2012

Successes

• "Am I a Christian?" published in the Spring 2012 issue of The Gettysburg Review
  
• "On the Necessity of Affirmative Action" published in the February 2012 issue of Four and Twenty
• Three poems accepted by African American Review

Current

I love Duotrope. Apparently I have a 3% acceptance rate. I'll work on that. I've sent out at least 100 submissions in the last twelve months. A lot is still pending...

• Three Essays Pending
• One Contest Pending
• Two Journals Pending
  
• Four Short Stories Pending
• ...okay so they are adapted stand alone previews ...novel excerpts?
  
• About Seven Poetry Journals Pending
• no contests... about 44 poems circulating
  
• Zero Erotic Short Stories out there...
• ...I had to use a few things for Literarily:Erotic 

Finally, back to the novel.

• Billionth attempt. 17,000 words so far. 
• Four excerpts sent to lit journals
  

Literarily:Erotic

1. EROTICA
1. I started an electronic literary journal. www.literarilyerotic.com. Literarily accepts poetry, short stories, short short stories, essays, letters, photos and videos. 
2. My own erotica has been rejected from other journals. It could be tighter. Leaner. And... better edited. 
2. POETRY 
1. Almost all of the individual poems I have submitted to journals have been rejected. Almost all.
2. Almost all of my full poetry manuscripts for The Flagellant have been rejected. I will probably have to self-publish my poetry. Probably. 
3. ESSAYS
1. I haven't been writing any essays in a while. I lost momentum. 
1. I have been thinking about writing essays on:
1. Was there domestic violence during slavery?
2. Black people and suicide
3. Suicide in Black literature
4. Why a lot of sexual words are violent words
5. What I learned from hip hop

Overall... I think I am much more of a book-enthusiast than I am a writer. Perhaps, I am a minor writer. Or at least, maybe I can work my way up to being a minor writer. 

I miss buying books. 

Okay. Not much to say. I'm alive. I'm happy. And I get rejection letters daily. What more could a writer ask for?

Essays

• So far I sent out three essays. 
• One was accepted by the Gettysburg Review! Yippee! But I think there were in house changes... I don't know how that will effect whether I actually get published or not. 
• The third I sent out was to a contest... I haven't entered any essay contests since high school.
• I have two essays that I haven't sent out yet. Both about gender. When I was younger... I didn't think that gender mattered. Everything I wrote was about being Black. Some how I lived the first two decades of my life thinking that I was equal to Black men. Lately, I've been rethinking my misguided youth. 
• One essay that has been rejected twice is on Black people and suicide. I need to rewrite it. I like the topic... maybe its just not as strong as it should be. 
• There will be a second essay on this topic that will be on suicide in literature... especially Black literature. I'm thinking old-school Baraka, E. Knight, for colored girls, maybe Sula, maybe the thing around your neck, maybe the opposite house... bandele. maybe d. blair. There was a spoken word piece that I heard around 2003 or so about suicide being selfish and a sin... I don't know the title or the poet... If I did, I would include a few spoken word pieces as well... maybe a few works by Ai.
• A few essays I haven't written yet
• Something about how sexual slang words are also violent. 
• Something about was there domestic violence during slavery... and if not when did domestic violence begin after slavery
• Something about respect... as a word and as a concept

Poetry

1. I finished The Flagellant. It is my third poetry book... but fourth poetry title. It has been rejected by all the small presses. Okay, maybe not all. But so far, it has been rejected by eight presses.
2. I've been wanting to write a book long poem since 2005 or so... I don't know if I have it in me. I wrote a single stanza... not necessarily the first stanza. I'm very proud of it. 
1.  There is a poem that I have been trying to write since about 2005... I thought it was going to be a spoken word piece... now, I think maybe its supposed to be in this book-length poem.
3.  I have been submitting poetry from my first two books. Only two poems were previously accepted for publication. I only have three sets of poems. So far they have been rejected twelve times.

 Erotica
 Although my actual sex life lacks everything, I honestly thought that erotica was my strongest form of writing. Apparently various editors of erotica disagree.

•  My book proposal for an anthology of writing pertaining to the African American woman's sexual experience has been rejected seven times. 
• I have two erotic short stories. Between the two they've been rejected three times.
• I would like to host a literary journal dedicated to literary erotica. I'd do it in print -- but I don't have the money. www.literarily:erotic.com

 Books
So far, no agent for anything.

1. My art therapy children's book has been rejected ten times.
2. And my book about epigraphs has been rejected five times.
3. My book of essays and my memoir has not been rejected... yet.
4. I have never written a novel... and I haven't sent out any screenplays. 
5. I thought it would be faster for me to write an ebook. Its more difficult than I expected writing books while homeless. You'd think that when one is jobless they have all the time in the world...

On Rejection

I've been avoiding sending short works to magazines and journals for publication. I should stop procrastinating.


Periodical, etc. Submissions

• Six Poems
• Only one has been published before...
• Two Short Stories
• One is erotica... and one needs to be rewritten
• Five Essays
• All orignated as blogs (personal or philosophy-related). All need to be rewritten

Agents

• Essays.
• I am sending queries/proposals out...
• I am elongating and editing the longer piece
• Memoirs
• I haven't touched it... Most say the memoir should be finished before querying...
• Screenplay/Novel
• I've been avoiding the whole storyline... 
• Children's Books
• Um. Not to sure what to do here. Sitting on it. 

...My Futile Attempt at Productivity

Okay, here's where I stand.

Blogs:

• I created a series of new blogs around the purpose of motherhood
• whyilovemotherhood.blogspot.com
• whyiloveblackkids.blogspot.com
• whyilovehatesinglemotherhood.blogspot.com
• whyilovevegetarians.blogspot.com
• whyilovelearning.blogspot.com
• whyiloveclothdiapers.blogspot.com
• I'm going to attempt to turn the blogs from Black Bookshelf, Black Armchair, Lhea J. Love, Graphophobia and New Americulture into a collection of short...really short essays on Race, Gender, Philosophy & Culture. 
• (*sigh* ...another book proposal)

Children's Books

• Okay... so far nine short picture books (without pictures)
• ...Need to write another book proposal...
• Still haven't started the book of children's poetry...

Poetry

• The Flagellant
• Finished the Cover
• Finished Editing
• Now all I have to do is print... And sell.
• Need to make it into an ebook
• G.  ... Still haven't started the next book.

Nonfiction

• Memoir
• the proposal is just about finished... but most say you should complete the entire memoir before trying to sell. ...treat it like a novel, they say.
• still only have about 30-odd pages...
• Another Literary Criticism book. Not really criticism... another book about books. Yeah, they probably don't sell that well. but I like them. I know what I'm going to do... but it seems like it would take a lot of time. I really want to complete some things this year so... I'm trying to tackle the short things first.
• 20 Something Book
• had a decent idea for a twentysomething book. But
• in a few years i'll be 30
• my life is a MESS. I probably shouldn't be writing a self-help book
• the proposal was rejected a few times by a few agents... REVAMP

Screen Stuff

• OO. As soon as 1. I print The Flagellant (poetry book)... and make the EBook available 2. Write the proposal for the children's series and send to a few agents/presses and 3. Write the essay proposal (blog to book idea)  and send to a few agent... then i'll finally finish the last quarter of dialogue for the final of the first drafts of the screenplay (last draft I do without consulting other people... or attempting the novel, again.)
• I have about four books that I would like to attempt to try an adaptation for. Not necessarily to try to sell it... but to see if I like adapting. I actually really like screenplays as a form. But honestly... I haven't seen enough movies... nor do I know enough about film. 
• I have a few ideas for documentaries... I have no idea how to write one.

Will I Finish Anything in 2011?

In the last three and a half months I have discovered that cloth diapers are the most important thing in my world and I actually enjoy changing diapers more than breast feeding. The highlight of my winter was discovering a diaper routeine that eliminates nighttime changes.

Other than that:

• Children's Books. 
• I wrote eight short children's books in January. Picture books... Now, all they need is illustrations...
• I want to write a book of children's poetry. I've written half of a poem. 
• Poetry. 
• I edited the poems for The Flagellant in December. Its a really short book. I should probably take another look at it before I print it. 
• I'm ready to start writing the next poetry book. I want it to be a single book long poem. I've never written a poem that long in my life. We'll see how it goes.
• I don't have the money to reprint Kings, Niggers & Negroes. I have one copy left. I'm thinking about ripping off the binding... and copying it myself. At home. Maybe I can bind books myself. The main thing I am worried about is how to make the pages even... 
• Screen Stuff
• In December, I wrote a treatment for OO. The second half of the screenplay still needs to be rewritten.
• In December, I wrote a treatment for a reality show. I'll probably do nothing with the idea.
• Nonfiction
• I have about 50 pages of memoir (first draft, kinda) completed. Goal 200. 
• I might begin a book of literary quotations & reviews. Maybe. 
• Last year I wanted to write a 20-something self-help book. This year I'm quasi-homeless... Should I really be writing a self-help book?
• Thought of an anthology idea... but I don't know how to research sound recordings. Library of Congress?
• I'm not a proper philosopher. But I would like to jot down my random theories. Will I be able to construct strong arguments? Maybe not. Analytic tradition? Probably not. I wanted to study Game Theory, Decision Theory, Set Theory, Chaos Theory, and... Critical Race Theory... I wanted to brush up on Calculus... and figure out if there was any other type of math I should know. No... the theory wouldn't be based on mathematics at all. But I just wanted to know more 'stuff'... before writing it all down. Now, I think I might not ever be any smarter than I am in this moment. That fact alone frightens me. And besides, tomorrow isn't promised.
• Fiction
• Besides the short short children's stories (and the screenplay)... I abandon fiction all together. I realized I can only finish the novel if I work on it everyday. I don't know if i can work on it every day when I don't know where I am living from week to week, month to month. Maybe I'm just lazy. It's not like I have a job. What else do I have to do... Eat, Sleep, Breastfeed, Wash Diapers, Change Diapers... and repeat.

Expecting Motherhood

• Six months pregnant, weighing in at 142 pounds. Most days, I feel Harper kicking. Most days, I feel really sexy. Harper has 9 outfits (thanks to her auntie), and 8 pairs of cloth diapers (yes, I'll need more).  
• Career Goals
• What career? 
• In July, I was rejected by Burger King; In June, Subway. And no, this isn't the first time. For the last 10 years I have been rejected by just about every fast food chain in south-eastern Michigan.
• I send out electronic applications, without referrals, by internet anyway. 
• Business Plans
• I just finished (at least the first draft) a new 30 page business plan. I need a little bit of feed back. And a few folks crazy enough to lend or give me start up money. 
• Literary Dreams
• The poems for my third poetry book has been selected. Honestly, they should be edited more. Usually I self-publish. Should I send a query letter to small presses, just for kicks?
• No response from February's queries for my 20-something non-fiction book. Now, I'm changing the title, rewriting the query letter (and the book proposal) and trying again.
• New Idea -- I'm going to collect a few essays (and maybe a few book reviews... maybe) and send out a second query for a non-fiction book.
• New Idea 2 -- I started a memoir, which has remained dormant, about a year ago. I have a few cool ideas for it. I'll re-write the beginning chapters... and send a third query out for a non-fiction book proposal.
• New Idea 3 -- I've been rather giddy about Harper lately. My 26th birthday just passed. U. tells me that I act like a 15 year old, or a 12 year old, or an 8 year old. Even at 8, I think he's being modest. I'm thinking maybe I should write a few more children's books... but I have no idea how to send out queries for children's books.
• Old Idea 1 -- The screenplay I wrote years ago, was supposed to be a novel. No-- I don't know how to write a screenplay, no -- I don't know how to write a novel. I wanted to write the novel first, pitch the novel first, and (by the grace of Goodness) sell the novel first. 5 years later I have a 120+ page screenplay and less than 50 pages of a would be novel. 
• I realize that i have lofty, childish friendly mental images of the book publishing industry... and harsh, fast, unsettling, frightening notions of hollywood emblazoned upon whatever cortex handles expectations and preconceived notions.
• But, if it takes 10 years to sell a screenplay (if it sells at all), I might as well start now. So, I have no idea what I'm doing... but I guess I'll start looking for an agent out west, too.

No E-Book sales. I guess that goes without saying. Some mornings I wake up rather frumpy, but for the most part Harper really does keep me happy.