Hey Webmasters! New Photo Album Service Launched - Check it out!
When cleaning out ashes from our wood stove, I found a piece of curved wire fence as large as a loaf of bread. Apparently a tree had grown around it, engulfing it. It wasn’t exposed again until the wood was burned away. I thought . . . hmm . . . this has to be lucky. So I hung it from the coat hook in my hall. An hour later, we had a chimney fire.
My husband said he had it under control. When smoke started puffing from beneath the stove and curling out from the pipe connection in our bedroom utility closet, he said he had it under control. When the roar sounded like a tornado, he said he had it under control. I said, for the tenth time, “Maybe we should call the fire department.” He said, “Okay.” THEN I got scared.
By the time they arrived, fire was shooting six feet above the chimney stack. Our attic was full of smoke, as was our bedroom and Den. The bird was screeching, the dogs were howling and the sirens and smoke alarms were adding to the chaos.
As well as my mind was working at the time, I never went for our safe box with our wedding, birth and baptismal certificates. I never thought about grabbing our financial records, our photo albums or my jewelry. But I did put my zip drive with all my novels on a strap around my neck. If I had to leave, I had the important stuff right there.
A week later, and all is well. My drapes and bedspread needed dry cleaning anyway. I needed the exercise of washing down my walls. My carpets will get shampooed tonight. The aroma of wood smoke is comforting—like the smell of our cabin in the Catskills. Good thing, as it looks like, in spite of my measures, it will be around for a while. Yes, I know there are companies out there who specialize in cleaning up after something like this. But I’m a do-it-yourself kind of girl.
BTW, I tossed the fence piece in the trash post haste. I posted a couple of pictures. The day was pretty-our first snowfall of the year, and most-likely our last.
I have this “thing” about swamps and bayous and marshes. They are mysterious and compelling and I could drift through one in a canoe for hours--that is, I could if my husband would let me. His tolerance has boundaries. I think one of the draws is that I love reptiles--turtles, snakes, alligators, lizards. I love to see them in their natural habitat while I imagine myself to be a Cajun witch who lives on the banks of a shadowed, tea-colored, lazy stream amongst cypress dripping with Spanish Moss. He hates snakes. I mean, he HATES snakes. And can take or leave the rest of the species. To his credit, when we went to Florida this summer, between the theme parks, shopping and tourist attractions, he rented an airboat and took me to paradise. I snapped hundreds of photos. Dreamy, deep and mystifying, they take me back there when I look at them. I’ve posted a few in My Pictures. Take a look. I may never talk him into my dream vacation--a slow steamer down the Amazon River--but he did that for me and it was enough. Ain’t love grand?
Why do we writers enter writing competitions? Do we feel the need to compete as if writing was a physical sport? Do we have to prove the merit of our mental prowess? Do we want to win prizes, collect credentials, impress our peers? Are we seeking professional advice or validation as a writer?
Writing contests can be fun and a great boost in our journey to being a published author. They can bolster our self esteem and if we’re lucky, add to our resumes. In some cases, they may even be the start of new friendships as my first entry was. One of my judges strongly pursued my friendship, even phoning me from Pennsylvania, and was instrumental in my decision to join CRW and RWA.
Writing contests certainly aren’t cheap. A contest can deplete a writer’s personal funds by twenty-five to fifty dollars or more, depending on the contest requirements. And, they are time consuming. The first contests I entered, I simply chose my favorite scene or chapter, printed and mailed to any contest that was looking for the particular genre I was writing. I found out the hard way, it isn’t enough to write well, I had to be able to read the minds of the contest coordinators, judges and editors or agents that might request a partial of the winning entry. Then I had to take my favorite scene or chapter and re-write it to fit my expectations of their expectations.
I knew of a woman who entered the same chapter in thirteen consecutive contests, tweaking it each time to fit the guidelines and suggestions of the judges until it became a winner. Then she continued to enter it in several more contests, placing or winning. She knew what she was after and she went hell-bent for leather getting it. More power to her, but at that time, she was still unpublished in spite of her impressive wins. I wonder if all her energy might not have been better spent in queries and submissions.
Whatever our reasons for competing, we certainly have no lack of contests to enter. They’re available in a never-ending supply, creating the dilemma: Which ones should we enter? What are the prizes? A plaque? A certificate? Twenty-five dollars and a gold-plated pin? A feather boa? (Which I fully intend to have, one day—even bought the shoes to match.) And what do these prizes bring with them? A peek at our work by editors/agents seeking new authors in our genre? A full critique of the entry? A promise of publication?
In most cases, we receive our entries back in our self-addressed envelope, covered with enough stamps to make a car payment. Uh-oh. They sent it back. Must be we didn’t win. Now we have to open that envelope and actually read why we didn’t win. I don’t know about you, but when I’m faced with that envelope, I’m certain my entry was unworthy and inferior to every person who placed in or won the contest. I go on line and seek out the winning entries, hoping I can gain insight by their titles alone as to why their entries were better than mine.
It takes a while for me to remember writing is subjective. What one editor or judge may like, another may find boring or distasteful. I tell myself, the loss of a competition doesn’t mean my work is bad. It simply didn’t work for those who had the chance to read a portion of it. I usually take a day or two before I open that envelope and read the judges comments. I have to say, I have never been disappointed. I have received constructive criticism, sound advice and strong encouragement in every contest I’ve entered. I’ve even won a few. And each time, dashing aside the pain of losing and accepting the remarks I invited by entering, becomes a little easier.
I’ve been writing for years and I continue to enter writing competitions, but I am much more selective than I used to be. A few well-known contests with agent/editor readings are all I feel compelled to enter. I think I’ve reached the point where it’s more prudent to spend my time and money querying instead of entering.
I received a letter from an agent in New York today, telling me my manuscript has substance, great imagery and research. she likes my writing style. BUT--she found little errors. Punctuation, mostly. She asked me to do a line by line edit and return it to her. Two weeks ago, another agent from Kansas expressed an enthusiastic interest in my 25,000 word novella, asking that I pump it up into a 100,000 word novel. When it rains, it pours! If I'm going to do both, it's time to add a little organization to my life. I'm a "pantser"--a writer who writes by the seat of her pants. I don't plot my novels, instead I write as the thoughts stream through my mind. I seldom change anything once it's written. My life is pretty much the same. I'm a pantser there, too. I live in complete organization or chaos, depending on my immediate focus. When I'm writing, I'm ignoring things like housework, laundry, bill-paying and yard work. When I'm a good girl, and tend to my personal business, I have to set my writing aside. If I open one file, I'm lost. One word leads to a thousand, which leads to ten thousand and a pile of dirty laundry. Guess what I'm doing right now?
This spring weekend was the
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com