Memory - fact or fiction

Several years ago, my kids and I all went to a concert and expected to meet the performer after the show - but a rude person blocked that from happening. We were all together for the holidays and that incident came up. My daughter said, "But we did meet him - we ran into him on the way out, all of us." I was sure it had never happened - so I asked her brothers. They agreed with me, it never happened. But their sister is just as sure that it did.

There's no way to go back and prove whose memory is accurate - we aren't on a TV show taping our lives - so whose version should be accepted? Does majority rule?

The last time I saw him, my brother mentioned how awful it was that our mother died alone in the hospital in the middle of the night (decades ago). I told him I was with her that morning, drove home where my husband said they'd called to say she was gone, and drove back. We both had clear memories of the day and his wife's matched his. However, two things backed me up: my (now ex-) husband and an official document with time of death that morning. We decided my version was probably more accurate.

This is one of the reasons it's so important to verify facts from multiple sources when writing non-fiction.

Memory may be fact or fiction.

A Satisfying End to 2023

Happy New Year.

I'm getting this post out a few hours later than usual because I spent New Year's Eve refining and submitting an anthology of my short stories - with a Dec. 31 deadline. I'd been thinking of creating an anthology for a long time, but didn't realize I had more than enough stories to do so. Once I sent it off, I stayed up until morning working on copyrighting stories that hadn't been yet. As I was doing that, I realized I wanted to swap out one of the stories for one that hadn't made it into the manuscript. Since it's already submitted, that's not an immediate option, but I've made a note for pre-publication. Whether or not that publisher takes the book, their deadline got me to pull it together - a satisfying end to 2023.

Looking back, I accomplished quite a bit this year:

1. I helped my son move twice - first from near me to about ten hours away, then a little closer (but not much). At least he's near his brother now, so I can visit both at the same time. It's only one long day's drive.

2. I put my place up for sale, thinking there was nothing to tie me here, looking at real houses and applying for jobs back in NY. After a few months in a sluggish market, I decided to settle in and make the place mine. I painted the roof with insulating paint and remodeled the sunroom.

3. Meanwhile, I got books and screenplays into contests and kept several short stories submitted at all times. The screenplays don't announce winners until sometime in the next couple months, but Tough Times made it to the finals in the YA category of Kindle Book Awards. The anthology decision will be announced later this summer.

4. I also updated my website, and then got this blog going twice a week and linked it to Facebook and Instagram. I even "boosted" a couple Facebook posts. First steps on the way to improved marketing.

5. I found a critique group online that's helping me with a novel I first wrote in 1981 - I'm aging the characters and making it more contemporary.

6. I started going to a local writer's group and unintentionally became the leader - though I've drafted an executive committee to assist.

7. My income improved primarily through writing gigs, a few editing gigs, and teaching an online reading/writing course for the community college as an adjunct - and developing another course for them. Royalties still trickle in as much as can be expected with virtually no marketing.

So, looking back:The first two items above were unexpected and demanded focus for months - and they were not part of my 2023 plan. Neither was taking charge of a writer's group, which is time-intensive. Seeing the request for anthology manuscripts was a December gift that spurred action on something from the back burner.

Lesson learned: whatever I plan, however I prioritize today, expect to adapt.

Reading the Rules

Amongst other things in my email this morning was a link to a short story contest that sounded interesting - writing a short inspired by quantum physics, using a particular phrase. Of course, reading the rules came first.

https://shorts.quantumlah.org/rules This paragraph stopped me:

"Each entrant further consents to give a royalty-free, sublicensable, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive license for the Organizer, the Media Partners, the Scientific Partners and such other partners as may be determined from time to time to use, reproduce, modify, publish, create derivative works from, and display such Submission in whole or in part, on a worldwide basis, and to incorporate it into other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed, including any and all Internet media, including the Organizer, the Media Partners, and the Scientific Partners’ web sites and properties and on social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, YouTube, X (formerly known as Twitter), etc.)."

It took a few reads to slog through the legalese, but basically, every entrant gives away all rights to their story forever.

So if I entered and lost, I'd have no right to try and sell it elsewhere. But they could give it to anyone they wanted for any purpose any time - anyone could make money from my story - and I wouldn't get a thing.

I may still write a story based on the prompt - but I won't be entering this contest.

I did not get paid for my short story published in Saturday Evening Post's anthology - only the winner did - but they asked for permission after the contest was done, for that specific use, and the copyright stayed with me. The right to publish it elsewhere reverted back to me.

I allowed its inclusion in the Saturday Evening Post anthology for the recognition - and because my mother always wanted to get one of her stories published by them.

So, do read the rules of any contest carefully before investing your time.

Free is not always a good deal.