Closed for business--come visit us at our new location!

Yes, I know I just moved everything over to WordPress, but when I was experimenting around recently, I realized that I could open a blog that had a much shorter name: my own. So, I'm transferring my blog (again) over to mlawrencekey.wordpress.com. See--isn't that easier to remember (and type) than furtherupandfurtherinajourneyofwritingandlife.wordpress.com?

From now on, look for my blog there. I'll be shutting down my former Blogger and WordPress blogs over the next few days and sending out messages on all my social networking sites where you can find me at the new location. As always the welcome mat is out and I hope you'll pay me a visit!

Moving to a new neighborhood

I've decided to move my blog over to WordPress and I'll be updating all my links to reflect this. I like the interface for WordPress much better (at least for now--we'll see if that changes), so for the time being, you can find me over here. 

Welcome, and keep visiting! 

Good feedback

I'm getting some great feedback from the members of Review Fuse for the passel of stories I've posted there so far. I've only put up stories that, for one reason or another, haven't been published anywhere yet. 

Some of them have never been sent anywhere, while others have been rejected a few times from various markets. In all cases, the feedback and reviews I got there have helped me a ton knowing how to edit the stories. Thanks, guys! 

Hopefully, over the next few months, I'll be able to get to them one by one, edit them, and then start submitting them to different markets. I'll post here on how that process goes. 

My problem with TV and computer games

I'm a writer. But I'm also an ESL teacher in a cultural center. I'm also a husband and the father of four--soon to be five--kids. As you can imagine, I don't just have tons of spare time. I honestly like watching TV (though not just anything--I have several favorite shows--some canceled, some not), and I like playing Wii and computer games.

But I can't do it all.  Something has to go. 

If I want to get a lot done, writing-wise, then I can't play games and watch TV, pretty much (okay, maybe just a little). 

If I want to get some time with my wife to sit down and watch one of our favorite TV shows together or play a Wii game with my son, then it means that my writing time has to go. 

Am I trying to be dogmatic? Nope. Just practical. If I'm serious about writing and being productive, then it means over the course of my lifetime, I'm going to be watching fewer TV shows and playing fewer games than I might have otherwise. 

It means I'll be less "entertained," but in the end, I'll have something to show for those hours. 

Not that I don't sometimes close the laptop and choose otherwise. But it's a conscious choice, and I know what it means, and what it costs. 

Yet, that choice is often the right one, as it means time with my wife or son. So that's good, too. 

In other words, balance. The trick is, learning how to strike it, knowing that there is an appropriate amount of time for everything, and not getting sucked into the black hole of entertainment (which is sooo easy when you're tired) and being disciplined to sit down and write. 

No words needed...

"Hawa Died Last Week" Online Now

My short story "Hawa Died Last Week" is online now at Harûah Magazine. It should be appearing in their print edition later on. You can also leave comments about the story, if you want, at the Harûah blog thread for the story.

Thanks for your support!

Kids and Writing and Life

Just in case anyone out there is wondering: yes, I have four kids, and yes, I write (though not for a full-time living). And sometimes, I have to multitask.

Case in point: this morning. While my wife was out visiting a friend, I stayed home and supervised their school work. I parked myself at the dining room table with my laptop and kept them on task (more or less) with their various school assignments. I realized a long time ago that I most likely will never be the type of writer who has a big office that he goes to during the day, shuts the door and works for hours on end.

As long as I have kids in the house (and probably after that), I'm going to be the kind of writer who seizes the moment, who does more than one thing at the same time, who learns to write with interruptions and life going on around him.

Sure, there are moments in cafés and other quiet places, especially when my wonderful wife takes all the kids somewhere else so I can have an hour or so of peace to write. But those times are the exception. The rule is that writing and life, at least for me, happen together.

I don't feel frustrated about that. It is what it is. And when I write in the middle of things, so to speak, I get to be involved in the rest of my life--the life of a father and a husband.

An Exercise in Frustration

Well, I made it back home with my replacement car license, after only an hour more at the car registration place. I left, about $30 lighter, only to get home and find that my internet had been turned off. Turns out that even though I paid it on Sunday, the bill didn't get processed for a couple of days, which meant that they turned it off today. Not only that, but they lost my credit card information (for the fourth time), which means I had to pay it in cash. And this is from the biggest internet provider in my country.

On a good note, I'm getting some great feedback on some of my stories from the new writer's critique site I joined recently, Review Fuse. I sent them a bunch of my older stories that haven't yet been published, and with the reviews I've gotten, I'll be able to edit them more knowledgeably and submit (or in the case of a few of them, re-submit) them for publication somewhere.

Of course, that will happen once I get a little more free time--most likely after I'm done with the current book project. Anyway, I'm halfway through with that, which is good.

Plugging along

I just finished chapters 5 and 12 of the book I'm working on and sent them off to the editor for feedback. Both of them were pretty difficult, with lots of research (which I shouldn't have had to do in the first place) involved. No rest for the weary, though. I'm jumping right into chapter 6 this week and hope to get it finished over the next few days. I'll admit some base motivation for getting it done quickly: I want to be done with this project before I'm 60, and I want to get paid.

Okay, I do like what I'm writing and I believe in this project. I'm creating a book that will benefit expatriates in Jordan for years to come, hopefully. But it has been a bit of a pain at times, as my part of the project has morphed into something with a bit of a larger scope than I originally intended. But isn't that the way it always is? If it isn't, please don't tell me.

Anyway, as far as the rest of life goes, I've got to get dressed, grab something to eat, and head out to the car registration office to get a replacement for my car registration license card that went missing a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, it fell out of my wallet and one of my kids absconded with it. Who knows where it is now--we searched the whole house to no avail.

So last week, I endured the bureaucracy for two hours over at the car registration office to get a little slip of paper that said "come back in 3 or 4 days." Today, I'm going back, hopefully to success.

A shout out for Review Fuse

I've been a member of a few writers' groups in my time, and the results have generally been somewhat disappointing. Most of the time, the whole thing turned into a big social club (which is great and has a place, certainly) or having my work reviewed or reviewing the work of others was an exercise in frustration because the site tools were clunky or nonexistent.

Not so with Review Fuse, a new site I stumbled across recently while searching for online writers' groups. They're still in beta, but already they're looking really good. The site itself is well-designed, aesthetically and practically speaking. The graphic design is simple, but pleasing to the eye, but it's the functional design that really stands out. They make it easy to review others' work, with an inline comment system that lets you click on a paragraph and add comments to a text box which automatically appears below. Highlighted text in a paragraph results in quoted text in your inline comments, allowing a reviewer to easily pinpoint problems in text. Reviewers can give a piece up to 10 stars in specific categories such as character development, plot, and dialog, allowing writers who are strong or weak in certain areas to recognize where they need to improve and to receive encouragement for what they're doing well.

Of course, your own work can get reviewed as well. You can upload your own work from your computer desktop from a Word doc or .rtf (Rich Text) file into their interface--it even keeps all of your formatting intact when you do it this way. Once you've done that, then your piece is available for review by other site users. The site automatically keeps your work private from outside viewers, helping preserve your first time publication status if you want to submit your piece for publication elsewhere. When you submit a piece for review, you are automatically assigned to review three other pieces of writing before other site users will be able to see your work, assuring that the reviewing keeps flowing and everyone's work gets read. Its a well-thought through system, and kudos to the site designers for coming up with it.

Even though Review Fuse is still in beta, it is solid and the site designers are responsive and friendly to any potential problems. Overall, I highly recommend this site for anyone who writes (especially those who write a lot) and wants to get quality, constructive feedback on their work.

An umm...pre-Thanksgiving Resolution

I don't blog enough, and I need to do it more.

There. I said it. 

After talking with my wife tonight, I realized that I should be blogging more, as well as expanding the scope of my blog somewhat. It's good writing practice for me, and it allows who I am and what my life is like (writing and otherwise) to be "out there" a little more, for others to read about, and hopefully to glean something from (or at the very least to serve as a warning to others). 

In any case, expect to see more blog posts from me in the future. Maybe even (gasp!) one a day or so. 

That's my pre-Thanksgiving resolution. Here's hoping I'll be able to stick to it. 

Movin' on Up

Well, now it looks like I'm getting published in an anthology.

One of the magazines I published a short story in last year wrote me and asked permission to reprint my story in their year-end anthology, which should be coming out in December (fancy that). At least part of the reason for their selection of my story was its popularity with readers.

Anyway, I'm pleased and looking forward to seeing it out in print, as well as getting a copy or two of it once it goes to press.

A bit of a mixed bag

Rejection and acceptance. Progress and regress.

It's all part of the same mixed bag of what the writing life is about.

In one week, I've had another short story accepted for publication in a magazine (paying publication). The story is one of the best I've written, I think. I call it "Hawa Died Last Week," and I've mentioned it here in this blog before. Anyway, it's being picked up and I'll post a link to it online when it's available.

In the same week, I've gotten a rejection for one of my stories that I've been shopping around. I think the story is sound, and the editor at the magazine said they enjoyed it, but it wasn't right for them. To me, that means it's right for somebody, so I think I'll keep persevering with it, as well as tweaking it a bit and making it the best possible.

I've made a good amount of progress with the book project I'm working on, but at the same time, I've felt a bit stymied by the sluggishness of the researchers who are supposed to be sending me information for the writing I'm doing.

Again, I'm taking all this in stride, and I'm thankful that I'm working at all.

Making progress...

Just a quick update (it's my birthday today, so I've got a lot going on)

I've finished most of 4 sections of the book I'm working on, and started on the 5th. That means I'm about a third of the way through. Yay!

Of the two stories I sent out earlier, one's been rejected, and the other I haven't heard about yet. I like the story that got rejected, so I'm going to give it another look, check under the hood and trim it down, then send it right back out somewhere else. I'm sure there's a home for it out there somewhere.

That's all for today, folks. Stay tuned...same bat time, same bat channel.

Two stories launched

Over the last couple days, I've sent out two short stories to potentially be published. Both of the places where I've sent them are online publications (an important point of criteria for me, since I don't live where I can easily mail in a story), and one of them publishes a print media form of its magazine. They also pay, which is another important point for me (though definitely not one of the highest).

Anyway, we'll see what happens with the stories. I really like how both of them came out, so I have high hopes for them. One's called "The Crimson Rod" and the other's named "Hawa Died Last Week."

If and/or when they are accepted for publication, I'll post links to them here on this blog. If they're not accepted immediately, I'll just have to keep hunting around for a home for them.

So now begins the portion of the publication process where I obsessively check my email multiple times a day to see if it got a response yet...

My new writing gadget

I totally forgot to mention that I bought a new writing gadget which my father-in-law brought over for me when he visited us around a month ago. It's an Alphasmart Neo 2, and I love it. I saw an ad for it a little while back, and immediately I was impressed with the possibility of owning a device that did nothing but write. I was able to snag one off eBay for a fraction of its already low price, and I have to say after using it for a while, I'm pretty impressed. It has one of the best keyboards I've ever typed on, has incredible battery life (about 700 hours on 3 AAs), and is quick and easy to start up. I can also easily transfer files to my laptop via its USB cable and store eight different text files in its huge memory (huge for text files, that is).

The best thing about it is, though: no distractions. I can write and write and I literally can't check my email or see what's going on in the world via Google News or play any kind of game, etc, etc. I'm forced to simply be creative with a simple machine in front of me, and it's just amazing how my writing output has just shot through the ceiling. And before you ask, it's much faster than a pen and paper, plus it saves me the step of typing in what I write.

I'm completely hooked on this little machine, as retro as it is, and I seriously doubt I'll be using any other text composing device for a long time to come.

Bird by Bird

Once more, I've got a large project in front of me, and I'm pulling out the wonderful advice of one of my mentors and doing it "bird by bird." In Anne Lamott's book "Bird by Bird," (one of my all-time favorite writing books, by the way), she mentions her brother having to do a large science report which involved him writing paragraphs on dozens of bird species. He procrastinated on the report and ended up at a table a day or two before it was due, all of the information spread out around him, in panic and tears. And then his father came up to him, patted his shoulder, and said, "Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Bird by bird."

And that's the way I'm doing this. I've got reams of information, and thousands of words ahead of me to write. But I can't think about that, or I'll hyperventilate. I've just got to take the single paragraph in front of me, the single sentence.

And do it all bird by bird.

New Book Contract Signed

Well, I signed it and sent it off, so it's official. For the next few months, I'm going to be writing a book for Mango Street Books, a publisher located in Jordan. They're putting out the Amman edition of the book "At Home in Beirut," and it should be published around the beginning of next year, I think.

Naturally, I'll be posting a link when it appears on Amazon.

Media Fast

I'm going on a bit of a media fast. Among other things, it means that I won't be spending as much time fritzing around on Facebook or Google News or even Wikipedia as much. 

My hoped-for benefits? Without constant distraction, I'm hoping that my heart will get more sensitive, that my hunger for God's presence will increase, that I'll be able to hear his voice that much better. 

Other desired side benefits include an increased focus on the things that really matter to me, including my family, my friends, and of course, my writing. 

Look for my blog posts here to increase some, particularly as I up the level of writing output. 

Last chapter...

I'm down to the last chapter on my current book project (which I'm ghostwriting with another author). I hope to get the bulk of the remaining chapter banged out this weekend. At the moment, I'm waiting to hear from the publisher on a couple of detail-y things, so we'll see how things are going to pan out. As far as I know, though, once I get the go-ahead from the publisher, then we'll enter the editing phase and get the project published before the fall (God willing).