Native Moments is with the final editor. This is the stage I’ve been dreading. This means it is over. All the hard work I’ve put into this leads up to this moment. No more changes. My worst fear is opening the book for the first time and seeing a mistake. Or if I ever decide to read it again, thinking I should’ve had a different ending. … Continue reading Final Edits
After Philip Roth’s My Life as a Man, a heart breaking tale of a writer’s marriage, I quickly began Alex Garland’s The Tesseract. I was excited about The Tesseract because years ago I thouroughly enjoyed Garland’s debut novel The Beach. However, two weeks later I was still only 60 pages in. It was a struggle to get that far. I’m one of those readers that … Continue reading Currently Reading
Yesterday I spoke on the sting a rejection letter has even though I have a novel coming out this year. A good way to overcome that rejection: rewrite the piece and send it off to six more journals. The key is to just keep getting better. Continue reading How to Deal with Rejection
Just because I got one yes, and it was a big one, the hustle isn’t over. Been feeling indestructible with the upcoming publication of Native Moments and then had this nice little reminder about the life of a writer when I checked my email today. Continue reading A Simple Reminder
Reading posts about goals and seeing how much people wrote in 2015, I’ve realized I haven’t been doing as much as I can to make writing a career. Having Waldorf Publishing agree to publish Native Moments was the boost I needed. I had been in a writing slump for years. Glad to have the fire back. This year, when not working on Native Moments, I’m … Continue reading Setting goals for 2016.
Came across the following while looking at a literary agent’s submission guidelines: “We appreciate all queries. But please note that most publishers today are highly selective about what they publish, and often decline to consider works by unknown or uncredentialed writers. We do our best to overcome these strictures for our clients, but they are powerful obstacles.” Basically, if you aren’t a published writer with … Continue reading Moments of Discouragement
I received a rejection email back for a short story, but sent that story to 4 more literary journals. Also, found a publisher who accepts unsolicited manuscripts, so I sent my novel out as well. Staying motivated is probably the toughest part about being a writer. A rejection slip can easily make you feel as if you are wasting your time. The key, I hope, … Continue reading Another Rejection
This is the only short story I’ve had published. It came out in the 2011 edition of Emerald Coast Review. I’ve had multiple rejection slips from numerous publications and of course a story that I spent the least amount of time on is the one that gets published. It was an experiment with Flash Fiction. Wanted to see if I could write a complete story in less than 1,000 words. I also experimented with writing in the first person. I’m always hesitant to write in the first person because I’m worried people will think I’m the character. I know I shouldn’t worry about those things. The only thing that matters is writing a good story. So here it is. Feel free to let me know what you think. I can take all forms of criticism.
Continue reading “Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes; or The Bubble.”
Nic Schuck 