Tag: Writing

  • The Ebbs and Flow of Christmas Time (Unedited)

    Christmas time is here again, just in case you didn’t know.

     

    The year has flown by. The tree is up, and we are getting ready to start doing all of the Holiday stuff. You know, shopping, wrapping gift, baking cookies, seeing friends. The usual. And I do enjoy celebrating Christmas in New York City. For all the things this City is famous for, it really is a Holiday Town.

     

    It’s taken awhile for Christmas to start feeling fun again for me after the passing of my Ma. The absence of a parent during this time of year seems to hammer home the void that has been left. I think I have been doing a good job with trying to keep Christmas fun for the kid, and I do worry that my sorrow and mourning might affect her enjoyment of the Season. I think I have succeeded in this effort.

     

    I can also admit that slowly, year by year, the joy of Christmas has started to slowly return to me. It’s still not the same, and certain things, traditions, still don’t ring true as they used to. But now, I feel the kid’s excitement of this time of year, and that is a replenishing feeling that helps alleviate the experience of loss.

     

    And that is where I am now. I miss my mother, and I know that my Christmas will never feel the way they did when she was around, and that’s okay. My Christmas now is about my family, and making the kid have memories, and building something new on top of the love that was shared with me.

  • Day Two with a Sick Kid (Random Stuff)

    To answer the question from yesterday’s blog, yes I am using my sick kid to procrastinate. Half the day has gone by, and only now am I getting around to do the stuff I need to do.

    I started the day on the right foot, though. I was up on time, and sat down on the couch and got about twenty good minutes writing in my journal. I hashed out all the stuff that had happened yesterday; sick kid, pediatrician visit, lack of production, and also I got stuck in a death spiral of thinking about all the mistakes I made five years ago, and how much of an idiot I was  and why I just can’t let that shit go, you know.

    Then the kid got up. She didn’t look good; low fever, headache, sick to her stomach. We sent her back to bed with some children’s Tylenol. In the quiet two hours that followed, I could have got some work done, but again, I found myself on my phone. I did the dishes, but honestly, that was another delay tactic on my behalf.

    A minute ago, we sat down and did her homework together. I mean, I was sitting next to her while she did it. It was more like overseeing homework. If she wanted some screen time, then I said she needed to get the majority of her work done, which she did. We only have to do thirty minutes of reading, and I intend to read the latest New Yorker short story.

    But I want to make chicken stock, so I have the base to make potato leek soup for dinner tonight. And I haven’t sketched in a while, so it would be nice to tackle that today was well. And that one flash story got rejected from another magazine – that would be the piece that I have been trying to rewrite for a week now. Yeah, I think this is the sign that I need to do the rewrite.

    Let’s see how much I can get done.

  • 4 Lit Journals/Magazines I’m Liking Right Now

    I did this a while ago, and it seems right that I should do this again.

    Maybe I’m trying to get published in these places, maybe I’m not. Either way, I’m enjoying the work they are putting out, and if you haven’t, you should check them out.

    In No Particular Order:

    1. SmokeLong Quarterly – Flash fiction journal

  • I’m Venting About Writer Stuff, Pay No Attention

    So, I got rejected twice over the weekend. Two small lit magazines took the time to let me know that my efforts were not required. The interesting thing was that both publications normally, according to their own sites, take three to six months to respond to inquiries. One mag let me know after a month, and the other, after five days. So… either I’m really awful at this whole writing thing (always possible…) or the more likely answer, I did not format my submissions correctly.

    Turns out, I didn’t format my submissions correctly. One set of guidelines required that I put my name and page number in the top righthand corner of each page, while the other mag’s guidelines required that I not put my name anywhere on the submission.

    Oops…

    It is slightly frustrating that just about every magazine has a different set of guidelines, and though I follow them and get it right 99% of the time, there is always one that slips through the cracks. And the inevitable “salty” rejection letter arrives with some statement about how I should do a better job of following the “guidelines” if I want to be considered.

    You know… there are thousands of lit magazines out there, each with their own guidelines. Why can’t there be a standardized system? I mean, there is an MLA standard format that everyone has to use when they write a paper in high school and college. So why not a standard format system for magazine submissions?

    I propose that there should be a “Universal Standard Submission Guideline.” Something that is uniformed across the industry. Such as; 12pt, double spaced, Times New Roman, Author’s Name in the top left corner, page number in the top right corner. That’s it, nothing else.

    Let’s do away with all of these finicky guidelines that seem to be in place to trip people up, and make rejecting easier, rather than giving each work an even playing field. This way rejection is based on someone actually reading and thinking about the work, rather than a gatekeeper looking for reasons to keep people out.

    Look, I know it’s a tough business, and there are more people out there submitting work than there are places that can accept them. And rejection is a big part of the arts, regardless of what field you are in. You have to have a tough skin, take your licks, and keep on going. Completely agree with that, and I’m not looking for a shortcut from the hard work that is required to achieve, well, anything in life. I’m just saying that a Universal Standard Submission Guideline would create an objective starting point for everyone, and begin to remove the shadow of subjective rejections.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Crypto Scam, Sick Kid, Reject Me Already, and Thanksgiving

    (Don’t flood it…)

    So, Sam Bankman-Fried is going to jail for a very long time. I’m sure you know this, but crypto is a scam. Or, if I’m being polite, it’s just a new form of gambling. And SBF gambled and got caught. From everything that I read about this guy, he was too smart for his own good. He struck me as the type of person who was, and knew he was, smarter than everyone else, and somehow thought he could use his intelligence to get himself out of this situation. In the end, he was a con-artist, and he coned a lot of people. Including some other very smart people. Also, I am aware that as soon as I post this, I will get inundated with a bunch of crypto bots trying to get me to buy crypto.

    And the kid is sick. We watched “Let’s Make a Deal” this morning together. That was sweet. She’s running a fever, and feels awful, but she gets the iPad all day, so it’s not all bad.

    And as of this minute, I have yet to be rejected by Taco Bell Quarterly. They are one of my favorite online lit journals, and I’m not saying that because I submitted a story to them. TBQ has an attitude not unlike a favorite underground punk band that is parts hilarious, offensive, and friendly all at the same time. Anyway, the other day TBQ announced that they were sending out rejection letters and… I’m waiting for my rejection letter. They did say it would take some time, as they have to send out 2,800+ rejections. Over on TBQ’s X/Twitter feed, writers who have received their rejections are editing and marking out their letters to create new messages of varying degrees of positive/negative statements. It’s been fun to watch. But still… Where’s my rejection letter?

    Now that Halloween is over, time to start prepping for Thanksgiving. For me, that means making chicken, turkey and mushroom stock ahead of time. As well as stock piling non-perishable food. I’m getting ahead this year, and watch how this will play out. I’m sure I’ll be writing about it often.