I went to Granta Mag's Paris event today

& got my 17 euro (!) book signed by Dinaw Mengestu & Mark Gevisser (who spelled my name wrong, haha).
My 1st autographs ever :)

Art

Say it out loud, it's like spoken word.

Literary magazines

More so than winning competitions, my ultimate goal, obviously, is to be published.
Novels, screenplays, songs, editorials, articles, non-fiction...I want to write it all.

So far though, I haven't submitted to magazines. A lot of it has to do with them accepting only post submissions which costs money I don't have since I'm not in the US. Though that's mainly an excuse for me and my fear to hide behind.

I'm writing this now to make myself accountable: I'm working on a non-fiction contribution which I hope to finish and send by the end of next month at the latest. I've never written anything like that; it feels like submitting a diary entry in a way.

But now it's out there so I have to do it.
Who knows? I might even be selected :)

I've just submitted to 5 different competitions

I always plan on submitting to all the competitions and magazines around & then just before pressing 'submit' - or 'pay now' as the case may be - I chicken out & think of all the reasons why I shouldn't.

They won't like my style
They won't like the genre
They won't like the language
I don't have any money
My story sucks
I suck & I'm also stupid

I've just submitted to 5 different competitions & I'll be submitting more stories to literary magazines whether or not I place or win.

An excerpt of my story - Dreamtaker (1400 words)

"He was the worst storyteller I'd ever come across yet his little bursts had created a thread in my mind, and I could see everything that had happened to him. The young and beautiful artist, riding triumphant on his rising star, the large and imposing, equally beautiful, equally charismatic dreamtaker, promising to take the artist to the next level. I leaned forward, anxious for this new pause to end."

I'm terrified

but tomorrow I'm submitting to the following competitions:


Cazart
Global short stories
Brighton Cow
Unbound Press
Dark Tales
Exeter
Gemini magazine
Meridian writing
Bristol competition
Writer mag
American Short Fiction
Writersdigest
Bridport prize

I'm not sure if I'll write a different story for the following publications, but I will submit to these as well:

Glimmer Train
Granta magazine
The Paris review
Zoetrope
The Georgia Review

Jean Michel Basquiat - The radiant child

This weekend I wanted to watch something real.

I wanted to be affected by images on the screen in a way that no Hollywood movie can. I wanted to see real lives, real paths, I wanted a touch of humanity.

I started out with Waiting for Superman, which I reviewed previously. Then I came across this documentary: Jean Michel Basquiat - The Radiant Child.

My knowledge of Basquiat is tenuous at best. A few years ago I knew of him only his name. I didn't know he was dead, I didn't know he was black & I didn't know he'd died so young. Since then I've come across articles, book excerpts, interviews that reference him in some way so I eventually learned all this about him but not much more.

I went into the documentary blind as it were.

Waiting for Superman

Going into a documentary like this, you know from the start it's going to tug on your heartstrings.

There's also no surprise about what the message will be.

Education, in America in this case, but here in France as well, is in an abysmal state. We know this.

Barack Obama and other Americans like to quote French statistics on education spending, in order to show that they could be doing better.

The sentiment is commendable but the stats are wrong. We, in France, are also facing spending cuts, poor education in low-income areas, and what seems like a government unwilling to take the necessary steps.

Kindred - Octavia E. Butler

I read this book three years ago. It was part of a friend's required reading.
She gave it to me because I was looking for something new to read.

It tells the story of Dana Franklin, a 26-year old black woman living in California with her white husband. The relationship is entirely run of the mill and I remember liking that the book made no big deal about this interracial couple.

This detail turns out to be an important plot after all point because it shows that Dana is a woman, whose life is unaffected by racism, slavery, intolerance. She's a free woman and it's normal to her.

On her 26th birthday, she is summoned through time, back to the antebellum South, by a young white boy. Rufus Weylin is the son of a slaveowner, and, it turns out, Dana's ancestor.
1st wake up call for Dana.

In total, Dana is summoned six times, and each time she must save Rufus from death. This means saving him even after he has raped a young woman. Failure to do so means erasing her timeline. Each time, too, she stays longer, meaning she has to learn to live on the plantation as a slave. For 20th century Dana, this means obeying her white ancestor. Failure to do this means being whipped, raped or killed.

I do all but three on this list

But I think it's pretty much unavoidable.
Sometimes I feel like my shit is made of cinnamon and rainbows, then I remember that a lot of people hate cinnamon.

wishes for sons - by Lucille Clifton

i wish them cramps.
i wish them a strange town
and the last tampon.
I wish them no 7-11.

i wish them one week early
and wearing a white skirt.
i wish them one week late.

later i wish them hot flashes
and clots like you
wouldn't believe. let the
flashes come when they
meet someone special.
let the clots come
when they want to.

let them think they have accepted
arrogance in the universe,
then bring them to gynecologists
not unlike themselves.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/79

Pole Dance Thesis

24/7

Exhausting having to try finding possibly erroneous information from uncertain sources.
Weeding out the facts, while knowing that I might be completely wrong.
Trying to select what's relevant to the goal, to my studies, to me.
Solving the problems of writing about an essentially 'anglo' discipline when my first target is French.
Having to translate it 'on my own dime' for the Anglo audience, since they will benefit from it most.

And yet...I love it. It's fascinating.

I'm thrilled to be able to provide the first extensive piece of literature on pole dancing and, hopefully, being a part of pole dancing history.
I'm hoping to publish this later on.

Neil Gaiman on Piracy & Copyrights

I wonder if this is universally true or just the truth for an established writer.
I love posting my stuff & getting feedback & I realise it's a great way of advertising but I'm still afraid of posting long excerpts.

I don't steal other people's writings when I see & love them online so it stands to reason that I'm being paranoid.

Interesting...

Novel extract - Chapter 1

The cathedral was a graveyard of loneliness, hinting at dark secrets buried just outside the moonlight’s reach. Séléné could practically feel the scratching of skeletal corpses of shunned hunchbacks against her back.
She walked along the path, limping slightly. The wounds on her body were healed by now but she had never forgotten the agony of the thousand blows she had been delivered.


The first four sentences - would you continue reading?

I can't get enough of Bruno Mars.

I think he's officially the greatest singer/songwriter/producer I've ever come across.

*looksforKanye*

The Huffington Post - 11 most surprising books banned

I read this expecting books like 1984, The Diary of Anne Frank or even the Da Vinci Code, which all have been banned at one time or another.

But surprising is right. Included on the list:

- Merriam-Webster's dictionary (This is creepy to me. Isn't this what 1984 was about? which as I said, was banned, too?)
- Roald Dahl's - him again? :) - James and the Giant Peach and The Witches
- Louisa May Alcott's Little Women !

Read the others and the reasons at
Link : http://huff.to/e5h3Hu

I think

I'll write a spec script for Raising Hope for the Disney Fellowship.
That show is hilarious - I hope it doesn't get cancelled.
Also Garrett Dillahunt...*drool*

Version Française - On life

La vie est le point de confluence de paradoxes entremêlés de façon inexorable -

Tout comme l’ecstase ne se connaît pas sans avoir connu le désespoir, la gloire ne se définit que par le prisme de la défaite -

et ainsi de suite -

Les uns sont incapables d’exister sans les autres -



I wrote this poem when I was younger. It's not finished but I'm not a poet. This is as far as I'll ever get.

“To all the secret writers,

late-night painters, would-be singers, lapsed and scared artists of every stripe, dig out your paintbrush, or your flute, or your dancing shoes. Pull out your camera or your computer or your pottery wheel. Today, tonight, after the kids are in bed or when your homework is done, or instead of one more video game or magazine, create something, anything.
Pick up a needle and thread, and stitch together something particular and honest and beautiful, because we need it. I need it.
Thank you, and keep going.”


– Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life)

Read me

Vintage dictionary word necklaces from Etsy. Too cute.

"Necklaces are custom made with your word of choice. In the message to seller at checkout, please leave a 1st, 2nd and 3rd word choice option. In the event that your 1st choice is not available I will choose your 2nd or 3rd word choice.

Please keep in mind that the word must be 6 letters or shorter or it won't fit under the glass."

Link: http://www.etsy.com/listing/61206397/vintage-dictionary-word-necklaces

Novel extract - The story takes place in a desolate and empty world.

Nostalgia, or something like it, is tangible, interwoven in the very fabric of reality. Everywhere is blue, a dark Prussian hue. From the low sky to the rocky terrain and the deep abysses pockmarking the ground, everything is blue nostalgia. The atmosphere is leaden, like a storm waiting to happen. Depression thrives here, with mortality as its constant, oppressive companion.

- In Dreams Begins Responsibility - in progress

Creative clutter

http://flavorwire.com/151458/desks-of-the-rich-and-famous-workspaces-of-highly-creative-people

Susan Sontag - American author
Yves Saint Laurent - French fashion designer
Milton Glaser - American graphic designer
Albert Einstein - German physicist
Tina Fey - American writer, comedian
Marc Johns - American artist
Woody Allen - American screenwriter, film director
Al Gore - American politician
Roald Dahl - British novelist. (fun fact: his parents were Norwegian. He could speak English, Norwegian and, apparently, Swahili)

- If clutter is a good gauge of creativity and talent, I'm at least as good as Ayn Rand, Aaron Sorkin or God.

On school break for two weeks. Going to (aka need to) -

- get a headstart on rewriting my book
- get a headstart on my goddamn thesis (school has an annoying way of always being around when you have plans)
- get a headstart on my screenplay entry for the Nicholls Fellowship
- save up for California ticket. Air fare is 800 euros. Need to get that soon before the rates increase.
- figure something out with this blog so I don't delete it every couple of months

Submission - Runner up

One of my old short stories placed runner-up in a competition I entered back in October 2010.
I'm not ashamed to say I found out after googling myself - the PG kind.


This makes two :)

Link to the story: http://www.twisted-tails.com/winners/autumn2010/files/Deana-Mundell.php