I made it to the finals of the most recent Accentuate Fiction contest!  The theme for September was Death, and I entered two stories.  One of them was chosen as one of the 15 finalists, which will go on to the final round of judging.  I'm very pleased and excited.  The winners are supposed to be announced next week.  I have already submitted the other story elsewhere for publication.  I promised myself that if they didn't win, I would begin sending them out immediately, and keep sending them out until they are accepted.  Never surrender! 

I signed up for National Novel Writers Month, affectionately known as NaNo.  I am going to attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  Yes, this is crazy.  I am terrified.  What was I thinking?  But I am so excited, because I really want to know what happens in this novel that has been floating around in my head for a couple of years, banging into my consciousness and nudging me.  It is a fantasy, with the requisite evil dude, good guys, magic and hopefully plenty of excitement.  In short, just the sort of thing I love to read.  And the best part of the whole thing is that I am hoping it will cure me of my debilitating perfectionism that won't let me continue until every word is perfect.  Take that, inner critic!  Slash!  Whack!  Biff!  Pow!  I WILL write a first draft filled with poorly constructed sentences, too many adjectives, mixed metaphors, and wrong words.  I WILL!  I WILL!

On a calmer note, in September I set a new record, writing 15 articles for Bright Hub.  I was quite pleased with that, and I'm aiming for the same or better for October. 

I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated my blog!  We went on a trip from California to Iowa to visit my husband's family in August.  I love to drive cross-country and watch how the landscape changes.  Over the Sierra Nevada mountains into the Nevada desert, across the Rocky Mountains in Utah, the seemingly endless sagebrush in Wyoming, and come into the lush green cornfields of Nebraska and Iowa.  It never ceases to amaze me that it actually rains in the summertime there, since I have lived all my life in California and I'm used to it being bone-dry from May to November.  There was a spectacular storm on the afternoon we arrived; in fact, the clouds were so black and the thunder so ominous that it sent us down to the basement for awhile for fear that a tornado might be brewing.  I posted a few new pictures from the trip in the Photogallery, and also I put up a slideshow with more photos on Associate Content, as well as an article about an interesting place we visited, Effigy Mounds National Monument.  I'm still writing for Bright Hub, mainly in the Diet and Nutrition, Environmental Science and Green Living channels, and  I just got accepted this month to write for the K-12 Education channel, although I've been having some technical difficulties there, and have been unable to post to the discussion board.  Hopefully it will get worked out soon.

I finished my new short story, and I've entered it, along with another story I wrote a while ago, in the September Accentuate Writers Forum contest.  I  feel energized and motivated to write more fiction.  All my life I have let my fear of rejection and my perfectionism hold me back, but I have lately seen cracks in the self-imposed prison walls.  I've been reading a lot of writer's blogs and other writing sites, and I was inspired by the words of Rudy Rucker, an instructor at the 2009 Clarion West Writers Workshop, who wrote in his blog, "Write what you love... Use your whole self.  Don't hold back, don't be embarrassed to write wild."   If I wasn't worried about what people think, then what would happen?  Let's find out.

I've been writing nothing but non-fiction articles for the longest time.  This is fine; I'm finding new places to write, making a little bit of money, learning lots of new things.  But I do miss writing fiction; it's just not the same.  Yesterday I took out my newest short story, one I started back in May and haven't looked at since.  I got absorbed in it and now I want to know what's going to happen next.  Writing for me is very much like reading, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it: I don't know what's going to happen, and I have to keep writing to find out.  In one story I wrote, the poor protagonist was stuck in a horrible life-or-death situation and I had no idea how he was going to get out of it.  I puzzled and puzzled, but kept drawing blanks.  Then one day I was driving the car and suddenly I saw an image of what happened.  I was stunned.  I said aloud, (yes, I talk to myself.  A lot.) OH MY GOD!  Is THAT what happens??!!  I was so excited.  I don't make this stuff up.  I honestly don't know where it comes from, maybe some deep well in the center of the Universe that we somehow tap into if we allow ourselves to open to it.  I see images, and then I describe them.  The hard work is finding exactly the right words to accurately describe the images, to clearly communicate what I see.  I want to finish this new story and submit it for the September Accentuate Writers contest.  I have some time, but we're going away for two weeks on Saturday, and who knows?  I might get stuck again and have to wait for lightning to strike.

I've written a few more articles for Bright Hub, mainly in the Diet and Nutrition channel, and I've submitted a couple more to the Environmental Science channel that haven't been published yet.  I'm putting the links on the News page here.   I've also done a few new ones for Associated Content.  I wish I could be as productive as some other online writers, who seem to be able to crank out 5 or 10 articles a day, but I just can't write that fast.  I fuss over the wording, keep tweaking, worry that there is information that I've left out, and suffer from countless distractions.  But I DO feel that I'm gradually getting better at it.  As Michelle Devon of the Accentuate Writers Forum advises, Just write!  I must learn to take that advice and run with it. 

I learned yesterday that my short story The Naked Truth won second place for the Reality theme in the Accentuate Writers Services short story contest, and will appear in a print anthology to be published later this year by Twin Trinity.   Their first anthology, Elements of the Soul, is currently in press, and should be out in the bookstores soon.  You can pre-order it online at a discounted price here.

I am thrilled beyond words about this!  I hadn't written any fiction for quite a long while, having gotten discouraged by a string of rejections of my short story submissions.  I know, I know, all writers get multitudes of rejections, it's expected, it goes with the territory, many classic novels were rejected dozens if not hundreds of times before they were finally published... I know all these things, but last fall when I discovered that I can actually publish my non-fiction articles immediately and get a few bucks for them, the fiction fell by the wayside.  I haven't lost the dream of someday becoming a published novelist, however, and now the fact that one of my stories was judged to be worthy of printing in this anthology has encouraged me enormously.  I'm working on a new story that I plan to submit for the Death theme in September.

My second Environmental Science article is up on Bright Hub;  this one's about Leatherback Sea Turtles  

https://www.brighthub.com/environment/science-environmental/articles/39626.aspx

What amazing animals!  They are the world's largest turtle, weighing up to 2,000 pounds, yet they are very vulnerable and succumb to environmental threats such as being caught in fishing nets and drowned, dying from eating plastic debris in the ocean, and habitat destruction. 

There are so many things that I want to write about, my list gets longer every day.  The environment is one of my passions, and there are endless possibilities there.  I also am fascinated by history, particularly ancient and medieval.  I got hooked on Italy since my trip there last summer, and I'm currently watching a video series on ancient Rome from the Teaching Company.  I'm working on a series of articles on the Etruscans, which I hope to publish on AC when I get them done. 

I'm excited to report my first Bright Hub article has just been published, in the Environmental Science channel.  It's about ocean dead zones, areas in the ocean that have been depleted of oxygen and cannot support life. 

Here's the link: https://www.brighthub.com/environment/science-environmental/articles/38552.aspx

 
I started a new section on the News page here called "My Bright Hub Articles," and posted the link there as well.  I've been climbing quite a steep learning curve.  It's very different from the other places I write for; writers have to submit proposals for their articles ahead of time and wait for them to be approved.  They may be rejected if there are already other articles on the same topic.   I'm having quite a difficult time coming up with article ideas for the Diet & Nutrition channel that haven't already been done.  I will probably apply to other channels once I get the hang of it all.  But so far, I like it a lot and hope to publish there regularly.

I recently learned about Bright Hub, a site offering content on science and technology.  I was quite intrigued, since many of their topics are right up my alley: medical science, environmental science and alternative medicine.  I applied a couple of days ago and got accepted right away.  Now all I have to do is start writing articles for them.  Their submission process seems a bit complicated, but I expect that it will all become clear once I do it a few times.  I like the fact that they have high standards for the quality of their articles. 

The seminar was absolutely phenomenal... I am inspired and overflowing with ideas for writing about health issues and natural remedies.  Seven days packed with information about Traditional Chinese Medicine (yin and yang, five element theory, differential diagnosis), herbs and supplements, qi gong, and wonderful camaraderie with like-minded people from all over the world. 

The Helium marketplace article I wrote before I left didn't sell, so I have put it up on Associated Content; here's the link: https://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1756764/all_about_acid_reflux.html  Now I need to do some research into herbal remedies for acid reflux. 

It's good to be home.