The Difference Between Honesty and Brutal Honesty.

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There's an old story (not sure if it is 100% true, just reciting what I learned from a book) about Soviet and British diplomats meeting in 1941, when World War Two was looking very bleak for both countries. Tensions were running high as the Germans were approaching Moscow and the Soviets were convinced the British weren't sending them enough help.

The British presented their figures on their war production and why there could be no greater help for the Soviets from them that year.

The Soviet response was, "Your figures are lies."

The meeting broke down in acrimony.

When the conference reconvened after the threat of a British walkout, the Soviets presented figures on their own war production.

The British response was, "I wonder if you could check those figures as they don't tally with the ones we have previously seen."

The conference proceeded and the Soviets admitted there had been an “error” in the calculation of some of their figures.

After the conference, the chief Soviet negotiator met with the British representative and congratulated him on the successful conclusion of negotiations. He asked him why he hadn't called the Soviet statistics lies.

“I did,” said the British negotiator.

___________________________

In writing as well as in life, the difference between honesty and brutal honesty can be the difference between winning a reluctant soul over to your side or repelling someone from your cause forever. Understand the difference, and you can call someone a liar without them even knowing it.

 

Oversharing.

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It’s a quandary that many writers face - how to tackle personal subjects in their writing without “oversharing” with readers.

If "oversharing" in your writing concerns you, too - and I’m aware that not everyone experiences this particular anxiety – reviewing these five tips from Erica Dreifus on The Missouri Review’s blog might be helpful.

http://www.missourireview.com/tmr-blog/2015/05/five-ways-for-writers-to-avoid-oversharing/

Secondhand Inspiration: How can more time = less writing?

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“More time to write can be just as daunting as no time to write.” Christi Craig contemplates on her blog how the rare anomaly of having too much time set aside for writing can actually impede progress. She also provides some key suggestion of how to overcome this phenomenon. Worth the read.

http://christicraig.com/2015/05/20/ive-got-all-day-to-write-um-now-what/

Resource for Writers: Reading Venues Database

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Found on the Poets & Writers website, “this database of venues that host readings and author events includes bookstores, bars, cafes, libraries, literary arts centers, and more. Here you'll find information about how to schedule your own reading, admission fees, audience size, parking and transit information, and more. Save your selections to My P&W and populate a personal Google Map that you use to plan your own reading tour or simply keep track of your favorite reading venues.”

Very useful.

http://www.pw.org/reading_venues

Yet another disjointed idea…

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…for a poem or story or rant or whatever the hell it will end up becoming. 

Please stop – these ideas are arriving too fast for me to handle, especially keeping my insomnia and attention deficit in mind. Not to mention the overtime I’ve been working. I'm becoming way too disorganized with these scraps of paper, post-it notes, pieces of napkins, whatever I can jot a phrase down on at the time.

The Beauty of Acceptance.

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After many, many rejection notices, I finally hit paydirt in the past few weeks.

My prose poem “No Black People Were Harmed in the Making of this Poem” will appear an upcoming edition of Kansas City Voices, a publication of Whispering Prairie Press. This will be my second time appearing in this journal.

My poem “Trial Separation” will appear in Volume 18 of Steam Ticket, a nationally distributed journal from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

I will also have several poems appearing in an upcoming edition of the Vermillion Literary Project, a student produced journal from the University of South Dakota.

And my poem “On the Occasion of My Untimely Demise” will appear in The Talking Stick, a Minnesota literary journal published by the Jackpine Writers' Bloc. It is produced entirely by Minnesota writers for Minnesota writers since 1995. There will be more news about that poem in a future post.

Huge thanks to the editors of these publications for a chance to contribute. Now it looks like I need to get back to writing before I run out of work to submit! Be good.

Flame: Shame on the USPS

Awhile back I was praising the US Postal Service on this blog for commemorating the late Maya Angelou with a “forever” stamp. Ms. Angelou was a huge influence on my early writing and I truly admired what I know of her personal history.

But the USPS screwed the pooch on this one, in case you haven’t heard. The task was straightforward: combine a picture of Ms. Angelou with one of her more memorable verses. And this is Maya Angelou we are talking about here, a woman who had hundreds of quotables during her lifetime. She was literally a walking quotable. Instead, they coupled her image with text written by Joan Walsh Anglund, a well-known children’s book author.

Takeaway: If you are going to do a tribute for someone, do all you can to make sure that you do it right. That is all.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/chi-is-maya-angelous-forever-stamp-error-comment-20150406-story.html

Three Pieces in A Quiet Courage & Stepping Outside of My Skin.

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I’m excited to announce that I have three new microfiction pieces featured in A Quiet Courage, an online literary journal that publishes compelling, poignant, memorable, and well-written microfiction and poetry in 100 words or less.

Deadbeat: https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/deadbeat/

Role Model: https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/role-model/

Appearances: https://aquietcourage.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/appearances/

Thanks to the editors who deemed my work worthy – much appreciated.

What these pieces have in common: focused, emotional description told in first or second person using the voices of characters that are absolutely nothing like me. This is what I love about writing – it gives you a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes (pardon the cliché). And I believe you have to completely sell out to that concept of what a character is all about in order to make a story seem genuine. I think I was all in with these three pieces – and that is something I need to do more often in my writing in order to make it resonate.

Memoir

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My story is the autobiography of a busted jukebox, with its soundtrack of contemplation and reluctant silence and an unfulfilled desire to croon ballads it doesn’t have the voice to sing. I sit unused in backrooms where jokers are still wild, philosophers sit atop barstools, and bad advice flows sweeter than any liquor poured in excess.

Secondhand Inspiration: April = National Poetry Month

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April is almost here. Which means it's time for National Poetry Month. Below are several sites/resources for those always-helpful prompts to write poetry. Since I’ve been creatively constipated lately, I'm looking forward to using these offerings to help kick-start my poetry practice in April.

2015 Poetic Asides PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2015-april-pad-challenge-guidelines

Poetry Super Highway Prompt-A-Day for National Poetry Month

http://poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/a-poetry-writing-prompt-a-day/

NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month)

http://www.napowrimo.net/about/

Spark: Sound Advice for Author Websites

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This brilliant and concise article by Jane Friedman provides authors, whether they have a book published or not, with wonderful guidelines for putting together an author website.

Some of the advice she has written here I already have put into practice, but I see many other suggestions that I need to consider for the future. As Ms. Friedman states, “Your website is never finished.”

Check out the link below if you are considering building a website from scratch or improving the web presence you currently have.

http://janefriedman.com/2015/03/26/author-website-components/