Seasonal Update: What has Pauline Shen been up to? What can we expect to see from her next?

Season Summary: Autumn 2024

• Manawaker Studios Podcast featured my short fiction “Glycerine.” I am so pleased with this production. If you haven’t done so yet, please go take a listen. It is under 10 minutes: Glycerine – Flash Fiction Podcast.
• Three of my visual art pieces, “Nurture,” “Observe,” & “Steward,” are published online with Marathon Literary Review.
• Big news! I’ve been commissioned for a book cover illustration. Scheduled for release in early 2025. More details to come.

Updates & Work in Progress: Winter 2024-25

• Check out my blog in case you missed these awesome interviews. I am delighted to partner with editors, writers, and publishers to bring you an insider scoop on what’s going on in the industry. More to come very soon—make sure you’re subscribed to have these delivered directly to your email inbox.
• I am completing my first full-length manuscript. I’ve been posting periodic updates on social media. The key to avoiding overwhelm is to break everything down into teeny tiny steps—and there are tons of those!
• My Discord writing group is holding a Secret Santa event for December. We each receive a “wish list” of writing prompts from another participant and write a fresh story using those prompts as a gift for that person. Part of the fun is having to guess which writing group member wrote each story. This is my first time participating and it has been so much fun so far! The prompts I received were way outside my usual repertoire and it gave me a chance to stretch myself and my writing. Activities like this help fuel creativity in a big, big way.

What I’m Reading: Winter 2024-25

• I read Piper Kerman’s memoir Orange is the new Black. You may recognize this book’s title from the television series adaptation of the same name. After taking a memoir writing course where Kerman was the guest instructor for a few Zoom sessions, I had to read her book for myself to see what was in there (No, I never watched the TV series). She’s an energetic instructor and the way she explained how to set-up scenes and incorporate deeper levels of storytelling was absolutely brilliant. If you have a chance to participate in one of her writer’s workshops, do it.
• I read William Zinsser’s memoir Writing about Your Life, which also serves as a writer’s guide. Although I personally found some of Zinsser’s references to be an outdated stack of namedropping, he does offer sound writing advice. Keep in mind that the height of his writing career was a half century ago—technology was different, yet the writing process itself (inspiration, motivation, integrity) is relatively the same.

And that’s it. Enjoy winter. Please share your comments below. Stay tuned for my next blog post. Wanna get it in your email inbox? Subscribe to stay informed of my newest articles, story reviews, updates, and more.

Cover Image: Photo by Ameruverse Digital Marketing Media on Pexels.com