Happy National Novel Writing Month!
For several hundred thousand writers, the great challenge of the year has just launched: for the next 30 days, they will be scrambling to maintain a semi-functional life while also producing 1,667 words per day, to end with a 50,000 word story on December 1st. I wish them luck. While I can’t deny the glories of a creative adrenaline surge, I have never managed to get more than 35,000 words in November, and have several times had to step back and let the challenge go before I had a...
Read MoreA Quick, Happy Update
I’m in the midst of packing (I have lost track of how much packing I’ve done this year, between actually moving house to D.C. and the frequent flights to home, Vegas, LA, and Ghana) but have time to fire off some quick notes. First off, packing is a wonderful way to clean house. You really make a decision about an item’s true value if admitting its value means carrying it with you and/or finding a corner of suitcase to stuff it in. I’ve managed to clean through my story...
Read MoreOn IndieGoGo Campaigns
This week, my student team finished mailing out perks to the sponsors of our IndieGoGo campaign, which raised funds for a community-level organization in rural Ghana to extend microloans and scholarships to local women. We were able to deliver $1,290 to Capacity Rural International during our class visit, over $900 of which came through IndieGoGo. The IndieGoGo campaign actually raised $1,085, but the site takes a fee. Although we knew that going in, there are some other things we discovered...
Read MoreList: What’s surprised me most about Ghana
When I was younger, and I wasn’t sure what to write but I knew I wanted to write something, I would make lists–to keep my thoughts in order, to generate some brainstorming, to summarize or highlight my ideas. I have a jumble of ideas and memories from Ghana, so one way to sort them out–and give a preliminary taste of my trip–is to give you a list. A list of the things that most surprised me on my first trip abroad: *The Handshake. One of my classmates had spent the...
Read MoreIs Malaria really that bad?
Today I visited Capitol Travel Medicine of Arlington, Virginia to get my immunizations ready for the trip to Ghana. I’m giving the full name because you can consider this post a wholehearted endorsement; they were very pleasant and extremely helpful. Yellow Fever shots aren’t the most painful thing in the world–mine ended with small welt and a lingering medicinal sting, the kind that reassuringly reminds you that you’ve just had a weakened but potentially deadly virus...
Read MoreAbout Therese
Therese Arkenberg's first short story was accepted for publication on January 2, 2008, and her second acceptance came a few hours later. Since then they haven't always been in such a rush, yet her work appears in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Sword & Sorceress XXIV. Aqua Vitae, her science fiction novella, was released by WolfSinger Publications in December 2011.
She works as a freelance editor and writer in Wisconsin, where she returned after a brief but unforgettable time in Washington, D.C. When she isn't reading, writing, or editing (it's true!) she serves on the board of the Plowshare Center of Waukesha, which works for social, economic, and environmental justice.