepito and the Ferret
Aug 14/James Kidd/Holes In The Walls
Aug 15/Peter C. Loftus/Sword and Fish
Aug 16/Janel Gradowski/Burning Love
Aug 17/Shane Oshetski/Doll Parts
Aug 18/Maureen Wilkinson/When Violets Bloom
Aug 19/Peter Tupper/The Problem of Pain
Aug 20/AJ Smith/Old Jim
Aug 21/Kate Larkindale/In The Bedroom
Aug 22/Bernard S. Jansen/People Need to Know
Aug 23/Tim Galati/A Sunrise Enlightens
Aug 24/Douglas Campbell/The Shock Of Cold Water
Aug 25/Suzanne Warr/The Immortal Horse
Aug 26/Lynsey Miller/Tuesday Afternoon
Aug 27/Robert J. Santa/The Invisible Sword of Patterson Mitchell
Aug 28/Nicholas Ozment/The Old Man Down the Road
Aug 29/Stephen V. Ramey/Beauty and the Butler
Aug 30/Ed Buchanan/The Weatherman
Aug 31/Erin Ryan/Going through the Motions

UP at Smokelong Quarterly!

I'm thrilled to announce the new Smokelong Quarterly double-issue is out! My story, Complicit, was a Smokelong Weekly feature back in February and is now up again as well as an interview of me by Tara Laskowski. Beth Thomas and Tara are the senior editors of Smokelong taking over for the wonderful Dave Clapper and it's clear they are determined to continue to make Smokelong beautiful and relevant (and I'm not saying that because I have a story there!)

And one more shout out to those who gave me feed back on "Complicit" when I was revising it, especially Randall Brown of FlashFiction.net.

COMPLICIT

INTERVIEW of me BY TARA LASKOWSKI

Two More for July

"Amok" is up at The Molotov Cocktail and "To Have and to Hold" at Every Day Fiction. Both are short and quick.

The Binnacle's Seventh Annual Ultra-Short Competition

Look for me down there in purple and a couple of writing buds too.

The Binnacle is proud to announce the winners and honorees in its Seventh Annual International Ultra-Short Competition.

Top Prose Prize: Emily Jiang - Wedding Song

Top Poetry Prize:Toni Giarnese - Dancing

Top UMM Student Prize: Bunny Richards - Lions in Winter

Honorable Mentions

Adrian S. Potter - Incantation

Alan C. Baird - Hack

Anne Earney - Blue

Barb McMakin - Hopscotch

Barbara Fleming Phillips - First Day of High School

Britt Kaufmann - Last SongCaroline Michalicki - Underground Spudway

Christina Beasley - How the Natural Collects the Divine

Colin Meldrum - House-sitting

Daphne Nichols - Ed and Dorrie, 2009

David Mohan - Before the Lights Went Out

David Jack - There Ance Wis A Laddie Ca’d John - A Scots Limerick

Dave Yost - Homeostasis

David Ochs - All in a day

Debbie Okun Hill - Lying on a Beach Blanket Too Long

Diane Smith - The Rodeo

Donna L. Turello - Miracle

Ed Parrot - Tiburon

Ellen LaFleche - Jesús, the Miner of Gold

Elyse Shapiro - Seasonally Tragic

Emily Spreng Lowery - The Birthday Party

Fehmida Zakeer - Auspicious Numbers

Gay Degani - What's Left

Geoffrey Hoffman - Ruth among the Teacups

Graves Collins - Ghormley, My Shamrock Heritage

Harold Bauld - Trivium

Hema Raman - Go Figure

Jari Thymian - From the Other Side

Jiayan Yu - Dormant

John Gosslee - The Paradise Birds

Josh Byer - A Rough Idle

K. S. Dearsley - The Case of the Geometric Pattern

Kathleen Rivera - Cloud Watching

Kelly O'Neill - In a Moment

Lori Pollard-Johnson - Easy It Ain’t

Lynda La Rocca - The Houseguest

Margot Zucker Mindich - Coming In On the Fire Island Ferry 1977

Max Speed - Hands Off

Meg Eden - Names

Mitchell Noel Kelly - Off the Top of Your Head

Myra Merritt - Beyond

Patti Jazanoski - As Jehovah Is My Witness

Petra Angelen - My Secret Aunt Who Never Was

Pervin Saket - Neighbors

Philip Sultz - The Speck

Rachel Cordasco - (R)evolution

Robert Craig - A Gig to be Missed

Russell Marsh - Late Shift

Ruth Almon - The Change

Samantha Priestley - The Talent

Sue Ann Connaughton - An Elegant Revenge

SuzAnne C. Cole - Pyramids

V S Adams - Past Contempt

Vanessa Gebbie - Swarf

Summer Workshop!!!!!!!

I'm very lucky. I'm on my way to the Tin House Workshop tomorrow. I'm excited and more than a little ADD. Okay. It's 11:51 at night. My plane leaves at six am tomorrow. I have to get up at 3:00 am. Clothes are neatly stacked on my bed. Just about everything is BLACK. I have no idea what to put into my suitcase. Will it be cold or hot? I pray for cold. I look so much better in a sweatshirt.


I'm going early so I can finish a couple stories and go to Powells. Maybe lose 5 pounds? Does my hotel have a gym? Then I could buy something that isn't black and hot and oh, dear. I hope it's raining.

I just printed up everyone's piece 11 of them changing them all to garamond 11 pt. single spaced so I can manage to carry my brief case. And what am I doing? FACEBOOK! Well, I was doing FB until they told me this was too long so I moved it on over to my blog.

But what I should be doing is looking for flash drives, extention cords, power cords, cat cords (whatever that's called), phone cord, my phone, my notebook I put together with my ticket information, and my camera, my camera charger, my ipod, my earphones, my neck pillow, my earplugs--the days of a writer traveling light are long gone--so what I really want to do is go look at the second half of So You Think You can Dance!

Genre Safari!!! @ Flash Fiction Chronicles

At Flash Fiction Chronicles, we're planning to spend some time posting various articles about genres and sub genres. We have several writers committed to writing posts, but are on the look out for more. These can be opinion pieces (most discussion of genre falls under the classification since since few people agree), but they should all exhibit knowledge either from experience or research regarding the conventions they discuss.

Genre Safari!!! « Flash Fiction Chronicles

The Element of Surprise and Story Structure

If you're a writer and you know your use of language is strong but you are struggling with story structure (most of us do) watch this video of Alex Wong and Twitch on So You Think You Can Dance at UTube. Alex and Twitch

Look for "build." How it starts, how it grows, how each change in the music brings a fresh surprise. Strong stories achieve the same kind of surprise.

July Pubs!!

I have a piece up at the inimitable K.C. Ball's 10Flash today called Heading for Perdition.

And at 50 to 1: Before She Left

And continuing at Apollo's Lyre: Tumbling Down

Another piece is due out at Every Day Fiction in mid-July, see calendar in previous post.

July’s Table of Contents at EDF

A new month of fiction at Every Day Fiction.

Jul 1/Alastair McIntyre/No Cause for Alarm
Jul 2/J.R. Hochman/Jabbers
Jul 3/S O Asante/All His Favourites
Jul 4/Erin M. Kinch/The Vote
Jul 5/Rickey Rivers Jr./The Result of the Argument
Jul 6/Tanya L. Schofield/Chance Encounter
Jul 7/Oonah V Joslin/Turn About
Jul 8/JR Hume/Self Promotion
Jul 9/Kathee Jantzi/Why Not Me?
Jul 10/Joshua Tate/The Animal
Jul 11/Kyle Hemmings/The Dance Floor
Jul 12/John Keel/Betting Kevin
Jul 13/Gay Degani/To Have and To Hold
Jul 14/Peter Tupper/Disappearing Girl
Jul 15/Amber Foster/Fallen
Jul 16/Daniel Austin Warren/Sleeping
Jul 17/Manuel Royal/Earth Air Fire
Jul 18/AJ Smith/Echo
Jul 19/Walter Giersbach/Day of Moving Hell
Jul 20/Jonathan Pinnock/The Colour of Criticism
Jul 21/Therese Arkenberg/Few Are Called…
Jul 22/Mickey Mills/One in Four Shot
Jul 23/Gaius Coffey/Alexei
Jul 24/Bret Bass/No Eternities, Only Moments
Jul 25/David Macpherson/Fright Wig
Jul 26/James Burt/A Bad Place to Stick Your Hand
Jul 27/Amanda Hayter/In the Key of Love
Jul 28/Deborah Winter-Blood/Birds of Prey
Jul 29/Ramon Rozas III/One Afternoon in Geneva
Jul 30/Steven Saus/Precipitation
Jul 31/Wayne Scheer/A Good Woman

Not So Perfect Review

I posted a review yesterday for Nik Perring's debut collection, Not So Perfect. Nik is a fellow short story writer I "met" through a friend Sarah Hilary a couple years ago and have followed him online ever since. He's an amazingly talented storyteller, able to give characters life with just a stroke or two. And characters you care about. If you get a chance to head over there, please do.


Not So Perfect but maybe YES « Flash Fiction Chronicles

10% off Pomegranate Stories at LULU

Got an email today saying they are offering a 10% coupon for Pomegranate Stories as a special summer promotion. So if you ever had the inclination to get this collection of eight stories by me, now is a good time to do just that.

Here's the Lulu link: Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, regularly $9.99, on sale now with coupon for $8.99. Enter coupon code: SUMMERREAD303

Repost of We May Not Have Bayou Country to Kick Around Much Longer

I wrote this post in 2006 after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Given the continued abuse by nature and man (most recently as we all know by BP and their inability to deal with disaster), Louisiana is even more in danger of disappearing than ever before. I thought I'd repost this review of the excellent book by Michael Tidwell, Bayou Farewell.

According to Michael Tidwell, in his book Bayou Farewell, twenty-five miles of Louisiana coastline disappear each year. That's 25. 2-5. And this statistic may be more dramatic in the wake of Katrina and Rita, yet most of us are unaware of what is happening in the estuaries of Southern Louisiana.

The state's rich supply of wildlife, animal, marine, and avian, is threatened by the advance of the Gulf of Mexico into the wetlands. It's turning fresh water into salt, drowning native grasses, oak trees, cemeteries, and small towns. Changes in the fragile chemistry of the wetlands endangers oysters and crabs. Eventually the migration route for the white and brown shrimp will disappear. The people of this area are in retreat.

Louisiana fishermen supply "an astonishing 30 percent of American's annual seafood harvest, measured by weight." When the wildlife is gone and the people are relocated to higher ground, we all lose.In recent years, many of us have experienced the unique culture of "Sout' Loosiane" by traveling to New Orleans and perhaps cruising down Bayou Black or Lafourche.

Many of us know Louisiana through movies like The Big Easy and books such as Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke. And most of us have fallen in love with the food, the shrimp okra gumbo, the blackened red-fish, the crawfish etoufee. Would there be the BAM of Emeril without Cajun food? What's Cajun food without Louisiana shrimp, red-fish, oysters, and crabs?

The state's plight is everyone's problem and Tidwell's book takes you deep into the heart of the swamp.Writing before Katrina and Rita, Tidwell relates his journey through the wetlands via shrimp trawlers, crab boats, and oil-company supply ship. He hitch-hikes down bayous and canals, meeting and talking with Cajuns, the Houma tribe, Vietnamese settlers, and the environmentalists who are trying to wake up America to this continuing tragedy.

Author and Louisianan Burke says Bayou Farewell is "The best book on Louisiana I have ever read...stunning, beautifully written," and I have to add that it's a jolting call to arms for the coastline along the Gulf of Mexico.

It reminds me of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a book length essay about man's responsibility to the planet and to ourselves. Silent Spring changed the way we think about our custodial duty to the environment and Bayou Farewell admonishes us as to how we have forgotten that duty.

Over thousands of years, the Mississippi has built the delta that makes up Southern Louisiana. The estuary and its wildlife developed because of the river's constant deposit of sediment at its mouth. This natural process has been interrupted by man and levee system which now takes that sediment and dumps it over the continental shelf and into the Gulf of Mexico. In other words, Louisiana wetlands are being starved of its nourishment of dirt, mud, silt, sand. As the sediment is denied into the area, the salty waters of the Gulf are filling the void, moving farther and farther inland. The end result is the disappearance of the land, the creatures that inhabit it, and a unique way of life.

There are solutions to help rebuild the coastline and estuaries, but Tidwell warns us to take action now. At the rate of twenty-five miles per year, that gives us maybe thirty years before it's all gone.

I urge you to read Bayou Farewell and tell others to read it. Send it to your congressman. Your senator. President Obama. Thanks for your attention and time.

EDF's June Calendar

Table of Contents

Jun 1/Drake Koefoed/Bomb Squad
Jun 2/Stephen V. Ramey/Cycles
Jun 3/Cathryn Grant/The Festering Wound
Jun 4/Elizabeth Creith/Kitsune
Jun 5/Gavin Broom/The Boy and the Broken Bird
Jun 6/Aaron Polson/Better Lessons
Jun 7/Michael McDonnell/Gold
Jun 8/steven woods/David Young Sat on the Armrest
Jun 9/Darlyn Herradura/The Disappearance of Maria Sandoval
Jun 10/Gustavo Bondoni/Tehuelche
Jun 11/Elizabeth M. Thurmond/Choking Gall and Preserving Sweet
Jun 12/Kristen Lee Knapp/A Child is Born
Jun 13/Matthias R. Gollackner/Nobody Notices Me
Jun 14/Deborah Winter-Blood/Living Among Us
Jun 15/JR Hume/Recruiting Trip
Jun 16/Dale Ivan Smith/Playing It Out
Jun 17/Mary J. Daley/The Nose on my Face
Jun 18/B. Jones/No
Jun 19/Ruth Schiffmann/Brush Strokes
Jun 20/Wayne Scheer/Renewal
Jun 21/Victorya/Saline Solution
Jun 22/Maria H. McDonald/A Perfect Envelope
Jun 23/Robert J. Santa/The Thousandth Death
Jun 24/Uzma Imran/Baptism
Jun 25/Clint Wastling/The Night Depository
Jun 26/Stef Hall/Pieces
Jun 27/Jerry Kraft/Inside
Jun 28/Anna Sykora/Saved by a Lawn Ornament
Jun 29/Fred Warren/Bullies With Big Fat Heads
Jun 30/Nancy Wilcox/At Charlie’s

EDF's May Calendar

Every Day Fiction publishes a fresh flash fiction story for each day of the year.

Here's the May Table of Contents

May 1 / timothy l jones /In America There Is Food
May 2 / Patsy Collins / Enchanting
May 3 / M. J. Rafferty / Through Grady’s Door
May 4 /Heather Holland Wheaton / Rain
May 5 / Fadzlishah Johanabas / Yana
May 6 / Scott W. Baker / The Drake’s Eye
May 7 / Ev Bishop / On the Wall
May 8 / Donna Steiner / Exit
May 9 / Kip / Saving Darth Vader
May 10 / Wayne Scheer / The American Dream
May 11 / JR Hume / High Road
May 12 / Deborah Winter-Blood / Stampede
May 13 / Zena Greene / A Message for Me
May 14 / Robert Swartwood / Multiplicity
May 15 / Blaise Lucey / The Elevator
May 16 / Stacey Py Flynn / Letter to a Stranger
May 17 / Oonah V Joslin / Stranger Still
May 18 / Stef Hall / Promise
May 19 / Douglas Campbell / Hollow Jake
May 20 / Joyce Chng / Cog-work Cat
May 21 / Ariane Synovitz / What Is Left
May 22 / Belinda Rees / Resolution Drive
May 23 / Bint Arab / The Sight
May 24 / John P. McCann / Fresh Ideas
May 25 / J.C. Towler / Warning Belles
May 26 / J.L. Smith The White
May 27 / Tanya Byrne / Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
May 28 / Shaun Simon / Snowman
May 29 / Aaron Polson / Cookies
May 30 / Grace Andreacchi / Destination: Happiness
May 31 / Adam Armour / Given Hindsight

SALVATION • by Ann M. Pino | Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

Congratulations to the first place winner of the String-of-10 TWO Microfiction contest. Read "Salvation at Every Day Fiction here: SALVATION • by Ann M. Pino Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

Then read the interview with author Ann Pino at Flash Fiction Chronicles here:

Interview with First Place Winner Ann Pino.

String-of-10 TWO Second Place Winner John (J.C.)Towler « Flash Fiction Chronicles

String-of-10 TWO Second Place Winner John (J.C.)Towler « Flash Fiction Chronicles

String-of-10 TWO Third Place Winner Brittany Soder « Flash Fiction Chronicles

String-of-10 TWO Third Place Winner Brittany Soder « Flash Fiction Chronicles

String-of-10 Celebration Launches Today

Flash Fiction Chronicles News:

Today launches String-of-10 TWO week. Today at Flash Fiction Chronicles we feature an interview with Sharon E. Trotter, last August's first place winner with her story "The Haircut."

Here's our interview with her: Catching up with Sharon E. Trotter, August 2009 String Winner « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Next week, we publish John Towler's "Gypsy Flour" and Brittany Soder's "Good Morning, Susan" along with interviews with the second place Towler and third place Soder.

On Friday, Every Day Fiction will publish Ann Pino's "Salvation" and we at Flash Fiction Chronicles will carry an interview with Ms. Pino.

In the following weeks, we'll feature another String interview with Joel Willans, guest judge of the February competiton as well as an interview with Gaius Coffey, author of the Top Read story at Every Day Fiction for March.

Personal News:

I have a new story up at Short Story America: "Wounded Moon." It's so cool how they do it. It's like it's own little book. You may have to join in order to read it, but probably not.

This story was short-listed in the Fish Short Story Contest in 2008 so you might like it. Find it here. http://bit.ly/woundmoon

Other recent pieces include:

Okay You’re Writing: How to Keep Track at Flash Fiction Chronicles
What's Next at 50 to 1
Madeline in Her Coffin at Referential Magazine

Okay You’re Writing: How to Keep Track « Flash Fiction Chronicles

I've posted a way to keep track of stories and subs over at Flash Fiction Chronicles. However, it's one of those iffy propositions. I may not be the right person to actually make recommedations.

I also wanted to let people know that the resolution of the String-of-10 TWO Contest is approaching (the climax being the announcement of the winners. I feel a blog post about three-act structures coming on---be gone be gone!!!)

Here's how things should unfold:

Friday April 9 or April 19th

Interview with Guest Judge Joel Willans by
new FFC assistant editor, Tanya Schofield

Monday April 12

Third place winner "Good Morning Susan" published at
FFC

Interview with author Brittany Soder

Wednesday April 14

Second place winner "Gypsy Flour" published at FFC

Interview with author John Towler

Friday April 16

First Place winner "Salvation" published at Every Day
Fiction

Interview with First Place author Ann Pino at FFC

Hopefully, reading the winning stories will inspire flash writers to challenge themselves to take on a flash-a-day exercise and start submitting in the flash marketplace. And here's a possible way to organize all that:

Okay You’re Writing: How to Keep Track « Flash Fiction Chronicles

EDF's April Table of Contents

April brings us another 30 flash pieces to read from Every Day Fiction including the Flash Fiction Chronicles String-of-10 Microfiction contest winning story "Salvation" by Ann Pino.

Apr 1/James Bloomfield/Telephone Call
Apr 2/Tommy B. Smith/Mr. Philpot
Apr 3/Manuel Royal/Birthday Troll
Apr 4/Christopher Floyd/Insight
Apr 5/Mickey Mills/The Newly Dead of Winter
Apr 6/John Wiswell/Computer Education
Apr 7/Joshua S Walker/Open-Minded Gentleman
Apr 8/Kaolin Imago Fire/Fading
Apr 9/Jon Bland/Damaged Goods
Apr 10/William Knight/Electric Smiles
Apr 11/Patrick Perkins/Speed Trap
Apr 12/Jenny Schwartz/After Midnight
Apr 13/J.C. Towler/Dour Cutler
Apr 14/Jan Melara/Covered Dish Supper
Apr 15/S.J. Higbee/A Drop of the Hard Stuff
Apr 16/Ann M. Pino/Salvation
Apr 17/R.F. Marazas/What’s In A Name?
Apr 18/James Hartley/Priorities
Apr 19/Rhiannon Morgan/Sucka for Punishment
Apr 20/Peter Charles/Slurpy
Apr 21/Chad Redden/Building a Sparrow
Apr 22/Maureen Wilkinson/The Cool Bag
Apr 23/Stacey Py Flynn/Tryst
Apr 24/Giles Turnbull/Winner of the Regional Best Chip Shop Award, 2006
Apr 25/Oonah V Joslin/Cider Sunrise
Apr 26/Ruth Imeson/Turning the Tables
Apr 27/Ladonna A. Watkins/Chocolate Milk
Apr 28/Lorette C. Luzajic/Shrinking
Apr 29/Fadzlishah Johanabas/Secrets
Apr 30/Aaron Polson/Blue Collar Boys

And if that isn't enough to read, here are some things by or about me out there:

Review of Pomegranate Stories by Jackie Houchin
Writers in Residence Interview by Jacqueline Vick
Podcast of The Breach by me, read by Robert C. Eccles
Addicted to Flash by me, at Flash Fiction.Net

Recent Story Publications:
Madeline in Her Coffin at Referential Magazine
Heartland and What's Next at 50 to 1
Complicit at Smokelong Quarterly

Madeline in Her Coffin up at Referential

This year is off to an amazing start. I'm a little breathless to tell you the truth. New story up today called Madeline in Her Coffin at Referential Magazine, a gorgeous looking online journal.

This is how Referential Magazine works--very cool. You read the magazine, pick something that appeals to you in some way, see what it suggests to you, reference it in a new story you write, and submit it!!!! Madeline is based on a story by Dawn Corrigan called Golden. Read hers and mine and see if you can see the connection between the two.

And consider reading Madeline and write a story based on a word, a phrase, a character from it. Let me know what happens!!

Tanya L. Schofield Joins FFC as Assistant Editor « Flash Fiction Chronicles

We're welcoming Tanya L. Schofield to the Flash Fiction Chronicles Staff beginning today. With her on board, we hope to bring access to more articles about the craft and art of Flash Fiction writing. Please drop by the site to say hi!

Tanya L. Schofield Joins FFC as Assistant Editor « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Six Things Your Flash Desires « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Randall Brown over at FFC today.

Thanks Randall for another terrific post. I love the way you can get down to the nitty gritty of what makes a piece work and how to look at our own processes. “To be inhaled.” “Be little.” and this “Flash searches for the alternative way to matter in this world. Sometimes it finds profundity in what others find nothingness; other times, it finds meaning by eschewing their desire for somethingness.” Love these.

http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/six-things-your-flash-desires/

Podcast EDF016: THE BREACH • written Gay Degani • read by Robert C. Eccles | Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

Just found out a 50-word bit of mine is up at 50 to 1 today. Also sci-fi! what's going on with me? Yikes?

http://50-to-1.blogspot.com/2010/03/whats-next-by-gay-degani.html

Robert C. Eccles reads The Breach at Every Day Fiction today. This is the second story I published online and shocked myself that it happened to be sci-fi. SCI-FI!!!

Although I've read Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, Jack Finney all when I was a lot younger, and love Stars Wars (really just the original series and only "Jedi" since in was the capper), The Terminator series (1 and 2), Alien, Aliens--I'm noticing a trend of disliking the third in a series here--and back in the day, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original), The Thing (original), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, I didn't really think I knew enough science (and I don't) to really work in the genre. So this piece surprised me.

Listening to it being read today by the remarkable Bob Eccles gave me a thrill despite notice a few places I'd like to rewrite. Haha. The curse of the rewriter.

Anyway thank you Bob for such a fabulous read. What a terrific start to the week.

Winners Announced in String-of-10 TWO Contest « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Winners Announced in String-of-10 TWO Contest « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Flash Fiction Chronicles is pleased to announce the winners of the String-of-10 Two Micro Fiction Contest:

First Place
Salvation by Anne Pino
Second Place
Gypsy Flour by John Towler
Third Place
Good Morning Susan by Brittany Soder

For more info go to Flash Fiction Chronicles

MATAMOROS SHUFFLE • by Michael Ehart | Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

MATAMOROS SHUFFLE • by Michael Ehart Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

If you have time to check it out, the estimable Michael Ehart has a great suspense story over at EDF. Spoiler alert: Don't read the comments first. Someone gives away the story.

Professional Writers — How An Editor Can Tell « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Professional Writers — How An Editor Can Tell « Flash Fiction Chronicles

Camille has written a good tip-sheet for writers on how most editors define professionalism. A writer who wants to be taken seriously should check this out!

SOGGY SANDY • by Gay Degani | Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

SOGGY SANDY • by Gay Degani Every Day Fiction - The once a day flash fiction magazine.

Well, this may not be perfect for lunch, but maybe if you eat first...

Gay Degani @ FlashFiction.Net: Addicted to Flash : FlashFiction.Net

http://flashfiction.net/2010/03/monday-guest-gay-degani.php

Posted using ShareThis

Also Jacqueline Vick interviewed me at Writers in Residence. Thanks Jackie!!! Read more here.

Writers in Residence

I am rapidly turning into a non-blogger which has both its good points and bad points. I like having a place to go to vent about what annoys me (grocery store seem to pop up in my mind), to announce what's going on with my writing, and to discuss various issues as they strike me, especially in regard to my creative side. BUT I just can't see to show up.

I'm not making any commitments, vows, and pronouncements any more. That's one of my 2010 resolutions. Every time I make a new promise to do something, that will assure the world that it ain't going to happen. Instead, I'll just trip a bit here about where my head is at.

1) My head is, in fact, just a wee bit hung over (and what's wrong with the head is always wrong with the body). Why since I rarely drink? Well, dang, we had dinner at friends for the Oscar telecast and the first thing I was offered was champagne. I have to drink champagne, especially if I'm watching the Academy awards.

• My mother and I loved old movies and we loved the oscars. I don't think there was a year in my growing up that she and I didn't sit down and watch them together. My mother kind of looked like Joan Bennett or Hedy Lamar. I thought Hedy myself and I was a fan, but Mom said when she was young it was Joan Bennett that people thought she reminded them of.


• I used to know all the top three awards from 1928 through sometime in the mid sixties because for some reason it seemed important for me to know it. So I knew that emil jennings (jannings) was the first winner and I think he actually appeared as a character in Inglorious Bastards. Perhaps I was only one of few who could make that connection. All that memorizing so that in 2010, I could do that! Haha!! Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven won for best actress and Wings for best picture, but I could be misremembering...

2) It was the Maker's Mark, though, not the champagne that did me in. People kept handing me that nice little glass with the dark amber liquid in the bottom. That happened to me before at the rehearsal dinner of my son's wedding. I have no memory of that night after the second drink except for a vague image of myself making a toast. I guess my son is lucky his bride's family didn't hold it against him.

3) I'm going to go back to grocery stores for a minute.

• When I was growing up, the other thing I did a lot with my mother was to go to grocery stores and buy food. She cooked a lot, a good southern cook, so we were at the grocery store a lot.


• In those days, grocery clerks tended to be people who acted like neighbors, friendly, out going, remembering her customers names. Not like today when most clerks spend most of their time reciting a script that Safeway has given them: How are you today? (They don't give a shit), Do you have a Von's card? (before you've even put all your stuff on the conveyor belt), Would you like to make a donation to leukemia, breast cancer, jerry's kids, prostate cancer? (and then you have to click no or yes to the same question on the machine that makes love to your credit card) and finally the most irritating Would you like help to your car? (Uh, no, thank you. Not after I've just bagged up my own twelve bags myself because all the box people are checking everyone else out so that there aren't more than two people in line without regard to the fact that the customers overall wait remains the same unless he or she --the cranky ones like me--bag there own stuff and where in heavens name is the person going to come from to help me to my car????)


• In those days too the clerk would ask about your day and listen to your answer. Not become distracted with the next clerk over's hook-up with some guy she met in a club.

Okay, enough of that stuff. Phew. I do feel better. Hmm, I'm getting a little bit hungry now. Maybe I'll go in and have some oatmeal and an episode of Law and Order now. Yes I think I will.

From the Editors of Every Day Fiction.

The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO Anthology sales are going well, and we’re now looking for reviews! We love reader reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever else you buy books online, and we’re also very happy with blog love (or blog-literary-criticism). And if we’ve got any professional reviewers out there among our readers, well, we’d love for you to contact us.

For Readers:
We’ve got the usual great variety of styles and flavours for you this month, with fresh stories from names you’ll recognize, including Gay Degani and Kevin Shamel, along with a variety of new-to-EDF authors such as Christopher Floyd and Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen.
For St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th, we’re featuring the appropriately-titled “Patrick’s Day” by J.C. Towler.

And once you’ve had your daily dose of fiction, consider heading over to Every Day Poets for a dash of poetry in your life. Even if you’re not up to poetry every day, though, do take a look at February’s most-read poems: “Monday Morning Before the Garbage Truck Comes” by Linda Simoni-Wastila, “Lost & Found” by Stacy Post, and “The Emancipation of Sylvia Plath” by David Siegel Bernstein.

For Writers:
We’re still looking for stories suitable for spring and Easter — remember to fill in the “Targeted” field in the submission form so we don’t miss them!

Also, we’ve had another changeover in the slush reading department: Katheryn McLaughlin and Hillary Degani have moved on to other things, and we’re happy to welcome Martin Turton and Brenda Stokes to the team. Check out our staff page to learn more about Martin and Brenda. We’re always looking for more slush readers — it’s only a three-month commitment (extendable by mutual agreement, of course), no experience necessary. If you’re interested in reading slush for us, click here to learn more.

We’re also delighted to have K.C. Ball joining us as guest editor for the month of March. K.C. is an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In addition to nine stories at Every Day Fiction, her work has appeared in various print and on-line publications, including Flash Fiction Online and Analog. Her story “Coward’s Steel” will appear in the Writers of the Future 26 anthology this August. K.C. is the editor of 10Flash Quarterly and blogs about writing at A Moving Line.

Have you been following our Flash Fiction Chronicles blog? Just in case you missed them, the most-read posts over the past month include “What is Flash Fiction?”: Imagine You Were Born To Answer It and “Who Cares?”: The Nuts & Bolts of Making Narrative Matter, both by Randall Brown, and also The Short Story According to Nik by Nik Perring.

March’s Table of Contents
Mar 1/Bruce Stirling/Stairway to Heaven
Mar 2/Jacky Taylor/Only at the End of the Road
Mar 3/R.F. Marazas/Long Night of the Witch
Mar 4/Kendra Cummings/HR Hell
Mar 5/James Bloomer/Build, Build, Build
Mar 6/Gaius Coffey/Terry and the Eye
Mar 7/Katherine Clements/Crane Fly
Mar 8/Tara Gilboy/Stages of Grief
Mar 9/K. V. Douglass/The Daughter
Mar 10/David Dalglish/All I Did Was Look
Mar 11/Matthew Wimmer/Take Stock of Your Life
Mar 12/Jenny Schwartz/Centauri Calling
Mar 13/David Rees-Thomas/The Hardest Walk
Mar 14/Timothy Miller/The Root
Mar 15/Christopher Floyd/Brewers Fan
Mar 16/Gay Degani/Soggy Sandy
Mar 17/J.C. Towler/Patrick’s Day
Mar 18/Michael Ehart/Matamoros Shuffle
Mar 19/Lindsey Duncan/Ostracized
Mar 20/Frank Roger/Back In Touch
Mar 21/Jerry Kraft/Games of Chance
Mar 22/Dan Purdue/Changeover Day
Mar 23/Kevin Shamel/What Name Do I Give Her?
Mar 24/Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen/Lollipop
Mar 25/Aaron Polson/Billy Boy
Mar 26/Nick Allen/Final Answers
Mar 27/Jennifer Campbell-Hicks/Ripples
Mar 28/Richmond Weems/Herschel Kriege, 65
Mar 29/Elina Michaels/Failure
Mar 30/Tyrean Martinson/Enough To Do
Mar 31/Christopher Allen/The Orangery

Complicit at Smokelong

My short short piece "Complicit" is up at Smokelong Weekly this week. And I have a couple more things coming out this spring at Every Day Fiction, Emprise Review and Writers' Bloc as well as a piece in the July issue of 10Flash. Maybe now I can abandon short stuff for a while and get back to the novel. (Haven't I said that a billion times already?) Yikes.

Every Day Fiction's February Calendar

February’s Table of Contents
Here are the stories to be published in the month of February by Every Day Fiction.
Authors: if you want please leave your blogsite or website address below in the comments section so readers will know who you are!

Feb 1 Damien Walters Grintalis Let Down Your Hair
Feb 2 Leslie A. Dow Regret
Feb 3 Stef Hall Dancing Snowflakes
Feb 4 Matt Cowens Dead Weight
Feb 5 Dale Ivan Smith Hassan’s News
Feb 6 Nikesh Murali The Photograph
Feb 7 Jens Rushing Le Danse Macabre
Feb 8 Douglas Pugh Augan Ismic
Feb 9 Krystyna Smallman The Small Print
Feb 10 KJ Kabza One-Sided
Feb 11 A.R. Williams Blossoms Weep, Spiders Fall
Feb 12 Katherine Lopez Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll
Feb 13 Evonne Gayle Love at the Mall
Feb 14 Madhumita Gupta Valentine Day
Feb 15 Bruce Stirling The Warning
Feb 16 Douglas Campbell The Destiny Of Archer Deft
Feb 17 Jeanne Holtzman Elvis Has Left the Chitlin Strut
Feb 18 Steve Kissing It’s Good To Be Here, Meredith
Feb 19 Frank Roger Beyond the Final Chapter
Feb 20 Mickey Mills The Accountant
Feb 21 R.F. Marazas Waiting For My Assassin
Feb 22 Thomas Canfield Pranksters
Feb 23 Stacy Post The Big Blue
Feb 24 Kate Sheeran Conversation with a Giant
Feb 25 Stephanie Kincaid She’s a Biter
Feb 26 Deborah Winter-Blood The Miracle of St. John
Feb 27 Mark Partin Souls
Feb 28 Walt Giersbach Last Year’s Icon

Pomegranate has made its way over to Amazon

My collection of mother-daughter stories has made it over to Amazon. Here's the link: Pomegranate. For those of you who already have a copy and like what you've read, I'd be thrilled if you could meander on over and give me a review.

For those of you who haven't gotten a copy, and you are willing to share your address with me, I can send you a signed copy during the month of February for $12.oo, shipping on me. Just contact me at gaydegani@yahoo.com.

Best of Every Day Fiction Two Launched

I'm pleased to announce that I have two stories, "The London Eye" and "Stranger on the Porch," in this year's The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO.

Here's the official spiel:

Flash fiction is perfect for your coffee break, your commute, or whenever you have a few minutes for yourself. Crafted with gemlike precision, every flash fiction piece tells a complete story, never using more than a thousand words.
The Best of Every Day Fiction Two brings together one hundred flash fiction pieces selected from Every Day Fiction’s second year of publication.

Following the success of The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008, this volume brings you a hundred more bite-sized tastes of science fiction, humour, romance, fantasy, horror, and surrealism along with more traditional literary pieces, from authors all over the world. Whatever your fiction preferences might be, this book is sure to introduce you to some new favourite authors and perhaps expand your literary horizons.

Pages: 316Publisher: Every Day Publishing (January 15, 2010)Language: EnglishProduct Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inchesShipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
Now available directly from Every Day Publishing: CLICK HERE TO ORDER

I don't have my copy yet so if you're in it, please comment below!!!!

Resolution Road

I’m heading into familiar territory in 2010.

I’ve travelled this blacktop many times before and run out of gas, gotten a few tickets for tail-gating, speeding, and driving myself into a ditch. But the good thing about traveling over paths I’ve already been down is that I’m beginning to notice so much more about the experience.

I’m picking up details and nuances and having epiphanies about the asphalt itself, where the bumps are, the sudden curves, the cracks, the narrowing lanes, and to prepare in enough time to take advantage of the upcoming divided highway. And too I seem able–because of my growing acquaintance with the road itself–to find time to look in all four directions.

The rearview mirror reveals where I’ve been, and I’m grateful for the miles covered. I begin to notice and appreciate the roadside vegetation, the swooping hawk in the sky, the deep scary woods with its never-seen-before dirt lane, and the distant mountains across the meadow glistening in the afternoon sun.

There is only one beginning to each new year, each new month, each new week, and each new day. One of my resolutions is to remain aware of those beginnings, to hold onto the freshness and energy that comes from waking up each morning and recommiting to my personal landscape: my family, my friends, and of course, my writing.

I’ve been practicing consistency and focus. Wait! Focus should be listed first, then consistency. Focus is the most important tool in embracing a dream, developing a talent, accomplishing what one sets out to accomplish. And though many believe that if one has a passion, focus shouldn’t be an issue, it often is.

Focus slips into the ditch as easily as a car with a distracted driver. My first two priorities, family and friends, constantly challenge my focus. They are hard to deny, but they are also my support group, my inspiration, and without them, what would be the point?

But balancing them with my writing isn’t always easy. They need me. They want me. And I feel compelled. But it is this very struggle between them and the work, that conflict, that gives me my “drive.”

Consistency is impossible without focus. There is no way I can stay on the highway if I’m not paying attention. At least somewhere in my brain, I must remain aware of other cars, smelly semis, and jack-asses in Lexi and F-150s. So focus first. Consistency second.

Climbing into that old beater, backing it out of the garage, and into the street every single day is essential…or at least five days a week like the normal folks. Sometimes my perception is the beater just isn’t going anywhere. The batteries dead, the engine won’t start, and I’ve run out of gas. Must’ve lost focus yesterday when I drove by that gas station when I should have stopped to fill up. Damn.

But it’s a new day so I call on the WRITER’S version of triple A–a good story by someone else, a prompt from Meg, a note to Sarah or Sharon, and get recharged, regassed, back on the road. And each experience gets me closer to my destination. Even the running out of gas. Oh that’s a story! What if me and my family are out for a Sunday drive and we run out of gas or have a flat tire? With my mother-in-law? What if an escaped convict descends on us? What might happen next?

I’m pretty sure Flannery O’Connor knew how to get back on the road and I can too because today is a new day, a new week… Well, you get the drift.

This post originally appeared at Flash Fiction Chronicles on January 4.

Writing with Syle Deadline February 5

If any of you remember, I went to Banff in September of last year (yes, last year as in 2009!) and loved it.

It is a one-week program including class time with some of Canada's best writers. The location is gorgeous, the food delicious, and there is plenty of free writing time. I loved the people there who were sincerely interested in my progress.

Here's the note I received along with all previous participants that I am posting here for any of you who are interested.:

Hello you Stylistas!

Just a note to say that the deadline for the Spring session of Writing wth
Style is coming up on February 5th. You may be interested in applying, or you
may want to pass this on to your writer friends.

Here is the faculty for Spring Style:

Jan Zwicky--poetry
Mark Abley--creative nonfiction
Pauline Holdstock--historical fiction
Lee Gowan--first chapter novel

Here's a hotlink for anyone who wants to know more: http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=945.

Happy New Year, and happy writing!

Liz Philips

Director, Writing with Style

The Banff Centre

Spotted & Sought up at 10Flash

My story "Spotted & Sought" is up at K. C. Ball's 10Flash Quarterly this month. If you have time to stop by that would be terrific. Here's a direct link: Spotted.

Other pieces featured this month include Jodi MacArthur's "The Sower," Megan Arkenburg's "Fugitive 135711400," DJ Barber's "Wanderers Two," and C. L. Holland's "On the Penitent's Road."

Is it time for me to begin listing my new year's resolutions? Probably, but I'm not up for it tonight. The Ducks lost, UCLA lost, bad times for the Pac 10, but mostly, me? I'm just tired. So I'll start some of my new year tomorrow and Sunday, but the real beginning will be Monday morning. Back to the routine which I have to admit I like.

EDF's January Calendar

Happy New Year. I'm working on my resolutions, but in the meantime, I want to share Every Day Fiction's lineup of stories for the month of January 2010.

January’s Table of Contents
Jan 1 Anthony Cowin Golden Sparks
Jan 2 A P Charman Truce
Jan 3 Michael D. Turner Djinni Beach
Jan 4 Debbie Cowens The Death Meter
Jan 5 Deborah Winter-Blood Fireword
Jan 6 Dominik J. Parisien Snowparent
Jan 7 Ramon Rozas III Micro-Transactions
Jan 8 Anna Sykora The Meatball of Fate
Jan 9 Paul Graham Fodder
Jan 10 J F Taylor Trophy
Jan 11 Gaius Coffey The Mortician and Mr Grimley
Jan 12 Harry Steven Lazerus The Man Who Executed Socrates
Jan 13 Fred Warren Half
Jan 14 Jay Faulkner The Way Not to Wish
Jan 15 Joy V. Smith Mooving Out
Jan 16 Oonah V Joslin Take v, t, & i (took, taken,-kable)
Jan 17 Ruth Schiffmann Do-si-do
Jan 18 Nathaniel Johnson The Basset and the Hare
Jan 19 G.P. Ching Replacement Parts
Jan 20 Miriam Hall Woken
Jan 21 Matthias R. Gollackner Nothing
Jan 22 Christie Isler The First Burial
Jan 23 Stephanie Scarborough An Undead Day at the Spa
Jan 24 Magen Toole The Mermaid of Warsaw
Jan 25 JB Smith Cleansings
Jan 26 JR Hume Differences
Jan 27 Guy Anthony De Marco Member of the Herd
Jan 28 Townsend Walker An Incident at Golden Gate Bridge
Jan 29 J.C. Towler Bad Smile
Jan 30 Kelly Swimmer The Warrior and the Stone
Jan 31 Mark Robinson Calls From Other Networks May Vary

Storm the Gates Michael Sherlock Reads The London Eye

My buddy Michael Sherlock of the London metal band, Storm the Gates, has done me the honor or reading "The London Eye."

Here's the link to the podcast : The London Eye as read by M Sherlock.

And here's the link to the story itself at Every Day Fiction.

Pomegranate now available

My freshly minted collection of mother/daughter stories is now available through LULU.COM and will soon be available--autographed by me--on my blog and over at http://www.gaydegani.com/.

I just have to figure out how to make the paypal link work properly. LOL. Since I don't think you can get it before Christmas for gifts anyway and since my ordered box of books is still on the way, I'm not going to worry about the paypal until after the holidays. BUT if you want to email me about it and I know you, I'll gladly take a personal check. If I don't know you, money order? And the shipping is on me. Oh and there might be a little discount thrown in. The box is due today or Monday.

My email address is gaydegani@yahoo.com.

10Flash Interview Today

I know I'm tooting my own horn a lot lately but think of the months years you never heard a peep from me. A confluence is happening for some reason. Maybe Vermont and Banff had a part in it. Maybe I should blame Emily and Toby for the editing skills and encouragement. Or Hillary for being an amazing reader. Whatever is going on, I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Yesterday "Flash Flood" at Every Day Fiction and today an interview at K. C. Ball's 10FLASH.

Here's the link to the interview: A Look at Pomegranate

So has anyone seen the recent commercial for Kahlua?

It features a man and woman stumbling onto Montezuma's throne room. Being the king of the Aztecs, Monte demands to know how dare they intrude.

He asks "Are you kings?"

The girl starts to tell the truth, "NO we---" but she's hastily interrupted by her friend.

He shouts, all full of confidence, "Yes! Yes we are kings!"

And the crowd in the throne room explodes with cheering and demands for more Kahlua!

Now where can the genesis of this scene be found???? Who you gonna call?

You guess it. At least I think so.

On the roof of Dana Barrett's building, our guys with proton-packs stumble into Gozar. Here's the scene:

Gozer: [after Ray orders her to re-locate] Are you a God?

[Ray looks at Peter, who nods] Dr Ray Stantz: No.

Gozer: Then... DIE! [Lightning flies from her fingers, driving the Ghostbusters to the edge of the roof and almost off; people below scream]

Winston Zeddemore: Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

Dr. Peter Venkman: All right! This chick is TOAST!

Flash Flood out at Every Day Fiction Today

My story "Flash Flood" is up at Every Day Fiction today. If you get a chance, check it out.

Also I just read in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section that this is the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters!!!

Sooooooo....

I have a couple things planned: quotes of course and maybe tomorrow I'll have time to write a bit about the influence on movies that Ghostbusters has had. Yes, the rhythm, the humor, is rife in film since the first days the boys arrived in the five boroughs with nuclear accelerators on their backs.

Meanwhile, be satisfied with these clues: Die Hard and the most recent Kahlua commercial. I got your back, Dr. Venkman.

Victory in Bed... or should I say EMBED

I've been going nuts trying to solve a problem at LULU, and I finally did it.

If you read my previous post you know I was over the edge. And no one seemed to be able to help me exactly, but the suggestions evenutally led me into new areas of exploration so thank you Trish, Hillary, Sylvia, Dave Fujioka, and Madeline.

My goal was/is to create a collection of my stories to give as Christmas presents, to take with me to Vancouver when I go up for Every Day Fiction's Best of Every Day Fiction Two Launch in January, and to have available on my website. While I have a couple stories in anthologies, I don't have anything with just MY stories. My friend Angela Carlton had create a book Between the Clouds using Lulu so I thought, "I'd like to do that too."

If you want to be blasted with my frustration, check out the previous post, but here is the solution that worked for me.

My difficulties came from never ever having a bit of trouble with a PDF before and suddenly having trouble. I was hindered by the fact that I'd never really explored the Adobe site with PATIENCE.

By last night, after a long nap and several deep breaths, that's what I did.

1) I opened my Adobe Acrobat Profession 7 as a program. I did not open one of the many PDF documents I'd created during this project but OPENED THE ACTUAL PROGRAM FIRST.
2) I explored and after a while, under the EDIT menu, when I highlighted PREFERENCES I hoped maybe I would find something. There is a category list on the left-hand side and it doesn't look as if it has a thing in it to help. I'd retreated from here before because of that but this time, I studied every category carefully.

3) Eventually, again eventually, I clicked on "Convert to PDF." I didn't think it would work, but....
4) Converting to PDF opened a new window just to the right of the category window. I studied that . Clicked on--what else--MSWindows. Then on edit settings.
5) Remember that "ensure embedding" instruction" you downloaded if you too have had embedding problems???? Well the screen comes up looking just like that. Who knew? Not me.
6)I clicked on fonts. (When I did this in the Lulu version, nothing happened because obviously it's just a picture of what it looks like, not an actual linking program or if it is linking to help, I couldn't figure out how to make it work) BUT here in this newly opened screen of my on Adobe Acrobat 7 Pro, All my fonts were listed and all of them were in the "do not embed" box!!!! No wonder!!! I highlighted all the garamonds and all the timesnewromans and added them to the embed box. And Clicked OKAY.
7)I then opened my Word document that I'd been trying to upload into this particular window of Acrobat. And I made a PDF.

AND returned to Lulu fingers crossed. At Lulu

1) I uploading my new PDF document...or I tried to, but it wouldn't go. I guess it gets sleepy if it's open too long or if like me you've uploaded thirty times in the last 48 hours.
2) I closed it and restarted my computer. The best solution I have when something doesn't work.
3) I tried again with my new PDF doc. And miracle of miracles it worked. Hooray. Nervously, I opened the print ready doc....
4) It was... wasn't my new document!!!!! Had I messed up?? I studied the mess. Realized it was my very first document that I'd uploaded before I knew what I was doing. Crap. What to do?
5) I looked down where my files were listed on that Lulu upload page and deleted both my new PDF and my old word document.
6) Restarted my computer again, re-uploading my brand new PDF and...IT FINALLY WORKED. I checked it out. It was gorgeous and I was finally ready after 48 hours to move on to the cover....

So here I am ready to do the cover.

I started it last night and of course, I have a big warning sign that my 6x9 photo cover (I did the cover in photo shop so I could choose my fonts) probably wouldn't be clear!!! Today I'm going to first try making the whole cover a pdf and if that doesn't work I suppose I'll take my cover apart and fit it into one of their templates.

You guys recognize how this adventure follows a three-act structure? The act one goal set out, the optimism, the catalyst, then the BIG PROBLEM, the long second act of figuring out how to defeat the enemy (sorry, lulu) and then giving up (my marathon nap yesterday) and then the breakthrough. I'm embarking now on act 3. I'm on the edge of my seat.

Ventalicious

LULU, my story collection called "Pomegranate," the frustrations of the last week, and especially my inability to grasp any instructions written online that are supposed to solve my problems, all of these make the list of what is pissing me off today.

What do I want to vent about today? (There's always something: grocery store bag boys/girls who think lettuce is made of steel and will survive the gallon bottle of milk dropped in on top; friends who call and hang up as soon as they hear my voice mail message and then later tell me"I called and you didn't pick up!" WTF! And everybody who is more interested in talking than listening. People who ask me a question, but before I can get the second word out of my mouth have cut me off. If you want to talk without having to listen to someone else respond, get yourself a blog!)

O, yeah. Venting. Today is generally about technology and what it offers, those who offer it but make it crazy-making, and aging. Specifically, my aging or rather me being too old to figure out all the nuances of technology.

I am competent when it comes to everyday technology. Not great, no hacker abilities whatsoever, but I can do a lot of photoshop things, I can build a website, I understand basic html, and I'm not stupid. However, whenever I'm trying to do something new, whatever the "site," the download, the program is, I usually struggle because it isn't clear what it is I'm supposed to do.

I had this crazy idea the last couple weeks that since I'd pulled together eight short stories to enter into a chapbook contest, I should at the very least print them up at lulu.com since give them to my family and friends for the holidays. The more I thought about this, the more I wanted to do it. I've given away books with my stories before but they've been anthologies and suddenly I had the desire to put something out there that was just mine.

So I started about a week before Thanksgiving. I'd gotten it pulled together in September to send out to win something, so it had to be in great shape, right? Wrong. It is amazing to me how a piece can be proofed by me three or four times, by an editor at least once or twice, and then still have problems. But it's true. I'm talking typos, where I've deleted something or copied and pasted and left extra letters and words behind. I'm talking punctuation. And my fault completely, unclear or awkward sentences.

Great I thought. Maybe not as polished as I would of wanted, these six pieces published elsewhere and two not published. It's okay. I'll just be more thorough so my collection will be in much better shape. No problem. And it wasn't. As a matter of fact, I loved doing it and was surprised at how exhilerating it was for me to realize how "professional" I felt when I saw a problem and knew it wasn't right and how to fix it.

After I went through my stories, I gave them first to a friend to proofread and edit and then with her notes, I fixed what I agreed with and gave them to my daughter. That girl is amazing. She is 99% right with her suggestions, especially in the areas of logic and clarity. So I worked to get this done and planned to upload to lulu in what I'd hoped would be plenty of time to have gifts.

But formatting is a bitch. And I just realized I've blogged for a half hour and haven't even gotten to the part that is sending me over the edge.

****SPOILER ALERT****DONT READ BEYOND THIS POINT ****IF YOU WANT TO THINK IM A SANE AND PATIENT PERSON

If anyone out there knows why I can have a whole document in garamond (double checked for stray fonts page by page by highlighting and looking at the font box: garamond only) and be told by lulu that they can't take it because I haven't embedded a timesnewroman STP (I can't remember the real letters) when I don't even have that font on my list in my computer, then please help!

• I've tried uploading the word doc with my 6x9 printer settings (document layout), but lulu says the doc is still 8 1/2 by 11 and after they adjust it, it comes out ugly like an ape.
• I made a pdf and it's gorgeous, but then I can't upload because I can't embed that stupid timesnewroman stp shit. which I don't have! My print drivers don't have the options someone suggested or at least I can't find them for embedding.
• The little tool document that lulu offers to ensure embedding is obscure about how to use it. I've put it on my desk top, in the doc folder with the docs I want to publish, and rubbed it on my ass.
• Nothing works.
• I went to Adobe help and it offers no comprehensible (layperson's) explanation re embedding in a PDF.
• I went to the community board at lulu. Several other people can't do it and the advice suggested there (doing a universal replace in the word document to make certain everything is garamond and changing a setting on a driver didn't help. My drivers don't seem to have that setting choice) so dang me.
• I am STUCK.

EDF's December Calendar of Stories

Every Day Fiction's
December Table of Contents

Dec 1 Timothy Miller Vaccine
Dec 2 sn wright The Smell of Rust
Dec 3 Dee Martin Ladies Night
Dec 4 Deborah Winter-Blood Deadache
Dec 5 Therese Arkenberg Ameran Theatre
Dec 6 Wayne Scheer The Naked City
Dec 7 Larkin Cunningham Knowing Her Priorities
Dec 8 Michelle Klein Mutilation
Dec 9 S.J. Higbee A Boy’s Best Friend
Dec 10 Sarah Hilary Water’s Edge
Dec 11 Kevin Jewell Holiday Party Subjunctive
Dec 12 Debbie Burgess The Sacrifice
Dec 13 Stephen Taylor A Day at the Fur Auction
Dec 14 Gay Degani Flash Flood
Dec 15 Michael Mallory The Bite of War
Dec 16 John Brooke Bummer
Dec 17 Jim Reine The Last Patient
Dec 18 J.C. Towler EF 5
Dec 19 Brian George Dave Is Still Talking
Dec 20 Laura T Praderio Lynn Wheelchair Memories
Dec 21 Chris Allinotte Code Mustard
Dec 22 Oonah V Joslin Song of Everything
Dec 23 Mary Baader Kaley Giant Snowflakes
Dec 24 Ty Johnston Milk and Cookies
Dec 25 Cathryn Grant A Christmas Package
Dec 26 Sylvia Hiven Safe in Sparrow
Dec 27 Katherine Periam The Potion
Dec 28 Richard M. O’Donnell The Perfect Fit
Dec 29 Claire Webber She’s Fixed
Dec 30 Mickey Mills Fire on Falcon Road
Dec 31 Tanya Byrne Forever is a Locked Door

THAT time of the year

People all over the world are waking up and saying "November 28th? Already??"

I realize that maybe somewhere it's November 29th or maybe November 27th. I'm not very good at these kinds of factoids. Actually, time confuses me. Clocks confuse me. Hate digital because you have to count forward or backward in your head if you need to calculate. Hate standard big hands and little hands because if anyone is talking I can't focus. When I taught school and didn't use my egg timer, I had to tell students going on their break to be back at 10 minutes before it's three-thirty. Anyway, that's how I remember it.

So if I struggle with daily time you can imagine the trouble I have with yearly time, decade time, lifetime time. It's going by so fast now I try not to blink. Blinking seems to speed things up. But as with so much that happens to us in life, blinking refuses to be controlled.

Watching Big Bang Theory on my Tivo last night, Leonard who eats a cookie chocked full of weed screams that the earth is moving way too fast--"I can feel it!"

Raj puts on the brakes with his face and the earth slows. Would that it be that easy!

Sometimes I feel as if I'm surfing the earth, that there's a long unsteady board under my feet and I'm definitely NOT in the tunnel. Wish Raj would use his magic squinchy face for me and slow everything down.

My friend Carson has a good idea. He thinks that perhaps since the holidays swoop down on us with ever increasing speed, we should change the calendar so that we only have "holiday season" once every two years. Now this is a frigging brilliant idea. I love it. And why CAN'T we change the calendar? Julius did. We called it the Julian calendar. Then we got the Gregorian one. I assumed it was named by some pope after himself. (Was reminded of this on Jeopardy after I asked the question, 'What is Julian?' to a question I even begin to answer).

Anyway, if folks updated the calendar in the past, they can do it again.

And if Obama decrees it, then it should happen, right? It would be fun too because we'd get to rename twelve months. We'd keep the twelve we have, of course, but those month would be in the second part of the calendar so that Thanksgiving and Christmas could remain in November and December. The second twelve months would stay January, month 13, February, month 14, March, month 15 and so on...

We wouldn't worry the names don't make any sense because many of them never did. December, after all, isn't the 10th month. November isn't the 9th, October isn't the 8th, and September isn't the 7th. Clearly, we can do whatever we want since historically that's what people do.

So what do we name the 12 new months???? In the old days, months were often named after the gods, right? (I'm not researching this post, so if I mess it up, I'm just making some of this up, leave me a kind commentary. Consider this a discussion). Like I think January could have been name for Janus? March for Mars. June for Juno. And then there are the "gods" who walked the earth like, you know, the aforementioned Julius Caesar (July) and Octavian Caesar (August) who must have changed his name to Augustus so that when he added his month, it wouldn't be confused with October.

Who are our gods today? We have to name one of the new months, Baraktober. Maybe month one. Month two Jacksonary for Michael? Those two probably have had the most air play lately, but who else. I'll leave it to you guys. You have 10 more months to name....