Dawn Corrigan

I Love Summer for the Meet Ups.

In the summer, my social life gets tangled and wonderful. There’s a million places to go and people to see. On Tuesday, I got to see my best friend and her husband for a few hours. Soon, I’ll be at a graduation party. This year, I’ll try to better balance that with the household chores, maintenance and my “real work.”

I’ve signed up for Camp NaNo (again) and I’m not sure what I’m going to work on. Originally, I was thinking short stories, but I don’t know. I have a few days to decide. I may go back to a novel I started years ago.

I’m excited that an agent asked for my first three chapters on my latest novel. The beginning garnered a “show” in a contest. I’ll be ecstatic if she asks to see more, but I’m not holding my breath–I can’t–I have 4-6 weeks of waiting! I had a piece I originally wrote in 2009 FINALLY find a loving home in an Sci-Fi anthology coming out soon from Divertir Publishing and a cheeky NF piece will soon be appearing in The Other Herald, a gorgeous publication based out of Perry, New York.

Yeah, things are looking good and I’m grateful.

It just seems that there are so many things to do and pieces I want to write and submissions to read and comment on that I worry I’ll become too distracted by a bush and end up tripping over an exposed root–don’t get me started on the lawn care I should be doing and the weeding I should have tended to before now.

No matter what, there’s never enough time or money or oomph, is there–too get everything done.

*Sigh*

Still, I’m giddy at the amazing success of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances as of late. I know I’m pushing my boundaries, but I met Roxane Gay in Boston at the AWP book fair and she recognized my name and she was kind and such a beautiful woman…I’m thrilled that “An Untamed State” is getting so many good reviews. She deserves even more. Alex Pruteanu has a manuscript out for a book that I’m hoping to read soon. The short story, “The Sun-Eaters” was phenomenal–I can only imagine the book being better. Dawn Corrigan, woman extraordinaire has “Mitigating Circumstances” out which I’m badgering my library to pick up though so far they haven’t. (Boo John Saccco!) I shouldn’t be too mean; I love my library and when I got my copy of the summer newsletter, I felt like a rock star–they featured the reading I did with Gary Earl Ross and the other contributors to “Queen City Flash”

Plus, the lovely and talented Mary Akers got the July Issue of r.kv.r.y out early and Mike Joyce—my other awesome boss got a lovely write up in Poets & Writers about the Rookery.

Except for the horrid slugs in my garden, things are good. Thanks for stopping by!

(*These are my Creekside reflections. Your experiences may vary.)

Working Theories

Well, aren’t I a bit chagrined to notice how late I am with this post? And surprised. I hadn’t noticed the date and I breezed over both reminders on both my calendars. So much for the “Writing things down so I don’t forget them” theory.

The garden is in and it’s now a race to kill the slimy slugs before they take out all of my pepper plants. They are gross, destructive and stupid. I don’t like having to kill things if I don’t have to, but all of these things have GOT to go!

Wednesday was hell, by the way. It might have put up a mental block on dealing with anything writing related. It was a brutal twelve hours of nothing but rejections. Totally wiped out the ‘happy’ I was having for my acceptance for “Educated Tina” in the summer issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. It’s such an honor to be included in a publication that has Dawn Corrigan’s work in it!

In other news, my mail carrier has been doing suspicious things lately. Not just to me, but to my neighbors, too. We either aren’t getting mail at all or we get mail for people who live two roads down. The day I got a credit card bill for someone on Snyder Road, I took it into the post office, handed it to the clerk and asked if my mail was there by any chance. “No,” she said, “They’re all back and no one had anything undeliverable.”

Great, I thought. Is someone else getting my rejections? I don’t know how much the lady’s credit card bill was, but it might have been a fair exchange. I’m trying to work that into a possible theory, but I don’t have enough information to work with.

And my son, daughter-in-law and grandson are coming to visit at the end of the month. I’m excited and have invited people to stop in to visit with him and his family. I don’t want to get my hopes up. I do that enough when I send out submissions, but I do hope everyone has a good time.

Right, so back to the writing challenge I’ve been keeping. I’m doing a modified version of Camp NaNo, I think. I’m putting in a minimum of 1667 words every day, but essays, flashes, and short stories instead of working on a novel. So far, so good, though a short story I started writing about a football player is on its third day and the ending still hasn’t shown up yet. I tabled it for something new today.

Anyway, the celebration of Husband’s & my 12 year anniversary is also going to be late, but it should be good. We’re going to see Shemekia Copeland at a tiny bar and grill. It’s so awesome already since we fell in love with her Turn the Heat Up  in the background. The title track is “our song.” To those familiar with the lyrics, it totally works. Husband and I get along great. The one part of the relationship that isn’t great is the most fun to work on. And now you have too much information. Congratulations!

Until next time!

*These are just my reflections. Your experience may vary.