Some news

Time for some news. Yay!

1. I FINISHED MY SHORT STORY!!! Whoo-hoo!! But it's not really a "short" story. The first draft comes in at 17 1/3 pages! (Or, if you wanna count both sides, it's 34 1/3 pages.) Gah! I'll do a word count later. LOL I know it will be longer when I type it up. If I can't sell it as-is, I can try to make it a two-parter or turn it into a minibook/novella.

Now if only I can come up with a title for it. I don't think "The Angry Ghost" is the one to use. Ha.

I started writing this story on Monday and finished it today. Though I had A LOT of interruptions while I was trying to write it today. This is why so many writers go hide away in a cabin far from the civilized world in order to write books! Stephen King was onto something right around the time he got the idea for The Shining!

But as a writing parent with small children, I know I have to get used to writing this way. At one point, though, I started carrying the notebook around with me. LOL I had to do that, anyway. I REALLY got into the story and kept furiously scribbling it all down as it came to life in my head. I got so deep in the zone, in fact, I ended up calling one of my children by the wrong name! If the baby could say the words, he would have probably said, "Uh, Mom. I'm not Jennifer."

I'm happy the story is done, especially since I was really struggling with one element of the story in the last part of the writing. I knew how the story ended, but not how we get to that ending. I had 3 possibilities and I kept mulling over which one to use. But I just decided, you know, keep writing it. Let the story lead me where it will. And it did!

Now, speaking of short stories....

2. I have a new short story published!

And this one is REALLY a short story.

In the latest issue of the magazine, Tales of the Talisman, you will find my short story, "Friends to the End." This story was actually inspired by a real event. I was driving to my parents' house one evening when I lost control of the car and it went off the road. Somehow or another, the car righted itself. I watched as the steering wheel moved on its own, and the car ended up back on the road, almost driving itself! This changed when I put my hands back on the wheel, but that experience left me inspired with a story idea (if not grateful that I didn't get into an accident!).

The result is "Friends to the End" and I'm especially excited about the publication of this story, because it's my first magazine publication of a short story! WOOT!!

Today, Tales of the Talisman. Tomorrow....who knows! ;)

A big thanks to David Lee Summers, editor, for selecting my story to include in his magazine. Thanks, David! You rock!

Check it out here:
http://www.talesofthetalisman.com/
and
http://www.talesofthetalisman.com/Tales5-1-TOC.html

3. Another new thing going on with my writing is that I am writing for SIGNews again! Yay! I took a break from that a couple of years ago but I'm back now, baby, and I'm very excited to be a part of this AWESOME newspaper again! I really feel it's a valuable contribution to the deaf/HOH community. Not just saying that, either. :)

4. I am also back to writing for EduBook.com. Took a bit of a break from there, too, but getting back on track with writing articles for them again.

5. And, finally, the latest issue of my newsletter is now online! Find it here:
http://dmcwriter.tripod.com/id45.html

The blog post titles are a lil different now, though.

So that wraps up my news! It's been a crazy week but I'm grateful so much has gotten done and that I'm making progress with the writing, particularly with my current book projects.

Now I'm off to write some poetry.