K. Marvin Bruce

Every year about this time I begin to panic.  The myth of perpetual growth suggests that each year should lead to more publications than the previous one, and by November it is clear that I’ve started to slip from my previous lofty goals.  I have reached a total of 18 published stories now, in a total of eight different venues.  Have I grown as a writer? September saw the panic start.  Some journals, particularly those run by college or university departments, only open for submissions with the start of the school year.  A family crisis the first week of September set my plans off kilter for a couple of months.  Now that I’ve regained my footing, it looks like I’ve fallen behind. Over the holiday weekend I was able to send out five of my multiply rejected stories for yet another sortie against the established publishers.  I’ve been working on building my Twitter following in the meantime, but my fiction writing has been suffering.  Every ...

I don't know about you, but Daylight Savings Time always messes me up.  I set clocks ahead, or back, and end up being dazed and confused for days afterward.  This is distressing because my writing is based on a regular schedule. Writers often rely on routine.  I awake early, so you might think an extra hour's sleep would be welcome.  Instead, I awake in the middle of the night, confused as to what time it really is.  My bedside clock and my phone disagree.  Who's right? Who's write?  My routine is to stumble out of bed into my writing chair.  I try to scrawl down my thoughts before the day interferes.  Days always interfere. On Daylight Savings morning, I'm already confused when I awake.  I sit down to write and find myself growing sleepy.  The day stretches on and on, but I'm not inspired.  I'm just tired. Writing is my routine.  Like an infant, I suffer without it.  Regular hours, or even just regular mi...