The South Bay Scribes

The South Bay Scribes

I can't put my finger on the precise date, but somewhere along the way I wandered off the path and away from my focus on writing. My last post here was in March, a distant five months ago. My novel, "The Majik of Spark," is finished but hasn't found an agent. The plan to self-publish remains an idea, not an action. I wrote a new story, "The Royal Gramma." It was well received in our writer's group, but other than losing a writer's contest it lays fallow.

During my five month haitus our writer's group drifted apart following the tragic death of our leader, Gerardo. Most of the original group I belonged to simply stopped coming and I eventually lost track of them. The South Bay Scribes took me in, led by Charlie Berigan. I felt immediately comfortable with the new group. The jokes about how to discern between the two Charlie's when getting our attention grew, and to this moment we both still respond to any and all form's of "Charlie." One member of Gerardo's group also came to the South Bay Scribes, Robert, and he also helped draw me into the group, for which I'm grateful.

I met many new friends and they soon got to know me, my writing, and my penchant for endlessly doodling during the meetings. My "doodling" morphed into a sort of artform and the more artistic in the group, like Susan, took my better pieces and fit them into our chap books. I can now say I'm both writer and artist.

My artwork has recently taken a new direction. I'm not sure who to give the credit to, but whoever it was showed me a coloring book for adults. I was fascinated, and did some research. The patterns used in virutally every book I checked was nice, but repetitive. Most books were based on the same set of patterns.

I can do that, was my first reaction. My second reaction was, I can do it better, with patterns that are unique and original, not cookie-cutter. I am now working on marketing my "Uniquely Original Art Coloring Book for Adults."

Writer's Digest 2015 Short Story Competition Results

Writer's Digest 2015 Short Story Competition Results

The results are in and my entry, "The Royal Gramma" did not win any prizes. There were over 6,700 entries. Quoting, the "winner's names will be made public when they appear in the July/August 2016 issue of Writer's Digest magazine. Afterwards, their names and story titles will be posted at www.writersdigest.com. The competition collection has a May 2016 publication date and we anticipate that we will begin mailing in June."

So there we are. I'm disappointed, of course. More than disappointed. I really thought the story worthy of publication. This isn't the end, and I will be working on finding a home for the story.

In other news I am actively working on the "Song of Chord." This is the second book following "The Majik of Spark." The first book is still making the rounds of publishers and literary agents. I am also considering a shorter work based on the trilogy as a means to get more interest in the novel. I'm exploring a number of possibilities.

Writer's Digest Short Story Contest

Writer's Digest Short Story Contest

Writer's Digest does an annual short story competition for all genres. The only rule is that the story has to be under 1500 words. The first place winner of the competition receives $3,000. The top twenty-five submissions will also receive at least $25. The most important prize, though, is that the top ten submissions will be published.

I have several projects in work, but the story I felt was the best for the contest takes me back to the late 1960's when we lived on the Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When I first started writing the story, I didn't think I had enough content to get close to the 1500 word limit. I should have known better. In writing the non-fiction story about the three years we lived there, I began to remember more and more. Soon, I was struggling to keep the story under those 1500 words.

Judi came to the rescue by pointing out that there was an episode in the story that didn't fit.  I liked that episode, which was funny and scary at the same time. On second reading, though, it was obvious that it interupted the flow of the story and did not add to the central theme. The result is a better story - and cutting that scene brought the story back under the word count restriction.

The name of the story is "The Royal Gramma." I sent the story to the Writer's Digest contest. The contest closed on 15 January, and winners will be announced sometime in February.