Around the Fire Book & Author Blog with Liz Flaherty.

Today's blog is a little different. That's a good thing. Liz has opened up about her writing life. She touched my heart because often we don't let others know our struggles. How often are you asked "how are things going?" and you answer "things are good." Well sometimes they aren't. But I love Liz's insight with "however".  Hugs, Liz, and congratulations!

About Nourishment
It’s been a slow couple of years for me as a writer. There’ve been rejections, poor sales, so very few reviews. When I signed up for this day here around the fire, it was almost under false pretenses, because I had nothing new to offer. I hoped I would by now, and I do have things…well, kind of…but no new releases, no multi-book contracts, no certainty at which way I’m going to go as I approach more of the constant forks in the publishing road.
However…
Oh, isn’t it great that there’s almost always a however?
Several months back, my friend Nan Reinhardt (who listens to me complain with great regularity) told me about an anthology that was looking for submissions. The theme was “nourish,” and surely I, the essay queen, would have something that might work. So I found one, did a little nipping and tucking on it, and submitted it to Gal’s Guide Library. 
There were 87 entries, with 33 being chosen for the book, and I was one of the 33. I’m here to tell you, I needed that! Last week, a reception was held at the library to announce the awards in a juried competition among the pieces in the anthology. I was honored and very, very pleased to receive the Silver Medal for “The Rickrack Chronicles.”
I was very interested in the theme. Nourishment is so important in our lives. Beyond food, we need for our hearts and souls to be fed. We need our funny bones to be enriched and our beauty-finders to be satisfied. I haven’t read any of the other entries in the book, but I hope the contents do that for its readers. 
For me, a writer having a not-so-good time of it, it’s already done..
It’s hard to include an excerpt from an essay that in its entirety is about the length of a normal one, so I’ll just share a passage instead. That sounds shorter, doesn’t it?
From “The Rickrack Chronicles,” by Liz Flaherty
 When I was in the seventh grade, home economics was a required course—remember that? It was half cooking and half sewing and it only took me a couple of weeks to figure out I wasn’t meant to be either a chef or a seamstress. The food I cooked in class was raw in the middle and charred on the outside and the skirt I sewed was … God, it was awful. It had so many gathers in the back and so few in the front that the entire garment looked bustled. Not a good look for anyone, much less a rather lumpy 12-year-old.
The Gal’s Guide Anthology: Nourish will be released April 13. It will be available from Amazon then and can be pre-ordered now at https://tinyurl.com/5bt9f37e. Thanks for coming by the fire. Want a marshmallow?

Does that marshmallow come with graham crackers and a chocolate bar? Thank you for sharing your story, Liz. We all need that nurishment.

About the author.
 Liz Flaherty has spent the past several years enjoying not working a day job, making terrible crafts, and writing stories in which the people aren’t young, brilliant, or even beautiful. She’s decided (and has to re-decide most every day) that the definition of success is having a good time. Along with her husband of lo, these many years, kids, grands, friends, and the occasional cat, she’s doing just that.
​Find her on Facebook or her blog, Window Over the Sink. A girl just can’t have too many friends! https://linktr.ee/lizflaherty