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August 25, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "#writerwin" by Stephanie Lenz
I snatched the opportunity to do this month's SnarkZone not knowing what I would write about. Would it be my experience participating in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition? Would it be about the aftermath of #QueryFail? Would it be about the fact that my five-year-old is asking me to take dictation while she "writes stories" aloud? Or how about the fact that Castle was renewed and how many portrayals of writers do we get on TV these days, much less ones as smokin' hot as Nathan Fillion?
After a few moments—and some research of images of Nathan Fillion—I thought, "There must be some way to tie these things together." So while listening to my daughter tell the story of horses escaping the bloodthirsty, hippocidal skeleton that has followed them to Candyland, I came up with a solution: Success.
Posted by The Editors at 09:54 AM in Literary Journal
August 20, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Portrait of a Home" by Aaron M. Wilder
Your cross-beams sway in the wind now. That once stood so defiant to God. Shingles splintered and thrown to time. Weathering to male-pattern baldness. When I see you again will this roof be shaved? Doors hanging by one hinge? Elements and that run-down phrase—"it’s just the wind"—making themselves at home?
Posted by The Editors at 10:15 AM in Literary Journal
August 18, 2009 | Writer's Glossary, Part II
This month's Absolute Blank article is "Writer's Glossary, Part II: Genres, Subgenres and Supergenres" by TC Editor Stephanie Lenz (Baker).
Posted by The Editors at 11:39 AM in Articles
August 15, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Lady Fingers" by Amanda Divine
"Holy crap. Look at this." Taj set down the book and stared at the photograph. "I always want to find money in books, not fingers."
"How can you find a finger in a book? Seriously," said Lana, shutting the cash drawer and waving goodbye to a customer.
"Well, not a finger. But a picture of a finger. Is this for real?" She handed Lana the picture and rubbed her eyes. "Tell me that's not a finger."
Posted by The Editors at 12:23 PM in Literary Journal
August 13, 2009 | A Midsummer Tale Contest Winners!
Toasted Cheese Literary Journal is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 A Midsummer Tale Writing Contest:
1st: "After Seven Long Years" by Sheela Jaywant
2nd: "Gym Bag Steak" by Timothy L. Marsh
3rd: "Always Date an Honest Drug Dealer" by Amy Rideg
Honorable Mention: "Alone at the Geek-Fest of Summer" by Cynthia Ochs
Our thanks to all who entered. You can read the winning stories in the September issue of Toasted Cheese.
The 2010 A Midsummer Tale Writing Contest opens May 1, 2010. Toasted Cheese's next contest is Three Cheers and a Tiger in September. Details on all our contests can be found here. Submissions to Toasted Cheese are welcome year-round.
Share your work, achievements, and setbacks with fellow writers at the TC Forums.
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Posted by The Editors at 02:48 PM in Contests
August 10, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Stuck in the Middle" by Brian Behr Valentine
Occasionally in a movie someone lurches awake, sitting up wide-eyed with shock. I have claimed this in my own personal anecdotes but it never really happened, not really, until last night. Remembering an old box of books I'd just purchased yesterday, or more importantly, a realization about one particular book had awakened me. One used book and what I had found inside of it.
I'm a bibliophile… a book lover, and a yard sale addict. I'll run a grandma off the road and drive through a flowerbed for a hand-written sign tacked to a light pole. I cruise the better neighborhoods Saturday mornings with a thermos of coffee and a box of donut holes, red-eyed and looking for a fresh intellectual kill.
Posted by The Editors at 05:27 PM in Literary Journal
August 05, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "The J" by Nathaniel Tower
The other day I was reading a book I had purchased online a few years back. It was Ulysses, by Joyce. I was finally on the last chapter, the one with no punctuation, the one from the woman's point of view—not sure if those two ideas are related or not, but I guess it makes sense.
So I had just started the chapter, a glass of wine, a Pinot Grigio, in my hand. I didn't really have a clue what was going on, but I kept reading anyway because I was once told that the most intellectual accomplishment a human being could achieve in this day was to read Ulysses cover-to-cover. There I was, on the brink of achieving some intellectual brilliance that I didn't fully comprehend but was proud of anyway, when I accidentally tipped my Pinot, sending the swirling liquid in a waterfall to my newly planted carpet.
Posted by The Editors at 11:13 PM in Literary Journal