Vigilant Silver Fox

The quest to submit my manuscript is teaching me how to step out the process. Now some of this may seem very basic to many of you. My submissions in the past were products created for someone else. They were assignments to make someone, someplace, or some event look good. The road to creative writing is a different plane from my old writing endeavors. Much of my writing in the past had to be succinct, void of emotion, instructional, and often just plain informative. I wrote in a world of "turn around" deadlines, proofreaders, corporate style guides, and final sign offs.  Working on my own in the creative writing field is like landing on Mars and it's filled with land mines. First of all, the ideas are mine. They do not attempt to be aligned with any corporate goals. They are the product of my imagination.   My fiction and poetry tries to entertain or evoke emotion. I want to give the reader a place to go that is different from their current space. The process of submiss

Photo Credit: http://altalodge.com/ When my friend Brandon asked if I knew about the "Flash Fiction" panel being sponsored during the "Writers@Work" Conference, little did I know his question would take me to new heights, literally. The conference was held at Alta Lodge. It was four days of reintroducing me to the "awe and wonder" of my soul as a writer.  If the altitude or the scenery didn't make me "heady," the energy of the participants and presenters elevated my thoughts about writing and about being a writer. The faculty and participants were diverse and generous. "We are writers. We work in a solitary setting. We need to come together." (John  Dufresne) This was the culture of the conference.  The mix of small group workshops, faculty panels, and readings. There were repeat participants and newbies like me.  Local writers and out of state participants made the atmosphere electric with enthusiasm and energy. Here were art

  There are more than 70 million fathers in the United States. (http://www.history.com/topics/fathers-day) While researching this celebration for a kernel of new information on Father's Day, it was surprising to find out that a  good portion of the world does have some type of day set aside to spend time with dad and honor him with gifts. Many countries celebrate Father's Day in connection with a religious event and even honor godfathers. The United States was slow to make Father's Day an official holiday. The first Father's Day celebration was cited to be orginated in by Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, Washington in 1910. She asked her minister to honor fathers because her  father, William Jackson Smart, was a single parent. She wanted him to be treated equally as mothers.  Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father's Day celebration in 1916. When he returned to D.C.,  he wanted to make Father's Day an official holiday.  Cong