I've posted a few pictures from last week at Interlochen.  The retreat is a generative workshop, with writing prompts and free writing, as well as working on individual projects.  It's also great just to be "Up North" in the summer.  

I have a story coming out soon in Beyond Words Literary Magazine.  I wrote the story about 15 years ago, and it was rejected so many times that I thought I would never find a home for it!  Browsing Submittable, I found a themed contest and it was accepted within 2 days.  This journal promises a quick decision, and they delivered on that.  I'll post something when it comes out.

In August 2021 I accepted a consulting job through The Registry, a specialized firm that places higher ed professional in temporary assignments.  This involved a month of remote work, and then a move to Bethany, West Virginia, home of Bethany College.  I was on-site there until just before Christmas, when I returned to Michigan and finished the assignment remotely.

In the past week I've received my usual quota of rejections, but also two acceptances!

The two stories are from my MFA collection.  I wrote "Swimming in the Dark" about 15 years ago.  The story made it through the MFA critique process and then it was rejected 10 times.  It will be published by Pure Slush as part of their "growing up" series: pureslush.com/submissions/current-submissions/lifespan-series/growing-up-lifespan-vol-2/

Note that if you're a writer, submissions are still open until March 31, 2021!

The other story, 'Reality Check', was written during my Abu Dhabi years and critiqued by the Abu Dhabi Writers' workshop and other writer friends.  It will be published online April 1 by Change Seven Magazine.changesevenmag.com/

One more acceptance recently from 805lit.org - a blog post about my (modest) home library.  It's part of a series and I'm in excellent company! This was posted on Feb. 11, 2021.

www.805lit.org/post/on-the-other-side

I collected a couple more rejections the past few weeks but still have 8 pieces out to different journals.  Also got some good feedback on one story.  The editors liked the piece but not the ending.  I have a weakness for happy endings and in this case, I might have got an acceptance if I had "killed my darlings" as the saying goes.

The feedback continued that I should consider submitting the piece to a women's magazine instead of a literary journal, saying "This is no shade...these can be well-paying markets."

I sometimes buy these magazines to see what fiction they are publishing.  Sometimes quite good stuff (Redbook, for example.)  And sometimes stories like the one I wrote, where the author almost, but not quite, gets it right.  

So I can choose to keep the new ending, where the eccentric character gets back on her feet and is given a fluffy kitten, and submit it to Women's World or similar.  Or I can revert back to the ambiguous ending and keep trying to place the piece in a journal.

As I think about this, I'm afraid that 2020 may have given me a bias toward fluffy-kitten endings!

This year has given people like me plenty of time, so I decided to attempt Nanowrimo again.  More than halfway through the month, I'm only at 14,727 words.  Need to step it up if I'm going to "win" Nano for the third year!  50K words needed by midnight on Nov. 30.

I'm fortunate to have new writing buddies from the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, known as "Ermites."  

Excited to be participating in this workshop at the end of this week:

I've long admired humor writers - I'm a fan of Dave Barry, Carl Hiassen and others.  Sometimes humor does come out in my writing, but always by accident - so I am looking forward to this workshop.  Plus, we need it right now!

I received my copy the other day:

My job at Marygrove College has mostly ended.  I work only an hour or two a week, helping the students figure out how to get transcripts.  So once again I'm fortunate to have plenty of time for writing.

Right now I have 10 pieces under consideration by various journals.  Six of those are marked as "received" on Submittable.com. This most likely means they are in the slush pile.  The other four are "in progress."  This might mean (I hope) that someone has read them and they are not rejected (yet!)

I have one story set to be published by Pure Slush in their anthology, "Tyranny of Bacon."  I wrote this piece in a couple of days, but I'd had in mind to write about bacon sometime.  Living in a country where pork products are forbidden for a large segment of the population, I developed more of a taste for them!  They are available to non-Muslims.  The government is vigilant about regulating these products.  Even pet foods are screened.  The publication date for this book has been delayed by the pandemic but it should be published later this month.

Today I posted my first-ever live video on my page 

www.facebook.com/The-Fox-Writes-108940060690557

This Feb. 29 was cold but sunny.  It was great to get outside after some very brutal weather earlier in the week!  Some things were weighing on my mind though, things I can't do anything about except to lift up my thoughts and prayers.  So I went to my local library and loaded up on great books to read.  I'll be reading these and using them to feed my writing life.  Love libraries!  Mine is in Southfield, MI.