I’m Back!!!
My goodness, y’all. We talked every day during Lent then…..silence. My contemplative writing, the subject of those 40 posts, has fallen off the same way. Sometimes a marathon depletes you. Then you regain your strength, and I’m back!
Here’s some news: The Big Moose Prize hosted by Black Lawrence Press named When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women a semi-finalist. You’re like, what novel? You may remember, it started on this blog. I wrote it because I wanted to, not worrying about the way you’re “supposed” to do it. It’s set in New Orleans. The chapters are tiny. Etoile, the protagonist, talks directly to you. It has deep flashbacks. It’s macabre. It’s funny. It made me happy writing it.
I know, my work is always “close but no cigar” in contests. But this novel–no one has laid eyes on it. Not a single Beta reader. It’s pristine, except a couple of weeks ago I shared the first chapter with my small but mighty writing group. Given how rough it is, yet it still got recognition, I feel it might have potential. Maybe, in a much bigger sense, I’m back.
The novel opens with a ditty I made up to remember the order of the streets in the Bywater: “Ancient Chartres decree the Royal Dauphine drink Burgundy on the Rampart of the castle until St. Claude rises from the dead, again.” Etoile recites the ditty and calls the (dead) Dauphine of France back to New Orleans, along with Etoile’s three (dead) ancestral grannies. The ancestors are heartwarmingly like the Mississippi grannies who raised Etoile when her alcoholic parents could not. Each has killed. Etoile herself fled to New Orleans after accidentally killing her rapist boss. They bring their demented skill set to protecting the Dauphine from the assassin on his tail. Ultimately, the story asks in a darkly comic way: how do we recover after we’ve been forced to kill?
I’m hoping a publisher gives Etoile and her loving—if deadly—grannies a chance.
What have y’all been up to?
Big Moose Prize, Black Lawrence Press, Sci/fi set in New Orleans, When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women
Luanne
Wow, congrats, Ellen! Yay!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you! Now what to do…
Jean
Such a fantastic recognition Ellen! Well deserved. 🎊 CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
TY! It was a surprise, as in I’d forgotten that I had sent the manuscript anywhere.
Joe Hawes
Just tell em it is a sequel to “A Confederacy of Dunces,” and stsnd back..
Been missing you
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Ha ha!! I may try that. Thanks for noticing I wasn’t here. 🙂
Amy Wilson
I was wondering what you’d be up to next! And did miss you after the 40 days. Etoile will be welcome after all that’s going on in “real life”. Write on!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Yes, I took a break, then I’m like, when was the last time I posted on the blog?!? Thank you for being supportive of Etoile and my writing. Hope you are doing well!
Donna
👏🏻🥳 fingers crossed for you Ellen
Ellen Morris Prewitt
TY–as always, we shall see what happens. How is your book going? My grandson loved it.
Joanne Corey
Congratulations! Black Lawrence is a good press – and in my region. I’ve been rejected by them a bunch of times. 😉
I put together the first version of my chapbook Hearts in response to a contest from QuillsEdge Press with the theme of Transitions. It was named a finalist. Granted, the manuscript went through a lot of additions and revisions over the course of several years before it was published by Kelsay, but having that early recognition kept me believing in it, even when the going got rough.
I’m trying to work on revisions for my full-length manuscript after receiving suggestions from the editor I consulted but it’s slow going, due to some personal and family health issues. It’s frustrating, but I’m trying to take some deep breaths…
Ellen Morris Prewitt
This is not the first time I’ve submitted a novel to them. I got a personal reply once with an invitation to submit again, but this is the closest I’ve come. I’m now sending it out to a talented reader-friend. I’m sure she will have helpful feedback. Yes, contest recognition has kept me going too. Otherwise, I would have stopped writing them long ago…maybe, because I really do enjoy it. It’s a long strange journey we are on.
Mary Lowry
Congratulations Ellen! I love that you do such creative fiction.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I’ll let you know what the Beta reader says.
Marie A Bailey
Congratulations, Ellen! Such good news 🙂
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you! I’m trying to teach myself to enjoy small victories without getting tangled up in where they might go.