go.

Just woke up. Last day of school, and still much paperwork to do. Two sets of finals administered yesterday went very extremely well, and I am reading through them now.

Much to ponder this morning. As always, C-Loo is on my mind. I’ll call her husband tonight to see how she is fairing with this first round of treatment. I have not heard any news from Mom, so that is a good thing, i believe…

I’m already lining up my writing schedule for tomorrow, our first day of summer vacation. I plan on revising that query for the coffee shop piece, run it by SK for some insight, and then send it off to the Urbanite. I will also fire off a quick letter to the editor of the Towson Times about a piece they ran yesterday in their weekly tabloid about renovations suggested for the Towson town center (not to be confused with the Towson Town Center, which is our overpriced, too Taj-Mahal-looking mall in the center of town). That will be a quick write, and I can send that via e-mail, just as I can send the query to the Urbanite.

Times have changed regarding the swiftness with which we can send our writing for consideration. It’s opened up so many doors for me, though, in publishing, and I don’t take advantage of it enough.

In the last year or so, everything I’ve sent out has either been published or has received some type of award or honorable mention. I know that the law of averages will certainly catch up with me this summer when I send out many more pieces, but it strengthens my confidence to think that I am hitting a good stride now with identifying with my audience writing succinctly enough to be considered for publication in various journals and magazines.

More important, this gives me greater reason to get Cold Rock out there as early as possible this summer to see what nibbles I might get for it. It really needs to be out there before the end of June.

Stop.

A note to my readers: 15 on the Fives is posted twice-daily at 5:16 a.m. and 5:16 p.m. These entries are what I call “vomit” or discovery drafts, where I write uninhibited for 15 minutes. There are no rules about topics, content, form, grammar, or spelling. The only rule is that I don’t stop writing. By following this one rule, I almost always discover something new in my writing, and more often than not, I find a seed or two for future pieces I feel I can take to publication. Give it a whirl; there’s nothing to lose (but 15 minutes, of course!).