A short story is often treated like a stepping stone that grad students and lesser writers use to build their skills. Tell someone you wrote a book and you get congratulations; tell them you wrote a collection of short stories and they’ll ask you how your book is coming along. For most people, short stories
Category: Writerly Things
TLC Book Tours: Because You Have To by Joan Frank
I was about two pages into Because You Have To: A Writing Life by Joan Frank when the following three sentences gave me pause- A teaching mentor during a MFA program once wrote to me, in calm response to my own bewildered longing for time: “One has plenty of opportunities during the day to write.”
9 more weeks? Sh*t.
Ah, pregnancy. Between growing a tiny human, work, class and trying to make Jethro do the dishes more than once a week (I mean, REALLY, son?) my second trimester was busy. And fun, though I wish I’d realized how fun it was at the time. Seriously, I could be 6 months pregnant for the rest
Updated Messy Girl Book Recommendations
Our ladies Savychacha and Life She Wrote have contributed to our book recommendations! Check them out, and email me with your own picks. This list is constantly updated, so every time you find a new book that you HAVE to share, send it in to alyssa.kindofamess@gmail.com!
Book Recommendations: Messy Girl Approved!
If you’ll look up top in the menu bar, you’ll notice a new page called “Book Recs.” This post proved that y’all love some books, just as much as I do. SO! I’ve compiled everyone’s recommendations into on handy dandy page, complete with links. (Yes, they are Amazon Affiliate links. I would have linked them
Thanks for the good ju-ju!
Aside from a brief moment of panic when I realized I had no idea where my class was (my iPhone can do all sorts of amazing things except access the ONE site where I can look up class info…) class was great! It’s a class on creativity throughout the ages and since it’s being taught by a playwright/poet who is a photographer and painter, I think we’re in good hands.
I’m still making tiny updates to the blog, but I wanted to point out one you may not have noticed. The cute little icon next to the title? Now don’t click it now because-
…you clicked it didn’t you.
*sigh*
As I was saying, don’t click it now because I’m still categorizing the posts. However, eventually those icons will link to other post formats that are similar to the post you’re reading; i.e. video, quotes, status, blah blah blah. Tags and categories still work, but this is a fun extra. And we like fun.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go have a fight with a scanner at work that seems to want to jam every ten seconds.
I mean, this thing has one job to do, ONE; and it just decides that it doesn’t feel like doing it and needs to keep me from doing MY job?? Really? REALLY?? EAT THE PAPER, YOU STUPID MACHINE!!!
School days, school days…
I have class tonight. And I’m sort of terrified. As usual. I’m currently getting my Master of Liberal Studies (with an emphasis on creative writing) and although I love it, I haven’t given it as much attention as I need to. I haven’t taken as many classes as I should. I haven’t applied myself the
GoodReads
Good LORD, there are a lot of your readers out there. I’m going to compile the suggestions into one post (eventually), but since so many people kept talking about being a part of GoodReads, I figured it was time to update my profile and let y’all friend me. (I joined in 2007!) You can find me under
Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high…
Take a look, it’s in a book, a reading rainbow… Let’s talk books! I am a reader. I always have been. If I don’t have something to read, I get twitchy. Growing up, my parents always refused my demands for candy or toys, but I always knew I could get something to read if I
Pen Pals!: July Prompt
Alrighty, we are ready for our July go-round of Pen Pals! Everyone who is participating will have gotten their person by now; you won’t be writing to the same person you’re getting a letter to, so you’ll make two new friends! (and if you wanted to participate but forgot, sorry! We’ll get you next time…) I
Share the mess…
Kind of a Mess 