Submit! Submit! Submit!

Attention creatives! Get your Sh*t out there!

My poem, another sunny family day in the san fernando valley, was published in this month’s issue!

I go through stages with my submitting.

Often, I set a doable goal for the day, write it down, and check it off when I complete it.

I do this for a few weeks, searching for opportunities online via Duotrope, Authors Publish and Submittable.

Then I go some time without submitting. I stop searching and doing and I delve further into creating and even carve out time to just… be.

Ahhhhhh.

meing just being

This hammock pic reminds me of Substacker, writer-illustrator,

Amy Stewart

who came up with a self-appointed artist-in-residency idea, and I LOVE IT!

Why wait for others to invite us somewhere to art/write? Why not do it ourselves?

I am all for bypassing the middleman or waiting to get approval from gatekeepers, soooooo WHOOOHOOO! I have officially appointed myself an

Artist-in-residency of Hammock!

At first, I was going to make it my hammock in my front yard. But then figured if i just keep it “Hammock,” I can draw/paint/write/think from all hammocks I encounter during my residency. I like the freedom in that.

So, look for poems and other creative offerings from Hammock in your inbox soon!

Back to SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!

I know how frustrating it can be to submit and not hear back or hear back, and it’s a Thanks, but no thanks.

Trust me, I’m a lifelong creator. I’m an actor/artist/writer, so with that trifecta, I have gotten to know rejection…

What to do about it?

SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!

That’s it. That’s the deal.

I’m not saying it’s an easy thing to get your work out there and wait for a response. To put your creative babies in the hands of another. A stranger, no less! But you can do it. And the waiting part, after decades of teaching myself to forget about an audition after I do it, well, I guess I’ve gotten better at forgetting.

I submit my auditions, writing and art now and then forget all about it!

For realz. Like, literally. (And I am using that word correctly.) It’s gone, WHOOOSH! from my brain. (Maybe ‘cause ADHD, but whatever, it works.)

In fact, when I recently got three YESES IN A ROW from literary journals, I had forgotten all about submitting to them! I think this is a good accidental strategy of mine, so I’m sharing it with you.

Here’s my rewrite:

SUBMIT! FORGET! SUBMIT! FORGET! SUBMIT! FORGET!

And of course… keep creating. On to the next thing!

I will share my published poems as soon as they are out. Here’s the link again to the one that is now available. It was published this month in the literary journal Instant Noodles.

You can hear me read it too.

another sunny family day in the san fernando valley.

Now, go out there and… you know what to do.