Queen

She was surprised when she heard they were disappearing.

In her first year of teaching, an unexpected career change in her mid-thirties, she was very busy. She was still taking certification classes on the weekends and she was getting the hang of lesson planning and grading, so between being a first-year teacher and a mother, she was short on time. She must have missed the news a lot, because she did not hear about what was happening until it was already a tired joke that she watched, equally tired, on a late night comedy show.

Hey! Long time no post people....but I've been busy raising baby (who is now boy) and I've actually managed to write something recently that I want to submit to a local yokel anthology in my part of the world....I want to call it flash fiction or creative-non-fiction. Anyway, what do you think? As always I appreciate any comments (harsh or not) from my fellow esteemed writing mothers.

Japan

is anybody else doing NaNoWriMo this year? i skipped last year but wrote the previous two years, and am more excited about this year than i've been before.

zannaL suggested starting a thread, so here it is. :)

A Measurement of Me
By: Angela Petersen

My eyes are closed, yet I can still far too easily see the undisciplined wavering of the tiny light. For a brief moment, I glance at it through slitted eyes, fighting down annoyance. At times, its glow is so bright and inviting, and then just as I decide I love it, it flickers and dims so low I can barely see it, and it leaves me with a sense of bitter mistrust.

ISSUE #6 IS OUT IN JANUARY!
Interviews:
Ari Up (The Slits), Utah Phillips, Living Islam Out Loud (Saleemah
Abdul-Ghafur, Samina Ali, Su’ad Abdul-Khabeer, Yousra Fazili, Asra
Nomani), Franky & Minx

Article Highlights:
50 Cent: Seductive and Homoerotic? * Humanism vs. Feminism * Helen Keller
* Toy Soldier * A Prayer to Ganesh * Make Music for the Solution * The
George W. Bush Abecedary * Body Image: The Internal Struggle * Alternative

THis is the first chapter of my first novel! I need some help knowing if it's clear, and ANYTHING you can tell me will help.

So, what do you think? (and is it ok to just put this here? I'm new!)

Shopping

A sick knot began to form in the pit of Lisa Clark’s stomach as she remembered how tenderly the grubby, young mother had kissed her infant’s fingers before darting from the aisle. Had the strange girl dashed straight out of the department store? Or had she really headed to the Ladies’ room, as she’d said? And, if so, where was she now? What could be keeping her?

I wrote this short essay on volunteering, for a zine submission.
I would really appreciate any and all feedback, good or bad.
Thanks mamas!

When my son started kindergarten at a very small school of 120 students, grades K-6, I became what is know to the PTA as “fresh blood.� Because the district cut funding for art and music in the elementary schools, the PTA put volunteer programs in place to insure students would still get exposure to the arts in their early schooling. My willingness alone suddenly qualified me for becoming an art docent to a combined class of 19 kindergarten and first graders. My having actually taken art classes years and years ago at a college made me influential in helping draw up lesson plans in accordance to district standards. It all happened rather quickly and surprisingly and I appeared to be the only one questioning my sudden qualifications. Having never stood before a classroom as some sort of adult with something to say, something to teach, I started to inwardly panic the night before my first day. I was terrified, not to mention furious with myself for being flattered into this position. How was I going to pull it off?

I think this is a good place for this since I seem to be struggling more with the writing.

I'm putting together a submission for an art publication. I'm going for a very simple photo/journal type thing. A short written introduction to a series of photographs.
I would love any constructive feedback anyone would be willing to throw my way. I'm rather stuck because I don't know what else to do with it, but it doesn't feel finished, either.

It was my fault, all of it. It was all my fault for loving him, for marrying him, for not knowing and then not seeing. I didn’t know, I never guessed, but it was still my fault. I should have known.

Cinderella was only a year old when I met Henri. My girls and I had been on our own for six years already; it was six years since their father had died and six months since Cinderella’s mother’s passing. Drusilla was ten and Anastasia was eight and we were a good team still. We did everything together, went everywhere together, talked about everything and shared everything…and then I met Henri.