I had entered the Grindstone Literary Contest with the first 5k words of my novel, currently named, Murder at The Peanut Patch, An Andi Raye Mystery. I was excited to finally have enough words to enter a contest for my fiction writing. I got my results back today and I wasn’t even longlisted for the prize. That was the main goal. If longlisted, I would have my work in front of agents and the journey to being traditionally published would begin. I suppose that journey has already begun.I... more

I’ve been trudging along with the daily writing. I thought I could sustain writing a short story, work on a new story idea, finish the first draft of my novel, write my food based newsletter and articles, and write flash fiction on the daily. It quickly turned into, “that’s a no from me dawg.” Why do we have a tendency to push ourselves too hard? It’s like small progress isn’t enough; one project isn’t enough. I’m assuming this is due to our... more

“You’re a fool.” He expected this response. She had a way of being ungodly honest. What sucks more, she’s usually right.

It’s the first of the month! Grab your pen and come on! In the infamous words of Bone Thugs and Harmony, it’s the first of the month. Time to start the daily practice of writing everyday for the next six months! I need y’all to keep me accountable and focused, cause ya girl has a three year old, who is an only child. Playtime is always and stopping to play is common. Since this is Day 1 and I’m working on finishing a few projects before the end of the night, I will get... more

I’m terrible at writing everyday. I do most of the time but some days, I just can’t get my mind to focus on the task at hand. I suppose I put too much pressure on myself. I’m a perfectionist in many ways, so, I tend to edit as I write sometimes. I used to delete and rework sentences as I tackled my rough draft. I’ve come to notice and take note nowadays opposed to changing it. The rough draft is going to change anyway. I might as well make it ugly. In terms of ugly, I... more

“You belong to the streets.” “No. I belong to myself.”