Read My Fiction, Poetry & Nonfiction Online

Ta-da!

Thanks very much to everyone who voted for my story at the 5 Minute Fiction Challenge. I won! A lovely surprise for my first time trying a timed writing contest. I definitely want to do it again.

In all honesty, I was worried that I only won because I tweeted, blogged, and posted on Facebook about the contest. I was concerned that my friends would vote for me just because they were trying to be supportive. However, two people emailed me today, independently, to tell me that they would not have voted for my story if it wasn't the best, and in their opinion it was. So, I feel relieved.

You see, I suffer from impostor syndrome. Someday I'll probably devote a post or ten to that topic. Writers are particularly prone to the condition, especially if they are women or otherwise marginalized. Such as, oh, say, having a disability, just as a random theoretical example.

However, this contest was actually one in a string of writing-related pats-on-the-back I've received lately, so I was on quite a high at being a finalist. I was starting to feel downright almost-not-totally wracked by self-doubt. Lest I get too comfortable however, I received a rejection of a poetry submission about an hour after I was declared a finalist in the flash fiction contest. It's all part of the Great Circle of Uncertainty.

All this contest excitement and new blog building, combined with going on a searching-for-submission-opportunities binge has left me wiped out. I need more sleep, more spacing out, and more dog training. Too much business-of-writing keeps me in my head, and then I get that "squirrel-on-a-wheel" sensation where I can't stop my thoughts from running around in a frenzy inside the cage of my skull, searching for bird feeders to empty, with Barnum jumping up to put his paws on the window sills and watching them for hours. You see? I have totally lost control of my metaphors.

Anynoodle (yes, I'm carrying my little neologism with me from After Gadget), if you liked my flash piece, you might also like to read some of my other published fiction, poetry, essays, and humor columns. I have gathered a whole bunch of links on my new page, "Read My Published Works."

These pieces are all online, so they're free! Eventually, I'll put up links for the anthologies and chapbooks that have some of my best stuff, but not tonight.

And hey, let me know you're out there! It's lonely here with just me and the squirrel in my brain. (Yes, I know Barnum is here, too, but he's much too big to fit in my brain.) Please comment: tell me what you like, and what you'd like to see more of. Enjoy!

Peace,
Sharon