Flannery O'Connor quotation

From today's Writer's Almanac, from Garrison Keillor:

Flannery O'Connor said, "Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them."

wishin' and hopin' and dreamin'

I wish and hope and dream of writing time someday! Someday...

Seriously, teaching has been taking up most of my time. I haven't even been writing on any of my blogs lately. I visit my homegirls at my favorite message board, blog for my class blog (URL is private, sorry!), read for class, and prepare lessons for my classes. The good news is that I've got six weeks left! The bad news is that there's only six weeks left to get it all done!

Some good news to report:

• Nicole Johnson, my favorite actress and author of my favorite book Fresh-Brewed Life, got married recently! You can catch up with her on www.freshbrewedlife.com!
  
  
• Jen Abbas, author of Generation EX: Adult Children of Divorce and the Healing of Our Pain, is working on a new edition of her book for another publisher! Yay Jen! You go girl!
  
• We are still waiting to hear about whether or not DH will go active duty Air Force, rather than reserve like he is now. That uncertainty sometimes drives me completely insane, but other times I shove it out of my mind and don't even consider it.

Thought for Today

Toni Morrison wrote, "They straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places ... but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. ... All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place."

from today's Writer's Almanac, emphasis mine.

Sparse posts...

Back to work for me! I am going to be filling in for an educator on FMLA leave for the next ten weeks or so. I have spent this week in meetings and scrambling to prepare lessons. I really enjoyed my time away from the classroom, but I'm really excited about returning too. I just don't see how I can get everything done that I had planned to do the rest of the winter and spring.

Plus, when will I find time to write???

All this to say that if I'm not around my blog much, now you know why! I should be back to more regular blogging once I get back into the swing of things as a working mom.

I'm a Book Blogger!

I am now blogging for DotComWomen! I am their book blogger.
Come visit me there!
http://www.dcwblogs.com/books/index.php

I am hoping that this will be the start of something great!

A bit of a writing brag

I have been pursuing a few leads into the world of book reviewing. My goal is to increase my "clips" file (for those who aren't into the whole freelance writing world, very often editors want to see the prospective author's clips--what she has had published before). I have had four articles published (in print) over the course of the past seven years. That isn't really a whole lot! :) I have had probably twenty published in various online newsletters (not including a certain opinion-posting website, on which I earned over $100 for the year I wrote for them, but now I refuse to acknowledge their existence because they allow blatant lies and libel to remain on their site).

That said, I am now a reviewer for ArmchairInterviews.com, Debbie's women's newspaper called "Creative Grace,"and I am going to blog for DotComWomen.com. I am also a staff writer for WritersRemember.com!
Brooke Lea Foster's ACOD book came out this past week, and I was *supposed* to get my copy today, but no brown truck at my house. I'm very sad. Hopefully tomorrow! Then I can read it and add its statistics and wisdom to my article about ACODs and resubmit it to another magazine since a certain-shall-remain-nameless Christian Women's Magazine didn't want it.

Writer's Circle

Hey there! I haven't blogged on this blog in a while.

I had writer's circle today in my town. After they ripped apart a piece of my novel, they told me it was good. Interesting, eh?