~~~ Amy Stockwell Mercer, former Columnist and Blog Editor: "My first interview promoting my book, A Smart Woman's Guide to Diabetes, was a big success! Heather and Jeff of Transforming Diabetes talked with me about the process of writing the book as well as some personal stories of my life with diabetes."
Editor's Note: Look for an in-depth interview with Amy and the chance to win a copy of her book in late August!
~~~ Suzanne Kamata, Fiction Editor: "I published a couple of stories - Blue Murder in Asia Literary Review, and Dolphin Day in Ladybug. And: My new book The Beautiful One Has Come: Stories, which includes several stories about motherhood, was officially published!"
~~~ Caroline Grant, Editor-in-Chief: "I'm excited to share news of my new book deal! I've been working on an anthology of food essays with LM Contributor Lisa Harper, and Shambhala Publications is going to publish it in the fall of 2012. The collection is called "The Dish: Making the Food that Makes Your Family," and includes pieces by LM contributors Elrena Evans, Libby Gruner, and Deesha Philyaw, as well as essays by Catherine Newman, Neal Pollack, Pete Wells and others. Lisa and I keep a blog with family food stories and recipes - you can find it here."
~~~ Christina Marie Speed, Literary Reflections Editor: "I just had three poems published as a poet-guest of my friend and fellow poet Rae Spencer in July's edition of Contemporary American Voices. Rae and I were in a critique group together before I moved to Brooklyn. She assisted me in tending two of the three poems published as a part of this selection."
The Whistling Fire is proud to announce our September Guest Editor is Stacy Furrer.
Submission deadline is August 21st.
Dear Writers,
I am fascinated by family dynamics, particularly those that operate between mother and child. My relationships with both my mother and mystepmother were complicated and inexplicable, but if you were to witness a few exchanges between us, you would understand why each made me nuts in her own special way.
I am looking for personal stories which illustrate the inexplicable. Show me who your mother is by sharing a story in which your family dynamics shine through. The story need not be limited to exchanges between your mother and yourself - there are others in your family who contribute to the crazy.
I am not looking for Chicken Soup tales. I want the gritty truth, told in such a way that I am there, a fly on the wall.
Show me your mother.
Stacy Furrer
Rules:
Accepting nonfiction ONLY! Memoirs, personal essays, etc. No fiction, poetry, or plays (we don't publish plays).
No more than 3000 words.
Please send your submissions to whistlingfire(at)gmail.com
(replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail).
Please include the words "September Editor" in your subject line.
No more than two submissions per author.
Must be sent as an attachment (MS WORD preferred).
Simultaneous submissions accepted. Previously published work is also allowed as long as the author retains the rights.
Please include a short third person bio for our contributor's page.
Submissions close on August 21st.
About the Editor: Stacy Furrer lives in southern California, where she is working on two books, a memoir, and a steamy romantic suspense novel. A member of Romance Writers of America, she meets every Sunday at the local Starbucks with her critique partner to exchange ideas, get feedback, and get her caffeine fix. They are currently in the planning stages of starting a new RWA chapter in the Imperial Valley. Stacy is a graduate of the low-residency Master's program at UCR's Palm
Desert campus. An excerpt from her memoir, Black Sheep Sings, was the first nonfiction published by The Whistling Fire and is the most viewed piece in Whistling Fire history. Find out more about Stacy at http://onegirlriot.wordpress.com/
Do you keep a journal - or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help.
Three times a month, I'll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don't worry about grammar or punctuation - just write. Then let the writing simmer and your mind wander for awhile.
And who knows? Maybe you'll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you'll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family. However you decide to use your journal entry, I know you'll enjoy re-reading it months--and years--down the road.
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I wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary the evening I attended my 14-year-old son's band concert in our neighboring northwest Iowa town. I'd made the 21-mile trip so many times I knew where the police officer usually parks and where the deer are most likely to appear. But, this trip was different: my son drove home.
He'd passed the written test and earned his instructional permit two months earlier. We'd practiced the basics in our university's parking lot and on the two-mile route from our home to the middle school. Each time, he'd signaled, turned, and parked without incident. But, this was my first experience in the passenger's seat when he'd be accelerating to 55 miles per hour.
He was unusually quiet as we turned onto the highway, and we rode in silence for several miles. Determination to prove competence and readiness replaced the bravado I saw in the parking lot, where he had adjusted the rear view mirror and confidently waved good-bye to a friend. I folded my hands on my lap and concentrated on the dotted lines, the speedometer, and the car in front of us.
He became more talkative as his comfort level rose, but we didn't talk about driving "how tos" as I thought we might. Instead, his questions started with "what if."
"What if a deer jumps out in front of me?
"What if I'm at a railroad crossing and I can see the train, but the bars aren't down?
"What if my speedometer says I'm going 55, but the cop says I was going 60?"
Our discussion about the challenges of driving at dusk in a rural community, the cross at the railroad crossing four blocks from our house, and the importance of being a courteous driver segued to issues beyond basic learn-to-drive instructions. One subject led to another: friendships -- peer pressure -- responsibilities -- consequences.
Thirty minutes later, we pulled into the garage. I congratulated him, and he ran into the house to announce his return. I sat in the car for another minute, somewhat surprised that it hadn't been as difficult to ride shotgun as I thought it would be.
It did, however, emphasize the speed at which he's accelerating toward adulthood ... and how important my time in the passenger seat is.
Journal Entry: Write about a time you were in the "passenger seat." What did you learn from your child?
The randomly selected winner of our book giveaway is Jessica, who will receive a copy of The Practical Napper by mail. Thanks to everyone for participating and posting such great comments!
Seeking poems and short pieces inspired by breastfeeding for World
Breastfeeding Week 2011 event!
We want to see the Los Angeles breastfeeding landscape represented. We encourage diverse participation from all across the spectrum - nursing mothers, partners and families of nursing mothers, health professionals, lactivists, anyone who can remember and verbalize their experience being breastfed! Your experience can be past, current or future. The more voices, the more experiences, the more truths, the more stories - the better!
Written pieces should be:
- related to and ultimately positive towards breastfeeding (doesn't have to be literal or sugar-coated)
- short (performed in 3 mins)
- no crazy foul or violent language as youngsters may be present
- if you are not comfortable performing your piece, we have hosts available to read for you
Pieces to be shared at an Open Mic Night celebrating World Breastfeeding Week 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
7:30-9:30pm
Viento y Agua Coffee House
4007 East 4th Street
Long Beach, CA 90814
Event is sponsored by Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles
** We will be holding a free writing workshop prior to event (date, time TBA) open to the public - anyone who either needs help writing a piece or wants to workshop something they have.
** Contact Person:
Celine Malanum, LEC
Email: lamamaluna(at)gmail.com
[replace(at) with @ when sending e-mail]
Phone: 917.345.5297
Do you keep a journal - or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help.
Three times a month, I'll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don't worry about grammar or punctuation - just write. Then let the writing simmer and your mind wander for awhile.
And who knows? Maybe you'll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you'll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family. However you decide to use your journal entry, I know you'll enjoy re-reading it months--and years--down the road.
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I'm not against rewarding kids for reading.
My kindergarteners earned Book It! coupons from Pizza Hut's National Reading Incentive Program for every 10 books they read, and my elementary-aged kids earned Book It! Coupons when they met similar goals in the school-sponsored Accelerated Reader program. During the summers of elementary school, we celebrated at home: specialty ice cream and slushie treats or an outing to a special park or bookstore in a nearby community for a specific number of minutes or books read.
Curling up on the couch or burrowing under a pile of pillows every day after lunch became a normal part of my kids' summer schedule, and after a few years, rewards were no longer needed as incentives. My kids saw that characters had messages to share and that an intriguing storyline took them to new places and time periods. Instead of reading to earn a reward, they read because they were curious about the world around them.
Last summer, my 13-year-old daughter read the 1943 classic, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith and was shocked by what she learned. Until that time, her views of the early 1900s were based on the stories of wealthy Samantha Parkington from the American Girls series. She had little knowledge of the poverty that existed in the New York City tenements until she met Smith's Francie Nolan. Our discussions continued into the school year when she looked to the early 1900s for a history project. After Smith, she met photographers Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine. Their photos of tenement life led her to a book about the Triangle Factory Fire and then to the issue of child labor and the work of the National Child Labor Committee.
You may not find rewards to be an effective strategy for increasing your child's interest in reading--and there are several studies that have explored its relationship with the overjustification effect (when external incentives decrease a person's intrinsic motivation to perform a task)--but I'm sure you'll find this report from James Kim, associate professor of education at Harvard University and author of "How to Make Summer Reading Effective," interesting. His research shows that summer reading programs work best when adults are involved and suggests:
Access to books.
Books that match reader's ability, level, and interests.
Use the five-finger rule. Ask your child to read 100 words from a book and teach the child to raise one finger
for each word that is too difficult to figure out. If the child has more than five fingers up, the book is probably too hard.
Comprehension as monitored and guided by an adult.
Ask questions about the story and allow the child to ask questions. Summarize or ask the child to summarize. Reread hard-to-understand passages.
Journal Entry: Describe a time YOU were rewarded for completing a project. How did the reward make you feel about the project? Did it encourage you to do more?
As a mother watching her eight year old daughter hurtle headlong into tweendom, with its requisite obsessions with Katy Perry and jeggings, I read Cinderella Ate My Daughter eagerly, my enthusiasm tinged with a faint but beseeching desire to be told what to do. Peggy Orenstein's compelling (and alarming) book addresses the culture in which our daughters are growing up, and takes as its central task an exploration of the new set of pressures that girls face today. Along with high standards for performance on the field and in the classroom, girls are still expected to be pretty and thin. Far from replacing the old expectations, these new ones have simply piled on top, making the burden of perfection for our girls even more stifling.
Initially, Orenstein addresses the topic of body image, sharing familiar if disheartening data about how early girls become aware of and dissatisfied by their bodies. "Talent? Effort? Intelligence?" she writes. "All are wonderful, yet by middle school, how a girl feels about her appearance - particularly whether she is thin enough, pretty enough, and hot enough - has become the single most important determinant of her self-esteem." This discussion of body image then leads to Orenstein's main thread, to wit, the interplay between a young gir's fantasies of Disney princesses, and the messages that princess culture then sends to our daughters.
Orenstein asserts that part of the unspoken promise of the Disney Princess brand is that it will keep our daughters safe. The pink and plastic world of Cinderella and Snow White may be replete with contradictory messages and an overemphasis on appearance, but it is a safe place devoid of sexuality and threat. Eventually, this world gives way to that of Hannah Montana and the Wizards of Waverly Place, and the real-life "princesses" take the place of cartoons. But then these actresses grow up, and suddenly Miley Cyrus appears almost naked on the cover of Vanity Fair. Of course this is deeply confusing to the girls who loved her as Hannah Montana. The natural maturation of the teenage girls whose pre-sexual identities are fused with beloved, role-model characters renders even more complicated the already-rough terrain of adolescence. "The virgin/whore cycle of pop princesses, like so much of the girlie-girl culture pushes in the opposite direction, encouraging girls to view self-objectification as a feminine rite of passage."
Orenstein's last chapter focuses on the increasing power and reach of the Internet and social media and how both contribute to the commoditization of girlhood. In a world where girls think of themselves in terms of their "profile" earlier and earlier, material identifiers like what movies, songs, and celebrities you like and what you wear become increasingly important. Sexuality and identity have become, Orenstein asserts, a performance. Girls see that "hotness" and being sexy carries power with it, but they also observe the speed with which a girl who uses this can be taken down (as a "slut" or a "whore").
A final statement brings this set of discussions of themes of girlhood to an alarming crescendo:
It would be disingenuous to claim that Disney Princess diapers or Ty Girlz or Hannah Montana or Twilight or the latest Shakira video or a Facebook account is inherently harmful. Each is, however, a cog in the round-the-clock, all-pervasive media machine aimed at our daughters - and at us - from womb to tomb; one that, again and again, presents femininity as performance, sexuality as performance, identity as performance, and each of those traits as available for a price. It tells girls that how you look is more important than how you feel. More than that, it tells them that how you look is how you feel, as well as who you are.
There are no conclusions at the end of Orenstein's book, only a reminder that "our role is not to keep the world at bay but to prepare our daughters so they can thrive within it." I closed the book and found myself angry yet again, in some primordial way, at that old edifice, The Patriarchy. As women finally near equality in our culture, garnering rights and achievements that were unimaginable even recently, the strictures of expectation grow more suffocating. Is this an ongoing way to muffle our power? A sly, subversive way to keep us secondary?
Certainly. But then I ask myself how much women must take responsibility for those same expectations and stereotypes. I'm sure that not everyone running Disney or childhood beauty pageants or Internet companies is male. Still, most women I know share a deep discomfort with the themes that Orenstein so provocatively explores. How do we determine where these embedded expectations and norms come from, so that we might begin to unseat them? I don't have answers, but I do know that awareness and thoughtful exploration such as that in Cinderella Ate My Daughter is the only place to start.
Here's a last minute call for you --
***The deadline is JULY 15***
Room Magazine's 2011 Annual Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction Contest
First prize in each category is $500, 2nd prize $250, plus publication in the summer 2012 issue of Room.
Judges: Amber Dawn (fiction), Elizabeth Bachinsky (poetry), and Susan Juby (creative non-fiction).
Entries must by postmarked or e-mailed by July 15, 2011.
Entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Canada's oldest literary journal by and about women. Our online submission option makes entering quick and easy. Please visit www.roommagazine.com/contest for full details.
--
Room: Canada's oldest literary journal by and about women
Sign up for Room's newsletter: NewsRoom
Demeter Press is seeking submissions for an edited collection on Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced us as Feminist Academics and Activists.
Co-editors: Vanessa Reimer and Sarah Sahagian
Publication Date: 2014
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2011!
This anthology will bring together essays from feminist activists and academics alike. The goal of this anthology is to act as an antidote to matrophobia and mother-blaming by bringing together a variety of feminist narratives about how our mothers, intentionally or not, have influenced and inspired our feminist work and identities. The purpose of this book is to show mothers as a productive force in their children's development. While not exclusively a celebration, this anthology will affirm mother work's importance.
Suggested topics include but are not limited to:
Race, ethnicity, sexuality, lesbian mothering , class, ability, age, religion, feminist mothering, empowered mothering, maternal thinking, intensive mothering, diasporic mothering, social mothering/community mothering, lone mothering/single parent mothering, foster mothering, adoptive mothering, transgendered mothering, mothers in the academy, activist mothering, mothers and work, mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, motherlines, cultural bearing, othermothering, matroreform, challenging matraphopia, feminist mothering, feminist allegiances/alliances across the generations, modeling/mentoring feminism, radical mothering, young mothers/mothering, maternal activism/movements, mothers and daughters and 2nd/3rd/4th wave feminism, mothering and migration, feminism in a global context.
Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts: 250 Words. Please include a brief biography (50 words) (and include citizenship information).
Please send submissions to both Sarah.Sahagian@gmail.com and vreim018@yorku.ca
Subject Line: Mother of Invention Abstract
Deadline for Abstracts is September 15, 2011.
Accepted papers of 2000 to 5000 words in length (7 to 20 pages) will be due March 15, 2012 and should conform to APA style.
DEMETER PRESS
140 Holland St. West, PO Box 13022
Bradford, ON, L3Z 2Y5 (tel) 905-775-5215
http://www.demeterpress.org info@demeterpress.org
Do you keep a journal - or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help.
Three times a month, I'll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don't worry about grammar or punctuation - just write. Then let the writing simmer and your mind wander for awhile.
And who knows? Maybe you'll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you'll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family. However you decide to use your journal entry, I know you'll enjoy re-reading it months--and years--down the road.
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Worldwide excitement for the royal wedding of Britain's Prince William, the hoopla over Chelsea Clinton's wedding last summer, and the media's updates about Bristol Palin's on-again-off-again engagement saga suggest we're suckers for a good love story.
Yet, nationwide surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center in 1978 and 2010 show that the number of Americans under age 30 who think marriage is obsolete has increased from 28 percent to 44 percent. Paradoxically, only five percent of those surveyed in 2010 say they don't want to get married.
And although most respondents responded that marital status was not relevant to achieving respect, career goals or financial security, more than 75 percent believe that marriage is important when it comes to raising a family. (Listen to a discussion of this survey, which aired on National Public Radio last November, here.)
Another survey that followed 5,000 children born in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, found "a large proportion of unmarried parents are in 'marriage-like' relationships at the time of their child's birth but only 35 percent of unmarried couples are still living together five years after the birth of their child, and less than half of that group are married."
The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a joint project of Princeton and Columbia universities, also found that "once the relationship with baby's father ended, 40 percent experience at least one new partnership and 14 percent have a child with the new partner."
When Ken and I married, the idea of building a family outside the institution of marriage never crossed our minds. We followed the "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage" thinking because it was the way our families raised us and because we believed it to be the best way to build our lives together.
It's worked for us: this week, we'll celebrate year number 23.
Journal Entry: What role does marriage play in your family? How do your views compare with those of your parents? Is marriage one of your dreams for your children?
Former LM columnist Jennifer Eyre White has developed quite a following for her hilarious columns about having three kids. As the mother of three, Jennifer knows all about sleep deprivation; in fact she's made it her muse.
LM founding editor Sophia Raday checks in with Jennifer about her new humorous gift book, The Practical Napper: Tips, Facts, and Quotes for the Avidly Recumbent.
Hey Jennifer, if sleep is the new sex, is your book like a kama sutra for nappers?
That's an excellent description of my book, Sophia, and can I just say that I'm so glad you put the words "Kama Sutra" in this interview, for SEO reasons. But to answer your question, in The Practical Napper I explain - among other things - that if "sleeping together" is a euphemism for having sex, then napping together is essentially foreplay. As you and I both know, "foreplay" can bring a whole new level of intimacy to a fledgling romance and add zing to mature relationships, even after many years of marriage. So when people ask you and your spouse what you did over the weekend, feel free to answer, "Well, you know, nothing productive, mostly just foreplay. Usually we set an alarm clock so we don't waste the whole afternoon, but on Sunday, hoo boy--we really lost track of time!"
Since we are some of the most sleep-deprived people on the planet, what are your napping tips for mothers?
My position is that napping is critical to surviving the early years of parenting, and by "early" I mean all of them. This starts from the moment of conception (yours or the baby's, either is fine). If you're pregnant, you already know you shouldn't really eat for two because you will end up looking like Totoro. But you may not know that you should definitely nap for two--or better yet, for six, because who knows what's incubating in there, especially if there's a chance you've been abducted by space aliens. Of course, after the baby is born, napping becomes even more critical. Did you know that new babies cause their parents to lose 400-750 hours of sleep in the first year alone? It's horrendous. If you have multiple kids, as I do, you could wind up being down by several thousand hours of sleep and having the effective IQ of a kiwifruit. It's important to be proactive and take steps to mitigate the damage. Nap early and often.
Rumor has it that you were once an electrical engineer. How has that influenced your writing?
I would say that engineering and napping are highly compatible activities. In fact, I believe it was in an undergraduate electromagnetics class that my passion for napping really started to reveal itself. This makes sense because research shows that when you sleep, your brain can process new information learned during the day. I remember many times during engineering school (and later, in work meetings, especially those involving PowerPoint) when I just couldn't wait to start processing what I was learning.
As you know I'm really interested in politics and relationships. Are the joys of napping one topic with bipartisan appeal?
Well Sophia, that's an interesting question. You probably know that both sides of the aisle frequently report that the other side has been "caught napping," which suggests a certain level of napping disapproval. Yet I believe that pro-nap legislation could help address the thorny social, political, and environmental challenges facing the world today. For example, in my book I explain that napping promotes world peace--because when you're napping, you're not behaving like imperialist swine, calling other countries mean names, or trying to convert other people to your religion or political system or fashion sense. That's just so important. Also, napping can make you more cheerful and increase your productivity levels, so you're less likely to develop weapons of mass destruction or need a bailout. I hope one day the two sides will stand together and promote the message that, when you don't nap, the terrorists win.
Thanks Jennifer, and Congratulations this fun and funny book!
Sleep well, Literary Mamas!
Sophia Raday is the author of Love in Condition Yellow.
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Interested in reading The Practical Napper? To celebrate its June 7th release, Jennifer will send one book to a lucky LM reader. Leave a comment below before July 20th -- and don't forget your email address so she can contact you.
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In what ways does being female affect one's sense of place, placement, and/or (dis)location?
We are seeking submissions of prose writing by women, and strongly encourage you to submit your work for consideration. We are looking for fiction and nonfiction stories that wrestle explicitly or implicitly with the question posed above. A selection of submitted stories will be published in a web anthology called In Her Place: Stories about Women Who Get Around in the fall of 2011. A publisher is also being sought for a print version.
We prefer submissions to be 3000 words or less, but will consider longer pieces of exceptional quality. We will not accept submissions of poetry. A cover letter is not necessary.
Please send your submissions to
Subject: Title, name of author, word count Body: Title again, short bio, and the entire story pasted into the email. Replace (at) with @ in sending submissions. Submission deadline is July 31, 2011. Attachments will not be opened.
We will consider previously published work if the rights have been returned to you but please make note of where and when it was originally published.
To read original posting, visit their website, InHerPlace.org