Glenn A. Bruce's Blog: RITR (sic), page 3

Won a contest!

I won a short story contest titled "Quick and Dirty" by online mag Also That. It actually pays cash and a "prize" of some art. Very cool! This is a challenging story. I submitted it at least a dozen times and it was never accepted. Then it won a contest! I always believed in it and knew it would get out there, but had no idea it would win. Very satisfying. It's a fast story with no set-offs for dialogue - and just rips along from one thought to another. Like I said: a challenge. Happy to see that someone loved it enough to pay me! Check it out.

http://www.alsothat.com/

For May 9, 2016.

Next Novel

The Maples has been selling well and the early reviews are positive - woohoo! I'm always happy that folks are enjoying the work. Next up: "Dear Me!" my post-apocalyptic dark-comedy opus: 142,000+ words in just under 600 pages - 391 (often short) chapters broken up by "actual fictitious" journal entries by the book's narrator "writer" Danny Olaf. At almost 15-years "in the making," I am looking forward to finally getting it out there. It always felt "ahead of its time," so I kept holding it back. (There were even references to Donald Trump in the first drafts.) Now, it's time. I spent all day yesterday working on the cover. Had to learn Paint.Net to learn how to do layers with different opacities; but I am happy with the evolving results. I've tried using other folks for covers and editing, etc., but end up being a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy every time. I learn, I enjoy. Also planning a book signing next month in Boone. Will advise. Hope to have some advance copies of Dear Me! but I'm thinking it may not happen. We'll see. Plenty of copies of The Maples, however, and other books of course. Always fun. So...keep writing and having fun yourselves!

New novel

Well, it's been a roller coaster of a year - or two. Working on the writing necessary for my MFA, I had to let my long fiction wait. Now, I am on it, again. This Friday, January 22, is the official release date of my latest novel The Maples. This story about the Maples family history and mysteries is told through the irreverent voice of Janette, the oldest of four Maples siblings, who gather for a family funeral only to discover that their father Ed has become... nice. No one can explain it. Even their mother Evie. Over the course of four days, (mostly) all is revealed. The big finale was tricky but satisfying - pulling it all together to answer the questions, solve the mysteries, and understand - i.e., for all of the character to understand - what the hell was going on with Ed and the rest of the Maples clan.

This was a fun one to write, as Janette's voice is so distinct and abrasively hilarious. She has no censor, but is curious as hell - or becomes so as she eases back into the family dynamic - as dysfunctional as it can be. I laughed out loud while editing this novel, even on the 10th pass. And so I advise my students and writing friends: make yourself laugh; if nothing else, it will make editing a whole lot more fun!

Paper and Kindle are available on Amazon, of course. If you read it, please write a review. (They really help!) And please always feel free to ask about the book or my process. Happy reading!

I'm a Judge!

What an honor! I've been asked to judge finalists in a flash-fiction contest being held by Brilliant Flash Fiction magazine. They have been super nice and supportive, so I look forward to it. There is no entry fee AND it pays 50 Euro to the winner! Pretty cool stuff. Feel free to enter. I won't know who the writers are, so it will all be blind. Good luck!

https://brilliantflashfictionmag.word...

Down to the wire

Well, I'm down to the final six in the Defenestration contest for my flash piece "The Blood is Where." Wish me luck! It's exciting to get this far!

Keep On Keeping On

Yesterday, I got notification that I had placed my 13th short story and that it is a finalist in a short story contest. I had no clue! So: good news! And fodder for the "Keep on keeping on" concept of "Never give up" and "Don't let the bastards keep you down." Or something like that.
Sure, these online and paper literary mags don't pay anything most of the time, but they add up to a list of credits that DO mean something. If nothing else, it shows that we aren't giving up and that we are working hard to move our careers ahead. So:
Keep submitting!
Hopefully, at some point, we will all benefit from this work and move up the food chain. Sometimes - make that "often" - it is hard to stay focused and not get beaten down. Art of any kind is a long haul deal; few get lucky right off the bat. Some never do. But if you keep plugging away at it, you will achieve something. The main point is:
Keep on keeping on.

Next novel

Since I got over BDD last time and finished "The Maples" edit, I have finished a next-to-last edit on "Race." I thought it was going to be the final edit, but I found some continuity errors--e.g., in one of the races, the cars were out order--and in fixing those mistakes, found a few others...

I ended up rewriting quite a few pages, which is great; but now I have to do another word-for-word edit. So, I'm giving it a few days.

In the meantime, I placed one article and five more short stories. Hard to keep up on the rejections, but Duotrope makes it SO much easier. I highly recommend it. The five bucks a month is definitely worth it. And it's always nice to see their, "Congratulations on your story being accepted" comments.

I've started a new screenplay. No title yet, but it's about a killer with a conscience. Act I is done and moving into Act II. Also doing a rewrite on my kids'/family movie -- my ONE kid's/family movie. It's a good one, though. And I have finally agreed to work with a good friend on his screenplay. I don't normally do this because I have found that it usually doesn't work out well. But in this case, it's his original idea, so all I have to do is my part and not worry about credits and sales, etc. Looking forward to that for a change.

So, all in all, it's great to be writing again and feeling good about. I even updated my website today. Amazing. The lesson: if you're serious about this, even after 35 years of it, you will hit flat spots; but don't fret, they go away! Before you know it, the inspiration is back time is filled.

Keep writing!

New novel

Well, it's not really "new" new. I was down to a last edit before tackling the MFA program. After it was all over, in late September, I just couldn't write. I was burnt out. But it came back, slowly. And today, I finished my "final" edit on "The Maples," a dark 1st-person comedy/drama/mystery about a dysfunctional family regathered for a funeral only to find their cranky father has turned...nice. As the narrator Janette says: "It's just fucking weird."

But that's not half as weird as the ending - or me trying to find a publisher. Again! All ideas welcome!

It's good to be back.

That Graduation Thang!

It's finally over. I have officially graduated my MFA Writing program with a 4.0. It was an amazing amount of work - sometimes 50-60 hours in one week. The last two weeks were brutal, with essays due in four classes, along with two long short stories of publishable quality (one 20 pages, one 25 pages), a major (6-page) publishable oem, and my 113-page Graduate Thesis - a collection of short stories (and a 5-page introduction essay) also in a publishable form. I was in BDD (Brain Deficit Debilitation). But I made it and now it's over. I never would have gotten here had it not been for, well, many factors - some of them unplanned - but mainly that the program was entirely online so that I could work any time of the day or night (sometimes ALL day and part of the night), and that I had some terrific professors. A shout out to Lindenwood University's LCIE MFA program director (Journal editor and instructor) Beth Mead, along with professors Mary Anderson and Tony D'Souza. Great instructors and super nice, helpful human beings! Over the year, I produced a large amount of material - short stories, non-fiction, even poetry - which I have been submitting for publication already. Now I can get back to my patiently waiting novels and screenplays - once I get wood put up for winter! Most work around the homestead has taken a backseat and I'm behind in everything. So, there's that too. But...I can write again! First up is The Maples, a family comedy-drama-mystery that is a last edit away from being done. I will be seeking a publisher this time. In the meantime, LLC Books has picked up my novel "The Man" and will be (re)publishing it in the near future. Onward and upward! To all my followers and writers - working or aspiring - the hard work DOES pay off. Sometimes it doesn't seem like it will, but stick with it, don't give up, keep writing, get better, and get out there!

That MFA Thang

Hi all,

Haven't had time to keep the blog posts flowing for a while because I entered an MFA program - yes at my age. Ridiculous! I have been asked several times: Why?
The answer is purely economical. Like anyone seeking to better their professional standing and therefore their opportunity to make more money, I decided now was better than never. I went for it.
I now have 40-60 hours per week of extra work, with the average being a fair 50. It's ridiculous, indeed. The level or work was expected - much of it is challenging or just plain hard work - but the amount of it was not expected. My free time has vanished completely. I have none. I also find that I sometimes can't remember what I learned last week. The volume is so great, it just doesn't stick well.
But as I am nearing the halfway mark, I have some thoughts on the work and progress.
I have learned a few things about writing in general and my writing in particular. For instance, I was not aware of Flash Fiction (though I had written some without knowing it had a name). Taking a course in Flash was great fun, we wrote a lot, and I turned out some pieces I like - most of which I am now submitting to literary magazines.
And that's the second biggie I learned about. I had no idea there were zillions of these things out there. There are of course better ones and lesser ones, in terms of prestige, recognition and (yes even) pay in actual American dollars! So that's been fun. I've placed two so far and have 30 or 40 out right now. Those are all credits which say that someone, somewhere liked my writing enough to publish it, whether it is a free online magazine or a print version or both. All good credits which give my "brand" more value.
That was the secondary reason for entering the MFA program: to increase my value as a writer by adding those three letters after my name because of what they mean: hard work to learn many different disciplines within writing. I didn't want a PhD in English; I'm not a pedagogue. I'm a writer. So, I thought this was going to be an MFA in Creative Writing, which is what I have done with fiction. But it turns out to be an MFA in Writing, which is exposing me to all kinds of different venues I didn't know about. So far, I have had Narrative Journalism, which was a great education into how long magazine pieces are written - a great source of income (if you can handle the months of research). I was an associate editor for one of those very Literary Magazines, which showed me just how much awful writing is out there - and how wonderful it is to find and read something great. (A terrific insight into submitting m own work.) I have taken Advanced Fiction and Advanced Contemporary Fiction - very different classes with different results. Coming up I have Lyric Essay and Play Writing. Every class presents a writing challenge in a specific way, from a different angle, and all are valuable.
So reason three has come to be as well: I have learned about writing and expanded my own writing as well.
Now, if I can just hang in there until it's over. Right about now, I'm numb and wish it was already over; but I've got a ways to go. More money to spend, more classes to take, more writing to write, more submissions to make, more letters to add after my name. If I survive, it will a win-win-win-win.
If you are in such a program, hang in there and do the work with an open mind. Some of it might even stick.