idiots are really very funny people

beta reading someone's story/novel and this thing is just a marvelous hoot. the query just sang of oddness, humor, and something outside the box, and the rest of the MS is doing the very same. some really good things are happening on pages, sir peladon.

bring out your idiots...

Yes, Idiot, I would love to beta read the wip. You can send it to me at robbina2 at gmail dot com.
I'm so excited that I finally got a comment on my new blog, too, so thanks a million!

shark attack!

ohmigoodness, the shark picked my contest entry. i'm so excited, and i just can't hide it...
can i get a whoop, whoop?

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/

flash fiction for tit

chance to win a copy of tune in tokyo--hence the tit--at Janet Reid's site.

you can read my entry and others at:
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/

would you rather wear levi's or put a hotel on boardwalk?

are you a pantster or a plotter?

authoress has put out her thoughts out there on her preferred style of writing.
http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/

authoress is a pantser--someone who writes by the seat of their pants, as the ideas come to her and flow from her brain out to her typing fingertips. never is she a plotter who sits down to create massive plot outlines or build detailed worlds.

i am a pantser.
i cannot sit down and write an outline to a story that doesn't even exist. now once i start with a story, i may outline certain details about a character or setting, but not enough to ever call myself a plotter.

so what are you?

come fly with me...

i must say i'm riding a high since meeting with gavin to discuss my creative writing profile.
he had so many nice comments to say and those he wrote on my work. can't forget great
constructive criticism for me as well.

he asked to use my poems for his fall class as examples and crit sessions, which of course, i sent them.

i'm having the best day ever!

coraghessan it

may i say i'm just enjoying the heck out of t.c.'s short stories!



coraghessan: noun... the art of using masterful language.  verb... to use masterful language.
verb... to wonder how t.c. chose that unusual middle name.  verb... to read works by t.c. boyle.
used in a sentence: Man I wish I could coraghessan up my novel, it would really make it sing.

carolyn jewel is the bomb

i would just like to say that carolyn jewel is one of the nicest and most helpful authors out there.
and she writes a pretty darn good steamy regency, too!

meeting with gavin

excited.

meeting with gavin tomorrow to retrieve my writing portfolio and "discuss my writing in detail," which is a good thing. my mom was able to tell me i earned an A, but i have yet to receive an official grade to submit for tuition reimbursement.

wish i could take more writing classes. it gives me motivation to write, and an excuse to give my significant other for my writing.

maybe spring term...

more shark bait

needing a reason to write, since i've had no ideas lately, i entered another janet reid contest.
no lofty expectations on this one, but it was still effective at being fun.
you can read all the entries at the link below.

here is mine:

Andy never saw The Shark so behind the eight ball. "What can I do you for, doll?"

"Heinous," she whimpered, dotting her cheek with a tissue. "All of them... blown to smithereens. What will my minions and I eat?"

Andy shoved back a glass of corn, wishing the dame would close her head, so he could grease his own gears. He knew of one goon sinister enough to pull off blowin' up all the bakeries, forever ridding the planet of sweet delicious cupcakes. Last Andy heard Vordak, his nemesis, was holed up in his parents' basement in Trenton, New Jersey.

the shark

it's hard swimming with the shark and all her bait. didn't even get an honorable mention. but reading some of these entries, i can see why i barely kept my head above water. kudos to the winner.

check out the winner and the contenders at janet reid's blog ling below

check out the q & a at evil editor

that mrs. v sure has some fancy schmancy hair.

love the story about blowing chunks.
i'm sure that wasn't the worst ee has experienced.
after all he was reading the slushpile.

big book of fiction

i like tobias wolff's short story in esquire's big book of fiction.  i will have to check out more work by him.

i've got a fever...

and the only prescription is more payphone!!!!

this whole payphone craze over at http://evileditor.blogspot.com/ evil editor is cracking me up.
bring us more payphone!

thank you, sharky!

i want to thank janet reid for giving me a little writing exercise. you had to use the following five words in a brief short: stake, honeywagon, Fairbank, flaws, pivotal.
it was so much fun. it was a--brief--continuation to my short skin games: the con way, but from red's pov.

here is mine:

His biggest mistake: trusting her. The fact a guy named Con was swindled... irony at its best.

Naomi barreled down i-40 in the Cheyenne. She'd stolen three-grand and hotwired his "honeywagon" while Con was fast asleep.

So she'd goldbricked him. It was fair bank. But he sure was cute--dimples, fallow curls. Naomi couldn't get her mind off those hazel eyes.

Somewhere near Tulsa, Naomi realized their one night stand was a pivotal fork in the road to her heart. Turning around, she'd fallen victim to her hugest of flaws: an addiction to cowboys in painted-on Wranglers. Resistance was futile.


go to janet reid's blog at the bottom of the page, and you can read all about it, as well as the others'.

well, i wrote one thing lately...

nuthin like writing a declination of coverage letter to alleviate your writer's block. ha! ha! not!

i'm totally psyched!

i found some of my creative writing friends on facebook. hope all of them confirm my friends requests!

got the writer's blues...

i'm totally bummed. i can't think of one thing to write about. guess i won't be doing much chipping away today!

parker's back: short story by flannery o'connor

this story is a hoot. the characters are just that--characters. they are memorable in their backwoods, stubborn way, o.e. parker with his myriad of tattoos his "vanity of vanities," and his tough wife who refuses to appreciate them, let alone give them a look. you should check it out. i found this story in esquire's big book of fiction at the dsm public library.

another interesting connection i had to this story was that the mc's full name is obadiah elihue parker, but he prefers to be called parker. at worst call him o.e., but he never wants to tell anyone his real name. this tidbit brought a smile to my face reminding me of my late grandpa arnold. oral eldon arnold. call him arnold or arnie, at worst o.e., but don't you dare call him by his real name...

skin games: the con way

Conway Chanchullo, better known as Con, has been grifting most of his natural born life. While out on the prowl, running a scam, Con encounters a shy but gorgeous little redhead who may just give him a run for his money.

This story has been posted at turn the page.

a post of poetry

posted 2 of my poems from class. if anyone is interested: go to turn the page.

skin games: the con way

i think i have this short the way i want it. still deciding before i post it on turn the page.

the laugh

a haunting short story in the 2009 Fiction edition of the Atlantic. learning that hyenas have a 1000+ pounds of bite pressure makes this story even more frightening...
check it out: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/08/the-laugh/7531/1/

on old friend... slang for drill instructor other than di

I'm not going to post the an old friend short until I clarify some of the slang used in it, specifically for the DI (drill instructor), which peggy (in gavin's class) felt was not accurate--and she was in the military, but not the army. If anyone has any suggestions, I have scoured the web and can no longer find the term I used.

wip: the con way

Conway Chanchullo, better known as Con, has been grifting most of his natural born life. While out on the prowl, running a scam, Con encounters a shy but gorgeous little redhead who may just give him a run for his money.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

When I read Settin' the Woods on Fire in class, Brianna said it reminded her of Flannery O'Connor, and Gavin heartily agreed. So I checked out some Flannery, and I can understand some of the comparison: Southern Gothic feel, with religious undertones. All right, I'll buy it enough to go as far as to say, I hope no one thought I read O'Connor and then wrote my story!

the sea serpent

After a spicy makeover from her promiscuous mother, teenager Kit Jones rushes to Pacific Ocean Park to ride the Sea Serpent--a snaking, exhilarating thrill--but while she's waiting in line, she stumbles upon another attraction, John Howard, a handsome, much more mature man. So begins a dangerous ride of flirtation.

an old friend

A slice of Steven Howard's life since returning from Viet Nam. It ain't pretty.

settin' the woods on fire

A bunch of good ol' boys--Harlan, Cyrus, and Lysle--take Harlan's nephew, Skeet, for a little night fishin': a lurid experience that will test Skeet's morals, challenge his faith, and make him doubt his who he truly is.