I keep hearing about other writers' writing blogs, and decided it was time I had one, so I'm turning this formerly random blog into one. :-)

Today (Sunday, 17 August '08) I attended the Society of Southwestern Authors' August luncheon forum. The guest speaker du jour was Ned Mackey, a local poet -- of considerable talent and humor, I might add. He talked to us about ekphrastic writing, which is writing inspired by art. He showed us some pieces of art, and read us the poetry he wrote about them. And he left us with a challenge to do some, um, ephrasting ourselves, and said the best piece sent to him would be published in the SSA's newsletter, "The Write Word." So that's one of the projects I'll be working on this week.

My other immediate project is the "self-publishing" of a book my prison-ministry colleague and I have written. My agent tried for a year to sell it, but couldn't get any editors past the p-word: prison. Sigh. Nonetheless, this book will be helpful to several thousand inmates who've discovered Wicca since they've been incarcerated, and we are thus on the verge of uploading it to Outskirts Press.

We're meeting tomorrow evening to go over the details one last time. After that, we need to proof the ms. once more, sort out some cover-art issues, and then hit that "send" button. I'm nervous about it, 'cause I've never self-published before, and no matter how much research I do and how many e-mails I get from our author rep at Outskirts I get, I think I'll be cringing until we see a proof and it turns out to look and feel like a real book. Which I'm pretty sure it will. I'll let you know!

My other "writing news" is that I've recently joined the Arizona Authors Association (www.AzAuthors.com). Very recently: Thursday evening. I've got a page on their website and am about to become active on their Forum. So now I'm a member of two professional writing organizations (the other being the SSA (www.ssa-az.org), and yes, actually, that does make me feel more professional as a writer. :-)

Thus endeth my first post to my writing blog. Peace out.
Ashleen

(and don't forget to visit my website: www.AshleenOGaea.com)





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