Coming UP

The University of Iowa's on-line venue "Iowa Writes" for writers from Iowa or writing about Iowa got ahold of me and asked if they could publish my flash fiction "Dry and Yellow" in The Iowa Review. Hell yes! Suhweet. In the May, 2008 issue. Then I got my copy of Vestal Review, issue 31 with my short story "Quitting Smoking" in it and was thinking how there's room enough in this world for all of us. I received my first paycheck for a story, too--$15 for a flash fiction story. What a pretty paycheck. Tim Foley and friends new SF lit magazine The Farallon Review is going to be out in a couple of weeks. Who wants a copy? Get a hold of me to order. The --logo-- for it is rather cool. Check out his website: farallonreview.com. If you're a writer, you might think about submitting. They want SF writers or writers who have a specific Western take. BRAG BRAG. I have a soft spot in my heart for the story I submitted to it--it has blow jobs and boulder fights in it. Same old, same old, Ms. G. Hey, calling all on-line lit mag readers--nominate your favorite short story for the storySouth's Million Writers award. (Hint, hint: "Stories I heard when I went home for my grandmother's funeral" Storyglossia, Issue 24). Well, my daughter nominated me already, but she honestly loves that story. I have 9 brothers and sisters to put me up for it, too. But I do like that story. Actually, read Stephanie Dickinson's "Where the Flashlight Girls Run" on Storyglossia. It's an amazing story. Still reading Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock. C.J. Singh loaned me his copy of Deepening Fiction and I'm slogging through that, too. But really, too busy grading essays, group roles for novels, and reflective essays. Those personal reflection essays are cake--I learn the most interesting stuff about my students and I wonder how it is I don't even know who they are. This is the facade we all adopt . Go to class, behave, or act out, but who are we, really?

Girl Scout Cookies

Ayeee, I am overwhelmed with fat and sugar--GSCookies. Impossible to eat just one. BUSY grading those Great Gatsby essays, reading work from the writing class, and figuring out how to do an on-line signature for the FAFSA for my daughter's education. I say live at home and eat the parent's food and get free room and board, but independence is knocking. Not much new on the lit scene--I went to a reading by the USF alumni and was very impressed and entertained. I especially liked a story about a woman in a recovery type place. I'm reading Alice Munro's View From Castle Rock. At first, I didn't care for it, but once I got into it, I started enjoying it, appreciating the sense of history blended with story. Still trying to finish Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. This is not to disparage the quality of his writing--I'm just a short story reader. I am looking for several novels to read this spring and summer and am thinking of writing a novel, always thinking about that, but I think I'd need an MFA program to get it done. Every time I read a novel, I start thinking about writing one. Glad the primaries are winding down (or are they). I am not married to either Clinton or Obama, but I am worried about McCAin getting into office after hearing him speak on the radio today. It didn't sound like he'd be in any too much of a hurry to get us out of Iraq. or look into diplomatic and communicative ways to solve our country's issues in the Middle East. SCARY!