Writing for free is a Gordian knot of should I or shouldn’t I for writers. Do we devalue our work, and by extension ourselves, by submitting to publications that don’t pay for the work they publish? Are a couple of copies adequate payment and, if so, do I declare that on my tax return? Is “exposure” worth the hours put into an article, story, or blog post? Continue reading “To Free or Not to Free”
creative nonfiction
Pubbed this Week
While I spend my days writing in my private studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia–thank you, VCCA!–the publishing world carries on.
Three events of note (to me) happened this week.
My Creative Nonfiction piece “Three Hots and a Cot” is the third, and final, part of a trilogy I wrote about a different and difficult path of motherhood. The first two parts, “Sunday Visit” and “Cooperation” were published this past year.
“Three Hots and a Cot” appeared on Monday, December 2, in the Winter/Spring 2014 issue of Lunch Ticket, the literary magazine from the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Lunch Ticket’s focus is writing, art, and social justice.
Second item of note is the launch of the anthology Lucky Charms, 12 Crime Tales by the Mary Roberts Rhinehart Pittsburgh Chapter of Sisters in Crime. I had the pleasure of editing the short stories in this collection, and working with a dozen talented, patient, and generous writers from western Pennsylvania.
Finally, an out of the box story in a collection about the evil people who inhabit the world alongside the innocent–and not so innocent. I had a good time stretching my writing wings to create “The Chances” which appeared last week in the anthology, Someone Wicked. The 21 contributors are members and friends of the Written Remains Writers Guild. It was edited by Weldon Burge and JM Reinbold, and published in November 2013 by Smart Rhino Publications.
New DDoA Artist Pages Posted
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~I am happy to share the Delaware Division of the Arts new 2013 Individual Artist Fellowship pages. Take a look at the painters, composers, writers, and musicians selected this year to represent the state’s commitment to supporting and promoting art and artists. I am honored to be among this group of 17 artists selected for 2013.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed (again) for the page by Christopher Yasiejko. Our 
conversation focused on my particular discipline, Creative Nonfiction, which is my writing focus this year as I pursue my grant project on writing about how the various places I have lived has influenced me as a person, a citizen, and an artist. I am enthusiastic about this genre which allows a writer to research like a reporter and write like a novelist.
My work sample is in the interview taken from “Getting to Grand Isle,” a piece published in The Arkansas Review in 2012.
Delaware has a fine track record for supporting the arts. As part of the IAF program, en dach of the artists featured in the pages will give a public performance or viewing of their work. I will be presenting in August, with fellow Delaware writer Russell Reece. Our literary reading will be at the John Dickinson Plantation in Dover, on August 24. We will read and share a colonial craft and tour of the plantation. We hope this reading at an historical site will be the start of a literary series set at places important to our state’s history.
Literary Mama
A new piece of my creative nonfiction work appeared today in the online magazine Literary Mama.
Literary Mama’s mission statement declares its goal to publish work by writers who are mothers. The fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reviews at Literary Mama explore the complexities, difficulties, and rewards of motherhood. Literary Mama is also one of Writers Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers.
My contribution is called “Sunday Visit.” It is about judging other mothers and creating new definitions of normal for a family.
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Ramona DeFelice Long 