The Writing Path Blog

More Embarrassing Riches in Poetry Publishing

By Rachel Dacus | January 18, 2017November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

The end of 2016 was very lucky for my poetry publishing. In this second installment on an embarrassment of riches, I’m delighted to share my poem, “Bird Bones”, which was recently published in the redoubtable Prairie Schooner. Thanks, editors! I also had work published in Eclectica‘s 20th anniversary anthology, Prairie Schooner, Atlanta Review, Panoply (who very kindly nominated my poem for a Pushcart Prize!) and Peacock Journal (where they put beauty first). Prairie Schooner had…

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All My Imaginary Friends Have Superpowers

By Rachel Dacus | January 7, 2017November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

Because shouldn’t we all have a little extra help? And also a friend you can always talk to, who understands everything the way you see it, or even if he doesn’t, has wisdom gently offered? Yes, everyone should have this. In my completed novel, THE RENAISSANCE CLUB, (watch for announcement of its debut date), Renaissance genius sculptor and architect Bernini provides the magical wisdom and inspiration for young art historian May Gold, stuck in a going-nowhere…

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An Embarrassment of Riches

By Rachel Dacus | January 6, 2017November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

My literary stocking overflowed this December. but I was so busy I didn’t have time to mention it to anyone but those who saw the stack of magazines on my coffee table. I’m taking it as a sign of the new year, a flowering, perspicacious publication kind of 2017. I also found a late December rose, two blooms that opened up and held for a miraculous week. All good omens for a new year. No…

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Season of Light – This Is Our Family

By Rachel Dacus | December 24, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

This is our family every year in December. We’re the Hanukkah-Christmas celebrators. My brother and his family are observant Jews, and we celebrate Solstice and Christmas. And we get together and meld our holidays in love. This particular difficult year, it’s nice that Hanukkah and Christmas Eve are one day. Someone in the interfaith community said this coinciding of the two sacred holidays should be taken as a sign that tolerance and brotherhood are what…

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50,000 Words in 30 Days — Surviving the NaNoWriMo Marathon

By Rachel Dacus | December 10, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

It was quite a thing, writing 50,000 words in 30 days. I signed up telling all my colleagues I wouldn’t cross the finish line, that I had no intention of it. I wanted to write good words, not fast and plenty words. But guess what? I have a giant competitive streak in my nature. Every day when I checked my writing buddies’ progress, a few pulled ahead, of me. It got under my skin. I…

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Holidays Are for Writing and Reading As Well as Socializing

By Rachel Dacus | November 24, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

In the spirit of the holidays now upon us, I’d like to offer some fodder for those quiet times you find amid the activities and social life. Reading for me leads to writing, so I often start my writing day by either progressing in a novel or reading several poems. Sometimes digging into a craft book. So here are some recommendations for feeding your head. Story Genius by Lisa Cron. This is the one fiction…

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Day 18 of National Novel Writing Month – Not Yet Halfway

By Rachel Dacus | November 18, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

It’s a marathon: 50,000 words of prose, the majority of words for an 80,000-word standard mainstream novel. I’m at a little over 24,000 words this morning. Why am I doing this? Because writing is bliss and marketing a book is hell. Undergoing the process of trying to get a literary agent, who then tries to get your book a publisher, who then takes more than a year to publish it — that’s anyone’s definition of…

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Finding Peace in Uncertain Times: Poetry Reaches Deep

By Rachel Dacus | November 14, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

As a woman in a time when the recently elected leader of our country has expressed such raw misogyny, I definitely feel as uncertain of my future as Matisse’s “Woman with Hat” looks. So I was honored to have my poem “Wings Clipped” featured by WordPress Discover in an article about poetry in uncertain times: Chaos, Control: Four Poems for Uncertain Times. Four good poems you will want to read. And speaking of the woman…

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Gaining Momentum in Novel Writing Month – Wheeeee!

By Rachel Dacus | November 12, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

Update on my #NaNoWriMo2016 — today I wrote over 3,000 words. It helps to be doing a lot of scene-setting in an exotic location, which for my book is the picturesque Ligurian coast of Northern Italy. It also helps that I love writing descriptions of scenery and towns. I love researching places I’ve been or been near. I spent time in Santa Margherita and Portofino, and the little town where I’m setting my book is…

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Day Ten of National Novel Writing Month

By Rachel Dacus | November 10, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

We’ve been doing it since before Jane Austen. Girls writing fiction. So in the 2016 National Novel Writing Month, I’m going to guess that a majority of the more than 400,000 participants this year are women. And many will go on to publish their books. Some NYT bestsellers by women that began as NaNoWriMo exercises: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill[32] The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, published…