Jujugirl

What I'm Reading

2008-09-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

I just joined Goodreads. This is a friendly-network website with a focus on reading, be it what you read, what you want to read or what's currently in your hand.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

My review

I started this before and never finished it.

View all my reviews.

Promoted

2007-02-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

I've been promoted to Senior Associate Editor at my favorite little 'zine, The Vestal Review.

Come read what we're publishing. And if you're a writer who enjoys flash fiction, please submit your best work under 500 words.

Chick Flicks Issue 9, Sept 15, 2006: filling a void in publishing

2006-09-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

Chick Flicks Issue 9, Sept 15, 2006: filling a void in publishing

Check this out -- My story Things Accomplished in Water Closets, American and Parisian has received Editor's Choice at Chick Flicks. Groovy.

ania vesenny

2006-06-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

ania vesenny

Strangely distant, yet warm, read ania vesenny.

The Binnacle

2006-06-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Binnacle

Congratulations to the Grand Prize Winner Ginger Hamilton Caudill, and to finalists Mark Budman, ania veseny, Cheryl Chambers, Cliff Garstang, Cami Park and any other Zoetroupers whose names I might not recognize.

Thirst For Fire -- Incendiary New Fiction

2006-05-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Thirst For Fire -- Incendiary New Fiction

Vestal Review 25

2006-04-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Home

So happy to be a part of this. Read these excellent stories!

Lestat on Broadway

2006-03-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this - Lestat on Broadway. I miss New York, California is dandy, but NYC has Lestat; time to plan a getaway.

storySouth / notable short stories of 2005

2006-03-15T06:32:00.000-08:00

storySouth / notable short stories of 2005

The best story tellers online - 2005, as nominated by their friends and picked by the judges listed. I like some of the authors, especially Mary Miller - my new fave, and Patricia Parkinson, always like her stuff. She's a super-nice gal, too.

If You're Ever in Bend, Oregon...

2006-03-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

Go see my friend Shelley Hall at her gallery, and buy some art while you're at it. Or at least tell her I sent you.

An Interview about Flash Fiction

2006-02-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

eightdiagrams.com

Mark Budman was interviewed by Wayne Yang as he shares his insights on Flash Fiction, a genre which I have a great affection for.

Leslie Schwartz :: Publications

2006-02-21T17:49:00.000-08:00

Leslie Schwartz :: Publications

At the SCWC this weekend, I had the extreme pleasure to participate in two workshops led by Leslie Schwartz, author of Angels Crest and Jumping the Green. I haven't had much literary education, if I may be honest, but I have been very fortunate to be guided by a few marvelous writers, Leslie being one of them.

Southern California Writers Conference

2006-02-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

Southern California Writers Conference

I enjoyed this conference this weekend. It's so cool meeting writers face to face, sharing stories, commiserating rejections. Some highlights of the conference included two workshops with my the inspirational Leslie Schwartz, author of Angels Crest and Jumping the Green. She is a professor at UCLA and once ran the Southern California Writer's Workshop, which I always wanted to attend, but like all extended educational opportunities was unable to because of my mombie status and the many duties which piggy back thus role.

And, I sat in on an Editors workshop with Charis Conn of Harper's. She was fab, funny and upfront regarding relationships and correspondences with professional editors. I enjoyed her candor and the eye opening perspective she offered. The main ingredient of her philosophy is that editor's are people too, treat them with respect, send them notes but don't overdo trying to get their attention or "they will hate you." No pink letterhead, no funky fonts, no telephone calls, por favor.

I was able to briefly sit in on a read and critique with Justine Musk, author of Bloodangel. I bought her book and have started reading it. Awesome writing, very raw action. Not for sissies.

I highly recommend writing conferences, they are equally inspiring and informational. One day, when my children are older, I want to attend Tin House and stay for a week and retreat into the caramelly bliss of the written word.

Vestal Review

2006-02-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

Masthead

I have a new gig as Associate Editor for Vestal Review. Submit!

Brace Yourself, Here Comes the Wind

2006-01-26T13:02:00.000-08:00

Things have been calm with S. In times like these, the word calm takes on a new meaning.

I have been calm in California, talking to my sister in law on the telephone for a few moments each day. My sister in law is calm because she was able to sleep for four straight hours, her longest stint in weeks. She now resides in the pediatric oncology wing where S is a patient. She sleeps in a bed beside his. I imagine that she is not lulled to sleep by the sounds of a hospital, the beeping of equipment which monitors his vitals, the clanging of food trays brought by the nutrition team, the nurses who visit and record things on his medical chart. Rather, she is interrupted. She and S both, and just when he was doing so well in first grade.

They are all interrupted. My brother hates that he has to leave the hospital to go home because he has to work. I listen to George Bush speak this morning on his domestic spying agenda and wonder when he will put a program in place for American families in crisis. Seems to be low on the to do list.

It hurts when S coughs. His sternum is healing from open heart surgery and the removal of his tumor. The tumor collapsed his right lung which has been restored, but he needs to cough to keep it that way, and of course, coughing hurts the incision area in his sternum. The doctor's took him off of morphine and replaced it with OxyContin, a better pain killer. The dosage seems to be working out, but the morphine has made it difficult for him to go to the bathroom and until he does, his doctor doesn't want to send him home. So, we're praying for poop. We're lighting candles for it. We're also hoping for stable oxygen levels, when they're stable, when the lung is working correctly S can go home. This could be today.

But they will be back we have just found. Because this thing is cancer and of course one surgery cannot cure cancer (I was fantasizing that it would, I must admit), they will be back to treat the cancer cells that still exist in his body, on the margins of the tumor. They will treat the cells with radiation because they know where they are. Radiation is better than chemo (hmmph, less horrible than) and they have a plan.

I am angry.

Little Miracles

2006-01-20T06:29:00.000-08:00

I thank you for your candles and your prayers and your thoughts.

They said it would be written in medical journals, little S's condition. They said they wanted to do a bloodless surgery at Chapel Hill and they had such success, and that S is going to be just fine. That's what they are saying.

They removed a grapefruit sized tumor from his chest cavity, malignant, lung crushing. In his forty five pound frame a thing such as this is unprecedented. And though he's laying in that big bed with a vacuum in his newly ventilated lung (which collapsed under the pressure of the tumor in one weeks time), he's a presence, his spirit looming large.

On January 5th, after a four month cough which was diagnosed as allergies and treated with cough syrup, S fell to the ground with chest pain after a running race with his cousin. My brother and his lovely wife, S's parents, took him to the doctor again and the doctor agreed that a chest x-ray would be necessary. In the chest x-ray they found a shadow and the doctor then requested a cat scan to get a better look. Three hours after the cat scan found a mass between his thymus and his heart, the pediatric oncology team was activated and waiting at a hospital three hours from their North Carolina Coast home.

They admitted S and prepped him for a biopsy which took place on the following day. This was too quick for the family to wrap their minds around, he had been racing, he lost a race, he coughed, he fell down and said his chest hurt, now, he has cancer. That was two weeks ago.

During the biopsy two weeks ago, they implanted a chemo port into his chest because their first thought was that S had Lymphoma. We panicked, we envisioned him in the pediatric cancer ward, wearing a robe, shaved head, pushing an IV. I bought balloons, the long skinny type which can be blown up and twisted into animal shapes and funny hats and swords. I bought oversized playing cards. I gathered up the books that my daughter is too old to enjoy because she read them all when she was six, S's age, and I packed them into my suitcase so that we might play together. We waited for a diagnoses and I got a flight to NC to be the helpful aunty.

I learned at the airport that S did not have lymphoma, but rather, a tumor on the thymus, a solid mass, the best kind of cancer they said. The best kind. Hmmph. The phrase doesn't seem to suit cancer, I think instead they should say it's the least worst kind.

I spent four days in Wilmington, NC with my family. I went there to help and to see S, I had to look at him more closely than I had three months ago when we spent the weekend on Carolina Beach playing in the Atlantic, barbecuing hot dogs and gathering perfect shells including a flawless conch which sits on my mantle. Before I left for NC I printed the photographs from the trip (three months ago) when little S was coughing but seemed to feel fine at the Bellamy Mansion where we took photographs in the garden. And when I finally saw him, I was relieved because he was smiling, short of breath, but beating us at board games as per usual and being completely himself, with a full head of hair.

So the family gathered again in Chapel Hill on Thursday for the removal of the tumor. The doctors went in through the sternum and did what they intended to do, with a few surprises including a collapsed right lung that the massive tumor leaned on. It ventilated fine, he's breathing on his own in the oversized hospital bed, he said his owies are gone and he's feeling much better and I wonder, can it be this easy? And the answer is, yes.

Sometimes events comes through your life unexpectedly. What you thought was a bulldozer that would demolish life, was actually a very strong wind that knocks you off your feet and makes you rush to find things to hold onto so you won't be blown away. And in the end, there is a mess, there is chaos, but the foundation that held everything solid and in place did its job and in the end, you say to life, fine. Bring it on.

Light Candles, Say Prayers

2006-01-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, my six year old nephew S. is being admitted to a North Carolina hospital to undergo a thymectomy, removal of the thymus, which in his little body is encapsulated by a malignant tumor.

I can hardly speak of it, or write of it because I can't imagine it to be true. But, it is. S. has had a bad cough for a few months and after months of new cough syrups and allergy diagnoses, a savvy doctor asked for a chest x-ray. Finally. What they found was a 5 x 7 inch tumor.

We don't get cancer in my family. Sure, we have our health concerns, but never have our children been stricken.

Say prayers, light candles for S.

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad 2005 is over. It was an extremely productive year, but too much work and I'm beyond stoked that I have much less on my agenda for '06. Much less physical work anyway.

We had a very fun party last night, many thanks to D.K. and friends who played three hours of jammin' classic rock under a tarp on a deck built specially for them - and, in the rain no less. They began before the guests arrived, and by about 7:50 I was wondering if anyone was actually going to show up for our party, but richly enough at 8:00 the house was full and my gorgeous friend D.M. started shaking up the cosmos which she has become famous for.

And because of the rain, and because we invited our guests to bring their children, and because we have no landscaping in the yard, by 10:00 p.m. the children were running in the rain and tracking more mud into my newly remodeled house than a monster mudder. No love lost, however, we're pretty laid back about these things, a broom and a mop will solve the problem in no time, but not today, today we will live with the mud which has been swept into piles out of the main foot paths of the house because we are tired, too tired to care.

We put Christmas away today and burned the crispy branches of our Douglas Fir, leaving the seven foot stump in the stand in the middle of the floor until tomorrow. It looks like a Seussical rendition of a xmas tree, quite funny in fact as are all things Seussical.

Tomorrow is the true start of the new year, or actually Tuesday is as the little ones return to school and we to work but this year, weekends will not be reserved for demolishing walls and hauling wheelbarrels filled with rubble to giant green dumpsters in the front yard, nor will they be reserved for tiling backsplashes or texturing walls - instead, they will be cherished for long lazy mornings or outings missed during construction. Not that I'm against the small home improvement projects, but nothing that shall own me - not until next year at least.

I submitted a tiny bit of fiction today, just for fun. I took about a year off from doing this with any sort of ambition, but now I find that I'm ready again for that fun feeling of opening my email to find a note from an editor, even a rejection can be fun, I should know! But I can't imagine that all I'll get is rejections - not trying to sound snooty, just have a bit of a positive attitude, that's all.

Happy New Year, and good night.

Jeans lowdown: Waistbands are inching up - Yahoo! News

2005-10-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

Jeans lowdown: Waistbands are inching up - Yahoo! News

This article is a relief to me, I've seen way too much ass since the dawn of the low-rise jean. I'm tired of my husband giving me a thong wedgie on a daily basis - but on the opposite end of the spectrum is the ultra high waisted mom-jean which can destroy any semblance of sexuality if worn the wrong way, like with the running shoe and a t-shirt, or even worse, a camp shirt.

A round ass is a delicate thing, it must be treated with care. It mustn't grow to dimensions so great that it becomes a shelf, but it shouldn't shrink to a size which doesn't allow it to sing. The proper and correct jean is a must for a girl with a round derriere.

AstrologyZone

2005-10-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

AstrologyZone

I lifted this link from Ellen Meister's blog (thanks Ellen) - sounds like it'll be a great year for Pisceans. Stellar even. Check this one out!

National Novel Writing Month - National Novel Writing Month

2005-10-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month - National Novel Writing Month

Love this but I haven't really decided if I'm NaNoing this year. Thing is I'm already pretty embedded in a novel, but have only written bits and pieces, non-chronological scenes that will all fit together at the end. I'm thinking of re-outlining for the rest of October and powering it out in November. Dunno. Hope not. Dunno.

QUICTIONonline - Flash Fiction,Short-Shorts

2005-10-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

QUICTIONonline - Flash Fiction,Short-Shorts

I'm here today with the talented Tomi Shaw, Mitzi McMahon, G.C. Smith and Robin Slick. Keep scrolling until you find, Calendar Dog.

Backstory : Melanie Lynne Hauser�s Backstory

2005-09-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Backstory : Melanie Lynne Hauser�s Backstory

Welcome to Alice Hoffman's Official Website

2005-09-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Alice Hoffman's Official Website

I heart Alice Hoffman. She's my favorite writer. Her work is very simple yet breathtaking, and her stories know no bounds. It's magic made simple with Alice Hoffman.

Cliche Finder

2005-09-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

Cliche Finder

I found this website just in the nick of time. It was just what the doctor ordered.