The Lazy Writer's Guide to Procrastination

Exciting News!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:12:00 +0000

Hello, all,

I want to update you on two things. My poem "Saying Goodbye" was chosen to represent Camroc Press Review for Sundress Press's Best of the Net Anthology! You can find the poem here.

Also, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year! It's not too late to start yourself; you can find more information here.

Happy reading!

"Revisions" up at Metazen

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:24:00 +0000

Hello there,

I just wanted to let you all know my short story "Revisions" is up here at Metazen.

I have also received two very exciting rejections: I made it past the slush pile for Camera Obscura, and I got a rejection from Cream City Review saying they "really enjoyed these pieces". I've been focusing some of my better work on higher end publications, so although I haven't been getting as many acceptances lately, an editor from a publication on the "Challenging (bottom right)" or "Extremely Challenging" lists at Duotrope taking the time to send a personal rejection makes me feel pretty good.

I will have a few pieces of poetry up at Eunoia Review in November, and next spring I will have some more poetry at The Stray Branch. I'm also thinking about doing a donation drive for Duotrope sometime soon, so keep an eye out!

An Acceptance, Two Poems, and a Story

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:17:00 +0000

Hey! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Life has been hectic and full of change. I've moved into the most amazing little apartment, complete with an office, and I've started a novel! It's slow moving right now, since I'm doing to much research and planning, but I've got a great concept and very well fleshed out characters that I'm very excited to work with.

I've recently had two poems accepted and posted at The Camroc Press Review, "Saying Goodbye" and "Grief". I also had my short story "Tennyson's Prophecy" accepted and posted at Luna Station Quarterly.

And finally, I've just received an acceptance from Metazen for my short story "Revisions". It will be posted in September, which happens to be Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthdays. (Such a nerd...)

Thanks for keeping up with me! You can also follow me on Twitter @TheLazyWriter.

Another Print Magazine and a Book Recommendation

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:29:00 +0000

I would like to share my latest print magazine debut. You can order the latest copy of Indigo Rising magazine here. My poems "For the Professor Whose Name I Share" dedicated to Amanda Skjeveland, and "Speechless" are included in this volume. You can purchase your copy here for only $5. Go ahead and add Heavy Hands Ink volume 3, with my poem "No Country", here. Thank you for supporting me and the literary community as a whole!

On a related note, my good friend Keri from Write Turn Here is featured in Short, Fast, and Deadly's most recent print anthology. You can find that here. If you're interested in microfiction, you can read Keri's interview with SFD editor Joseph Quintela here.

Finally, I believe the best way to improve your writing is to read, read, read. To that end, I'm going to start posting book recommendations periodically. These books will be chosen specifically to target specific writing skills they exemplify. And if they look interesting, buy them through the link here!

Today's recommended reading is Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I recommend this book once at almost every writing workshop I participate in. First and foremost, it features one of the hardest mixes in contemporary writing: literary quality writing with a creative, original story. Gaiman successfully weaves non-Classical mythology into a contemporary setting into a well written story. I recommend this frequently to authors who are attempting to take myths, folk tales, or fairy tales and twist them into something more. Gaiman is a great example of how to do that without sounding like Stephanie Meyer. Buy it, read it, love it.

Postpartum

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:26:00 +0000

My poem "Postpartum" was published in the Spring 2010 edition of The New Plains Review. Since it was published over a year ago, I'm posting it online so people who were not able to get the print edition are able to read the poem. You can find information about The New Plains Review here. Thanks for your continued readership!

Postpartum

Let your tiny cries like barbs
sink into my flesh,
let those delicate tears
eat into my skin like acid.
He holds you the way
he’s forgotten to hold me.
My world orbits yours, my parasite,
stealing my beauty,
drawing wrinkles on my forehead,
sagging skin once firm,
sinking your predatory teeth
with a smile
into me: haven’t you heard
not to bite the hand that feeds you?
Mostly, though,
let the way I hate you mingle
with the love I can’t help,
let the hate seep into me,
my sweetness,
let only you remain.

And The Winner Is...

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Keri Faulkner! Keri will receive a copy of Heavy Hands Ink, Volume III and a $10 Borders gift card. Thanks to everyone who participated, and look for a new contest soon! Keri will be buying the book "Magic Slays".

A Giveaway!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:47:00 +0000

Hello all! I'm going to do a giveaway! I have a copy of Heavy Hands Press's Volume III and a $10 Borders Gift Card to give away! Here's the deal: follow my page and leave a comment on this post telling me what book you'd buy with the gift card. If you don't have a Borders near you I can get an Amazon for you, just let me know your prefernce if you win. Winners will be chosen randomly based on people who both follow and comment. You don't need a special account to follow, either!

I urge you all to check out this 'zine whether or not you win. It's available as a free PDF download too. Thanks for your time! I'll close this contest at the end of February and announce the winner March 1st!

Two new publications and an announcement...

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:53:00 +0000

My poem "Coffee and Tea" is up here, at The Orange Room Review. One of my favorite slam poets, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, was published in the December 2010 issue, and I'm beyond honored to appear in the February 2011 issue. Working with the editors to polish this piece was one of the most exciting experiences I've had so far in the world of writing.

The other poem, "No Country," is available here at Heavy Hands Ink. This is one of the ones that's really been of part of my life. Writing this poem led me to a realization that I am a writer, and a good writer, and I have the potential to be a great writer.

I'm excited to share these with you, especially since I've just gotten home from the AWP writer's conference. I'll be posting more about that later on. I have officially decided to create a pseudo-chapbook of my published fiction and poetry. I'll be working on it over the next few weeks and will have more information about that soon, too. Thank you all!

"Burning" in LITSNACK and two new publications out in a few short days!

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 04:41:00 +0000

My flash fiction piece "Burning" is in the current edition of LITSNACK. Hope on over and feel free to leave a comment if you like it!

I will have two more publications showing up in a few days.

My poem "No Country" will appear in Heavy Hands Ink (available both online and in print).

My poem "Coffee and Tea" will appear in The Orange Room Review.

Thanks to everyone who continues to support me! For more updates, feel free to "like" me on Facebook by clicking here.

Two Updates and a Word on Choosing the Right Market

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:46:00 +0000

I've had two acceptances so far this month. My poem "Dreams" has been accepted by The Stray Branch with a publication date of Spring/Summer 2013, and my poem "Coffee and Tea" will be appearing at The Orange Room Review for the February issue.

These two acceptances are very representative of my market selection process, and I'd like to take a few moments to share my philosophy with you. Like I'm so fond of saying, you can't get published if you don't submit. If you send everything you've ever written out to every single publication out there, the odds are someone will take something. But, since that's so time consuming, it's much easier for a writer juggling family and friends and school and work and all the other things you do to target your pieces. I've found Duotrope to be the easiest way to do this... Writer's Market is also a very valuable tool.
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Indigo Rising Press--Two Poems

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Just a quick post to announce that my poems "For the Professor Whose Name I Share" and "Speechless" have been accepted for publication at Indigo Rising Press. You can access the pieces here.

If you like my writing and want to keep in touch, you can "follow" me by clicking the button on the right toolbar. You can sign in with a google, youtube, or twitter account, or create a new profile in seconds. You can also subscribe to my blog via RSS and comment with your email to be added to my update mailing list. Thanks to everyone for your support.

FREE BOOKS! And acceptance updates

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:29:00 +0000

Two things:

First, hop over to Outside Writers and consider joining a book club where you get free books mailed to you--for free! I talked to an author who's working on the project and it's legitimate. Check it out and let them know I sent you!

Second, I wanted to post new info about a few pieces.

My poem "No Country" has been accepted at Heavy Hands Ink. Look for it in February.

My short story "Waiting for the Rain" will be featured in The Legendary volume appearing this Monday (today!).

LITSNACK has accepted "Burning" with a publication date of a few months from now.

My poem "Release Me" has been accepted at vox poetica with a tentitive publication date in April.

Also: My good friend Keri from Write Turn Here had a poem published in one of my favorite web based literary magazines. You can read "We met in a Van Gogh Painting" here

Finally, get writing! Take five minutes to describe something odd that recently happened to you. Write it down. Time yourself. Pick a moment that was random or competely unrelated. Now tuck that away somewhere safe (leave it here as a comment!) and you can come back to it later to develop.

Food for the Soul...and the Body

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:48:00 +0000

I love to cook, and my approach to cooking is very like my approach to writing. I don't really follow recipes. I read a lot of cookbooks, and eat a lot of different foods. After thinking it over, there are a lot of similarities between the two art forms (because, yes, cooking is an art. You'll see if I can convince my favorite food blogger to do an interview for me.) Does that sound odd? Consider the following examples.

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2010 Baltimore Writer's Conference: Notes and Remarks

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:07:00 +0000

On November the 20th, I attended the Baltimore Writer's Conference at Towson University with a few friends. The keynote speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, gave an inspring speech on the art of writing and her personal journey as a writer. The workshops included topics on freelancing, how to write a good opening, and how to write about sex. Attendees also had a chance to have their work critiqued by several presenters. The experiance was amazing and I'm even more excited for the AWP Conference. Below are my notes from the workshops I attended, I hope they will help you as well.

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You Can't Get Published if You Don't SUBMIT! And other things you should know about the writing game.

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:32:00 +0000

My first month of college at a four year university has flown past, and I'm left with an overwhelming sense of regression. The one thing that strikes me more than any other change is that it seems like being published in the college's literary magazine is the most advanced most students have achieved: and not through any fault of their own. Now, I may be wrong! I haven't taken any writing classes yet, I'm just basing this off of what I've been told by other students in my English classes. At my community college, I had a dedicated professor who challenges her students to submit their work not only to the campus literary magazine, but also to other magazines. Not only does she require her creative writing students to submit work to several different publications, but she prompts her literature students to do the same. Our English Club is full of writers of all different genres and skill levels, but we share our knowledge, spend our time to critique each others works, and encourage each other towards higher standards. I don't think this is because Hagerstown, MD is such a fertile ground for writers, but because the talent that was naturally present was coaxed into being active by a professor who encourages all her students to join her in the ranks of published authors.

That doesn't mean that Towson is full of less able writers or that the school has less of a draw on artistic types, but that campus writers need the information. What I'd like to do is to provide the information that students need. Getting published is a lot easier than it seems to be...it's all about submitting. Just like finding a job, you have to fill out a lot of applications before you get hired (at least nowadays you do!). This blog post will cover the basics on how to submit, as well as link to some handy information posted by various magazines.

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Characters, Pseudonyms, and Metafiction

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:51:00 +0000

     When I started my Creative Writing class this summer, I set two goals for myself: to write more, and to experiment with different styles. I began the course primarily as a poet, but I am enjoying the freedom fiction allows me. For my second major assignment in the class, I decided to toy around with metafiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafiction). The piece I ended up with was a far cry from my usual writing; it employed stream of consciousness, postmodernism, and metafiction. It also contained language I wouldn't be comfortable using in front of my family or many of my teachers. I've been struggling with where to place the piece, or if I could submit it for publication at all. I could hardly brag about the publication while simultaneously keeping it secret from my ultra conservative family. My Creative Writing teacher suggested a pseudonym, and that idea has been growing on me for several reasons.

     The anonymity of the internet has made it easy for people to assume alternate identities and develop relationships that wouldn't progress in a real time situation. But writers have been creating characters to tell their stories for them long before the technological revolution. Samuel Clemens is a classic example: he crafted Mark Twain to be a character, who then created the likes of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Similarly, Robert Frost cultivated a very specific image of himself. Taking metafiction, then, which is fiction discussing the art of fiction, and adding another layer by creating a character to become the author, seems to lead to a stronger metafictional piece and almost another literary device altogether. The author becomes a character, and behind that character is me, the "man behind the curtain" or more appropriately, the woman typing on the keyboard. While I could just use a pseudonym, and publish my work under a different name, I am considering turning that pseudonym into a fully blown character a la King's Richard Bachman or Clemens' Mark Twain. The definition of "being a writer" has changed considerably with technology and developing literary techniques. As media and entertainment become more interactive, I imagine that an imaginary author, with publications under her imaginary belt, could well blog about her imaginary life and her imaginary experiences, creating more art in the process.

     This is hardly a new idea. Artists from several different genres are toying about with interactive entertainment: check out Nine Inch Nail's Year Zero album, for instance, or the interactive sites NBC put up for Lost. As technology changes, and as consumers become jaded by their many options, writers have mainly kept to the same traditions they've used for thousands of years. The average fiction reader wants to be immersed in the art they're experiencing: but it's important to let the reader control the level of immersion. One of the major reasons for the success of NIN's Year Zero album is that it catered to all levels of interest. Fans can choose just to access the music, or to explore the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) to its fullest extent. I feel that, as writers in a technological age, authors need to be more flexible to new formats and new types of writing while striving to keep that writing accessible to readers seeking varying degrees of experience.

Jumping on the Bandwagon...

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:13:00 +0000

I sometimes feel like a bumbling giant around my friends. They are fluent in all the latest trends in writing, know all the best magazines, and can give you detailed information on how to submit writing. They give themselves deadlines and word limits for daily writing, create blogs to "get their name out there" and network like literary socialites. I submit things here and there, get a nice balance of acceptances vs. rejections, and consider myself content. This is not, apparently, acceptable for SOME friends, and I know I have family and friends who would like to follow my "budding literary career" somewhere more professional than Facebook. So here I am, and hopefully I won't bore the world with my prattling. Enjoy!