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Ellen's Very Southern Voice
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Ex-lawyer, current writer. Committed swimmer. For better & worse, of the American South. Words in Salvation South, Gulf Coast, Barrelhouse, Image, Brevity, etc. Pushcart Special Mention. Peter Taylor Fellow. Love Contemplative Writing. WHEN WE WERE MURDEROUS TIME-TRAVELING WOMEN releasing April 2026 Avata: red hair, blue eyes Header: all you need is love banner #NOLA #Memphis #Mississippi #Writing #Swimming #AntiRacism #Godzilla #HandSewing

One time when I was little, the dog swallowed my mother's diamond earring. For the next few days, she had to follow him around poking through his shit to find the stud. That's me revising. I underwrite. Then I pile in all this crap. Then have to rake through it to find the one diamond worth saving. I'm gonna patent it and call it the Dad the Dog Shit Pile Method of Revising.

#AmWriting #AmRevising #AmEditing #WritingCommunity

(Dad the Dog is a whole nother story)

#WritingWonders MC POV Have you ever kept a secret from your closest friend? If so, why?

As if there were anyone in the world who needs to know all your business. That's just dumb. Juvenile. Like little kids whispering behind their palms. Tell people stuff, they'll use it against you. Every. Time. And then it's your own fault for trusting them. You know what's better? Keep your stuff your stuff and don't have friends.

Wisdom of Karol Reid, IN THE NAME OF MISSISSIPPI

I'd like to elaborate on my last post. They are "dream agents" bc they represent Southern writers I admire. That gives me confidence in their attraction to my writing, and in their ability to pitch it. I had never heard of them before coming across their list. Also "dream" bc they responded within 36 hours. And will get back yay or nay within 2 weeks. All good things to me.

#WritingCommunity #AmQuerying #AmEditing #AmWriting

I knew I was on the right trajectory when a reader made me stop at the epigraph—The river of God is full of water Psalms 65:9—to say, oh, that's perfect.

#WritingCommunity

When I was little, we would afix cloth strips to large coffee cans and tie empty spools of thread to the other end of the strips. We made harnesses from more strips and shrugged the coffee cans onto our backs. So equipped, we popped the spools into our mouths and ventured into the sunken lot behind our duplex. Scuba diving, we were. In the Mississippi summer where the air was humid as an ocean.

#Writing #Mississippi #WritingCommunity #memories

Goodness. I have been gone, gone, gone. But now I'm back.

Maybe it's because my dad died in a violent accident when I was 3, but I'm always ready for the universe to whiplash me. Just when things are going well, look out for the dagger to come sailing through the dark. When it doesn't, I am grateful.