Try 100words.com!

When I neglect my blog, this is what I'm doing--writing 100-word entries for 100words.com. I learned of this site in November 2008 in a NaNoWriMo forum. I'd just earned my MFA and learned how word limits inspire better writing, forcing you to pick the best possible word, not a fuzzy approximation.

So far, I've completed 10 "batches"--a month's worth of 100 words. Some are diary entries that tell details, thoughts, and feelings about a day's worth of living. Others are instances from the middle-grade novel I'm revising. Recently, I'm writing memoir entries--100 words for each year of my life.

Check it out!

Letter to the Editor

Last month, my six-word bio was published--today, my 100-word letter to the editor was in the paper:

A letter in the Feb. 3 Chicago Sun-Times equates financial success with hard work, and lack of such success to "loafing."

Sometimes, maybe--but financial success is also tied to choice of career. A prime example is day care. Day care teachers typically earn pitifully low salaries, often barely above minimum wage--but what job can be more important--or demanding--than nurturing young children?

Teachers in Catholic elementary schools work very hard but do not have the highest of salaries; neither do employees of nonprofit social service agencies.

These professionals are far from lazy. Success--and one's value to the world--is not just measured by income level.