Monday, December 22, 2014

Hunting Down Story Links

So I finally spent some time (a couple of hours, to be honest) hunting down story links from the last six weeks, resolving (yeah, right) to "copy and save" each day for Friday's round-up, and wondering why I fail to remember to do so.

Mostly, I believe it's a cross between lack of habit (I try to establish habits for things I wish to accomplish; by rote, for me, is more productive than spontaneity) combined with a touch of distaste for self-promotion. I do like words to speak for themselves, but, sheesh, I could further the process by at least putting the works out there.

Amongst all the posts of vampires, fiction-writing tips, and anything that interests me or pertains to the series, is the work I do each day. Posts on homeschooling have dropped to nearly nothing after my two youngest earned their GED's last November, which left the features writing/editing portion of my day to, if not increase, than to shift focus in my life and receive more of my time.

I am exorbitantly proud of the work I do, not because of a twisted sort of self-inflation type of pride, but because of the humbling awe in talking in-depth to people on a regular basis, hearing their amazing life stories, and then retelling them in a way that lends itself to newspaper publication and a desire by readers to, well, read them.

I also have a passionate attachment to The Herald-News, which I have read from my youth. It's a local newspaper with a strong community chain, from staff to readers, that has made all my jobs through the years connected with it (selling it, writing for it, and delivering it) a joy to perform.

To have passed so many hours and days and weeks and months and years in such a fashion is a blessing that defies defining - and to now have the privilige of making editorial decisions and working with other freelancers as other editors have worked with me - is also a tremendous blessing. When I post story-rounds, I'm sharing the work of other writers, too, something I really need to keep in mind.

This may explain my preference for fiction that borders on literary, well-defined characters that move the plot, rather than novels that require only a few standup paper dolls to keep the pages turning at a rapid rate. I've nothing against genre fiction, as long as characters have substance and shape. It's the integrity of features writing that drives my fiction, with fiction being an extremely minor part of my life.

To combine all of these reasons into a weekly post of story round-ups is, I feel, reasonable. So I really need to get my shit together.


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