Welcome to the ongoing, ever-changing pages of pieces I have written that are in print somewhere and others that are not ever going to be in print anywhere (but here).  You will also find rejection letters I’ve found to be encouraging and various oddities of "writerly" correspondence from my real life.  Examples of the essay form and the short story will sometimes appear briefly here, as well.

Also, if you are a writer like me, always in search of ways to improve your craft, polish your natural talent, or deepen your literary understanding, you might want to check the Writing Life Links Page here.  In addition, if you are a writer like me, always in search of ways to procrastinate, waste time on pointless tasks not even remotely related to writing, or zone out to a place beyond coherent thought, you might want to check out the Writing Life Links Page here.

*Do check back in the future for additional installments of various writings.

  
 

11/06 "The Summer of Love" is published in VoiceCatcher, the premier edition anthology from Portland Women Writers Group.

09/06 The venerable online literary humor magazine Defenestration has selected my grand philosophical exercise, "Living an Authentic Life: Job Search Guidelines" for publication.

09/06 My true short story "The Summer of Love" wins second place in the prestigious Oregon Writers Colony Literary Contest.

08/06 My two submissions, a nonfiction story and a poem, each win honorable mention in the Willamette Writers Kay Snow Writing Contest.

05/06  The fabulous McSweeney’s Internet Tendency has filled my life with unspeakable grandeur this month by publishing "An Open Letter to the Amazon Parrot I Have Been Supporting for Over 15 Years Who Still Tries to Bite Me for No Apparent Reason".  Do visit them at: McSweeney’s.  Read my grateful acceptance letter here.

 

  
 

11/05  Hard at work on a movie, nearing exhaustion (as usual), when this super-groovy rejection letter crossed my cyber-desk from Hourglass Books, an anthology publisher.  Hope and joy! Renewed energy for the Day Job!  Read it here.

  
 

09/29/05  A very enjoyable magazine called Barrelhouse fit my sensibilities, but I did not fit theirs.  Not to worry.  Although for some reason they wrote two letters of rejection for my one submission (fortunately, I enjoy getting letters, as long as they appear to be actually written to me, and not “Resident” or “Dear Neighbor”) their sentiments were both sensible and encouraging.  Read one of them here.

 

  
     
 

06/10/05  I have several additional rejection letters that, quite frankly, I feel do not fit my needs at this time (or any other).  Furthermore, their quality is far below the literary standards I require for personal correspondence.  Therefore, they will not be featured in these pages.  I will perhaps use the other side of the cheap paper their form letters were copied on to print out MapQuest directions to my new dentist’s office, or my weekly grocery list, because I have concern for the environment and do not wish to waste resources, and also because I enjoy transforming a callous and unthinking act of disdain for another human being into something useful and positive before it is tossed into the recycling bin where it belongs.

 

  
     
  Stanley Kunitz, one of America's poet laureates died this May, 2006.  One of his best-known poems touches on the beauty of snakes and the magic of their connection with nature and with us.  Yes, snakes.  Read his poem, "The Snakes of September" here.                                                                               
     
 

 

 

 

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