Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Pray, Love" gave an interesting TED Talk on creativity and failure that we watched in our Senior Portfolio class this past semester. 

I just went through an ordeal of having a big rejection lately. I had submitted 3 poems to the Sigma Tau Delta journal, "The Rectangle." I was hoping that at least one of the poems would be good enough to earn a spot in the journal, so I could use that publication as leverage to get into the grad school program I have my heart set on. I got the blessing of one of my professors, Dr. Hallock, who was acting as our advisor for Sigma Tau Delta and praised the poems. 

I waited with anxiety mounting every day for the news. Then, it finally came a few weeks ago. I did not get in. The form rejection email stated that they had over 500 submissions. While it was a little reassuring to know that there was so much competition, that thought alone did nothing to assuage the feelings of unworthiness that every writer feels when they get a rejection. 

As usual, I moped around about it for a few days. Then, I said to myself: "Maria, stiffen that upper lip, buttercup. You got a rejection? Big deal. You've gotten them before. Stop throwing yourself a goddamn pity party, get writing some new stuff, and submit those poems again somewhere else!" I resubmitted the best one to another poetry journal, which also earned me a rejection, albeit a nicer one. They actually told me my poem was well received by the editors of the journal, but it did not fit with what they wanted to do in their current issue. Hey, as a publisher/editor myself, I can identify with that. Plus, a personal and encouraging "No" is  better than a computer-processed form "No" any day of the week. So, I'm going to toughen up once again and resubmit it somewhere else. And on and on it goes. 

Keep trying. That's all we can do. I've been writing since I could walk. I'm sure as hell not going to stop now. 

I am a writer, and I must write...or die in misery, with all my angst piled over my bones like brittle dead leaves. 

You know the song.

If you don't, watch the video above. Or not. It's not a song I would recommend unless you like cheesy 80s ear-worms. It's there as a point of reference, to emphasize the following. 

Writers can totally dig that statement, working for the weekend. For a lot of us, this is the only time we can scrounge some word-slingin' time. Some of us emerge from bed early Saturday morning, haul our half-dead asses to the nearest caffeine procurement device. Once that is accomplished and wake -up mode has fully powered on, we sit in front of our computers for as long as we can and make word pudding on a blank screen. It's gloopy and messy as hell, like all first drafts, but getting it down is all that matters. The time for turning it into something tasty comes later.

I've got several stories of what I call the "backburner" variety in my Word files. I am going to make a habit of it to decide what I want to work on each weekend. I think this is a good way for me to get back into the habit of working on certain stories with an end-goal of finishing something to put in the editing folder or send to beta readers.

Currently, I have two stories I really want to get more editing done on as well as the slew of stories to continue writing.

The following are the stories I want to work on this weekend, and ONLY these stories:

• For Editing:
  • An Irregular Meeting of the Cult of Conspiracy Theorists
  • The Imminent Fall of the Tumbler Stargate and Its Mother AI
• For Working On:
  • Particle Girl Theory
  • Venusian Eggrolls Taste Like Despair
  • 14 Riffs on a 2-String Guitar

I would dearly love to finish one of those WIPs this weekend and chuck them in the folder for beta and editing.

Making task lists like this help me, whether it is getting through college or writing. What works for you?

So, I've seen this Featured Poll  on the Goodreads site from time to time. 

What convinces you to add a book as Want to Read?

•  A fetching cover
•  A friend's review
•  A tantalizing description
•  Strong ratings
•  Editorial buzz

Am I the only reader who can't answer this? I don't normally take these Goodreads polls, anyway, unless they happen to be about books I really dig or a genre I love, but this one...this one looks like it was created by someone who doesn't understand readers and their book-choosing habits at all!

To be honest, I use a variety of criteria when choosing books to add to my To-Read List. This list is lacking buttons for a lot of those criteria. I mean, it is lacking some serious buttons. 

The most important button missing from this poll is "all of the above." Although an "all of the above" button still doesn't cut it for me because there are reasons other than these five that determine my book reading habits. At least the top four suggestions are taken under consideration when I look for books to read. Rarely do I get into "editorial buzz," though perhaps I ought to, I just don't see the need.

If a friend has said "Yeah, you'll like this" and reading the description/blurb has piqued my interest, then there's a good chance I'll read that book sooner or later. I've read books that have been recommended by friends on Goodreads.

'A tantalizing description' will often reel me in, more than the hype (editorial and/or pop culture buzz) or ratings. Mostly, it's word of mouth, though. Friends tell me through social media (other than Goodreads) or face to face with a simple "Hey, have you read this book? I bet you'd really like it." And I know if it comes from a friend who really knows me and what kind of books I dig, it's a book worth checking out. 

How do you find the books you read?

This is another cross-posting from my Portfolio class from the Fall term. I have edited it a bit to bring it up to date.


Taking a deep breath after graduation.

Hard to believe that my baccalaureate career is over, and I have some tough decisions to make about where to go next. I've begun applications to 2 universities: Florida State University and USF-Tampa.

I have a short list of schools that I would like to attend, but I need to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and take some time off to save up for application fees and collect the needed documents to submit with applications. Some schools are on my shortlist, even though they are far away from Florida and moving out of state scares the crap out of me, simply because they are either fully funded, do not require the GRE, or both. 

My Top 5 Shortlist for Grad Schools:

1. Florida State University
   • Although I'm not sure if they are fully funded or not, they do offer some form of assistance, either with TA's or other forms of scholarships, working opportunities. The reason I am so hung up on FSU, despite the way I feel about their logo that's offensive to Native Americans, is that in addition to having a MFA in Creative Writing, they also have a PhD in Creative Writing, and (here's where I go squee inside) a certificate in Editing and Publishing.
     
2. USF-Tampa
   • Getting into FSU might be hard, it's the #1 MFA school in the state. In case they reject me, USF-Tampa is my backup. Their MFA in Creative Writing is fairly new. How much funding they'll give is something I need to look into. That will be a priority real soon. 
3. University of Florida
   • Fully funded. A little more expensive to live here than in Tally, but not much more so.
4. Virginia Commonwealth University
   • Fully funded with health insurance. A smaller, easier to navigate campus in the heart of a mid-size, very hip and happening city in the midwest. Private, off-campus housing on and off the campus main drag, close to everything. The former home of one of America's greatest fiction authors (IMHO), Edgar Allan Poe. 
5. University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop:
   • It's the mother-effing Iowa Writers' Workshop, continually the #1 MFA program in the country. I have to apply, just to see if I can get in there. 

There are others on the list, but these 5 are in my radar. 

This is a crossover post from my Senior Portfolio class from last Fall 2015 semester. I am posting it here because I know a lot of my reader friends dig reading cool free stores online. Researching things like this is pretty much what my Senior Capstone was all about.

Source: Jones, Josh. "100 Great Sci-Fi Stories by Women Writers (Read 20 for Free Online)." Open Culture: The Best Free Cultural & Educational Media on the Web. N.p., 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.


Link: http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/the-100-best-sci-fi-stories-by-women-writers.html


The whole list of 100 best sci-fi stories by women can be found here: http://iansales.com/2013/07/10/the-list-100-great-science-fiction-stories-by-women/

Researching other resources for this project of planning a class in women's speculative fiction goes has been intense and educational for me. Research for this project goes beyond the standard critical journal articles on theory or analysis. Sometimes you have other ideas for how to view your audience. 

Now, who is my audience, beyond the literature professors here at USFSP who will be viewing the course Google Site I created for the project and who I will be presenting for at the send of the semester? The answer is, of course, any future students who decide that want to cast their lot with me and spend a semester reading and discussing otherworldly, fantastic, and creepy books and stories. I know they will be college students. And as a college student myself, I know that many of them will be flat broke and working two-to-three part time jobs just to afford to sit in my classroom. Therefore, I have determined to make it one of my personal goals to make the course reading materials as cheap as possible, and you can't get any cheaper than free! 

I just happened today to do a general Google search on "best women science fiction short stories" and the first result was the link posted above from a free educational blog. The article was posted by a gentleman, I'm going to assume he is a literature teacher based on the other articles he has posted to Open Culture (I found those by clicking on his byline link at the end of the article). The article contains information about a list compiled on another man in the field of science fiction. The original poster's page had a list of one-hundred of the best science fiction short stories written by women, along with a link to see where the stories could be found: anthology, collection, or online sources were given. Mr. Josh Jones took this list and narrowed it down to only those stories which could be read online for FREE. Mr. Jones' list is comprised of twenty stories that can be read online for free. Don't you just love the Internet? I do. 

Mr. Jones' article was posted to Open Culture in August 2013, so there is the possibility that some of the links don't work anymore. I'm going to have to check them all, and if I use any of them they will have to be checked periodically to make sure they are still active. I know from the experience of being a student that there is nothing more frustrating than having reading assignments online and when you click the links to read them...ERROR! FILE NOT FOUND! Going to do my damnedest as a professor to avoid that scenario. 

There are short stories on this list that I may add to the reading canon, namely: ‘The Cartographer Bees and the Anarchist Wasps’ by E Lily Yu, ‘Spider the Artist’ by Nnedi Okrafor, ‘Eros, Philia, Agape’ by Rachel Swirsky, ‘A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel’ by Yoon Ha Lee, and ‘The Lady Astronaut of Mars’ by Mary Robinette Kowal. Of the original one-hunded story list, five of them are on my canon already. I need to evaluate more of them.