Maria's Art ​and Words

Two of my works came out recently, a poem in Route 7 Review and a flash fiction story in Grub Street.

The poem, 'To the Idea of War,' started in a poetry class that I am taking. When I edited it for form, I experimented with the idea of choosing a couplet format that heightened the contrast within the lines.

The flash story, 'Flashlight,' also came out of a workshop. I wanted to experiment with voice and form. It's the first flash fiction story I have published, although I am working on several more. 

I have three publications pending--a painting in Mosaic Art and Literary Journal, a painting in Beechwood Review, and a photograph in A Literation. The photograph has interested me the most because it's long overdue for publication. Pretty soon, I think I will have to remove that particular credit from my list.

A Literation is a Tumblr blog and lit mag that focused on connecting writers on Tumblr. I received an acceptance from them last October, with the idea that my work would be included in the Winter issue. Since then, A Literation announced that it would be closing and that the issue would be published in partnership with someone else, with no timeframe given.

Since things move slowly in the publishing world and many lit mags operate on shoestring budgets with little financial reimbursement, it doesn't surprise me that A Literation shuttered. However, my work is now in limbo. 

I'll probably give it a couple more weeks and then ask around to see if I can figure out what's happening. The work isn't high priority, so if it doesn't get published here, I'll probably retire it and post it to my public portfolio.

I'm very busy this week trying to finish Campnanowrimo and other activities, so here's some short bullet points:

• I had a great raid night in GW2 yesterday in which we cleared Spirit Vale with little fuss.
• My poem, 'To the Idea of War,' has been accepted in Route 7 Review.
• I'm working on finishing up pieces for my writing classes.
• I should have a painting update this week!
• I'll be sending out the very first round of acceptances and rejections for Hapax shortly.

I hope everyone is having a good week and can get all their to-dos done!

I have been quite busy, doing over 9k words today for Nanowrimo. I think this will be a good final week for me, although there's a lot of obligations I have. I'm hoping that July will be calmer, but that almost never happens.

In any case, I think that if I can pump out another 6-8k tonight and tomorrow, I can still win. I'm a very bursty writer, and there's been a lot of prep work before I could even start writing and update my word count, such as outlining, rereading, and making sure my project had a good narrative arc. I still have an entire book project to revise, so it's not like I'm going to run out of work!

However, I would like to build in more of a regular writing process. Don't get me wrong--I spend a lot of time each week writing and planning to write, as well as submitting work and trying to establish an author platform, including this blog. But, I think that a routine or a weekly expectation for a word count would help me, as I can go through periods where I hardly write anything at all.

I hope that I'll have something valuable to share about my process. I'm also looking for July camp cabinmates, because my "surprise me!" cabins never seem to work out.