New and Different

It's almost spring, so time for something new and different on this blog. In addition to posting upcoming classes, which is a little dull, I'm going to begin doing some reportage at least weekly on what's actually going on in classes, what's developing for us as a group of Save Your Life Writers, and also news on my own writing front (at least the sending out seems like a battle at times).

An exciting development is the launch of our new zine. Taking a page from Ariel Gore and Kelly Link (check them out), we are starting a zine, at first of our own writings, then hopefully expanding it to other worthy, local writers. We will feature short stories, fairy tales, art, an advice column (writing, relationships, pet advice, anything, really, so if you have a burning question, please e-mail me), and who knows...The title is still uncertain, some idees are: Dreamink, Ink and Drink (oh, yes, we tipple occasionally in class), and Penelope's Persistent Pen. We don't know a Penelope, but perhaps one will emerge. It sounds interesting, anyway.

This week, one of the the exercises we did in class was:

DICE, in which we each threw the dice (I got them out of a Yahtzee game that happened to be hanging around the studio), then did free writes on the sentence or sentence fragment that matched the # we threw. Here are the sentences:
2) (you can't throw a 1, after all) Shady past
3)"I'll cut it off!"
4) The imaginary room
5) "Here, kitty, kitty."
6)He awoke possessing a surprising new talent.
7)Too much crap
8)Basted, toasted, roasted or fried
9)"Do you hear thunder?"
10)At the edge of a field
11)Abdow's Big Boy
12)On the hottest day of the year

It was a lot of fun. Try it.

My news is that I'm off to the vet, and then to e-mail an excerpt of my first novel, The Whole History of Lithia to an interested agent (YAY!). Wish me luck!