The Goat Herder

So, another few months have come and gone and I haven’t been on my best behavior in writing on my blog. Why? Because I’ve been busy. First, the Hercules High School Creative Writing class had to get their literary magazine The Dynamite Factory finished. It’s subtitled Aftershock and it’s amazing. Amazingly, it pretty much sold out. We have a few issues left, but those will go fast in the fall. I especially like the cover art by student Alyssa Dulaney.
I’ve also been prepping for my Thursday night class at the Writing Salon. We’ll be studying the craft of fiction writing and writing, writing, writing. The elements we study in the class are the tried and true standbys, but every term, I use fresh new stories. To that end, I’ve been reading this year’s O’Henry winners and the new edition of the Pushcarts. I also ordered Dzanc Publishing’s Best of the Web 2010. I really enjoyed their edition last year and look forward to seeing what Dzanc considers the best on-line writing to be.
Thanks to Laura Riggs for organizing the Father’s Day reading in Berkeley called Daddy-O. It was packed and, my favorite outdated word to use, awesome. I was impressed by all the readers.
Personally exciting news is that Crab Orchard Review accepted a favorite story of mine called “Goat Herder” for publication in their next issue out in late July. I’m honored and hope you’ll read the issue.
Mostly, is mostly a word even? Mostly, I haven’t been blogging because I want to find a way to find this blog more meaningful than simply self-promoting, although I make no apologies for self-promoting. How can I get the word out that I teach fiction writing and have a reading coming up or a story coming out unless I use every avenue available. However, I like what my friend and colleague Ken Rodgers is doing with his blog—posting short essays and stories and poems he’s written involving his travels and life (and his fictional life). I also like Meg Pokrass’s blog—she offers up free word banks for writing, especially tuned to flash fiction. Check out the website Fictionaut to see some of the best and most intriguing flash on-line.
My main concern is that blogging is a business tool that I’m using to avoid the daily writing…so I will end with that and go back to work on my story that is overdue to a writing friend.
Cheers.