One common opening you want to avoid is the waking up scene. A character regaining conscious after some kind of accident can work well if the character wakes up into some major action (I'm thinking about the beginning of The Walking Dead TV series when Rick wakes from a coma into the zombie apocalypse). But that's much different than waking up, brushing teeth, and having a cup of coffee before getting to the day's conflict.
Flash Fiction Contest Tips: Opening Sentences
One common opening you want to avoid is the waking up scene. A character regaining conscious after some kind of accident can work well if the character wakes up into some major action (I'm thinking about the beginning of The Walking Dead TV series when Rick wakes from a coma into the zombie apocalypse). But that's much different than waking up, brushing teeth, and having a cup of coffee before getting to the day's conflict.
4 Ways to Find the Energy You Need to Write
It doesn’t matter who the writers are that I’m talking to. It might be my critique group. It might be my accountability group. It might even be my students. If someone is having troubles getting their writing done, they will blame it on time. And that makes a certain amount of sense. There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. We can only get so much done.
Monotask
Reduce the Decisions You Have to Make
Move
Write What You Love
Sue is also the instructor for Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins April 5, 2021) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins April 5, 2021). Her new course, Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work will begin on June 7, 2021).
Finding A Special Place/Space For Our Published Writing
I Went to Memphis and All I Came Back with Was a T-Shirt and Inspiration
After you stand practically where Dr. King was shot and read about how the Memphis sanitation strike turned out, you walk into a gift shop before you can get out the front door and over to the second building of the museum. (Museum designers know what they are doing...) I wanted to buy something here for myself and my daughter to support one of the best museums I had ever been to, but also to show my support for human rights everywhere, and my hope that some day racial tension and violence will be wiped from this earth.
It's referring to me. It's referring to you. It's referring to my daughter--to any of us who are using our voices--through the written word, spoken word, podcasts, audio books, telling our stories--fiction and nonfiction. We are not quieted down. We are standing up, and we are making history.
Life is so strange the way it takes us on a journey, and we often end up in a gift shop, buying a cute souvenir filled with inspiration that makes everything you're going through come full circle and just make sense for a minute.
Interview with Vicki Sutherland Horton: Fall 2020 Flash Fiction Runner Up
Today I am excited to interview Vicki Sutherland Horton, one of the runner-up winners of the Fall 2020 Flash Fiction contest. Make sure you read her story The Winter the Moose Moved In and then come on back and read our interview.
Vicki's bio:
Vicki Sutherland Horton lives in the Victorian seaport town of Port Townsend, Washington. She is a retired educator, with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. Through her writing, Vicki is interested in exploring the often unrecognized contributions of women in history. Vicki is a wife and mother and finds great joy in being a grandmother. She is a long-time participant in FisherPoets, a yearly gathering in Astoria, Oregon where she performs original work about her life in a commercial fishing family. Vicki is currently working on a novel: a historical fiction set in Alaska in the late 1940s. Accompanied by her Golden Retriever, Rhododendron, the two of them explore the surrounding forests and seashore. Vicki looks forward to more travel adventures—but of course that has to wait.
--- Interview by Nicole Pyles
WOW: First of all, congratulations on your story The Winter the Moose Moved In. What inspired this story?
Vicki: This story is deeply personal and part of a larger work. I began researching my mother’s upbringing on an Alaskan homestead in the late 40’s and 50’s. I am asking questions such as why did my grandmother do the things they said she did (family abuse, abandoning the family)? My family has taboo’s around sharing that part of life except on a superficial level. Being the kind of person I am I want to discover a deeper understanding. The protagonist Nadia is roughly based on my grandmother. The supporting stories are told to me by my mother and uncle such as the moose carcass out the back door and the hairdresser who is cabin bound because of moose in his yard.
WOW: I love how you used fiction to explore your family history. When I read this story, it felt like such a vivid setting to me. Was it inspired by a real location?
Vicki: Yes, it takes place in Alaska although I will have to be careful that I protect the location and inhabitants. I have visited the area and of course our family stories center on this specific location. My grandparents homesteaded there as part of a mission. Again, I don’t know much about the mission part of the story.
WOW: I loved hearing that you visit Astoria to take part in FisherPoets! Living in the Pacific Northwest myself, I personally love that area. What is that event like and do you see many of the same poets yearly?
Vicki: FisherPoets is a time I connect with those who have spent, or spend their life fishing. Fishing is a dangerous occupation and listening to fishermen’s poems you begin to understand their deep appreciation of beauty and death. My father was a commercial fisherman who died on his fishing boat many years ago. There are many fishermen still today who I meet up with, who I maintain connection with even though I no longer fish.
I am especially inspired by the young women who are presenting at FP these days. Their poetry and prose are raw and stunning! They are amazing women taking on all aspects of the fishing industry even serving as captains of their own boats!
Here is the official description of FisherPoets. The FisherPoets Gathering has been featured in media both national and international from the NY Times, Smithsonian magazine, the Wall Street Journal, NBC to the BBC and others. The U.S. Library of Congress has recognized the FisherPoets Gathering as a “Local Legacy” project and the event has spawned a genre, “fisherpoetry,” that fans of occupational poetry might hear in towns like Kodiak, AK, New Bedford, MA, Port Townsend, WA and Camden, ME.
WOW: How rewarding that experience is! What led you to enter this contest?
Vicki: Women on Writing offer a rubric that helps me move my writing forward. I don’t enter to win but to learn. As a former educator I can attest to the usefulness and research behind this kind of learning. It really helps me.
WOW: I love how you approach the contest - to learn! And I love that you are inspired by the unrecognized contributions of women in history. How do you research women to write about?
Vicki: I am reading as much as I can about women who traveled west especially on the Oregon trail. I am heartbroken reading the accounts of women who had no choice but to follow behind their husbands. So many of these women didn’t want to leave life as they knew it. I think my grandmother probably had similar things to consider as these women did. She gave up her established life in Washington State to homestead in Alaska, an unknown to her. I understand the complexity and hardship she, without question, undertook to raise her young children—and this was in the fifties! My next venture is to visit the museum in Oregon celebrating the end of the Oregon Trail.
WOW: I can't wait to see what you write next! Thank you so much for your time today!
Sins of Our Mothers Reader Review (and Giveaway)
First, here is a little bit about Sins of Our Mothers:
But Lyratelle, a hyper-observant musical prodigy, believes these “defects” are intelligent, particularly her own sibling, the youngest child of her impervious mother. Abandoning her dream career, Lyratelle climbs the bureaucratic ladder to run the Defect Research Center, where she can safeguard the child.
With an underground team of women who share her uncertainties, Lyratelle unearths the Old History truth that womankind’s survival actually hinges on the existence of these defects.
When General Sarah Love, the city’s most powerful advocate against the defects, detects Lyratelle’s sympathy toward the creatures, she threatens the life of Lyratelle’s sibling. Now Lyratelle’s desperate attempt to save this child endangers everyone she loves—her team, her family, even the existence of the defects themselves.
Sins of Our Mothers is available to purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org. You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list.
About the Author, Nicole Souza
You can discover more about Nicole’s work on her website: https://nicolesouzabooks.com. You can also follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****
Enter to win a copy of Sins of Our Mothers by filling out the Rafflecopter form below. The giveaway ends on April 18th at 11:59pm CT. We will announce the winner the next day in the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!
WOW! Interview with Contest Runner Up Cassandra Crossing for "A Future, Bright and Free"

Cassandra’s Bio:
Cassandra immigrated to the US in hopes of a better life, yet she found heartaches and pain. She changed her name to fit in, yet even after many years, she’s viewed as a foreigner. But as in the movie, “The Cassandra Crossing,” they survived a catastrophe, she’s a survivor. She finds joy in nature and in the little things life offers.
She writes from personal experience about love, despair, loss, and hope. Her work includes short stories, creative non-fiction essays, flash fiction, plays, and poetry. She’s also working on a few novels and novellas.
Her creative nonfiction “ Naked” won 2nd place in a WOW! Women on Writing essay contest and was published online in April 2020. “Why Are You Here?” won Runner Up status and was published online in 2019, while “Sorrow” (2019), “A Future Bright and Free” (2020), “Empowered” (2020), “Paying Attention” (2020), and her flash fictions “Allure” (2017), “The Cabin” (2019), and “The Scent of White Chrysanthemums” (2019) were finalists in contests by WOW! Women on Writing. An interview was published by them on January 5th, 2020. “The Cabin” also won Honorable Mention in 2020 by WOW!
Cassandra’s creative nonfiction essay, “Things That Matter,” her fiction “Parenting Advice,” and her plays “The Chair” and “Three Tickets for the Show” had been selected as finalists in several literary competitions in recent years.
Some of her fiction, “The Scent of White Chrysanthemums” and “Parenting Advice,” creative nonfiction, “Naked,” and poetry “Perception” received Pushcart Prize nominations in 2020 by Unlimited Literature Magazine, Ariel Publishing, and Ariel’s Dream Literary Journal.
Her work has appeared in online literary journals and magazines like The Scarlet Leaf Review, The Illinois State Poetry Society, WOW! Women on Writing, and more. She’s published in Spark Literary Journal, Unlimited Literature Magazine (UL-Mag), Beautiful Words by Ariel Publishing, LLC, and Ariel’s Dream Literary Journal in print and online. Her creative nonfiction essay, “Stone Flowers” is forthcoming in The Bookends Review in December 2020.
You can also find some of Cassandra’s work on her website: ccrossing888.wixsite.com/Cassandra, and support her writing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/CassandraCrossing.
Connect with her on Twitter @CassandraC888
Cassandra: I write anywhere and everywhere it seems. For example: at the airport, on vacation, on the plane flying, at the doctor’s office, in my car, waiting for my son at school, at the library, at the college cafeteria, in bed, in the kitchen, sitting outside on my mother’s stairs, anywhere I take my laptop, which is usually everywhere.
My favorite places in the summer and spring are my 8th-floor balcony with a view of the city’s skyline, on Evening Island at the Chicago Botanical Gardens, and by the pool at our home. What makes these places the best place is the beautiful, colorful, fragrant flowers surrounding me.
My favorite place in cold weather or on late nights is my living room. Where I’m surrounded by family pictures on the walls, memories, our three sweet cats, flowers, plants, and tranquil music.
From time to time, I write at my desk on the “BigMac” in my small office area. Usually, this happens when I’m working off of some critiques I’d received from WOW or one of the writing groups I belong to, and I’m using my laptop to display the suggestions.
When I’m at home, no matter where I sit, the common denominator is that my silk-furred calico cat will snuggle up purring in my lap, by my side, or at my shoulder.
WOW: Other than your calico cat of course - who is your support - what have you found to be most supportive in your writing life as well as in life in general?
Cassandra: My faith in God has been my highest support throughout my life. Journaling about the traumas, losses, heartaches I experience helps me understand myself, the purpose of these horrible events in my life, and how to use them for good. I came to realize that if I write and share, it gives these painful experiences a voice which transmutes their pain. If by my writings, I can help others to feel less hurt, less lost, less unworthy, and less alone, my struggles will have meaning. Then I don’t regret having to go through them. When I read Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life, I realized how my purpose lies in writing about these events that shaped me into the person I am today, one who has empathy and strength.
My son has been the most supportive in my writing life. He encourages me to keep going and tells me how impressed he is by my taking one little thing and making it into a rounded out story with meaning and value. He’s also the reason I kept going when I lost my daughter.
Members of the small writing group I started two years ago, the poetry group I joined a year and a half ago, the personal growth group I’m part of for nearly three years, and some of the members of a larger writing/critiquing group I attend for almost seven years have been most supportive of my writing and help me to grow as a person and a writer.
WOW: So happy to hear you have so much support - it makes all the difference on the hard days. Now I need to ask: Is A Future, Bright and Free part of something larger you are working on? It reads like a small chapter of a larger work - if it is, when can we expect to read it? If it isn't - why not?
Cassandra: Over the years, I wanted to write a memoir about how I lost my daughter, about my abuse-filled childhood, about the struggles in my adult life, but it seemed too daunting of a task. Also, too painful. Instead of waiting to have the time and when I feel completely healed, I decided to write short essays. Focusing on one part, one kernel of the past at a time helps me to find the emotional strength to dig deep and explore the truth and hurt I’m writing about.
I’ve been working on putting these creative nonfiction essays together, along with my fiction and poetry, into collections, and I plan to have them published next year.
WOW: Sounds like it's going to be a very exciting year for you, and your readers as well!
One last questions before we part ways for today: Do you often enter contests or is this a first? What would you like to tell other authors concerning contests and submitting their work?
Cassandra: Yes, I’ve been submitting my work to contests, literary magazines, and journals starting six years ago. At first, only sparingly, but in the last three years, I’ve increased my submissions as I gained more confidence in my writing after devouring any knowledge available about the craft.
Last year, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my submissions since many organizations accept simultaneous submissions, but they want original, unpublished work. Also, I read Chelsey Clammer’s piece about submissions and rejections, and I wondered about my acceptance/rejection ratio.
It’s a numbers game, I’ve been told. The more you submit, the more chances you have to be accepted. A lot of the time, the deciding factor is based on the preference of the judge or editor.
I usually purchase the critique from WOW. It helps me see what I need to work on and what works already.
It's Okay to Try Something New (Then Change Your Mind)
Then I changed my mind.
I don't know about you but I get "bright shiny object" syndrome when it comes to stuff with my blog and writing. I like to go after new ways of doing things, and that's happened to me a couple of times this year. First, I wanted to do some massive celebration of my blog's 10 year anniversary. I even started contacting some of the original contributors from when I first launched my blogs and some of the authors I featured those first few years.
Well, that fizzled out when I didn't hear from anyone. Then I began to wonder how worth my idea was to pursue.
Then I got another, and likely you heard about it. I wanted guest book reviewers on my blog because I felt like it filled a need of people wanting to review books and connect them with the authors who want reviews.
I got it all set up - like really set up, way more than I thought I'd do - and then I realized something:
What am I doing?
This year has been a doozy. WOW! has been wildly busy with tours, and then my new job has really taken off this year. I'm barely giving my brain a mental break. Then it didn't help that not a single soul on my email list expressed an interest in participating when my first newsletter went out.
I wondered if this energy was worth it?
I realized the answer is no.
If you are anything like me, and you tend to want to try out new projects, and see how far they get - kudos to you! I encourage you to keep trying because you just never know.
However, there's a lot to be said about knowing when you've hit your limit and taken on too much. I remember years ago when I was really active on my writing blog, I hosted a weekly writing prompt, and for the longest time, I loved it. Until that began to add to my stress at work and further drained me. So, I had to back out, even though I felt really bad for a while. Even missed it. Yet, I was glad I set those limits.
So now, I've realized it again, but luckily I didn't get too deep into this.
Of course, I'll still be reviewing books on my blog, and featuring authors as much as I can, but I'll be giving myself enough room to back away and ease up when I need to. And that is something I hope I don't forget the next time another bright shiny idea comes along.
The Fat Lady's Singing
There's the saying that everybody knows: It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings. Well, this fat lady is singing... but it ain't over. It ain't done.
My book is finished. It's published. It's available for pre-order (on Amazon). And yet there are still changes being made.
Since I'm not Stephen King or James Patterson or Jodi Picoult, my books are POD (print on demand). There's not a warehouse full of cases of my books (which is what my husband thinks) just waiting to be snapped up by the millions. (My husband thinks that is going to happen, too. I just laugh and laugh and laugh.) If nobody buys my book, it'll never be printed. If only three books are ordered, only three books are printed.
I received a gift from Amazon a couple of weeks ago: a padded envelope with an ARC (advanced reader copy) of my book. It wasn't supposed to be here until the next day, so I mistakenly thought it was just a book I'd ordered for my classroom. It wasn't. It was my baby.
The rationale of getting an ARC is to catch the mistakes before it goes out to the rest of the world. Here are some of the things we've found as my publisher and I are going over the book with a critical eye:
- missing or misplaced commas
- commas that should be semi-colons (according to my publisher) and semi-colons that should be commas (according to me)--I think sometimes Margo lets me win, just to be kind...
- a spot where I had the breeze blowing over someone's back, even though they were lying on the floor on their back. Yikes! (In defense, I think I originally had them lying on their stomach, and then switched it... or at least switched part of it)
- a bit about the glow-in-the-dark numbers on an alarm clock... 100 years ago... in a not-wealthy family
- a sentence where "but" was needed instead of "and"
- a comma and a period after a Mrs. (hmm... that's a different way of punctuating an abbreviation)
That First Writing Job
There’s a hierarchy when it comes to landing that first job. Remember your first job as a teenager? Mine was slinging popcorn and sodas at a movie theater and working as a junior employee at a department store in the mall.
Interview with Gwen Gardner: Fall 2020 Flash Fiction Runner Up
Gwen Gardner writes clean, cozy, lighthearted mysteries with a strong ghostly element. Since ghosts feature prominently in her books, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face—but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does.
The Little Book of Big Knowing by Michele Sammons Blog Tour (and giveaway!)
- It includes gentle reminders of why you are here, who you are at your core, and why your dreams matter to more than just you.
- This book will help you to look at life in a light-hearted, joyful way. Consider it spirituality with a playful twist!
- And the best part is, the book is written in short bursts you can read in any order. So you can pick it up, read a little bit, put it down, and come back to it when you’re ready for more!
Interview with Sue Hann, Runner Up in the WOW! Q1 Creative Nonfiction Contest
