Tag: #CurrentWordsPublishing

How to Get the Most Out of Critique Groups

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I have participated in quite a few of writing critique groups for many years now, and I can say that the feedback I have received from fellow writers has been critical to my success in publishing my work. It is true that if you remain with the same group over an extended period, there will be certain people that you will agree with more than others for suggestions for editing your work. There is nothing wrong with that. After all, everyone has different tastes and preferences. That being said, it is important to read and consider all comments you receive. Here are a few tips to guide you in getting the most from the process of critique. 

  1. Decide what you are honestly looking for before you submit a manuscript. If you just want to know if the story is worth working on at all, then submitting a very rough draft might make sense but I never do that. My approach is to put in all the time necessary to complete a short story or poem and make it the best I can. This means, for me, several months of writing and many edits. I probably edit a piece fifty times or more before I feel I have done all that I can for it. I prefer to circulate what I believe is “a finished story.” 
  • During the critique, just sit quietly and listen. In the groups I attend, I will receive written comment, so I don’t have to write notes during the oral critique. You can learn a lot by listening to colleagues discuss and debates questions or concerns they may have about your writing. Above all, don’t say anything as the writer. You aren’t there to explain your work and above all, you are not there to defend it. You don’t want people to feel that they cannot give you honest and open feedback. That’s what you are there for and as writers, that is what we all need. 
  • Try not to feel hurt about “negative” comments about your writing. At first, for most writers, we do feel hurt but in time, this goes away as you realize that critique is an honest exchange of creative suggestions meant only to help you decide what final edits you wish to make. We cannot read our own work in a way that will make it the best it can be. We don’t have the distance to be able to do this. In short, we need each other. Of course, the critique should be done in a constructive, professional way. I have always had good group leaders who have insisted upon this.
  • At the end of a critique, I always make sure to thank everyone for taking the time to read and critique my work. I know it takes time and effort, because when I read for others, I give it my all too. It is the greatest gift we can give to each other as writers.
  • So now that you have your critiques, it is very important to set everything aside for a minimum of a month before you return to make edits. Early on I made the mistake of making edits too quickly and they were knee jerk and not good. You need time to let things sink in and percolate. Give it a rest.
  • When I do edit, I go through each written critique and fix all mechanical edits first, such as spelling errors. While doing that, I keep a running list of more involved edits that I will look at more carefully to see if I agree with them. This might be things such as a section of unrealistic dialogue, an ending that needs less or more, a character that lacks some necessary background. 
  • I have never not changed a story or a poem based on professional feedback. Some more than others, but all have been edited because of ideas or suggestions or questions raised by writing colleagues and I can honestly say that my work has been improved immeasurably by the critique process. I am so grateful for my writing colleagues and friends. I do have one writing friend who I give my final edited pieces to for one final read. And another tip for writers. Seek out readers of all ages to critique your work. You will get different perspectives that will improve your final product. 
  • An important final comment about writing groups. Over the years. I have made such wonderful, close friendships with the people I have met in these groups. It’s funny how life works. You go looking for something and you come away with something so much more valuable than you expected.
  • Good luck with your writing and enjoy all of the process, including critique and editing in response to critique. I promise you that you will find it rewarding to not only give critique but also to receive it. It is part of our art form. 

Enjoy your group!  

~Ginny

Virginia Watts has been fortunate to have published nearly 100 pieces in literary magazines including CRAFT, The Florida Review, Reed Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Permafrost Magazine, Broadkill Review, Two Thirds North, Hawaii Pacific Review, Sky Island Journal, Eastern Iowa Review, Evening Star Review and Streetlight Magazine. Nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and four times for Best of the Net, in 2019, Watts won The Florida Review Meek Award in nonfiction.

Her poetry chapbooks The Werewolves of Elk Creek 

and Shot Full of Holes are available from Moonstone Press. Her debut short story collection Echoes from the Hocker House is available on Amazon.

National Grammar Day Poetry Contest

Published on by diannePLeave a comment

Don’t miss your chance to submit to the National Grammar Day Poetry Contest:

SUBMISSION PROCESS (copied from ACES)

Poem requirements

  • All poems submitted for consideration must be original, unpublished, and short. 
  • Short is key. No epics, please. 
  • Meter, rhyme, free verse? Haiku, limerick, quatrain, sonnet? The choice is yours. 
  • Entries should make a point about language: grammar, usage, typos, writing, editing — whatever inspires you think captures the spirit of National Grammar Day.  

Who can enter

Everyone is invited to participate. You do not need to be a member of ACES or work as an editor. The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges that includes the previous year’s winner, along with language and poetry experts. ACES administers the award; it does not decide the winners. 

How to submit your entry

In order to be considered by the judges, official entries must be submitted through the entry form.
Multiple submissions are welcomed. 

ENTRY FORM

That said, we encourage you to share your entries on your favorite social media platforms. If you tag #ACES and #GrammarDay we will be able to find you and reshare. 

When to submit

The submission form is open Feb. 15-28. The link will be available here during that window.    

Learning the results

ACES will announce the winner on, naturally, March 4, in a post on its news channel and in its social media channels. The winning poem will be included in the story, along with the runner-up entries. 

Would Love To Hear From You

Published on by diannePLeave a comment

It’s the “dog days of summer.” Where I live we’ve had only brief periods of respite from the extra hot days, and these sweaty days force me inside, where they, ostensibly, give me more time to write.
And so I am thinking about all of that. And I’m wondering, those of you who write, have you ever considered taking classes, or have you taken classes, in writing? It occurs to me that while my daughter can play a few songs on the piano through trial and error, she is much better when she is actively taking lessons. She doesn’t take lessons because she wishes to be the next piano great, or even play professionally. She takes lessons because she enjoys playing the piano, and would like to be able to play it better. I pay for the lessons gladly, without a thought about it.
Do we do that as writers, with writing?

When I went back to school to get my MA it was because I wanted to get better at writing. Yes, I had the hope of publishing, but mostly I just wanted to be better at writing my stories and poems. I signed on for my MFA primarily because the teachers in my MA program, who were not affiliated with the MFA schools, suggested that I had a spark, and could get it even sparkier with more training. And so I did it, the MFA, for me.

When we had our book marketing webinar a week or so ago speaker Jared Kuritz suggested that if someone wants to be a published author that author must go from hobbyist to professional, and that would involve a dedication of time, and some allocation of funds.

I am curious and would love to hear what you think about this. Have you ever done any “professional” training for writing? Something like lessons? Have you spent money on your development? Do you hope to move from hobbyist to pro? Or, perhaps, consider and reply to this by telling me about lessons that you have taken in something else, or paid for in order that a child or someone else in your life is able to take lessons. I would be very curious to hear what you think makes something a skill that you might need training in versus something you come fully equipped for, without training.

I’m laughing to myself now, sitting here, thinking about “the dog days of summer,” and how I once paid for dog training for my prior delightful pup, an out-of-control terrier who I’d adopted when he was still a puppy. I had named him Chad,

and he came after I lost the dog who preceded him, a very fancy little terrier named BeBe who walked beside me like a queen, and never needed a leash or a single command, from the moment I brought her home. Chad, on the other hand, chewed everything: my toes as I crossed the room, my ears as I sat on the sofa or lay in bed, my boyfriend’s brand new Nikes, huge holes in his blanket, and he pooped blue wool for a week after, half a wooden magazine rack while I was at work one day, scads of toilet paper rolls. He peed everywhere. There was a moment where I listened to him cry from behind the baby gate in the kitchen thinking, “One of us is not going to make it out of this relationship.” I found a dog trainer all right. I could not wait for her to get to my house! And I remember her like it was yesterday, though it was more likely 2001, when she arrived, and I let the beast loose on her, and she said to me, “Okay. I can see he has a lot of energy. Let’s start training you to be a better owner.” 
By the end of the session, several hours later, I admit, for I was a slow learner, I was fully trained, and Chad and I lived harmoniously from that moment on, for sixteen and a half years.

And just now, as I prepared to publish this post, I thought to myself, Maybe throw this post in Word and check the spelling, even though I know my writing does not need it! But I did, and I found four spelling errors, due to poor typing skills, which tells me that it seems that I am still, to this day, a stubborn and slow learner. 😉

So what about you? Do you train at writing at all? Are there other things you will use training for? Do you think of writing as something a person can improve at with training? I am curious to see if it is only me.

LIVE READING EVENT via ZOOM

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🌟 Get ready for an unforgettable evening! 🌟

Join us for an electrifying book reading event as the talented Gabby Gilliam unveils her latest masterpiece, No Ocean Spit Me Out!

But that’s not all! Friends and fellow literary stars Robert Fleming and Alan Bern will also be captivating us with their powerful readings. 🌟✨

Don’t miss this extraordinary event—it’s FREE and open to everyone! 🎉📚Register here for the ZOOM link.

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“NO OCEAN SPIT ME OUT” IS LIVE!

PICK UP AN OLD SCRATCH PRESS BOOK TODAY!

LIVE READING EVENT via ZOOM

Published on by dianneP1 Comment

Come hear Gabby read from her new book!
Friends Robert Fleming and Alan Bern will also read!

Free and open to the public!

Register here for the ZOOM link.

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~NO OCEAN SPIT ME OUT~ IS LIVE!

PICK UP AN OLD SCRATCH PRESS BOOK TODAY!

Away They Go!

Published on by dianneP2 Comments

I was thrilled today to have the privilege to mail three new Old Scratch Press books off to the National Book Awards! If you follow all of our doings around here you may have seen this post from last year, where I was lucky enough to do the same thing!

Gosh, you know, we’re going up against the big guys when we send our books in to the National Books Awards. Most of the other books being sent in are going to have been written by well-established poets with a long history of publication, or brand new poets being championed by their mentors who are the big guys in their fields, and those other books are also going to come from traditional (read as: large and monied) presses or university presses, which, like the big publishing houses, also have lots of disposable income and connections. I got my MFA; I know how that all works. And still, I don’t care about the competition. I care that we have wonderful poets. Morgan Golladay has been writing her poetry throughout most of her adult life, and salting it away for “someday,” and Nadja Maril and Gabby Gilliam have been submitting and getting small wins with their writing for years now, and why isn’t their writing as deserving as anyone else’s? It absolutely is! It gives me a total thrill to just think about getting them into this contest, where they get a chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with the “big guys.” And get this—Carolyn Forché is one of the judges this year! Carolyn Forché! It’s mind-blowing to think that a poet from our little collective is going to be read by her. I still remember how my teachers raved about Carolyn Forché’s book THE COUNTRY BETWEEN US back in the ’90s. We read it and discussed it over and over with reverence. The idea that she’ll be reading one of our books? It’s just wild.

So, lovely people following our progress as a collective and a press, please join me in crossing your fingers and blowing on one of these:

Photo by Yassir Abbas

as we send Gabby, Nadja, and Morgan off to the National Book Awards to try their luck!

And hey, dear reader of this blog, why not snag a copy for yourself in a show of support?

Flash prose, poetry, and essays inspired by her kitchen, garden, and family memories; Nadja Maril’s chapbook, RECIPES FROM. MY GARDEN is a sensual feast for the soul. Drawing upon her life experiences as an artist’s daughter, antiques dealer, journalist, and author; Maril mines simple objects for meaning and creates a lavish buffet.  

Editorial Praise for RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN

“Suffused with the tastes of cilantro, mint, and cucumber fresh from a garden, the smell of salt air from the ocean’s edge, the familiar scent of coffee and tobacco from a father’s hug, or the simple pleasure of the sounds of clicking insects through a backdoor screen, Nadja Maril’s lovely and sensitive RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN is a feast for the senses and a balm for the spirit. While exploring personal memories that touch on abstract questions of identity and history, Maril also reminds us of the tiny yet profound comforts of earthly existence.”
–Aaron Hamburger, author of HOTEL CUBA—

“In RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN, Nadja Maril casts a richly sensual literary spell.  From the deft and resonant garden-inspired pieces that find the taste of ‘summer’ in basil and celebrate the ‘welcoming gaze of sunflowers,’ to the sharply observed portraits of small yet potent memories— buying a perfect dress with her mother; baking a cake ‘too beautiful to be cut’– Maril mines moral and spiritual meaning from everyday life.  The promise Maril makes about a ‘chicken and rice’ recipe is true of this whole vibrant chapbook: ‘soul nutrition it will provide.’ ”
–Elizabeth Searle, novelist and scriptwriter (A FourSided Bed; I’ll Show You Mine)–

“RECIPES FROM MY GARDENcelebrates the splendor of traversing a literary life and surviving the time of Covid. Nadja Maril’s first collection of poetic prose, flash memoir, and poetry introduces us to her family, her nurtured garden, and the myriad spaces she navigates to cope with our world. With true artistic excellence, Nadja’s words yearn for an understanding of what troubles us, inviting us into a landscape of riddles, questions and puzzles.”
–Indigo Moor, author of Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something—

 “[RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN] is a treasure of small love stories: odes to beloved kitchens, and vegetable gardens, and the simple joys of a blooming sunflower. It is a book of memory and of pleasure that speaks of the love of family across many generations. The passed-down recipes inside the pages are themselves the most generous kind of love letter.”  
–Susan Conley, author of Landslide—

Pre-order Paperback

Pre-order Kindle

[In NO OCEAN SPIT ME OUT] Gabby Gilliam’s verse preserves the feel of the summer farm, contrasting its fertile brightness with the struggle between grief and the sudden absence of connection to family and place. Belonging and the struggle to continue remembering clash on the page, while the passion for life’s diverse and tactile experiences dazzle the reader with tantalizing gasps of zucchini, crab apples, and blackberry wine. Each poem gives the reader their own lingering taste of her ghosts. -Kim Malinowski-

NO OCEAN SPIT ME OUT is a captivating debut collection of poetry that delves deep into the intricate tapestry of family dynamics and personal evolution. Within its 30 poems, the collection embarks on a profound journey through the stages of coming of age, navigating the complexities of familial bonds, grappling with organized religion, and ultimately, embracing the essence of self-acceptance. Whether you’re seeking solace in the shared experiences of family relationships or searching for introspective insights into the nuances of identity and faith, this collection offers a profound and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition.

Pre-order Paperback

Pre-order Kindle

“Sometimes stark, but always beautiful, these free verse celebrations of North Mountain introduce a seasonal sense of environmental transitions to the observer and reader’s eye, with time’s passage changing everything and nothing…Aside from a personal visit to North Mountain, there is no better way of appreciating its beauty, impact, and presence over the eons than through THE SONG OF NORTH MOUNTAIN.” —MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW—

From the mighty pen of artist and author Morgan Golladay comes THE SONG OF NORTH MOUNTAIN, a transformative collection of poetry and art celebrating the famous and mystical North Mountain of Appalachia.
North Mountain, a wildland in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of western Virginia, has been recognized by the Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction. The Wilderness Society has designated the area as a “Mountain Treasure.”
Morgan Golladay brings her readers to dwell in the reverence of this wonderful wilderness. Golladay is an award-winning author who was raised on North Mountain and lives in coastal Delaware as part of a thriving artist and author community. All words and art in this book are by Golladay.

Paperback (available now)

Kindle (available now)

Audiobook (available now, and Audible account not needed to buy or listen!)

Good luck women! May your wonderful books triumph!

INSTANT NOODLES IS UP!

Published on by diannePLeave a comment

Check out the wonderful writing and art: curated by Old Scratch Press!
Lot’s of poetry for National Poetry Month plus other literary delights await you!

Just like a great lunch you can get it in an instant!

By the Time You Read This, You May Be Cooking Dinner

Published on by diannePLeave a comment
a photo of black radishes with a posterize filter from photoshop on them and a utensil crock behind them.
A photo I took, and then photoshopped a bit, of black radishes. I haven’t tried them yet. They’re as large as beets. Have you tried them?

As a human perhaps the toughest task I face is what the heck to feed me, and the spouse and child, each day for dinner. Breakfast everyone is on their own. Daughter, who has a light appetite, has a protein shake. Spouse, who has a sweet tooth, has some sort of flaky thing and coffee. I have several coffeeeeeees, and, well, I never know. Could be beans on toast. Coudl be leftover takeout. Could be tomatoes and olives in a bowl. Could be yogurt. Might be soup. Seldom is eggs.

Lunch… do people eat lunch? I don’t always. The meals seem to run into each other, and usually lunch is the loser for me, because there is not time to have breakfast, do all the morning things, then do the work things, and fit in lunch too, before it’s time for dinner. But I love lunch. I love lentils and tuna, salads of any kind, rice and tofu, possibly more yogurt. Daughter eats the same meal every day, packed in a lunch bag, Annie’s Organic Star Pasta. We put it in a thermos, and, for about four years now, she eats it…. every. single. day. Dedication. Spouse eats, most likely, more sweet and flaky things. But me, I am most apt to have more coffee, and maybe chomp on some lettuce as I am adding some to the guinea pig cage.

Dinner. Dinner ie exasperating. You know it is! There are, if your life is anything like mine, too many people (and we are only three) who like too disparate things, and have crazy schedules, and it can be downright tough to get everything ready on time for everyone’s schedule, but the toughest of all is thinking WHAT?? what to feed everyone.

Enter poetry, short memoir, short short stories, and art, to save the day, as usual!

As you may know, if you have read this blog before. I started a lit mag, Instant Noodles (gee, named after food. Obsessed? Maybe…..), and now Old Scratch Press is running it. Up until this year I was the only one choosing the pieces, and, often I was moved to choose pieces about food. And I have to say, on a side note, getting to read so many wonderful entries has been nothing but a pleasure. I love Instant Noodles, and I have really enjoyed all the pieces, and all the art too. But, yes, it may be possible to make the assumption that I am slightly food… centric? Motivated? Obsessed? And I have often been charmed by pieces that relate to food in some way, even if it is only in my mind.

And so, in this post, I want to direct you to take a look at a few of them.

The first is the memory piece by John Johnson, “Moss Soup and Manicotti,” where he remembers his grandmother’s cooking, “For love in this family was measured by the number of courses served and the temperature in the kitchen….”

“If Only,” by Bethany A. Beeler, is a wonderful painting that looks, to me, like my dearest love, a steaming mug of coffee:

My second favorite edible may be butter… True!

“…the wood cylinder moans,
the paddles slow,
the moon is full,
the butter comes.”

Writes Cynthia Gallaher in her poem “Butter Eaters.”

I have long loved, “This Is Just to Say,” by William Carlos Williams, the famous short piece about plums. I also love “Stolen Plums,” by Benjiman B. White:

“…In a lonely field

Full of future and autumn

And a windblown harvest

                        Forced by growth

To thump against gravity

And hunger….”

And, finally, if you cannot wait a second longer to eat, you can meet me and Willie Schatz in “Molly’s Magic Kitchen,”

“Shit! I forgot to buy the fucking fresh tomatoes. But we have sun-dried. I’ll work around it.”

     Of course she will, as she did two days prior when she forgot the dough needed 24 hours to rise and recovered by scrubbing the pizza for pasta primavera or five days earlier when she left her cherished butter lettuce at the grocery and could atone for the evil deed only with a luscious chopped salad or two weeks ago when she entered her realm crowing about the terrific tuna casserole we were going to enjoy only to realize she had bought sardines and would have to settle for a salad Niçoise (that of course was not chopped liver).

So, for dinner tonight, I fell back on a childhood meal that both my mother and my father used to make from time-to-time when magic and inspiration failed them: leftover meat in gravy ladled over extra cripsy toast. I like to eat mine with hot cherry peppers, and each bite will have, if I’m lucky, meat, bread, gravy, a smidgeon of some sort of potato (I made scalloped), a little scrap of veg., and a small bit of hot cherry pepper, to cut through all that thick buttery gravy and make the moutful pop.

It’s pouring down cold buckets of icy rain where I am.

Wherever you are, may you be full of something nice and warm.

What’s for dinner at your place?