Category Archives: Uncategorized

Every Day Fiction’s October Calendar!

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Every Day Fiction is looking for someone to read stories for consideration in the ezine.  It is a fabulous learning experience. Here is the application:  http://www.everydayfiction.com/stories/wp-content/uploads/volunteer-slush-readers-wanted.pdf

October Line-Up

Oct 1 Zoe Palmer/Space to Breathe

Oct 2 Lynsey Miller/Mine

Oct 3 Sarah Evans/Being Bold

Oct 4 Matt Cowens/Fire Safety

Oct 5 Leigh Kimmel/The End of Her Line

Oct 6 Debbie Cowens/No Smoke Without Fire

Oct 7 A.L. Sirois/Closed System

Oct 8 Stef Hall/After The Fire

Oct 9 C.L. Holland/The Girl With the Clockwork Heart

Oct 10 Felicia Aguilar/Brutal Truths

Oct 11 Robert Schladale/That’s A Promise

Oct 12 Ben Langdon/The Girl On The Beach

Oct 13 KJ Kabza/How the Snake Got the Fork in His Tongue

Oct 14 Rasmenia Massoud/House Cleaning

Oct 15 Robert Edward Sullivan/Level Up

Oct 16 Rachel J Bailey/The Golden Toad

Oct 17 TFAhan/Panhandle Oil Rig

Oct 18 Stephanie King/Siren Song

Oct 19 Carmela Starace/And They Called It Puppy Love

Oct 20 Erin Lawless/Succubus

Oct 21 Liz Penn/One Step Behind

Oct 22 Martin Brick/The Perils of Thoughtful…

Oct 23 Alex Shvartsman/Good Advice

Oct 24 AJ Smith/Never Tell

Oct 25 John Impey/The Trial Of The Flea

Oct 26 Nathaniel Johnson/Bullyboys

Oct 27 Autumn HumphreyThe Valley of Death

Oct 28 Meghna Pant/Family Dinner

Oct 29 Jessica George/Fresh Snow

Oct 30 JR Hume/The Condemned Man

Oct 31 Tom Kepler/Spider

Nominations for the 4th Annual Micro Awards

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The 4th Annual Micro Award will be open for submissions from Oct 1 – Dec 31, 2010.

The Micro Award is presented annually for flash fiction not exceeding 1000 words. Stories of all genres originally published in 2010 are eligible. Editors may submit two stories; writers may submit one. The winner of the $500 prize and all other finalists will be announced on Feb 17, 2011.

Visit the website for official rules and submission guidelines: http://www.microaward.org/.



Minor Changes

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Doing a little online house keeping today by combining my “official” website with my Words in Place blog since it’s time to keep things simple (time as it refers both to age and season!!)  So if you look me up as “gay degani” and click on http://www.gaydegani.com/, you’ll end up here. Or if you click on http://wordsinplace.blogspot.com/ you’ll end up here.  See how easy that is?

I’ve also brought over a couple of pages from my website, one is a summary of how to give specific purpose to drafts of a work-in-progress and the other is a list of books under 300 pages.  These are all that remain of  my English 1A website.  I’ve also tried to unclutter the main page of the blog.  Now some of the items that used to be in the right hand column have their own pages. Under Words in Place heading you can now find links to my writing online, interviews, articles, and reviews of Pomegranate Stories.

I hope to add a new “about me” page as well as a page feature past prompts from Flash Fiction Chronicles.

Shaking the Summer Heat

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My office is upstairs in our garage which means when it is 88 degrees outside, it’s about 100 inside. I’ve had a busy summer, distracting and since July, not much writing getting done, letting things like being kicked off the Internet for a few days and the hot weather deter me.

BUT! I woke up this morning motivated and ready to ignore all the little procrastination hurdles that have kept me from getting down to it, and just get down to it. I feel kind of normal again. Yay! So I’m going to set up some goals here just to help me stay focused.
Writing! Goals!
1. The Novel

No. I haven’t finished another draft and I haven’t even looked at it. However, something I heard in Steve Almond’s class at Tin House finally resonated with me. I’ve tried to complicate this project beyond my abilities and therefore have added years to the project. The good part of this is that my skills have certainly improved so when I do get this sucker done, it will be better than it would have. The bad part is I wouldn’t let go of my idea that if I worked hard enough, I could bend some rules and make something really original work. And that’s a great idea. It is, but not if the idea gets in the way of the story itself.
I have a good good story. I love my story. But I think I’ve been too in love with my story and need to get out of my own way–as they say. So thanks Steve, for your “think twice before you
wrinkle time” suggestion. This thinking this through business has led me to feel confident that I can get this project done this fall…and done with a minimum of angst. Much grass to you.
2. Short Stories
God, I love writing short stories, especially flash. And I will always write them, but what I’m thinking now is that I’ve gotten lazy. I love flash because I have so much going on in my head…ideas are never a problem…and the shorter format allows me to use the ideas that won’t hold up to a longer format. However, some of the WILL and SHOULD and I often feel resistant to doing this… or as I said, I get lazy.
One of my goals is to work on recognizing whether a story needs to be flash or longer–me, myself, before offering it up. Maybe come up with questions to put each “start” to a test of whether it should be worked long or short?? Not sure what I’ll do, expect I plan to pay more attention so that pieces that fail as flash will eventually get the depth they need.
3. Online Presence
Facebook, Flash Fiction Chronicles, Zoe, Fictionaut, Every Day Fiction, all these things have helped me become a better writer and I will not give them up. What I need to do though is make certain that I don’t spend more time than I have just floating around. I am pretty good at not letting these take up too much of my time and I feel they are important–doing my part to support the online writing community and to also keep me abreast for my own writing as to what is happening out there in the ether–but I perhaps need to figure out a more efficient way of working and perhaps ask for help more often.

New Fiction and Non-Fiction Up

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My story, “Socks,” is up at Metazen this month and I also have a piece on craft up at Flash Fiction Chronicles called Using Essay Techniques in Fiction.

I’m back from much traveling about and anxious to get into the groove of writing everyday. After a wonderful experience at Tin House, I have several stories and my novel that I want to complete and have some new approaches to try.

Steve Almond

was a terrific help to all of us who were part of his class in July. I urge those who need an emersion experience to consider attending the Tin House Writing Workshop next year. Three lectures a day, workshop time, and readings every nice can rev up anyone’s motor–and commitment. Now go out and read Steve’s book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us.

EVERY DAY FICTION Reads for August

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Every Day Fiction features a new flash story 365 days a year.

August’s Table of Contents

Aug 1/Carol Ann Fears/Existential Snare
Aug 2/Brother Greg/Art Moron
Aug 3/Kit Lamont/Seeds
Aug 4/Milo James Fowler/Captain Quasar and the “If Only” Elixir of Opsanus Tau Prime
Aug 5/Trish Bowcock/Confinement
Aug 6/Joshua Tate/The Easy Target
Aug 7/Oonah V Joslin/Moving Times
Aug 8/A. S. Andrews/Wherein Fear of Karma Dawns Too Late
Aug 9/Cat Rambo/The Investigation
Aug 10/Pam L. Wallace/When Pigs Fly
Aug 11/Jason Stout/Her Cousin
Aug 12/Ben Langdon/Forget, To Live
Aug 13/Victorya/Pepito and the Ferret
Aug 14/James Kidd/Holes In The Walls
Aug 15/Peter C. Loftus/Sword and Fish
Aug 16/Janel Gradowski/Burning Love
Aug 17/Shane Oshetski/Doll Parts
Aug 18/Maureen Wilkinson/When Violets Bloom
Aug 19/Peter Tupper/The Problem of Pain
Aug 20/AJ Smith/Old Jim
Aug 21/Kate Larkindale/In The Bedroom
Aug 22/Bernard S. Jansen/People Need to Know
Aug 23/Tim Galati/A Sunrise Enlightens
Aug 24/Douglas Campbell/The Shock Of Cold Water
Aug 25/Suzanne Warr/The Immortal Horse
Aug 26/Lynsey Miller/Tuesday Afternoon
Aug 27/Robert J. Santa/The Invisible Sword of Patterson Mitchell
Aug 28/Nicholas Ozment/The Old Man Down the Road
Aug 29/Stephen V. Ramey/Beauty and the Butler
Aug 30/Ed Buchanan/The Weatherman
Aug 31/Erin Ryan/Going through the Motions

UP at Smokelong Quarterly!

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I’m thrilled to announce the new Smokelong Quarterly double-issue is out! My story, Complicit, was a Smokelong Weekly feature back in February and is now up again as well as an interview of me by Tara Laskowski. Beth Thomas and Tara are the senior editors of Smokelong taking over for the wonderful Dave Clapper and it’s clear they are determined to continue to make Smokelong beautiful and relevant (and I’m not saying that because I have a story there!)

And one more shout out to those who gave me feed back on “Complicit” when I was revising it, especially Randall Brown of FlashFiction.net.

INTERVIEW of me BY TARA LASKOWSKI