Tag Archives: Writers

So what am I doing?

So what am I doing? Well, I have some time off this summer, call it a a Sabbatical if you want, as that’s what they call any extended time off in my line of work, college professor, that is. Intentional or otherwise, it’s a few months off, and what I’m planning on doing, that is after I shove aside all the flotsam and jetsam of the previous semester and prep for the upcoming Fall, is write.

Actually getting time to write is both a profane and sacred thing to a writer, because it’s equally dreaded and longed for. Gone are the florid visions we enjoy in those moments before sleep, idling at a stop light, or as the shower water rains down, the story coalescing in our heads. Imminent is the task of collecting all those scraps of paper, sticky notes, phone memos, links, Moleskine or tablet scratchings–all the research collected, filed, categorized. Now to open up the laptop or grab a clean legal pad and put fingers to keyboard or paper and let that verbal vomit fly. It’s go time and Writer, you know that that means.

Ass in chair, sweetheart, ass in chair. Because nobody’s going to get it to the end but you if you don’t. (Or me if I don’t.) Now let’s all become the writers we think we are, because what we are can only start if we do.

Okay. Let it rip.

Showing my Literary Side

Hey! I know it’s been a long time, but just to show you how flexible I am, I’d like to prove there’s more to my writing than just snarky fiction. I am, along with my co-conspirator, Barbara Krasner, a co-editor of Kelsey Review, a literary journal now open, until May 31, 2026 for submissions. If you’re a writer, fiction or creative nonfiction, poet, artist or photographer, and live in New Jersey or Bucks or Philadelphia County, PA, we want to hear from you! Submit via our Submittable link today!

Liberty State Fiction Writers is having a Conference AND a Bookfair!

Summertime, and the living is…easy?

Actually, the living is quite a-kilter. Every day is a new surprise, and perhaps this is what it means to live in “interesting times.”  In any event, I (watch what I) eat, I read, I sleep, I teach, I write with arguably extra-sufficient skill, while wondering what fresh hell will be delivered to my inbox that morning (rejections need not apply). I’m seriously trying not to doom scroll, or return to the X wasteland for what I’ve been missing,  and right now all I’m using Instagram for is the cat videos. (Yes, guilty as charged.) Most of all I’m trying not to live a parenthetical life, but it’s starting to look as if I am, still waiting (a bit impatiently) for that Big Breakout. I wonder if it too is waiting for me.

Ah, what the hell. Going to grab a cold one and slice off another slab of watermelon. Happy Summer everyone!

Pittsburgh is Having an Online Writers Conference May 31 – June 1, and I’m Going!

Write at Rutgers with Dr. Roxanne Gay!

Click here to apply by May 1 for the Fall 2024 cohort!

Liberty State Fictions Writers Conference is coming up March 23, 2024!

Join us on March 23, 2024, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hamilton, New Jersey for the 13th Annual Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference. This is a great opportunity for published and aspiring authors to network and learn from a fantastic line-up of industry professionals. The conference will feature a dozen workshops that cover various aspects of writing including craft, business, promotion, and indie-publishing. Don’t miss out on a full days of education and networking. Visit our website for more info and to register!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

Pearl Street Press, based in New Haven, CT and edited by Lisa Siedlarz and Vivian Shipley, is seeking submissions from all perspectives on the many challenges of menopause. Submit up to 3 poems (not to exceed 6 pages) and essays (not to exceed 1,000 words) for their debut publication Rising from the Ashes. Email submissions as a single Word document to PearlStPress@gmail.com. Please include a short bio. The submission deadline is January 31, 2024. There is no reading fee.

Liberty States Fictions Writers Annual Conference is March 23, 2024

Mark Your Calendar for the
13th Anniversary
Liberty States Fiction
Writers Conference
March 23, 2024

Hilton Garden Inn, Hamilton, NJ


Liberty States Fiction Writers 13th Annual Conference will feature a line-up of more published authors and industry professionals who will share their expertise and experience. Located at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hamilton, New Jersey, we offer a full day of education and networking for those who are published or want to be published. Workshops will focus on craft, business, promotion and indie-publishing. Love to write? Want to get published? Join us on March 23, 2024.