Parable of the Long Spoons

Parable of the Long Spoons

I’d never heard this story before. The gist of it is that a man asks the difference between heaven and hell. He is shown a door where people are starving, despite a huge pot of delicious-smelling stew being at their disposal, because all they have to feed themselves...
Writing Recap January and February

Writing Recap January and February

My big writing adventure in January was Tennessee Mountain Writers’ January Jumpstart on January 18-19, in Oak Ridge, TN. We had two workshop speakers, Lisa Coffey for Poetry and Robert Gipe for Fiction. I was in Robert Gipe’s workshop. As always, Robert was...
You and the World Have a Chance

You and the World Have a Chance

Richard Hugo wrote, “Writing is a way of saying that you and the world have a chance.” This gives me hope in a seemingly less hopeful world. The world as I’ve known it my whole life doesn’t seem to have much of a chance most days, but I’ve not been writing so much...
Reading Minds

Reading Minds

I’ve been reading minds – great minds – and their lush words lately. Part of taking the chapbook class I’m taking with Connie Green is that I’m supposed to read three poems each day. I have failed at this goal miserably for weeks. Up until the past week three-four...
Recent Writing News

Recent Writing News

I’m excited to have a short chapter in a textbook that sees the light of day as a new publication this week from Bloomsbury. Careers in Library and Information Services is edited by Priscilla Shontz. My little chapter, “Author,” is in Part 5: Beyond the...
100 Rejections: My Submissions’ Year in Review

100 Rejections: My Submissions’ Year in Review

I usually aim for 50 Rejections each calendar year with my submissions. I entered a lot of poetry contests with state poetry societies for 2024 – Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina – so I hit 50 Rejections pretty quickly (by April). So I changed my goal to 75...