Radio, Rejection, & Roof

Today, I learned my WVTF radio interview about my winning "Vile Pun" will air this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on Studio Virginia. Around here, it's 89.1 FM, but other areas have a different frequency. Looks like I'll be in good company. Here's the announcement from the website:

AUGUST
8.28.08 - A retired Roanoke City teacher wins an award for her bad pun; plus essayist Dan Smith on scooter safety and makeup application; street musicians in Charlottesville; and the musical play "Children of Eden" returns.

Today, I received a very nice rejection from an editor at Candlewick for my Appalachian version of Rumpelstiltskin. She gave me some encouraging advice, so I'll send it to another place tomorrow.

Today, the roofing company started on our new roof.


Melody and Cupcake didn't like the noise and, after much galloping around, retreated to a far corner of the pasture—the corner near the kennel:


They kept staring toward the house, where the action—as well as the noise—was.



After a while, they resumed grazing—but they still stuck together and kept an eye on things. These mares aren't bother by tractors and hay-balers, low-flying jets, fireworks, or barking dogs. But the roofing experience was something new.


Meanwhile, this was my view from my study window:


The roof should be finished tomorrow—if it doesn't rain.

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Media Blitzed II

When Scott Rice, head honcho of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, emailed me from contest headquarters at San Jose State University to tell me I’d won the “Vile Pun” division of the annual B-L contest, he noted that I could expect “a media storm. Or not.”

For the most part, it’s been “or not.” Aside from mention on various blogs (including, but not limited to, this one) and the B-L site, my modest contribution to lousy literature has mostly gone unnoticed. True, I did debut my vileness to a crowd of at least 25 or 30 at the Franklin County Bookfest last week, but that wasn’t really a media event.

This morning, however, I experienced some blitz. Gene Marrano, of the public radio station WVTF in Roanoke, interviewed me for his Studio Virginia show, which airs on Thursday nights at 7:30. He really made me feel welcome. When I walked in the studio lobby, I saw this:


We chatted for about 15 minutes, but he’ll edit his interview down a bit to fit his time slot. He’ll also use the material for a print story—he writes for a couple of neighborhood papers, and surely one of them will be interested in a bad-writing story.

I read my three bad-writing winners: this year’s vile pun, the 1996 worst Western, and the 2000 miscellaneous dishonorable mention. The latter two were in the Bulwer-Lytton anthology, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (Friday Project, UK, 2007).

He also asked me about involvement with the Franklin County Library (I’m on the book festival committee and I was recently appointed to the library’s board of trustees) and about my work-in-progress—my middle-grade paranormal novel. (Note to the members of my crit group: yes, I mentioned how much help I’d gotten from y’all!)

So far, it’s been a productive morning. At 7:30, I dropped Emma off at the Pet Clinic of Rocky Mount for her semi-annual makeover, then drove to Roanoke (where I tanked up the PT with $3.40 gas at Kroger’s), checked some property we own in Roanoke, and made it to WVTF by 8:50. I was home in time to see Geoff the farrier trim Cupcake’s hooves. Melody (who turned 19 today) had already had her nails—er, hooves—done.

Emma—before she went for her makeover.

It’s been a morning of makeovers and media.

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