Just another writer
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Writerly resolutions: July status
Got a new story workshopped with some good feedback on it and a thousand words of another story written. A workshopped story went into submissions. Paused a bit on the novel querying realizing that it needs some revision to be better. I’m making sure that the first 50 pages at least are as perfect as…
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Mass in small-town Pennsylvania
I’m always a little trepidatious about attending Mass when I get outside of my liberal Chicago suburb. I opted against going while in the Wisconsin Dells when, checking for Mass times on the local parish’s website, I came across a posting from the pastor arguing that Pope Francis wasn’t really Catholic. But I also don’t…
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Writerly resolutions: June status
My big thing this month, by far would be writer camp. I spent the last few days of the month in central Pennsylvania, mostly writing, although some reading, some talking with other writerly folks. A rather deep questioning about the novel, and whether I even have the right to write it (I think I do,…
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Writerly resolutions: a late May status
Somehow I managed to miss that I never did the May status post. Querying continues with disappointing results. I’ve finished a first draft of a new story. Still revising poems (and tossing a few into the trash heap). My submittable is down to seven entries.
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Thoughts on the slow-moving Church
Back in the 90s, my response to people saying that we needed to have married priests and women priests in the Catholic Church to respond to the priest shortage was to say that I didn’t think that was what the Holy Spirit was calling the Church to do (which is not to say that these…
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“A story with a happy ending”: The story behind the story
My newest publication, an excerpt from the novel I’m querying, was published in Nebo under the title, “A story with a happy ending.” This excerpt comes from late in the book as I start wrapping up characters’ stories and focuses on Adam Cushman, an American Jewish soldier after his return to the U.S. from his army…
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Writerly resolutions: April status
The querying continues with still more rejections. I’ve ended up revisiting the query letter and finding it wanting I’ve rewritten it for the May round of queries. Hopefully this will turn things around. I’ve managed to get my groove back with new writing. I had abandoned the word-count goal I’d used previously and it turns…
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Names in fiction
There was an article on NPR recently that cited a study showing that scientists with anglo names are more likely to be cited in news stories. My sense is that I tend to go with Slavic or Italian names for most of my characters, but I decided to dig a bit deeper and see what…
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Writerly resolutions: March status
The novel is finished and I’ve started the querying process with the first round of ten queries, including my first rejection from a query. I guess my depression is catching up with me a bit here. While going through old queries, I found myself wondering whether what I thought were personalized queries saying close but…