I Look into My Glass

I look into my glass,

And view my wasting skin,

And say, “Would God it came to pass

My heart had shrunk as thin!”

 

For then, I, undistressed

By hearts grown cold to me,

Could lonely wait my endless rest

With equanimity.

 

But Time, to make me grieve,

Part steals, lets part abide;

And shakes this fragile frame at eve

With throbbings of noontide.

 

~ Thomas Hardy, born on this day in 1840

 

“Old Woman at the Mirror” by Bernardo Strozzi, circa 1615

An Evening with Fiction Writers Pam Houston, Stacy Bierlein, and Eric Puchner

The Pen on Fire Writers Salon is pleased to present an evening of conversation about the art, craft, and business of writing fiction with Pam Houston, Stacy Bierlein, and Eric Puchner on Tuesday, June 5, at 7:00 p.m.  This monthly speaker series, hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, features authors, literary agents, and others involved in the field of writing.  The events take place in the atmospheric Scape Gallery in Corona del Mar and entail readings, literary discussions, and book signings. 

Houston’s works include Cowboys Are My Weakness, Waltzing the Cat, A Little More About Me, Sight Hound, and her new novel Contents May Have Shifted (Norton, 2012).  Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and have been selected for the O. Henry Award, Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century anthology.  She is also the recipient of the Western States Book Award, WILLA Literary Award, and Evil Companions Literary Award. 

Bierlein is the editor of the award-winning anthology A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection and coeditor of Men Undressed: Female Writers and the Male Sexual Experience.  She is a founding editor of the independent press Other Voices Books and co-creator of the Morgan Street International Novel Series. 

Puchner is the author of the story collection Music Through the Floor and the novel Model Home, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won a California Book Award for fiction.  His work has been or will soon be featured in Glimmer Train, Tin House, Zoetrope, GQ, Best American Short Stories, and Best American Nonrequired Reading.  Puchner is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. 

Advance tickets are required to guarantee a seat at this event.  To read more about the speakers or the Pen on Fire Writers Salon and to purchase tickets, visit www.barbarademarcobarrett.com/writerssalon.

 

The Modern Prometheus

I cannot describe to you my sensations on the near prospect of my undertaking.  It is impossible to communicate to you a conception of the trembling sensation, half pleasurable and half fearful, with which I am preparing to depart.  I am going to unexplored regions to ‘the land of mist and snow’ […].  You will smile at my allusion; but I will disclose a secret.  I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for, the dangerous mysteries of ocean, to that production of the most imaginative of modern poets.  There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.

 

~ from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, which I am reading in preparation for a Gothic literature course at Chapman this fall

 

Inside cover art from the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

Time to Submit – The New Guard

The New Guard Literary Review is currently accepting poetry and fiction submissions to its 2012 literary contests through June 18, 2012. 

To enter the Knightville Poetry Contest, submit up to three pieces of exceptional narrative and/or experimental poetry.  Individual poems must not exceed 300 lines.  National Poetry Series winner Jeanne Marie Beaumont will judge the submissions and select the finalists and winner in this category. 

The Machigonne Fiction Contest is open to any work of literary and/or experimental fiction up to 7,500 words, including flash fiction, the long story, and novel excerpts, provided the entry functions as a stand-alone story.  Novelist and essayist Rick Bass will be judging the entries and determining the finalists and overall winner. 

The winner of each category will receive $1,000, and all winners and finalists will receive two copies of The New Guard.  In addition, each submission will be considered carefully for publication in the journal. 

For more information or to submit your work, visit the website at http://www.newguardreview.com.

 

Praise for Time of Death

I am so honored by the unanimous response to my novel-in-progress, Time of Death, at the 2012 Orange County Christian Writers Conference this weekend.  The manuscript excerpt I submitted won three awards, including First Prize in the Fiction Writing Contest sponsored by The Editorial Department, Second Prize in the WestBow Press Writing Contest, and Third Prize in the Beverly Bush Smith Aspiring Writer Award competition. 

I have been working on this project during the last four years while pursuing the dual MA in English and MFA in Creative Writing degree at Chapman University.  While the book will serve as my final thesis for the MFA, publication has always been my primary goal.  This fiction narrative tells the story of Fawn Evans from her youth through womanhood and the sometimes subtle but often overt spiritual battle for her soul.  During the years that follow a horrific car accident of which Fawn is the only survivor, it becomes clear that she was spared for a reason, and it is up to her to realize her intrinsic value and God’s plan for her life. 

The title, Time of Death, represents the moments of both physical death and spiritual death.  My desire for this debut novel is that it will resonate with young and mature adult readers who are adrift or distracted and help them recognize their own unique purpose and destiny. 

This was my first non-academic writing conference, and I’m encouraged by and utterly grateful for the new literary connections made, the endorsement of my work, and, of course, the publication and editorial prizes.  I’m more motivated than ever to finish writing the story.  As always, I will chronicle my progress periodically on Archetype and look forward to that momentous post proclaiming its completion. 

For now, the journey continues… 

 

“A Girl Writing” by Henriette Browne, between 1860 and 1880

Aesthetica

Aesthetica Magazine, the international art and culture publication, is hosting the Aesthetica Creative Writing Competition 2012, and the contest is now open through August 31 for entries in the categories of Poetry and Short Fiction. 

The Creative Writing Competition is a terrific opportunity for existing and aspiring writers and poets to showcase their work to an international audience and achieve literary success and recognition around the world. 

The winner of each category will receive £500, a selection of books from competition partners, and publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.  Winners and finalists will be announced on October 31, 2012. 

For more information and to submit your work, visit the website at http://www.aestheticamagazine.com.

 

More on Rejection

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about rejection again.  Or should I say, I’ve been thinking a lot about it still?  Granted, it’s been an auspicious year so far.  Almost all I’ve attempted since toasting 2012 has turned out pretty well.  Okay, spectacularly well.  Naturally, then, I’ve downgraded the wins, reasoning that the successes I’ve experienced can only mean that the endeavors were simply too accessible.  From my twisted, inane perspective, second place has somehow become my benchmark for true success; to run and nearly win suggests that the bar was set at the appropriately unattainable height and that I did as well as I could, bless my heart, given the impossibility of the target. 

So I’ve raised the rejection stakes and am hoping for a second or even third place nod at this weekend’s Orange County Christian Writers Conference in Newport Beach.  I’ve submitted thirty- to fifty-page excerpts from my thesis novel, Time of Death, to three fiction contests sponsored by editors and publishers attending the event.  I’ve compared the act of sending out these pieces, these fragments of my soul, to being all dressed up and standing in the dark at a junior high dance, willing the boys on the other side of the gym telepathically: Pick me…please pick me.  Just don’t pick me first. 

I’ve always understood that getting comfortable with rejection is crucial if we harbor any hope of being invited to read our work for an esteemed audience, winning an award, or getting published.  But perhaps there is a point at which we’re too comfortable with it.