Ever worry about getting locked out of your house?
It’s a fear I’ve had for ages. What better way to overcome a fear like that than to write about it?
That is, unless what you end up writing is along the lines of the one I wrote recently, “Serenity Security Solutions.” It was published today (Monday, February 10, 2025) in the literary journal MoonLit Getaway.
My thanks to editor Brandon Nadeau for selecting this story for his wonderful litmag. Please check out all the other amazing fiction, poetry, and artwork Brandon and his team have to offer.
As always, you can access this and other works of fiction and nonfiction here.
‘It’s important to me to keep this going for years.’
Thea Swanson, founder and editor of Club Plum Literary Journal
When I first learned about this cool online journal called Club Plum Literary Journal and read about its mission to offer readers and writers “an ongoing literary conversation, a resonant entry into a beautiful or strange or dark place,” I knew I wanted to be a part of it. And I was thrilled when editor Thea Swanson selected one of my writings to include in the latest issue, which came out earlier this month. Once I learned the piece had been accepted, I invited Thea to take part in a Friday Five, itself an attempt at an ongoing literary conversation. Read on for insights from Thea about the journal she founded (now in its fifth year), her thoughts on writing and creativity, and a special touch she adds to each published piece.
Thousands of writers the world over plan to take part in Jami Attenberg‘s two-week writing project, 1,000 Words of Summer (or, if hashtags are your thing, #1000WordsofSummer). The big write-a-thon starts this Saturday, June 1.
This marks the seventh year Jami has offered this project to the writing community, and this year, for the first time, I was planning to be one of those thousand-word-a-day scribblers. Alas, some life issues have interfered, so I won’t be able to join the mass writing event when it begins this Saturday, June 1. (As John Lennon put it, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”) I plan to join in spirit, and hope to make up for my absence with a two-week writing journey later this summer.
What I’ve learned from diving back into creative writing.
Four months ago, I relaunched this blog in its new incarnation, as a website dedicated to the craft of writing. I had just wrapped up a nearly 33-year career in communications, public relations and marketing with Missouri University of Science and Technology and, while I was certainly ready for a break from the day-to-day rigors of what that career had become, I was not ready to retire from writing. I was instead ready to dive back into writing for the joy of it. I was ready to grab hold of this new chapter of my life.
Continuing our tribute to poets during National Poetry Month, today’s Friday Five is with Melissa Powers, a poet, novelist and non-fiction writer.
Melissa Powers
Melissa is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in Common Boundary, American Literary Realism, The Quest, Midwest Poetry Review, Writer’s Journal, and Cave Region Review. Her books include The Outsiders (2006), an instructional guide on the novel; Afterthoughts (2012), a collection of poems;and three works fiction, including two young adult science fiction novels, Sparkand Surfacing (Amazon, 2012, 2014). Her awards include the Springfield (Missouri) Writer’s Guild Grand Prize for Poetry (1998), the Johnson Memorial Grand Prize Award — League of Minnesota Poets (2003), the William Stafford Award — Washington Poets Association (2009), and the Writer’s Journal poetry contest (2011). She holds an M.A. from Missouri State University and was a college English instructor for more than 25 years at Drury University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and East Central College. Currently, she is a student success specialist/writing tutor at East Central College, a freelance academic editor specializing in dissertations, theses, journal articles, and book projects, and a staff writer for The Phelps County Focus newspaper. Melissa’s recent poetry can be found on the Facebook group Melissa Ann Poetry.
