What Are Your Writing Goals For 2022?

I am not a huge fan of declaring resolutions for the New Year, because they often set people up for failure. Too often, large changes are declared, and they may or may not be possible immediately.

I prefer to think in terms of goals, both long-term and short term and to set up situations in which, with discipline, you can achieve these ends. 

My immediate goal is to finish a revision of my YA horror novel; additionally, I want to do two more first drafts this years–one of a novel, and one of a nonfiction book on revision, and I want to revise at least one more novel. My first goal should be done by the end of January, but we will see. The important thing is to keep working and to keep writing.

My question for all of you is this: what are your writing goals for this year?

 

(Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels)

A New Poem by Robert Fillman

I am very honored and pleased to announce that my friend and extraordinary poet, Robert Fillman has a new poem out. He will also have a new book of poetry, House Bird, out in 2022.

The poem appears in Sheila-Na-Gig online.

CONFIDENCE MAN

I am very honored and pleased to announce that my friend and extraordinary poet, Robert Fillman has a new poem out.

After tossing my duffel bag

on the bench, I cinch the drawstring

to my sweatpants. And that is when

I remember the locker room

at the college: the sting of bleach,

the rhythm of slamming metal

doors, guys stepping out of showers

in towels, that long wall of white

urinals, each man evenly

spaced, holding himself, head down, not

saying a word, the loud whooshing

spray from a flush, my big brother

stretching beside me in his loose

tank-top and knee-length tennis shorts.

I hear him snickering as he

elbows me in the ribs while I

bend at the hips, Hey, here he comes,

‘Naked Guy,’ and I look to see

his thick head of white hair, still wet,

that seemed to brag to us younger

guys, his whole body glistening

as he strides out from the shower

like some minor god. How I’d kill

to have such courage, every inch

exposed, my eyes trying not to

linger on his shape, the brown age-

spots, trying not to think about

how those wrinkles and slack skin lines

are more vivid, more distinctive

with every tense step, every slap

of foot against ceramic tile—

Robert Fillman

Robert Fillman is the author of the chapbook November Weather Spell (Main Street Rag, 2019). His poems have appeared in The Hollins Critic, Paterson Literary Review, Poet Lore, Salamander, Spoon River Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review,and others. His criticism has appeared in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, The College Language Association Journal, and The Explicator. He currently teaches at Kutztown University, where he is a member of the English and Professional Writing departments. His debut full-length collection, House Bird, will be published by Terrapin Books in 2022. www.robertfillman.com

Here is the cover of his upcoming book:

A Reminder For Help on #PitMad

Hello to everyone! This is a quick reminder that I am asking for help on my #PitMad pitch today.

If you have Twitter, please RT my pinned pitch, and this is extremely important — DO NOT LIKE THE PITCH. Liking is for agents to show they are interested in the book.

Thank you in advance for your help.

My pitch follows:

THE FIFTH SEASON X PARABLE OF THE SOWER In a world decimated by climate change, now like the dark ages, 16-yr-old Lignne wants to be the first female graduate in the only school in the kingdom, but treachery from a psychopath threaten her success and life. #A #PitMad #SF

Again, thank you!

Please Help Me at #PitMad on 12/2/2021

Please!

Hello everyone! This may sound like an odd request, but tomorrow, December 2, 2021, I am participating in #PitMad on Twitter, a day long event in which authors tweet a pitch for a book to agents.

If any of you have Twitter, please consider retweeting my pinned tweet, which I will put up tomorrow morning around 8 a.m. EST.

My Twitter handle is @French_C1955

This is also important– DO NOT LIKE THE PITCH–that is for agents to let writers know they are interested in your work.

My pitch will look something like this:

THE FIFTH SEASON X PARABLE OF THE SOWER In a world decimated by climate change, now like the dark ages, 16-yr-old Lignne wants to be the first female graduate in the only school in the kingdom, but treachery from a psychopath threaten her success and life. #A #PitMad #F

Thank you!!!

How Are You Doing With Your Writing?

November is coming to an end, and some of you have been doing NaNoWriMo, and others have continued with a somewhat less frenzied pace.

I am one of the people who tries to write on a regular basis and avoids binge writing. I  I am also continuing to work on what I am calling an historical fiction/romance–imagine that coming from this writer of horror! If I can maintain my current pace, I should be able to finish the first draft soon.

I will also begin revising one of the other first drafts I have completed. By the way, if you are wondering how I manage to do this, check out my book Get The Draft Done! Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft — how’s that for a bit of shameless self-promotion!

So, I ask all of you: how is your writing going?

Available on Amazon

Get The Draft Done! is available here: Amazon.com

Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.

Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.

An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.

Please follow the following links to find my novel:

ebook

Print book

Thank you!

The book trailer:

Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I

My radio interview:

interview

Available on Amazon

Available on Amazon

Quotations on Intellectualism

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

                                                  Isaac Asimov

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy.”

                                                   George Orwell

“I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact.”

                                                      Phil Plait

“For democracy to survive, Americans must learn to embrace intellectualism, reject cult-like behavior, employ analysis, understand and use science, and think for themselves.”

                                                      Charles F. French

To All The Writers–Have Faith In Yourselves!

(https://pixabay.com)

To all the writers out there, who keep working on their books, stories, poems, or any other work, you can do it.

Have faith in yourself.

Keep imagining.

Keep thinking.

Keep drafting.

Keep writing.

You can do it!

(https://pixabay.com)

A Call For Help for #PitDark

Please!

Hello everyone! This may sound like an odd request, but on Thursday 10/14/2021 I am participating in #PitDark on Twitter, a day long event in which authors tweet a pitch for a book to agents.

If any of you have Twitter, please consider retweeting my pinned tweet, which I will put up tomorrow morning.

My Twitter handle is @French_C1955

This is also important–do not like the pitch–that is for agents to let writers know they are interested in your work.

The tweet will be for my novel The Ameriad: The Monastery of Knowledge.  I will have the tweet up at 8 A. M. EST.

It will look something like this:

THE FIFTH SEASON X PARABLE OF THE SOWER Lignne knows who she is, what she wants, and faces likely death. Climate disaster puts Earth into dark ages; she wants to be the first female graduate in the Monastery, but murderous treachery threaten her success and life. #A #PitDark #PA

Again, thank you to all!

Banned Books Week September 26-October 2, 2021

This week, from September 26 through October 2 of 2021 is National Banned Books Week. Book banning and censorship is a crucial issue that should unite readers and writers. Throughout the world and humanity’s history, governments, churches, and other institutions have banned or attempted to ban and censor books.

Most of us are familiar with the images from Nazi Germany in which thousands of books were burned by the Fascists. All banning, however, is not so explicit. Sometimes in the United States of America, books are challenged, especially in the context of not being allowed to be taught in the classroom.

I oppose all such censorship. As a writer, it is an obscenity; as a teacher, it is an imposition of chosen ignorance; as a reader, it is an intolerable abomination. We must unite and oppose book banning, in all of its forms.

Fight for your freedom to choose what to read.

Here are several important links about this issue:

Banned Books Week

American Library Association

I will later, this week, in honor of this important cause put out another call for readers to become part of my unofficial group that opposes censorship–The Underground Library Society, The U. L. S.

In the meantime, I ask all of you this question: what is a book that has been banned or challenged that you love?

I choose To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Robbie Cheadle Reads Her Poetry from Behind Closed Doors a collection of unusual poems.

Please view Robbie Cheadle reading her poem “Do you want it enough” from her book of poetry Behind Closed Doors a collection of unusual poems. 

I give Robbie Cheadle’s book of poetry Behind Closed Doors a collection of unusual poems my highest recommendation. Robbie Cheadle is an excellent writer of both fiction and poetry, and her work continues to be of the highest quality.

In this collection of poems, Robbie Cheadle deals with a wide variety of issues and uses a variety of forms of poetry, among them Tanka, limericks, and haiku, and she does this with great passion and control of her art. The poetry in her book is powerful, compelling, and evocative.

Several of the poems resonated with me in particular, including “Opportunity”, “Hope”, “Making a splash”, “Perspective”, “Lockdown in poverty”, and “I saw a fish a-swimming”.

Choosing these poems to highlight was difficult, because Robbie’s work is excellent throughout the book. 

If you enjoy poetry, you need to get and read this book!

Please visit Robbie Cheadle’s wonderful sites:

Roberta Writes

Robbie’s Inspiration

Robbie Cheadle–Books/Poems/Reviews