Dirt is Good For You

I am happy to announce my Babble.com essay "Straight to the Bottle" will be available in a collection of parenting essays called Dirt is Good for You starting September 9. It's available for preorder on Amazon.com right now if you want to check it out. 

If you ever felt like you screwed up with your kids, this book is a great little guilt-reliever. If you've never felt that way, well this book will horrify your socks off and you shouldn't read it. It's a collection of the popular "Bad Parent" columns Babble.com has published over the last few years.

Do You Really Want to Be in A Critique Group? Really?

It's critique week! Seeing lots of great posts around the blogosphere on critique groups and here is another over at Warriorwriter's Blog about what how a serious writer conducts themselves at critique vs the accolade-gathering, I'm-not-really-here-to-crit-anyone else writer. 

I love the analogy with Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares show. I haven't seen it, but now I must watch some episodes.

How to Give and Take Critiques

Sunrise by Tricia Grissom

Good morning.

Check out this excellent guest post from Rick Daley over on Nathan Bransford's blog about the do's and don'ts of critiques. Love the sandwich approach.

How to Write When you Despair of Being a Writer

Write like you are an adolescent and the words burn you like acid, the fumes rising out of you the only way to stave off anger and despair and the angst of growing into yourself.

Write like you are a woman with breast cancer who survived. So the woman with a lump the next month or the next year or next decade knows that you lived, that you breathe and go on and she will too.

Write like they’ve dropped you in a deep, dark hole and your words are the only light rising out of it, the only breath that might set you free. Write like your countrymen have no voice and yours are the only words floating up to heaven that tell they are tortured and raped and buried in the deep places of the earth. Write so your political leaders will scream and call for your blood, so they label you a traitor and hunt you.

Write like you are a young mother with postpartum depression, and the way your doctors tried to cure you almost drove you mad. Write so they will see it and change how they treat other women.

Write like you are founding a country based on equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and you want others to know about it. Write so its citizens will fight for it and cling to its ideals in good times and bad.

Write like the President will see it. Like he will change environmental policy forever because of the words you create, the urgency. Write what you learned about history so he can design his government in the best way.

Write so that you can show how all men are created equal, and women too. Write so they can see you are smart and strong, not less because you are a slave, or a woman, or a jew or a white man who doesn’t get it. Write because it is a weapon and a benediction, because it will end a war and bind up a nation’s wounds.

Write so you can tell us how it was in the camps, in the attic, in the small quiet spaces no one sees but you.

Write so we can see each other for the first time and for the thousandth. Show us we are not alone. Write because the words are so powerful they burst from your skin like ripe fruit. Like yours is the last pen in the world, with the last bit of ink, and generations to come will see your words and do better.

Breastfeeding Essay Contest for Illinois and Missouri Moms

St. John's Mercy is celebrating World Breastfeeding Week with an essay contest. I'm going to editorialize here and say my experience with breastfeeding is probably not what they are looking for, and women shouldn't feel guilty if breastfeeding didn't work out for them. Oh, and don't forget to read the rules. Essays shouldn't be longer than 300 words and the contest is only open to moms in Illinois and Missouri (see the list of eligible counties in the official rules.

From the website:
How does it work?

Mothers and mothers-to-be submit essays on the topic, "What breastfeeding means to me”.

Can I still play if the contest has already started?
Yes. Submissions will be taken from July 23 to August 7. Finalists will be chosen on August 10. Voting for the finalists is open from August 11 – 21.

Are there prizes?
Yes. The essay writer with the most votes will receive her choice of either a Medela Pump ‘n Style Advanced electric breast pump (value $289) from St. John’s Mercy Pharmacy or a family portrait package (value $200), courtesy of Bella Baby Photography.

First runner up receives either a breast pump or portrait package.

Second runner up receives a one hour lactation consultation (value $45) with a certified St. John’s Mercy lactation consultant.

Third runner up receives a nursing camisole (value $40) courtesy of 9 Months in Style boutique.

Date/Times
All times are in Central Time

Call for Submissions: Superhero Poetry

Superheros by Falashad

Catrambo reports a superhero anthology is seeking poetry exploring our love of all those who have secret bases and terrific tights. No info on compensation, but it sounds like a fun theme.

Saturday Writers Workshop and Writing Contest 2009

Saturday Writers is holding its annual fall workshop in October 2009 and hosting a writing contest open to workshop attendees. You can register online and pay with paypal, or print your application and send it in.

For Early Bird registration by October 1, 2009
SW members: $50
MWG chapter members and OWL Members: $60
Non-members: $75
Student (with valid I.D.) $50
At Door: $75

Writing Contest
Entry Type: Short story, Essay, Non-fiction article up to 3000 words
Entry fee: $5
Prizes: First Place $100
Second Place $35
Third Place $15
Deadline: October 1, 2009
Rule: Open only to workshop participants, work may have been previously published

Workshop Details
From the website:
"October 24 - "Vision, Voice and Viewpoint." Acclaimed writer Pat Carr will headline our annual workshop.

 Pat Carr’s twelve books of fiction include The Women in the Mirror, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, If We Must Die, in the 2003 PEN book awards, and The Death of a Confederate Colonel, published by the University of Arkansas Press. Her more than one hundred short stories have been published in such notable publications as... Southern Review, Yale Review, Best American Short Stories...

ForeWord magazine named Pat Carr's, The Death of a Confederate Colonel, one of the top university press books of 2008, praising Carr's economic narrative as being precise and dramatic.

Regina Williams, publisher and editor of Storyteller Magazine, will also give a presentation about writing for Storyteller. During the workshop, Regina will take pitches from attendees.

Regina Williams, editor of Storyteller Magazine will speak in the morning about how to submit your short story, essay or poem to any magazine or anthology. She’ll tell you what to include in your query, and what to avoid. Regina will also be taking pitches throughout the day.

This will be a hands-on workshop, limited to the first 50 people. A workbook will be provided so bring nothing but a sharpened pencil and your enthusiasm. (Lunch on your own.)"