What is Faux About Your Life?

           A few weeks ago, I sponged-painted my once-yucky kitchen counter. It now looks like granite--sleek and mottled with browns and black and tans. And it looks like a brand-new $5,000.00 countertop, and all it cost us was $70.

        Every morning I use an eyelash curler, in an attempt to override my drooping eyelids. 

        And as evidenced by all the skin cleansers and skin sloughers and skin creams that hog up space in my hall closet, it's obvious--I'm trying to be something I'm not (which is older than mud).

         As writers, we specialize in what is faux and what is not. Even if we're writing nonfiction, we're putting our own spin on things, and filling in with details that we forgot long ago.

This collection will be on sale on December 24, 2013.
My slice-of-life story, "Still Dishing It Out"
is going to be one of the 101 story offerings.


I received word yesterday that my story has made it to the final round. I also received a letter yesterday from a epistolary addict  letter-writing maniac  writing friend, and what she wrote made me think... Am I a creative nonfiction writer? Am I a novelist? Or am I whatever I'm dabbling in at the moment?

What is the thing that is most faux about you or your life? Don't be afraid to share. I won't tell a soul... 

       
   

Stories Retold...and Reworked

          I am a firm believer in taking left-overs, adding some ingredients, and coming up with a new creation.

       Today was my first day back to school with kids. I have my old teacher resource books, the activities we do every year but added to the mix are new things I learned from the summer workshops I attended, along with a new group of kids.  (I think I have a super group of students. I can already tell that some of them are great writers.)

       After school was over, I checked my email. A story that I had written, submitted to another anthology with some of the sassier (and seedier) elements included, and then reworked (with a great deal of help from my critique group, the notorious WWWPs) has made it over the first Chicken Soup hurdle.

       It's a dating story, one that happened when I was a waitress.  Some guy was a SA (smart-a**) and whenever I waited on him, he would specify "only small onion rings" and would be a PITA (pain in the a**) about other things as well. And not one thin dime did I get from him as a tip. (He was the manager of the restaurant. I ended up marrying him.) 

Helpful Hint:  Do not EVER tick off your server until you've had all the food and beverages served. Even refills can be tampered with.  Waiters and waitresses can do evil things to your food, and you'll never know...but they will.

      What new creation have you come up with, using old stuff? Or, what sort of dating horror story do you have to tell? Inquiring minds want to know...