Hello there. Hope you have a bowlful of your favorite candy ready for the trick-and-treaters, and that you have plenty of leftovers, which you can then eat yourself when Halloween is over. Sugar high for everyone! Woo-hoo. Big congrats are in order. Solace in So Many Words contributor Joan Corwin is the winner of the 2017 Tom Howard/ John H. Reid Fiction Prize for her story “Length of Days.” You can read it here. Two members of my writing group (The Writers) have new … [Read more...]
Ireland calls
Can you be homesick for a place that was never your home? I don’t know, but that’s how I feel about Ireland lately – that it is calling me. The feeling was intensified this weekend when I attended iBAM!, the festival of Irish Books and Music at the Irish American Heritage Center. Mary Pat Kelly spoke about her books, Galway Bay, and especially the latest Of Irish Blood. She said she learned from the McCourt brothers to talk about her book, rather than read from it. She … [Read more...]
All in a row
Printers Row Lit Fest was hot and fun. Weighed Words had record sales for a bookfair, and we got to talk with lots of cool people. Stopping by on Saturday was Chicago writer Sharon Solwitz. She's the author of Blood Mary and Blood and Milk (Sarabande) and teaches at Purdue Univeristy and was on hand for the "Neither Fish nor Fowl" reading put on by Northwestern MA/MFA faculty. Sharon Fiffer (friend to Solace in So Many Words) stopped by after her panel on the cozy … [Read more...]
Looking back, looking forward
If you read my last post you know that Solace in So Many Words is one-year-old. I have been thinking of the highlights from the past year. But before I give that account let me tell you how great it was that last week started with congratulatory flowers, sent by neighbor and mentor Fran Podulka and her husband Phil to celebrate the gold medal award Solace in So Many Words won from the Next Generation Indie Awards sponsored by Independent Book Publishing Professionals … [Read more...]
Connections count
I am not a business person, or at least I wasn't until I started Weighed Words. So it's kind of funny that I wanted to come up with a model for publishing that was different than the ones I was used to. Lit mags don't usually pay unless you win a contest. Anthologies by fledgling presses don't usually pay either. For small-time writers like me, payment came in the form of comp copies and the glory of publication. What was important to me as I worked on Solace in So Many … [Read more...]