Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Writing Contests

Here's a site that sends regular lists of writing contests. But check Preditors and Editors before you enter anything you don't know by reputation. Some charge entrance fees just to get your money in the door.

Preditors and Editors is a fantastic site for anyone considering an agent, a book deal, entering a contest, or whether a person in publishing is legit.

To sign up for the contest list, send a blank e-mail message to crwropps-subscribe@topica.com

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Friday, January 26, 2007

Journalism

I'm feeling my way forward as I reconstruct my writing career in Ohio after building it in London.

It's not easy. But I've found a friend in radio to buddy with, and we talk on Monday mornings and Friday mornings, for an accountability check. A radio friend works well because she's not selling to my market, so I feel good about talking about my stories, and I'm not selling to her's. She also encourages me to get into radio, and I encourage her print sales.

It's also a matter of finding out where to look for work. I joined Freelance Success. They send a monthly e-newsletter with publications to pitch, and host several on-line forums where I can chat to other freelances and authors. The group has strong ties to the ASJA and several members go to that annual conference.

Another great resource is Publisher's Lunch, an online daily newsletter from the publishing industry. You can get a short, free version which is enough if you want to just keep tabs on your genre. Or you can subscribe for a monthly fee, which gives access to an editor and agent database. Then it's a matter of typing in your genre, and up pops a list of potentially interested editors. You can also pick out a book that matches your book's theme, and find out who agented it. Then it makes it an easier approach. People at conferences rave about Publisher's Lunch.

If you're looking for writing work in your area, try Craig's list. Please add your comments to this blog if you've got any writing work tips or urls.

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Reality?

This morning hefting a 15lb weight for a bicep curl at the Y, I said to my compatriot on the next bench: "this isn't reality you know. It's just a series of events that we label reality. What's reality is the template behind the events that precipitate them into our lives. Birth and death are the huge clues that this is all an illusion."

She told me to shut up.

So I tried again at the bank. While the guy notarized my letter, I said: "It's a 'what is the nature of reality?' kind of a morning. I guess this is a sign that I've got too much time on my hands."

He said: "Go to Starbucks and get a coffee and then drink a Red Bull. That'll shake it out of you."

He seemed so certain that caffeine would solve my existential questioning, I didn't have the heart to tell him I've given up caffeine because of palpitations.

I think I've been more existential than usual because A: I saw a client yesterday for an energy healing session and B: I'm working on a story about how people withdrawing from drug addiction have difficulty solving problems where multiple solutions present themselves.

So (A) the energy healing session showed me once again that there's a template level for our physical bodies and if we can alter the template we alter first our moods and our level of possibility in our lives, and then our physical bodies start coming into better alignment.

Part of (B) is that they've discovered a commonly-available drug which can help people in withdrawal solve complicated problems. This has wonderful implications - it means that addicts have a way to keep performing and reduce anxiety as they get clean.

What do A and B have to do with each other? Well, they are different ways of tackling our problems. Some people might say they're mutually exclusive. But I see both as part of a raft of solutions.

What is reality, anyway?

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

Toffees

One of the guys I worked with in London has THE premier blog for Ireland. It's rude and fun (but not explicit) it's http://www.blogorrah.com/ I think you'll like it!

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Spinning

I love it when ice crystals skate across the road in gray, ectoplasmic swirls. The temperature finally dropped after weeks of rain to a clear 28 and a crisp frost descended over the grass. Ice-cicles hung over the park's stream, and with the sun shining on the water glittered like our twinkling Christmas lights, so effortless without electricity or plastic or wires. Ice-cicles, our original sparkling inspiration, created silently, invisibly, unshouted, over a little stream.

This poem came to me:

I am the spider
weaving in darkness
creating what is to come.
Purposeless these silver threads
seem to me
over a stream with no fish.

But when the world turns
and lifts its burning eye,
for that day
my web

completed
a mandala of moonlight hope
circle and spoke

will catch what
Earth provides -nothing less -
and I will be satisfied.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Timidity

For all our bravado as a nation, we've been timid about standing up on a local level. Problems seem to large. The country itself seems to big. DC is too far away. We're afraid of repercussions, from being blanked by the other parents at school to being shot by a lunatic for voicing our minds.

I felt this keenly when I moved from Britain back to the US, and voiced my disapproval about the Iraq war at its beginning. People told me to 'go back where you came from' if I though our nation was wrong. Even though I'd originally come from Seattle.

Every time there's violence in my community, I feel cowed. That if I speak up against guns, some NRA nutjob will leave poop - or worse - in my mailbox. Yet how will we stop our children dying in school, on their own porches, in their own homes from guns?

I remember Britain after Dunblane, the terrible Scottish tragedy when a lonely, backwards little man gunned down a school in his home town. I felt amazed as I watched the British Parliament swing into action to ban handguns, rifles and shotguns once and for all.

They held gun amnesties across the nation. People brought Uncle Fred's service revolver down from the attic, and into the police stations. They collected piles and piles of guns - even a few ancient muskets that would kill the next person who tried to fire them.

Why can't we do this? Our kids die each year. If we can try to get a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage - which hurts no one and helps a bunch of people - why can't we ban guns? Is there really a justification for bearing arms now that its historical context is gone?

Guns do one thing. Kill. And it's totally within our power as a society to stop gun violence.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Keep on keepin' on

The act of creation is the hero's journey. Anyone who creates an organization, a company, a novel or a piece of art embarks on the hero's journey.

We are so used to working en masse, of doing what's been assigned to us, or what the prevailing current provides, that it's the toughest act to create from an idea that no-one seems interested in or bothered about, and to imbue that idea with energy, with its own spirit, and charisma.

There comes the point in each hero's journey where he can choose: to return home to safety, or to soldier on against exhaustion, starvation, and harm. At this eleventh hour, he always gives up and loses hope, if only for a few minutes. When he decides to try again, the hero finds he's changed. He's died a little death, and given birth to himself. A new, stronger, more determined and experienced person tackles the final summit to fight the last ogre.

We have all given up and returned home at some point in time. We've all plumped for safety over plunging on. But we all have to turn again to the hero's journey if we want to feel truly alive and engaged with the world.

What part of the hero's journey are you on today?

Monday, January 08, 2007

Under Construction

Got the stomach bug this weekend, and a gurgling tummy put me flat on my back in bed with nothing to do except comb through my energy system.

What does that mean?

It means visualizing the body as energy, and find the gunky places. Then you scoop out the poop, take it away from the body, and pour light (kinda like spraying on bleach) into that place. It's fun when you get good at visualizing your body and taking the virtual tour. And it works. Apart from tiredness, no more stomach sickness. All gone.

I found these little erector-sets around my chakras, the funnels which bring energy into main points in the body. (Acupuncture uses the chakras to help rebalance the body.) I seem to be under construction.

It certainly feels that way. I have SO MANY dreams. How can I bring them into the physical world, so they can be manipulated and played with? Work.

When I was a kid, work scared me. It meant picking up rocks in the back yard, .25 cents per bucket. But now I want it. Work means engagement with the world. Work means creating my life.