Spacedad

Fathers and daughters across time and space: an Adobe Photoshop edit combining photos by Amarinsky, Srichakra Pranav, and NASA. Photos licensed under Wikimedia Commons and remixed by Amanda Grace Shu.

Guess who's been published in her first professional market?

This story was written as a Christmas gift for my father and later revised at the Alpha Workshop. I wanted to write a story that conveyed both the joy of fantasy exploration and the emotional strain of adventure upon a father-daughter relationship. The story darts in and out of Clare's life as her father does, never fully resolving any of the conflicts hinted at, and yet giving us a full sense of their relationship, in all its ups and downs.

So, without further ado, I present to you...

Daily Science Fiction:

Spacedad

Comprendre (Poetry on the T Contest Winner!)

Banner for Mass Poetry's Poetry on the T program, which is featuring my latest poem this month.

 Fantastic news! My poem Comprendre was voted one of two student winners of Mass Poetry's Poetry on the T Contest! During the month of May, seven Red Line trains shuttling people throughout the Greater Boston Area will be proudly displaying my poem, hopefully brightening the days of busy commuters through the power of creative writing. Huzzah!

Mass Poetry is a marvelous organization that organizes the Massachusetts Poetry Festival each day, so be sure to look at their website. To read the three other contest-winning poems and soak in the astounding art paired with them, click here.

Azure

Azurite and malachite, both of which appear in this poem. From http://www.roomservicestore.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/AzuriteMalachite2.jpg.

Azure

New Millennium

Neither is race. Or education, for that matter. Source: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Checklist2.jpg, via the Google Machine.

This poem won second place in World Unity Inc.'s 9th Annual Poetry Contest on Diversity and Inequality. To be honest, I think they were looking for something a bit less... challenging of today's world to be in first-place, but hey, as long as there's a nice certificate and recognition for a poem I loved writing, I'm ecstatic. :D

They like me! They really, really like me!

New Millennium

Maya & Matilda: Mock Orange Style

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt--part of a flyer advertising Mock Orange, the publication in which "For Maya and Matilda" has been published!

Readers may or may not remember the poem "For Maya and Matilda," written in the style of the inestimable Maya Angelou, but I'm happy to announce that it has been published in the debut issue of Mock Orange Magazine, a new literary magazine featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art from girls and women ages 14-25!

This issue can be bought for $6 at CreateSpace here. It will also be available through Amazon.com starting next week.

Like Mock Orange on Facebook here and visit their website here.

Barton Hollow

Oh, look! It's me! You finally get to see my face, dear readers! And what is that blurry orange rectangle that I'm holding? It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...

...asdf'lksdjfas'dflkjads'fkja'sldkfj'!

Ahem. Let me try that again. I'm quite excited, you see. You would think that an author would have a more coherent way to express excitement than that, but apparently I don't. That's not really important, though. What's important is...

I GOT PUBLISHED!

In the Winter 2013 edition of The Marble Collection: Massachusetts High School Magazine of the Arts, there is a short story on page 14 entitled "Barton Hollow," one of five short stories in the issue. And it is mine.

There are very few words to describe how elated I am at this moment.

Barton Hollow

Flutter By, Butterfly

From http://spiritofsage.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/dlw-reiki_butterfly_hands-9015235_std.jpg. Image depicts hands sending up a butterfly. This was the picture that accompanied To Sing to a Butterfly in the OSC Summer 2012 Reporter.

You may remember from a previous post that my "To Sing to a Butterfly" poem had inspired an in-progress piano prelude by composer Erik Gustafson. Well, that piece of music is complete, and it is absolutely stunning!

Here is the link so that you all can listen to it yourselves:

http://erikmusik.net/ToSingToAButterfly.mp3!

So, let's all have an internet round of applause for Erik Gustafson! To check out more of Erik's wonderful work, visit his website at http://erikmusik.net/.

Moment

Yes, this is me and my brother. From the back, to conceal our identities, obviously.

Make way for memoir! Make way for memoir!

Yes, I have as of recently been exploring the treacherous waters of the nonfiction genre, if by "recently" you mean "in July, at Smith," and have made a wary but definite peace treaty with personal experience writing, if only for a little while. I've actually been meaning to post this for some time, but I couldn't figure out how to get the picture in until today...

Posted to the Teen Ink website August 1st, 2012. And even featured on the front page of the entire Nonfiction section! I have a screencap as proof.

With the little VIP sticker next to my name, no less!

I hope you enjoy it!

Moment

Bountiful Butterfly Blessings

Picture taken from http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/glitters/b/butterfly_rainbow-8184.jpg. Image depicts butterflies and a rainbow. I think it's a gorgeous picture.

In May, I wrote and posted a poem called "To Sing to a Butterfly". Here's what that particular poem's been up to since:

• Posted on the Old South Church Forum
• Used by Rev. Dr. Debbie Clark in a worship service at Edwards Church in Framingham
• Inspired an in-progress piano prelude by composer Erik Gustafson
• Used by Rev. Don Remick at the opening worship service for the UCC Mass Conference
• Shared by at an Interfaith Spirituality group at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and:
• Published in the Summer 2012 edition of the Old South Reporter

So thank you Anonymous, for giving me the prompt that started it all, and all of you for your continued support!

Fanfiction Honors!

Banner made by the wonderful Kate of Carlay, one of the moderators over at Starvation Forum. Thanks so much, Kate!

The Clever, Crazy, Completely Non-Canon Challenge was a competition run during the fall and winter by the Hunger Games fan forum Starvation. The basic concept was to write either an AU story (a story with events that deviate from the source material) or a story with a non-canon pairing (a romantic relationship contradicted by/not mentioned in the source material); the winner of each category would be determined by votes. I am honored to announce that my short story "Dark Days" won in the AU category!


Speaking of honors, several stories of mine have also been nominated for the 2011/2012 Winter Hunger Games Awards: multi-chapter story Survival for "Best SYOT" and "Burning Bright" and "Smoke and Mirrors" for "Best Prompt-Inspired" (the only stories even nominated for that category, another honor!) These awards have not been judged yet, so stay tuned for further updates!

A complete list of fanfiction honors awarded to me can be found here.