Writing Through It

Lately I have felt paralyzed by the darkness in our world. Each time I get inspired to write, I open my laptop and make the mistake of tuning into Facebook or browsing the news feeds and suddenly I am not writing. I am reading about a mass shooting or a political scandal and the inspired me is shriveling and shrinking and crawling back inside so that I don't have to think about it. You see, good writing comes from that deeper self that is connected to it all. The self that feels huge love and compassion and fear and gratitude and hope and apathy and rage. The self that is a reflection of my truth and that cannot look upon these horrors and remain unaffected. Instead, I look and recoil and then try to back away. Rather than feeling inspired to write something positive to balance the energies of all that negative, I feel scared.

I am a new mother. I am a daughter, a wife (sort of), a sister, a grand-daughter, an aunt, a cousin, a friend. Like most of the world, I love. When I read about the death of a child, it reaches into the depths of my being and squeezes until I have to rip my attention away and put it somewhere else. Tragedy is hard, but when it is intentional, when it is committed by a person or persons with malice, it becomes this horrifying enigma. Now I am looking - not only at the injustice for the victim and the grief for the family - but also the motivation of the person who acted out their cruelty. Why did they do it? This is the cycle that cripples me. It is here in this tornado of shock, sadness and ultimately questioning, that writing becomes less than secondary. I can barely think of writing. I wonder what's the point? I might pen something that inspires hope, but will it merely be buried beneath the onslaught of another day's darkness?

Yes, it probably will. But still I do it. Not always, sometimes I just watch a movie and snuggle my baby and pray that love wins. But writing is my way out of that confusion. It is also this hugely powerful tool to influence the world in a positive way. Just as my heart breaks when I read about tragedy, it soars when I read a beautiful poem or laugh at a funny story. The pen is mightier than the sword. We can see that when we are broken by the stories of these tragedies. We were not shot, attacked or abused, but collectively we feel beaten when we're constantly steeped in the stories of those who were. It is our job - and by our I mean the whole of humanity - to cast our awareness onto all that is good and beautiful. We have to write about the love in those moments when we feel lost.

Don't Miss A Rally of Writers: Michigan Writer's Conference

Whether you're a novice writer beginning to explore writing professionally or a seasoned wordsmith, A Rally of Writers is a conference worth checking out. The 2016 writer's conference takes place on April 9th in Lansing, Michigan. The Rally offers sixteen sessions from Building and Selling a Fantasy Series to Post Publication Pitfalls geared toward helping you navigate the murky waters of writing for publication. A variety of speakers, an opportunity to network with other writers and even a chance to have your manuscript reviewed are all available at the 2016 Rally for Writers

What: A Rally of Writers: Michigan Writer's Conference

When: April 9th, 2016 from 8:30 AM - 5 PM

Where: Lansing Community College West Campus Conference Center

Cost: $85 for Advance Tickets - $100 At the Door

For more information visit A Rally of Writer's Website

Writing Jobs for May 30th, 2014

Writing Jobs in Michigan 

Reporter for Sports Magazine and Website: Ann Arbor

Social Media and Marketing Intern: Ann Arbor

Outreach Librarian and Curator: Ann Arbor

English 1 Adjunct Faculty: Big Rapids

Digital Marketing Specialist: Detroit

Creative Director: Detroit

Copywriter: Detroit

Student Writer for M-Times: Flint

Copy Writer Marketing Assistant: Grandville

Copy Writer: Kalamazoo

Temporary Multimedia Journalist: Southfield

Digital Journalist: Traverse City

Marketing Admin. Assistant: Ypsilanti

Telecommute - Online Writing Jobs

Freelance Writing Position

Transcriptionists Wanted

Illicit Magazine Seeks Freelance Writers

Freelance Web Content Writer

Gardening and Interior Design Blogger

It's a cliche, but true, that writing is intensely solitary and at times really lonely. I sit in one room and talk to squirrels and blue jays all day.

Douglas Coupland

John Steinbeck's Writing Tips

Rest, Retreat and Write: Michigan Summer Writer's Retreats and Workshops

It's really easy to allow writing to be a solitary activity. Though solitude might be helpful for the act of writing, it can become destructive to the creative process. Hours logged in frustrated silence as we create and kill our characters, research until our brains bleed and secretly fear that no one will ever value our work, begins to take a heavy toll after a while. Creativity calls for sustenance and writer's retreats are fodder for even the most blocked mind. Retreats are a forum for collaboration, inspiration and renewal. What better way to truly enjoy our beautiful state of Michigan than to connect with other writers and breathe life back into your process? 

Bear River Writer's Conference: May 29-June 2nd, 2014

Summer Writing Classes by Holly Wren Spaulding (Poetry, Creative Writing, Mixed Media): June and July 2014

Peninsula Writers Summer Retreat at Glen Lake: June 2014 

Interlochen Academy for the Arts Writer's Retreat: June 16-19, 2014

Ann Arbor Book Festival 2014 Writer's Conference: June 21st, 2014

Inkstains Youth Writing Camp at Eastern Michigan: July 7-11

Keweenaw Writer's Workshops: July 19-20

In Harmony: A Grand Rapids Area Prose and Poetry Workshop by Ludington Writers: July 20th, 2014

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my 

literary thinking all my life.”

—Hunter S. Thompson

The Many Perks to Writing Contests

I have to be honest, I don't participate in many writing contests. Life has taken me on a journey that seems to plummet toward and then dramatically swerve away from the public world of writing. I've gone from blogging daily and submitting several stories or articles to contests monthly, to working at a Digital Marketing Agency and Writing Copy, to focusing solely on writing and marketing my novel Ula published in 2012, to these days, journaling and slogging through my sequel while also substitute teaching and teaching yoga. It's an unpredictable life - something I love about it - but writing is always alive within me. It transforms, finds pools of thriving life and then recedes and dries in the desert sun. Despite the changes that my writing has undergone in my life, I return to it in one form or another and I am grateful when a unique opportunity to share my perspective, or craft a new story, comes along.

Several months ago, I submitted a very short piece of writing to Spirituality and Health Magazine as they were offering a contest to win a trip to Maui. Essentially, they asked readers to write about a spiritual practice and I wrote about nature. Nature is near and dear to my heart and I am never lost for words when it comes to waxing poetic about the trees and flowers and lakes that surround me. Much to my surprise and delight, I won the contest. Thus a few weeks ago, I spent an absolutely majestic ten days in Maui with my boyfriend. The prize included a five night stay at the tranquil, yoga-retreat center Lumeria and offered us a wonderful opportunity to relax, unwind and get centered during our visit. I wrote about meditation in my previous post and the powerful affect it can have on our writing. I felt this even more strongly as I pondered the winding path that life takes us on and how writing had taken me to a community designed to help us connect with the consciousness that lives beyond our individual identities. For me, it was evidence that my writing is most poignant when it is truly a reflection of my heart, and the writing contests that I have won have nearly always reflected this.

My good friend Jon loves science fiction. He began writing just a couple of years ago and hesitantly at first. A single father, in his late thirties, he did not necessarily feel capable of entering the mysterious and oft frightening world of writing. Despite his apprehensions, he began to write. He wrote science fiction stories and submitted them to flash fiction contests online. He got a few rejections and then he started winning. Suddenly, every time I talked with him, he told me about his latest contest win. The prizes ranged from $10 to $50, but ultimately the joy for Jon had nothing to do with winning some cash and everything to do with realizing his dreams and knocking down the walls he'd built around them. Since then he has written stories for published anthologies and in November he participated in NaNoWriMo (National novel Writing Month) and completed 50,000 words to a future novel.

When we open ourselves to the possibilities of where our writing might guide us, the whole world becomes available. There is no telling who will be touched by your words and what dark path, that you'd never gazed upon, might suddenly become illuminated. If you're searching for an opportunity, a contest, an inspiration, anything - try out one of the contests below; perhaps you will discover a new path awaiting you.


Inspiration Travel Writing Contest - No Entry Fee - Deadline: 2/14/14

Disquiet Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry Prize - $15 Fee - Deadline: 2/15/14

Penny Fiction Flash Fiction Writing Competition - No Fee - Deadline: 2/17/14

SF/LFA Short Fiction Contest - No Entry Fee - Deadline: 3/4/14

theNewerYork Press Kissing Flash Fiction Contest - Fee ? - Deadline 2/28/14

Shanti Arts Inspired Stories Competition - $15 Fee - Deadline 3/1/14

Phoebe Winter Writing Contest - $17 Fee - Deadline 3/8/14

Ginsoko Flash Fiction Contest - $5 Fee - Deadline 3/1/14

Lunch Ticket Creative Nonfiction - No Fee - Deadline 3/30/14

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

John Updike 

Writing Happenings in Michigan

Well I have done that passionate writerly pursuit of procrastination and thus have not posted writing events in Michigan for longer than I can remember. I have a myriad of excuses including the publication of my first novel Ula:Born of Shadows, a move down state, a new job doing copy writing and SEO for a local realtor among other things. In truth, I have allowed many of my writing endeavors to slide into the gutter where they've festered with banana peels and coffee grounds.

Since my own 2012 writing goals include attending writing events, book signings and marketing - no matter how much the recluse in me wants merely to draw the curtains and read one of my tattered Stephen King novels, ice cream stained and dog-eared to tatters. So let's do this together, this social writing stuff. Find writing events in Michigan below...

A Rally for Writers: Delta Township (Lansing Area): April 14th

• Day long writing conference with 16 sessions including writers, poets, teachers, editors and publishers discussing writing. Cost: $70 

WSU 7th Annual Made in Michigan Writers Series: Wayne State University: April 17th

• Features new books from Michigan authors, author readings and book signings. 

Mid Michigan Romance Writers 'Retreat from Harsh Reality': April 27-29

• Romance writers retreat featuring guest authors, workshops, critiques and more. 

Peninsula Writers Spring Fling: Grand Rapids: May 5th 

• Day long writing conference at Schuler Books on the topic publishing. 

Grant Writing Class: Detroit: May 3-4 

• Learn to write grants. For beginning and experienced grant writers. Cost: $425 

Bear River Writer's Conference: Camp Michigania: May 31-June 4

• Workshops in fiction, poetry, memoir and essay. 

Author Signings: Since there are so many of these, I have simply linked to a variety of Michigan book stores where you can meet authors and purchase signed books. Check them out and support your writing comrades. 

Nicola's Books: Ann Arbor 

Horizon Books: Traverse City, Petoskey and Cadillac 

Literary Life Bookstore: Grand Rapids 

Kazoo Books: Kalamazoo 

Bestsellers Books and Coffee: Mason 

Mclean & Eakin Bookstore: Petoskey 

The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

- George Bernard Shaw

Will Post Soon

Writers I am so sorry for my absence. My book Ula: Born of Shadows is getting published this month and I have also been traveling in Florida. You will see new job postings soon. Thanks for your patience!