Okay! I’m having another contest, and will hopefully have more in the future, so stay tuned!

Rachel

My grandfather, a German-American farmer, taught me the meaning of dedication to a purpose which grows from love. He loved the soil, and he knew how to cultivate it better than anyone I’ve ever known because he worked it, plowed it, fed it – gave his passion to it with his bare hands, teams of horses and the sweat of his brow.

Words are the soil of my passion. Grandfather never became wealthy a wealthy man plowing those fields but he was rich. His richness of purpose is my inheritance and rather than squander what he passed on, I long to invest wisely. I can’t imagine a better way to use my inheritance than to cultivate my fields of poetry, essays, and non-fiction.

It would be wonderful to have a brand new Writer’s Market to help send my crops out into the world. I know Grandpa would approve.

I write because it’s the best thing I do: it’s what I’ve been training myself to do for 34 years; it’s the best way I know for expressing what’s on my mind, and my mind is my stock-in-trade. My writing is probably my only hope for survival in my old age.

I write poetry and instructional material and humor, and, lately, lots of social commentary. Labels such as “diarist” are fitting me better and better these days.

I haven’t owned a copy of WM since the ’90s, I suppose it’s been. What I would do with a copy now would be, aside from reading mostly the poetry and periodicals publishers for entertainment, at least, look up what it has to say about finding agents, and I would peruse the agent listings particularly carefully.

I probably wouldn’t draft it into service as a doorstop for a few years, when I’m convinced that it’s out of date even by my standards, which are pretty lax, and then I would be more likely to draft it into service as a piece of “altered art” than as something strictly utilitarian. Being a thick book, it would give itself well to having niches carved into its pages…

I ask myself that question often. Unlike Steve (Hi Steve!), I really don’t have any stories bursting to escape. Quite the opposite, in fact. I have to sit down and deliberately try to think of something. I think for me, it is simply that I love literature and want to contribute to it in whatever small way I can. The idea of taking blank paper (or the blank screen, of which I am all too familier with) and turning it into something hopefully worthwhile is a goal for me. It sounds hokey and I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone but me, but it’s what I came up with.

Mostly I write short stories, although right now I am attempting once again to turn my day spent as a hostage into something longer (I’m 15,000 words into it. It’s a totally different mindset from the short stories I usually write). I’ve had a handful of things published in the semi-pro mags and anthologies, but so far haven’t been able to make the leap into the major leagues.

I still have the 2005 Writers Market sitting on my shelf. I don’t know why I didn’t pick up the newer editions. I must’ve been too busy filing rejections (Time flies!).

Short stories are niggling at my brain constantly and have started collecting up worse than dust bunnies under the bed. The short form consumes me, much like I hear novels do the average writer. I occasionally write poetry, and every so often a decent one will slip out too. It is not my goal to ever publish the poetry, however sharing the short stories has actually proven fun. Strange to have run across writing so late in life, but long as it’s about living, what the hey, better late than never.

Unsure of what to do as a next step, so the Writer’s market may prove a useful tool. I’ve one publisher interested (independent press) and educating myself about the industry could only help.

Ouch, I didn’t intend to blather on. All the best to you and yours then, Steve