Fall Updates: Workshops, acceptances, and big plans for the next year!

Early fall (pre-equinox) seems like the perfect time to share "how I spent my summer." (I won't say vacation because there was plenty of hard work in there even if I did go on hiatus for 6 weeks.)

July was all about the Port Townsend Writers Conference

Bill Ransom workshop 

I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure in hybrid forms with one of THE original founders of the PTWC. We took some risks, he shared some Wayback Machine worthy tidbits about the conference grounds and life in town, and I made some new friends. I also had a great camping experience down at the beach, and put in some serious walking time while listening to the first two seasons of Serial. 

August was all about the Hugo House

Waverly Fitzgerald workshop

I started this prior to Centrum/PTWC and missed one class, but came back and finished "Submission Strategies" in mid-August. During that time, I reacquainted myself with guerilla submission tactics I've used in the past, and to good outcomes (see below). I also (insert chorus of trumpets here) made  my first submission of my abecedarian collection (that was on July 17 while I was in PT, actually). 

September started with the PNWA

Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference 2018

I followed the marketing track mostly because I am preparing to make some moves in 2019 (see below). I also found the first day of marketing workshops totally worth the price of the entire conference. So much has changed in the field of indy publishing, POD, and related technologies, services, and distributors. I'm still learning more about KDP, the evaporation of CreateSpace, and challenges to others like IngramSpark. Never a dull moment.

September midstream

SleepyHeadCENTRAL.com is 4 today!

Well, technically, it's closer to 5 (when my dream was first born), but I launched my active sleep health and news clearinghouse exactly 4 years ago today. 

September in the crystal ball

American Association of Sleep Technologists annual meeting, 2018

I'm heading to Indianapolis at the end of the month for the big event, where I will be giving two presentations, one on "Unauthorized CPAP" and the other on "Multiple Sclerosis & Sleep Disorders." 

October and beyond

Washington State Sleep Society annual meeting 2018

I'm retiring as secretary of this organization after 5 years, but will be there for this regular event in mid-October featuring some great speakers and topics related to sleep health education and technology. I look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones!

Richard Hugo House reopens!!!!
I'll miss the grand opening this coming weekend but plan to make a trip over for a class, an event... something to check out the new digs! So excited!

And yes, I #amwriting

My current professional writing and editing status: 

• I'm writing and producing continuing education seminars, working on pieces for the industry magazine, A2Zzz, and posting weekly on the blog for the AAST
• I'm still writing my column at Health Union, while taking a short hiatus from BioNews Services
• I'm working toward a potential new gig starting later in the year in the field of sleep health
• SleepyHeadCENTRAL.com still captures some of my attention
• I am evolving SHC to a beefed-up satellite site and blogging less, to make more room for a future podcast ("ZZZCast") 
• I continue to edit and produce SHC's new literary quarterly, VitaminZZZ, which launched last winter 
• I'm waiting to see the fruit of shared labor last winter when sleep tech Rui de Sousa and I composed an updated chapter on Hypersomnia for a new sleep technology textbook coming out (I think?) this month. I was second author, and really excited to see it in its final form. 
• I have a couple of nonfiction books to review that are related to sleep, as well. 

As for my creative writing, here's what I am looking at between now and the end of the year:

• Polishing and submitting my abecedarian chapbook manuscript (and that includes sending out individual pieces, as well
• Polishing a new short story collection with the help of an independent editor to prepare for self publication in 2019
• Working on a new novel manuscript I started while at the PTWC
• Continuing to research and outline a book on illness narrative in conjunction with a workshop I'd like to teach on the topic
  

And yes, I #amreading

• The Power (Naomi Alderman) *
• Rootless (Chris Howard)
• So Lucky (Nicola Griffith)
• Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel)
• The Postmortal (Drew Magary)
• Soft Apocalypse (Will McIntosh)
• Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)
• White is for Witching (Helen Oyeyemi)
• Exit Channel (Lily Vonderheide)
• The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)
• The Forgiven (Lawrence Osborne)
• Fever Dream (Samanta Schweblin)
*What I'm reading now

Acceptances/publications for 2017

With thanks to the support of the crew in Waverly's workshop (see above), I have a few accepts to show for my efforts! Here's an update for folks who take an interest in such matters:

Poetry

• "American Blackshirt,"On September 22," and "Slow Information" in Collective Unrest (reprints)
• "Sideways" in Postcard Poems and Prose (original)

Short Stories

• "April 9" in Crab Creek Review (original)
  

Flash Nonfiction

• "The Expert" in Halfway Down the Stairs (original)
• "Gaze" in The Nervous Breakdown (original)
• "Onset, Multiple Sclerosis, August 1975" (original)
  

Submissions since Jan 1

• Poetry - 58 poems submitted
• Poetry Collection - 4 manuscripts submitted
• Fiction - 16 story submissions
• Nonfiction - 40 submitted

Submissions still under consideration

• Poetry - 38 poems 
• Poetry Collection - 4 manuscripts
• Fiction - 10 stories 
• Nonfiction - 19 essays, creative nonfiction, or flash nonfiction

This doesn't count the half dozen or so manuscripts I've withdrawn over the last year because they were pushing one year responses. That's just too long; I find that to be an inexcusable practice among literary publishers.

Coming up

I'll be missing the Autumn YAWP at Centrum in Port Townsend because my daughter is performing in a show that same weekend. BUT! I'm heading to Oysterville, WA to hang out in an Airbnb on the back side of a bakery and hope to log some serious writing hours then. 

In January, I don't believe the Winter YAWP is returning, but that's okay... I've got another Airbnb A-frame house south of Hood Canal reserved for a full on, week-long silent retreat to get my writing year off to a productive start. 

I'm also biting the bullet and going to AWP in Portland next April. I've got reservations at a hipster hotel just a block off the people mover, and will spend some time with friends and family locally, as these are old stomping grounds for me. 

July 2019 brings the PTWC and I'll be camping out again next year. I'm not sure what my plans are just yet, I only know that I'll be going.  I'm also heading back to Indianapolis in August 2019 to watch my youngest shine at the DCI Championships at Lucas Oil Stadium, where she will be "aging out" with the most elite drum and bugle corps in the world. 

Also in 2019: I'll be launching a new sleep-related podcast as well as continuing publication of VitaminZZZ. 

That's it in a big, fat nutshell, the kind a squirrel dreams of. Thanks for your support as friends, readers, and peers!

~Tamara

In case you are wondering what I've been writing about...

Here's a list of sites I write for these days, and these links will take you specifically to my work.

SLEEP HEALTH

• Sleep Resolutions Sleep-Talkers
• Somnosure Education Center
• Sound Sleep Health

THERAPEUTIC FISHING IN ALASKA

• Free Waters Fishing Experience Service

ORTHOPEDICS & SPORTS MEDICINE

• Coastal Orthopedics Texas Gulf Coast Orthopedic Center

...And coming up this spring...

• MultipleSclerosis.net (for obvious reasons)
• The AAST blog (for the American Association of Sleep Technologists)

Drop me a note at any of my posts and leave a comment! 

More about my current writing life adventures in the WHAT'S UP section. Thanks for your support!

Nobody is going to read my SuperBowl Sunday post, but here it is anyway.

I'll be watching, too, cheering on the Sea-Broncs, because West is Best and I'm not a fan of the Cam.

I've been cleaning up my emails and files and general office clutter today, meanwhile. And I realized I hadn't yet updated my WHAT'S UP page for the month.

So here you go. 

It's not all football and paper cuts here in Sellmanville, despite the opening to this post.

I've been writing like a fiend to advance awareness of sleep health.

I've been doing all my usual things as the mom of an amazing teenage superhuman who dances, thinks, laughs, and leads like nobody else I know. I'm not objective, but I can supply independent sources, if you like. That seems to be all the rage these days on the internet, anyway, even from people who don't quite understand what that actually means.

I've been watching town hall meetings.

I've been reading fiction and watching the squirrels reclaim their posts on the back deck.

I've been cutting over to an old-school time management system and have completely weaned myself off the tyranny that is Google calendar.

I've been making clarified butter.

I've been watching Making a Murderer.

I've been noticing the buds on the trees and under the bushes.

I've been giving my keys to Thing #2, now that she is fully licensed, so I am no longer Mom the Chaperone, which deserves a celebration equivalent to Mardi Gras.

I've been planning trips for work (Louisville in March).

I've been watching this year's Oscar nominations.

I've been thinking about camping this summer, eyeing the new zero-gravity camp chaise I got from Santa this year.

But enough about this. Check out my What's Up page if you want to know about my writing life. There's a boatload of that going on as well.

SEA-Broncs!

PREDICTION: 2016 is going to be a very good year!

Hope you are getting your new year off to a productive start! Check out my What's New? page to get the December boilerplate and catch up on all my latest writing gigs and efforts.

Check out the links below to see what I'm up to these days in the science writing world:

• SomnoSure -- Different Types of Home Sleep Studies 12.31.15
• SomnoSure -- For Sleep Centers: The benefits of outsourcing sleep study scoring 12.28.15
• SomnoSure -- Who is NOT a Good Candidate For a Home Sleep Study? 12.22.15
• SomnoSure -- Traveling Tips with a CPAP Machine: Airlines and Camping 12.18.15
• SomnoSure -- What is a Home Sleep Study? 12.16.15
• SomnoSure -- Is Snoring Bad For You? Risks, Consequences, and Solutions 12.15.15
• SomnoSure -- How Much Sleep Do I Need? Across the Ages 12.9.15
• SomnoSure -- What is Seasonal Affective Disorder? Causes, symptoms and treatments 12.8.15
• SomnoSure -- "Sleep debt: Signs, symptoms and solutions" 12.5.15
• SomnoSure -- "CPAP vs BiPAP for COPD: Which is best?" 12.2.15

December brings a review of November gains and losses in the writing life (but mostly GAINS!!!)

Lots of news these last few weeks! Check out my What's New? page to get the November boilerplate and catch up on all my latest writing gigs and efforts. Hint: I have a new job! Check out the links below to see what I'm up to these days in the science writing world:

• SomnoSure -- Snoring, Sleep Apnea, and Pregnancy: Risks and what to do 12.1.15

• SomnoSure -- "Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Depression" 11.26.15

• SomnoSure -- "Tired all the time? Maybe you have a sleep disorder" 11.24.15

• SomnoSure -- The Relationship Between Sleep Apnea and Diabetes 11.18.15

[#AMWRITING] 11 poems in 15 hours

Late Saturday Night, my own personal writing workshop 

Last weekend I spent Thursday night through midday Sunday at the autumn #YAWP event at Port Townsend where a couple dozen writers gathered to work out their muscles on morning freewrites, then head for their writing spaces to keep the action going. Some were there for NaNoWriMo, others were brainstorming the orders of poems in chapbooks, still others were just throwing themselves to the writerly winds like the leaves tossed around in the fall bluster.

Getting prepped for the weekend
with a pot of buffalo chili,
a campfire and stars

I went in with a plan to write an abecedarian chapbook, 26 poems linked by the alphabet and a singular theme (which I won't reveal right now). Thursday night I spent in front of the campfire (every time I head up to Port Townsend these days, I stay in my camping trailer rather than the facilities at Fort Worden, where I can cook, have campfires, etc.).

The night was clear and crisp, stars burning overhead... a great opportunity to cook buffalo chili on the outside burner (my trailer has a second tailgate kitchen outside), then sit and warm my shins in front of smoky, glimmering coals and flames. Afterward, I read.

On Friday, I took part in the freewrites from ten to noon and blasted out some fresh material previously lost to memory, about a funeral, plus new massaging of the idea of campfires, coals and Icarus (hmmm, what could have inspired that?) as well as an incredible launch into remembrances that will fuel future writing projects (thank you, Rebecca Brown!).

I had worldly work to do on Friday--launching my weekly curation of sleep news--and found a cozy tea house, Pippa's, in downtown Port Townsend to web-connect and got that done. Their iced Lady Grey Tea is fabulous, by the way.

Afterward I came back and wrote two brand-new poems toward the abecedarian in just about two hours (I also spent about thirty minutes of that time wrangling with the architecture of the book).

Then I was off to dinner and a reading with my literary sister from another mister, Kristy Webster, who launched her first short story collection, The Gift of an Imaginary Girl, at Imprint Books. So many great stories, ideas, people... afterward, I came back and wrote three more poems (C, D and E) in the space of two hours. Creative energy is sustaining like that.

And I read some more. Brain on Fire, in case you're wondering. The title, at least, seems apropo in hindsight.

No recipe, just a good pot, fresh
food and a will to live. 

Saturday rolled around and I felt compelled to keep on this sprint of new poem creation, so I skipped the morning freewrites (certainly an acceptable practice at the YAWP, which is ultimately all about writers writing however they must) and pinched out four more poems while a pot roast with carrots, thyme, onions, mushrooms and parsnips simmered on the inside burner.

At dinner hour, I took a break, indulged in pot roast, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, then realized I had yet to even shower.

Meanwhile, another reading was slated to take place that night in downtown Port Townsend, featuring my brother from another mother, Jordan Hartt as he launched his new book of poems, Leap.

Jordan, I'm holding
out for my signed
copy!

Ack! What to do? Shower and arrive late or go with the flow that Jordan opens up for all of us during these YAWP weekends: to write, then write some more.

I chose pajamas. I wrote some more, and poems J and K were born before my neurologically challenged brain showed me the brick wall two hours later. I switched up only slightly and went to bed, and read some more.

Next morning, I ate and showered, then discovered that one of my poems, poem F, was actually a poem within a poem, so I liberated poem R into being and added new layers to poem K. Two more hours passed and then it was time to go, no farewell breakfast, no friendly waves or honks to my cohorts. The drive home was quiet and beautiful, fall gold against a rain-washed blue sky, and the mountains were laced in new snow.

Just now, I re-read what I wrote this weekend and encountered the same feeling I often experience after an immersive period of write: a mixture of Wow, of "I don't remember even writing that!", of my tinkering brain already shaping a revision strategy (a good thing), and noticing the new ideas already taking residence in the pages I'd reserved for them, anticipating their eventual visit.

I am not sure if the gang at the YAWP made it back to House 259 for their evening share following Jordan's reading on Saturday night, but I think they will forgive me knowing I was writing and reading and doing the things that YAWP permits.


Still, I missed out on hugs and words with so many fine people, like Bonnie and Tom and D.D. and Diana, Charisse and Rebecca, Christine and Grace (who I actually did see at the Safeway on Friday night when I stopped in for a post-reading slice of pumpkin pie) and many more.

Thank you to my family of muses again for an incredibly productive weekend; you may not have seen much of me but your energy launched me yet again, for which I'm forever grateful.

[FOLLOW UP] Link to a poem

I promised you a link to my recently accepted poem posted at HIV Here & Now... Here goes! Enjoy and please take a look at the project's main page while you're there, to learn the story behind this important effort.

Poem 155 ± November 5, 2015: IMMORTALITY, by Tamara Kaye Sellman

[WERDZ] This is why you should open your mail from publishers right away...

I got the letter from Weber: The Contemporary West two weeks ago. It has sat on my desk all this time, while I launched a new website, did the major busywork that sending a kid off to freshman year at college halfway across the country entails, prepared my home for the send-off party while also pre-writing nearly 20 blog entries to auto-post at the new website over the next 3 weeks while I am out of town in New York, then in Portland.

When I get paper mail from publications, I automatically think it is a request to subscribe. Now, please note, I didn't toss the letter. It has been in the inbox all this time because I will always consider requests to subscribe. It just wasn't at the top of my priorities these last couple of weeks.

Here's a hint if this is your practice as well... if the letter is hand-addressed to you, and not stamped for presort? OPEN IT.

I got an email from the ever-patient Kristin at Weber yesterday asking me if I had received a letter from them recently. The email subject was "Weber Award."

Of course, I was at work at the sleep lab when I read this email, which means it was close to midnight last night and I could not hope to be home from work until at least 730 today.

When I finally got home at 7am (lucky me, I was out early, with only one patient who was easy to check out this morning... not all of them are!), I tore into the envelope and discovered I had won a literary prize.

"The Dr. O. Marvin Lewis Award of $500 is presented annually in the fall edition of Weber to the author of a work of essay/personal narrative selected as the 'best' published in Weber during the previous year."

Perhaps as thrilling for me to discover was the fact that the prize namesake is a retired medical practitioner who is also a literary writer and arts advocate. A man after my own, newly updated career heart! Even if my essay is not medical in nature, my life today most certainly is, and so I leave you with the thought that the universe speaks to us in myriad lovely ways, if only we should listen (and open our mail promptly!).

Check out my essay here. And thank you, Weber, for validating this choice of mine: to leave behind the charmed literary bubble for a life in the working world while continuing my path as a writer. This will fuel my efforts for a long, long time!

[PROJEX] What I've been working on...

Yes, I've been absent (mostly) from this blog, but it's because I'm doing this instead...

All design and content by yours truly. Please stop by and consider following me on this new journey!

[WERDZ] The Writing Process Blog Tour Stop for August 13: WELCOME TO MY WRITING LIFE!

Lucky me, my lovely writer pal Donna Miscolta invited me to participate in the Writing Process Blog Tour this summer! 

Donna is the author of the novel When the de la Cruz Family Danced. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals, and her story collection Natalie Wood’s Fake Puerto Rican Accent was selected by Peter Ho Davies as a finalist for the 2010 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. She has received over a dozen grants and fellowships and has been awarded artist residencies at Anderson Center for the Interdisciplinary Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. See her website and blog at www.donnamiscolta.com.

Better yet... Read Donna's post from last week.

So you might be asking yourself... 
What is a blog tour?

It's a kind of rolling "tag your it" approach to blogging which links like-minded people by interest. In this case, it's all about writers. I participated in a magical realist blog tour (also known as a blog hop) last week as well. Creative "makers," of jewelry, home arts, gardening, and media reviewers, foodies and the like all participate in blog tours or blog hops pretty regularly as a social media tactic but also to just celebrate what they do as broadly as they can. Blog tours are a chief way that authors can generate buzz for their new books. Luckily for me, this blog tour doesn't require that you have your own book to hawk. 

The main point of a blog tour for readers is to connect with these writers and their special interests. If you're not a writer, but a reader, you will likely enjoy many of these blog posts because there is a popular fascination about the writing life not only among writers but also among readers. That's what makes this particular blog tour really appealing... it helps unite both sides of the literary contract--the writer with the reader.

Here are my answers below. Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoy yourself! Please read the work of my tagged writer pals listed below as well. You can't go wrong, as I only associate with the most interesting people in the world. ;)

WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR Q&Afeaturing TAMARA KAYE SELLMAN

________________

"My six-word memoir:

'Tell me I can't... I will.'"

--Tamara Kaye Sellman

________________

1) What are you working on?

TKS: Always, there are irons in the fire.

I'm managing two websites right now related to my profession in sleep health technology and education, so there's a lot of content writing and blogging going on there all the time. I'm also the secretary of the Washington State Sleep Society, so I am generating a lot of promotional content for their upcoming conference. 

In the arena of long fiction, not a lot has happened in a few years. I think about my books all the time--I have written six novels, but they remain in various drafts. One is a YA novel, one is my most current project (first in a paranormal series, so I have the additional task of laying down foundation for the next books as well as revisions to tackle on this first book), and the four others are stand-alone novels. Going back to school and launching a career change that began in 2012 has meant putting these books on hold, but I still love what I've started and hope to get back to them when life settles.

Short fiction: Hmmmm. I just wrote a few flashies at Centrum and need to spit polish them. Probably can't get to that until the fall. But I sure have a blast when I work in this form. I must say, I think, besides blogging, it's my favorite form.

I have, however, finished and submitted a personal essay to an anthology requesting work on a specific theme, and I feel pretty good about that piece. That one came to me at Centrum as well. I want to do more work in personal essays and the segmented essay form, which my friend and instructor Sayantani Dasgupta turned me on to at that conference. 

Ideas to tackle in the category of food writing constantly emerge for me. I am taking notes and imagining projects for now.

Poetry is NOT on the table right now. I find it is the easiest form to write but it ends up eating up the tiny amount of writing time I have and my heart, frankly, is in prose. 

In my personal life, there's a lot of transition and family milestones happening these days. One daughter was graduated from high school last June and is heading to NY state for college in 10 days. The other is 16 and ambitious, so she'll be keeping me on my toes these next two years (and I do so with pleasure!). I am Sandwich Generation, so that means I am tending (as much as I am able) to the healthcare and logistical needs of both my parents and my mother in law. None of this ever occurs at a time or place of convenience in my life. In addition, my own healthcare issues (I have a chronic, incurable health condition) comprise a daily draw on my time and energy and my needs here often override all the best laid plans of my writing life.

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?

TKS: I love experimentation: with form, idea, language. I am perhaps more open to work that breaks rules, pushes boundaries, and plays with structure. I have little tolerance for popular fiction so I'm sure my writing reflects that as well. 

I have been told my writing is multilayered and insightful. I find literary magical realism, surrealism or fabulism sneaking into stories when I'm not looking. They are surprise demons of delight. I will never deny them their presence. 

I think my background in journalism informs my creative writing as well. Sometimes truth truly is stranger than fiction! Seriously, though, I think it is important as a writer and as a craftsperson to refine one's skills in all genres. That doesn't mean you will be great at everything you write (I can write a teleplay but it's not going to ever be picked up, for instance), it just means you are willing to stretch your skills as a writer. I don't think a writer can truly be called a writer unless they try on all the different ways they can write. That, in and of itself, can take a lifetime. 

Also, there's something about going back to the working world (specifically, allied healthcare and health education) that's been very refreshing for me and I can see it in my own work now. I'm now employed in a position not deeply entrenched in the literary (where I spent 15 years prior). I find I am far more interested in writing work that is emotionally and politically and personally relevant to "nonwriter" readers. Does that make sense? I want to write for the Everyperson; I want to write stories that move them to act or think in a brand-new way. They are usually a different crowd from my literary friends (although occasionally I run into people who belong to both parts of that Venn diagram).

I have since lost interest in so-called "literary" writing which seems to exist in a vacuum, which doesn't seem to touch ordinary people. I want more than for my own friends and family to read what I write and strive to, instead, reach readers halfway across the state--heck, halfway around the world!--with artful, universal stories that give people landmarks of meaning. 

I also write because I am compelled to and not because of any commercial desire to "succeed" as a published writer. This means I grant myself permission to write whatever I like, along with the responsibility toward achieving both the level of craft and quality control that this direction requires. Writing what you want is harder because it has to be stellar if it's going to break with expectation and still be published, produced or otherwise shared. 

I don't easily or willingly slide into common genres when it comes to my creative writing, but that's just fine with me. I still manage to publish most things I put out there in the wilderness. Of course, this means my work will be different from many others because it's not so easily defined by a category or a market.

3) Why do you write what you do?

TKS: My six-word memoir: "Tell me I can't... I will."

I write to tell the truth. I write to share the stories of those without voices. I write what I write because I am a feminist. I write because I can't help it. I write to push back. I write to expose. I write because the world pisses me off. I write because the world forgets how beautiful it is. I write because story--whether I'm writing it or encountering it from someone else--matters to my soul's survival.

It's who I am, it's what I do. I started writing complete sentences at age 4 and decided at that very early age that I would be a writer my entire life. I'm 50 next year. The mission continues.

4) How does your writing process work?

TKS: It depends where I am in my own lifespan. When my children were young, I wrote when they slept. Then I wrote when they were at camp, then at school. Now they are older, but I am working outside the home, so now I write whenever life allows me some moments. 

I don't believe in the bullshit "you can't call yourself a writer if you don't write everyday" tenet. I am constantly filling my well. I read voraciously across genres and media. I am constantly taking notes and capturing ideas in an old school notebook-and-pen system that allows me to go back and revisit ideas when time presents itself. I have stopped enduring the guilt of giving up writing time for time with my family and friends or time spent caring for myself. The rule of writing everyday must have been established by some overstuffed, ascotted white male writer with a pipe in his mouth, sitting in a leather-and-mahogany-trimmed studio overlooking the tops of houses in some fancy city where someone else is paying for everything. I have a family to raise and bills to pay and chronic health problems that demand the kind of flexibility that one cannot have by being a "full-time professional writer." 

Maybe someday I will have loads and loads of time to kill and will be able to sit and write for hours on end, everyday, but for now, that option is ridiculous to even consider. In the meantime, I am still writing when I can, publishing most of everything I've ever written, and best of all, living the writing life on my own terms, drawn from a creative well freshly filled daily by life experience. 

-----

Here are the three writers I have tagged for next week. Please visit their blogs and read how they get 'er done. We all can learn from each other as writers. If you're not a writer, you will still delight in reading how writers' minds work... I know I never tire of hearing the process stories of my writing companions!

MEGAN LEE BEALS is an old sea witch who writes fairy tales and horror stories and has little clue of how to differentiate between them.  Her latest work can be found in The Future Embodied anthology, and look for her new fable which explains how all the pearls in the sea came to be swallowed by oysters in Luna Station Quarterly in September. http://beehills.me

TRISH BITTMAN is a writer, blogger, Social Media Guru as well as a wife and mom to three girls. She's a lover of martinis, dessert and 4-letter words and moved to Bainbridge Island after discovering it on the Internet. It turned out to be all she hoped for and more. http://www.3kidsandabreakdown.com/

NATASHA KOCHICHERIL MONI, a first-generation American of Dutch and East Indian origin, is a writer and a naturopathic medical student. Born in the North and raised in the South, she finds home in the Pacific Northwest. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Web and Best of the Net, has been awarded a Puffin Foundation grant, and has been acknowledged as finalist/semi-finalist in Crab Orchard Review, Black Lawrence Press, Dana Awards, and the Kundiman Vincent Chin Memorial Prize 
competitions. Her first full-length book, The Cardiologist's Daughter, will be released from Two Sylvias Press in Fall 2014. http://www.natashamoni.com/blog