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This is the blog post for the first submission. I thought about everyone’s comments and concerns and let us just work on this for 2 weeks and see how we do. I just read through it and loved it. I do not want to give anything away right now though.
While we are doing our critiques let us ge to know each other by posting comments. I will begin.
My name is John Peragine. I have been writing full time for almost two years and it has been a hell of a ride. Before that I was a child protective services worker and not a day goes by that I don’t say” Why didnt I leave sooner?”
I have written and had published 7 books ( some are on the shelves some are in various stages of print) I have written articles for a number of magazines and do other freelance jobs daily.
I am also a classical musician and play the flute/piccolo in the Western Piedmont Symphony (North Carolina). I am happily married and have two daughters 11 and 14.
So that’s me. I wanted to start this group after having some mixed results in some that I have attended. (see my previous blog notes.) I am very excited about this, and Sarah has started us off with a winner. So use the the guidelines and post your critiques.
John, thanks for the positive introduction to my piece! I will take this time to introduce myself. I was a writer when I was a child but gave it up as I tried to find my way in the world. I just recently returned to it after making the difficult decision not to attend law school. I graduated last May with a dual degree in criminal justice and political science. I have now completed one semester of a creative writing MFA program and am focusing on creative nonfiction.
ReplyDeleteThe piece I submitted is the first one that I wrote after being accepted into the program. With the exception of my writing sample for admission, it is the first creative type writing I have done in over twenty years. I know that I have a lot to learn.
I have had one poem published online by The Southeast Review and I have just begun to write weekly essays about books and writing for a website. I also have a blog where I post some of my poetry and other items related to writing. I am planning to combine the pieces that I complete through the MFA program into a full-length memoir. I write poetry when trying to avoid tackling my nonfiction work. It serves as an outlet when writing is too painful and I need to stop for awhile.
I was pursuing a double Master's with mental health counseling with the goal of pairing writing with healing, but changes due to budget cuts at my university are making it impossible for me to do both right now.
My future goals are to teach and to help others heal through writing. I live in Kentucky and I am the single parent of two boys 17 & 4. I am very excited to take part in this critique group and have feedback from others outside of my program. By the way, John, I used to play flute when I was in junior high. I loved it and maybe I will get back to it one day.
I also grew up in Florida. I lived in Clearwater Beach. Small world. I remember the shuttle as well.
ReplyDeleteMy husband was born and raised in Tarpon Springs FL. We actually met there!
ReplyDeleteI will post my intro soon. Just wanted to get my 2 cents in on FL!
I recommend reading the material once just to get a feel for the piece. You can write don your initial impressions. On the second pass have a pen and paper ready and write down the plot, characters, ect for your critique. Do one more pass and make corrections on grammar, spelling and specific questions or suggestions you have for specific parts of the work. (this would go on the corrected copy or you can make a list of corrections on your critique with page number and paragraph.)
ReplyDeleteSo Pam, tell us something about yourself.
ReplyDelete