KidsWrite! Submission Deadline EXTENDED

Plus In-Person is the New Zoom

We know how it is, LIFE, it gets in the way, am I right? So this year, we’re gonna cut you some slack and extend our submission deadline for KidsWrite! To be clear, we have received loads of submissions, but we know some of our brilliant young writers and artists have been distracted. Go ahead and tell us all about this distraction in your submission! The deadline to submit is now this Friday, March 7th at 11:55pm. The theme is Be the Change. Click here for the rules, instructions, and to submit. Make sure to share this with all the budding writers you know in San Diego!

I, like many of you, have been thinking a lot about the state of the world. The dire ugliness of it. How did we get here? I want to understand.

This is the line I will most likely* request for my tombstone/memorial bench: I WANT TO UNDERSTAND. It explains why I do so many of the things I do, and it most certainly informs my writing.

When I lived in China for five years, I wrote about it so I could process and appreciate the differences in our cultures. This became my book, Fish Heads and Duck Skin, which was fiction but loosely based on my experience as a breadwinner turned stay-at home-when-not-at-home spouse. The novel I’m currently writing is about being the mother of a competitive athlete, and what a person in their darkest hour might do for their loved one to succeed. Last year I wrote a performance piece for The What Next Collective about my decision to take and then stop taking Lexapro. I’m putting the final touches on a new performance piece for TWNC about middle-aged women and group dynamics. Save the date! It will be performed along with five other pieces on Saturday, May 10th. Yes, that is the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Yes, you should make the time to come. You will love it. Details TBA.

I write. It helps. Writing loosens me up; it helps me see other possibilities. It makes me playful. I am a better human when I’m playful and not frozen in fear, anger, and disbelief. And right now the world needs better humans.

Humans are also better when we’re face-to-face. Not on a screen, not on a text thread, not in a DM. You and me, together, working things out. It isn’t always possible but it is certainly something to strive for. With this in mind, I invite you to create with me, in person, on Thursdays from 10am to noon at San Diego Writers, Ink. Share your story! Please. It helps.

I will share more thoughts on the importance of creating soon, and how for non-writers, it can be as simple as baking brownies. (I could have used another example but a brownie sounds really good right now…) For now, you have your instructions; you know what to do. Go forth and create in whatever way calls to you.

With love,

Lindsey

*other potential tombstone messages:

1. WTF

2. I Didn’t Vote for Him

3. Bro, You Can Not Be Serious