Finally, some happy news. Though it is not official on the website yet, Writers of the Future just informed me that my short story Ferris Wheel has received an honorable mention for the contest's 2nd Quarter 2018. I am super excited about this because I've experienced a bit of a WotF drought since my short story Alchemical Reminiscence of Death won an honorable mention back in 2015.

For those of you not familiar, the contest is actually the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest presented by L. Ron Hubbard. Politics aside, it is a wonderful free contest open to science fiction and fantasy short stories under 17,000 words. There are 4 quarters each year and you can enter each only once, but that's still 4 free entries a year! (Personally, I'm lucky to write 4 short stories a year). Also, not only do the first, second, and third prize winners receive cashy money, they are also invited to attend a complementary writing workshop in California taught by some huge name authors as well as a gala awards ceremony. Please note that this contest is only open to non-professional writers and you can only win once. Visit the website Rules Page for further clarification.

Anyways, just wanted to share. Woohoo!

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.

No one, not even teachers, have more free time for writing in the summer. Don't kid yourself. Summertime is filled with friends, family, vacations, yard work, hiking, biking, festivals, 5Ks, parties, graduations, home repairs, garage sales, cleaning, gardening, BBQs, and everything else that is not writing. I'm currently having a really tough time making time for writing and not getting completely overwhelmed with everything else "summer," and I wish I had some great advice for you on how to manage your time. Unfortunately, I don't. All I can say is I'm doing my best to squeeze in at least an hour a day of dedicated writing.
Good luck to you.

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.

So this week I've finished reading two books, both of which were emotionally disruptive. I will refrain from releasing the titles or authors of these monstrosities, but will note that one is a best seller and one is the work of a first-time author.

Why were these books emotionally disruptive? The first, in addition to being overwrought and poorly written (my opinion) had a first person perspective of a female, Armenian sex slave, but was written by a man. Now, in my own personal world this is just a NOPE. I do not believe that any amount of research can give a man the understanding to write a first person account like this authentically. Sorry.

I may have been more lenient with this opinion if in the acknowledgements the author had mentioned all of the interviews he had conducted with persons involved in the liberation of victims of human trafficking, but he did not. He only mentioned two agencies involved in this work, one of which is not even ranked on Charity Navigator.

Now, I have rage issues with men representing sensitive issues like rape from a woman's point of view in literature, period, but particularly from a first person POV. Sorry, you don't know, you can't know. Also, maybe if the author had handled the subject more delicately and respectfully, I'd've given him more leeway, but he didn't. There is one particularly despicable line where an emotionally traumatized wife asked her husband to "fuck her silly" which made me want to vomit. And before you defend the author and a woman's right to be into sex, let me just tell you that it was completely out of character for the woman. Before my blood pressure gets any higher, I have to move on to the second book.

In the second book, which is a spoof novel filled with puns, pretty much out of nowhere, there is a joke about someone being mentally handicapped. WTF. I suppose it could be true that this book was originally written in the 1980s and only published now, but still. If this book was beta read at all, shame on those readers for not picking up on something that made me stop and say aloud, WTF. Overall this book needed a sensitivity reader, but I overlooked several bad stereotypes in the name of comedy. Making fun of a retarded person is not funny, never had been, even when it was prevalent in media. If this ridiculously offensive exchange hadn't been on the second to last page, I would've put the book down and not finished it. And now I'm going to recycle it.

I consider myself to be an overly sensitive person. I describe myself as having "pathological empathy." However, I do not feel like I am overreacting to these books. These books were published within the last two years and we've come a long way as a society with regards to putting up with insensitivity in literature. In an age of sensitivity readers, the common reader shouldn't have to be exposed to this kind of enraging garbage. Come on people, get it together.

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.