Hello Everyone,
It’s the first Wednesday of the month and IWSG Time has come around again.
IWSG, a writer’s support group, which was created by Alex Cavanaugh, is a big help to many of us who don’t mind sharing our insecurities, our successes or giving encouragement and help to others.
So, if you are interested and would like to join, I have posted the link below:
My report:
- I actually got three of my works published on Esther Newton Weekly Challenge Website. It has given me a positive feeling of affirmation seeing my work on someone else's website.
- My three short stories are revised and in the process of being submitted. More about the submissions next month.
- I still have two outstanding stories that I have not yet heard whether they are accepted or rejected. So I am still waiting.
- I submitted one short story to Wordhaus, an online publication and one short story to Write Practice, for their Fifth Anniversary online publication.
- I'm chugging along with my rewrite/revision of my manuscript. I am on target and after my betas and my writing coach/book editor reads the final version, I'll be sending the manuscript out in September.
- I have begun resurrecting all of my blogs. I still don't plan to blog every week, but I do plan to ensure I get a new blog posting up on each blog once a month.
AUGUST 3RD QUESTION: What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?
Answer: My very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer was a short story for Romantic Shorts Online Publication, titled On A Rainy Day and it was published July 9, 2012. Today, when I read it, I realize how far I have grown in my writing.
My insecurity article is below.
The second quarter of my life, this year, resembles my Junior year at the University I attended. Back then; everything I touched seemed to strong-arm me. Life came at me full force. I wasn't spared. The heavy tests mentally, physically, and spiritually challenged me.
Thus, when I woke up one morning in July of this year and discovered my body wasn’t moving like I wanted it to, I grunted loudly. Out of all the things that had happened, sickness had come knocking on my door too, and I could have cried.
As a writer, that’s bad news. I am trying to set my mark in the literary world. With my body weak, I find it difficult to motivate myself to write because my strength dwindles quickly.
This is where one of my invisible round table knights, Vincent Lombardi, comes in. Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It's a state of mind- you could call it character. I told a dear writer friend, Gwynn Rogers, last week, as we sat millions of miles away from each other, computer to computer, skyping, that I force myself to write.
I write; I submit; I fulfill my commitments that I’ve given to others; I read; I move slowly, but I move.
Let me quote one of my own tweets I sent out last week:
Anybody can write when they’re feeling good. It’s when you’re rock bottom and still writing that proves you’re a writer.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat Garcia
