My day is broken into chunks, and as one item gets crossed off the to-do list another slips in to take its place. Whatever is left undone at the end of one day is rolled over to the next day. Thus, the weeks also get broken into chunks, with the work of one day slipping into the work for the next.

Sometimes everything proceeds smoothly, but sometimes the piece that slid in so easily prevents the next piece from locking in place. When that happens, by the end of the week my to-do list is as long as it was at the beginning, and now I have another week’s worth of projects to add to it.

When the projects pile up, which is most of the time, even finishing something as exciting as the anthology can get lost in the rush to the next thing in line. Just this once, however, I think I’ll turn the lists over, cover the charts and hide the graphs. Tomorrow I’ll be a Walking Tetris again, ruled by deadlines – tonight I’m reveling in a project completed.

Camille Minichino a/k/a Ada Madison, author of The Square Root of Murder, was honored with a brief review in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.  http://www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/jury/

“Dance With Me My Darling,” a Benicia Love Poem contest entry by Marilyn Slade, was published January 9, 2012  in the Benicia Patch. http://benicia.patch.com/articles/benicia-love-poem-dance-with-me-my-darling

What exactly makes something high concept fiction and why are agents and editor searching for it? How can you apply the tenets of high concept fiction to your own writing? Novelist Veronica Rossi, author Under The Never Sky, will show you what you need to know to make your own writing more appealing to agents, and more exciting for readers. Under The Never Sky was just released by Harper Collins, and it has already been optioned for a movie. New York publishers, and Hollywood, love high concept stories like hers.

Veronica Rossi writes young adult fiction from her Bay Area home. She is a member of the California Writers Club Mount Diablo Branch. Under The Never Sky is her debut novel. Her blog can be found at www.veronicarossi.com.

The dream felt real enough in the middle of the process. The club decided to be as professional as possible about the anthology, which meant that members were asked to submit their work – then submit themselves to the review and revision process. The anthology committee collaborated with each submitter in an editor-client relationship. All thirty authors in the book, including the members of the committee, had a chance to experience seeing their words through another’s eyes. The back and forth, give and take of this type of revision proved beyond doubt the truth of the adage that the best writers are re-writers.

After revision, the committee had another opportunity to learn and grow: creating the manuscript. Assembling thirty voices expressing their unique truths in poetry, memoir, travel and short fiction opened our eyes to the way separate stories can be viewed as a whole. There is as much art in deciding where the pieces fit as in deciding what illustration goes on the cover.

Now comes the next step in publication – promotion. The well-bred lady my mother wants me to be must stand aside for the glad-hander, smiling as I swoop down on my friends and family announcing, “Look at this!” Still, when the product one is promoting is as wonderful as Voices of The Valley: First Press, bragging comes easy.

Voices of the Valley: First Press is available at www.amazon.com or www.createspace.com/3739063.