Author Archives: Michelle Garren-Flye

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About Michelle Garren-Flye

I am an author of romance, poetry, children's books and graphic novels. I also own a bookstore. My love of the written word runs deep.

What the heck is a HONEOWP, anyway?

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I’ve gotten this question in various forms recently, so I created a page to answer it. You can find it here: HONEOWP?? It’s also a page link at the top of this blog. I hope you’ll read it and maybe consider joining it!

I’m also adding the wonderful Elizabeth Massie’s Hand to Hand Vision blog to my HONEOWP roll call. Elizabeth didn’t start Hand to Hand Vision as part of my HONEOWP effort, but it’s such a wonderful example of what a writer or artist or anybody, really, can do to help others that I decided to include it. Hand to Hand Vision is an ongoing auction of donated artwork and other items dedicated to sharing with those in need. Elizabeth is an award-winning author of multiple horror novels and ghost stories. If you’re not acquainted with Elizabeth’s work, check out her blog: Elizabeth Massie. If you’d like more information about the Hand to Hand Vision, check out the blog here: Hand to Hand Vision.

Although I’ve been following the Hand to Hand Vision for a while now, I really got interested when Elizabeth posted a picture of something she called “Circle of Caring Bracelets”. Simple but lovely beaded bracelets, Elizabeth posted this explanation: “The bracelet is simple. There are yellow beads at the center of the circle. These represent the “life-light,” or the innate human value, of the person who is the target of the bullying. The other beads are multicolored and random. They are are mixture of glass, ceramic, plastic, and stone. These beads represent the caring people who are there to speak out and step up on behalf of the one who is bullied.”

I teared up because bullying is one of the things I dread finding in my children’s lives, whether they be the bullier or the bullied. I never experienced it as a child, but I have heard and read the same horror stories any parent has. It is a powerful evil we have to help our children combat, and I felt Elizabeth’s bracelets could be a wonderful way to do that. Elizabeth has already sent me documents on how to make the bracelets and I plan to approach other parents, teachers and administrators in my area to start a program using them. I’ll post more details about how I accomplish that later.

In the meantime, Elizabeth Massie, welcome to HONEOWPdom.

A day to breathe

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Yesterday was my birthday. I began my fifth decade on this earth (that does not mean I’m 50 years young, look it up). When my husband asked what I wanted for my birthday, I told him I wanted a day to spend exactly the way I wanted. And bless him, he gave me exactly that. He had the day off, so he got up and got the kids ready for school, then took me out for coffee. We walked around our little town (accompanied by our 3-year-old because I wanted to bring her), shopped a little (he bought me a lovely beaded necklace), and picked up sandwiches for lunch. (We took them home to eat because my daughter was tired by this time.) That afternoon, he helped me hang birdfeeders (two for songbirds, two for hummingbirds) and plant strawberries. Then he made me taco salad for dinner and we ate ice cream cake with the kids.

Who could ask for a better day? I’ll remember it every time I put on my necklace or look out at the birdfeeders or (hopefully) eat a strawberry from my plant. And with every memory I’ll take a moment to breathe and be thankful for what I have.

This is a great time for us to remember to breathe. All you have to do is look at the news to see why breathing every day is important. The tragedy in Japan jolted me from my complacency. The horror over there is something I cannot escape. And it’s a reminder that we are never guaranteed tomorrow. Whether you’re one or forty-one, tomorrow is something you can’t totally count on.

Take a moment today and breathe. Hug someone you love, smell a flower, watch a sunset, listen to the rain. And breathe.

Weekly Windup and Another New HONEOWP

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Good Saturday, everybody! I’d love to draw your attention to yet another new HONEOWP, Amanda Von Hoffman, the wife of my other new HONEOWP Kirk Jones. Not only did Amanda blog about our HONEOWP effort here, Donating Royalties, she also plans to donate part of her royalties from the sale of her novel Behind Green Glass to The American Organ Transplant Association in April! Thank you, Amanda, and welcome to HONEOWPdom.

Second highlight of my week was finishing Ellen Meister’s superb book The Other Life. If you haven’t read this yet, do it! I laughed and cried and I thought the ending was superb. Without a doubt this was the best book I’ve read yet this year.

That said, I’m (finally) reading Kevin Wallis’s short story collection Beneath the Surface of Things, and I cannot put this book down. I’m only three stories in, but it’s awesomely chilling. My apologies to Kevin for taking so long to get to this one. I’ve had it on my Nook for months now but something always came up to keep me from getting into it. That won’t happen this time. I’m aching to pick it up right now! After I finish Beneath the Surface of Things, I have Lisa McMann’s Cryer’s Cross and G.C. Smith’s White Lightning to read, so I should have an active reading life over the next few weeks. Which is good since my writing is definitely at low tide at the moment.

I got some good news about an advertising opportunity for SECRETS OF THE LOTUS this week, too, and though I’m not going to go into any details at the moment, it shouldn’t be long before I can let you in on the, um, secret.

Finally, my friend A.J. Brown blogged about THEN moments this week. As a writer, I totally understand where he is coming from. I think a lot of my low and high tides as far as writing goes stem from THEN moments. It’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking post, and I encourage you to take a look: THEN Moments with A.J. Brown.

That’s about it for this week. Thanks for listening!

New HONEOWP Author! Meet Kirk Jones.

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Yep. That’s right. The word is getting out. A new novelist has joined the ranks of the HONEOWPs. Kirk Jones, a friend of HONEOWP Steve Lowe (you may remember him from February), has made the pledge to donate his March royalties to the American Cancer Society. If you’d like to help Kirk out in his quest, visit his website bizarrojones for information about his book Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals (I told you he was a friend of Steve’s).

I’m thrilled to have someone else join my HONEOWP initiative. I know there are more Helpful Outstanding Novelists, Editors and Others in the Writing Profession out there. Email me at michellegflye@gmail.com if you’d like to see your name on my HONEOWP roll call.

February Royalty Report

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Thanks to everyone who bought my book in February! Still haven’t made it over the minimum $25 donation, but you guys contributed to that, and hopefully some uncontacted tribe will benefit from my donation.

A little closer to home this month, don’t forget my HONEOWP charity is Share Our Strength, which is dedicated to fighting childhood hunger in the United States. There are a number of ways you can help out with this charity, so please explore their website (see my HONEOWP feature area to the left). However, I’ll also draw your attention to my participation in Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale. If you’d like to donate to my bake sale, you can do so on my page: MGF’s Great American Bake Sale Page.

Thanks again to those who are already supporting my HONEOWP effort, and remember you’re invited to help out, too. If you’re a writer, consider donating a portion of your royalties to a charity of your own choosing. If you do so because you’re inspired by my effort, please let me know. I’d like to know the word is getting out, and I can add your website to my HONEOWP roll call. If you’re a blogger and you like what I’m doing, blog about it! Put it on your Facebook page or Tweet about it. The more people willing to get involved in this effort, the more successful it will be.

My March HONEOWP Charity: Share Our Strength and Fight Childhood Hunger

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While I wait to hear how much my February royalties will enable me to donate to Survival International, I wanted to fill you in on my March charity. I really, really like the way this charity is structured and I love who the beneficiaries of it are.

I first found out about Share Our Strength a couple of weeks ago when I read an article about childhood hunger. The article included interviews with teachers who described children too hungry to focus on their lessons, children who would just put their heads on their desks and cry because they didn’t have breakfast.

As PTO president for my son’s elementary school, I know all about the free and reduced price lunch programs that are offered to children. I also see a lot of kids who buy their lunches and don’t eat half of them. My own kids have always preferred to take lunch, mainly because they’re exceedingly picky and don’t usually like what’s offered by the cafeteria. In my cafeteria observations, I have noticed some clean plates at lunchtime, though. Are these likely the hungry kids? The ones who come to school without breakfast to fuel them for the day? Do we have children in my community who deal with hunger every day?

I have no way of knowing, but the thought that there are children anywhere who don’t have enough food breaks my heart. So I’ve chosen Share Our Strength as my March HONEOWP charity. If you have any interest at all in supporting this organization’s fight against childhood hunger, I encourage you to check out their website. They have multiple different ways to help, including hosting a bake sale, a national dine-out to end hunger (September 18-24, 2011) and free summer meals for children. And if you’re wondering where I’m sending my royalties from March to, check out this link: Share Our Strength March Royalty donation.

Edited to add: On a separate note, I made a commitment to Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale today. I have committed to raise $250 in 243 days. To keep tabs on how I’m doing, check out my website: MGF’s Great American Bake Sale. Keep in mind I’m not much of baker, so it’ll be interesting to see how this goes! By the way, any funds donated this way do not count as my HONEOWP royalty donations.

Warning! Literary Agents and Publishers: I Just Finished Another One!

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Author’s Disclaimer: The following was written in a moment of absolute giddiness, so please excuse any attitude I cop and don’t let it ruin my career. Thank you, Michelle Garren Flye, author extraordinaire

Dear Literary Agents and Publishers:

I find it necessary to notify you that on this 28th day of February 2011, I have finished another one. Yep. I’m sitting here looking at 175 pages (single-spaced, I haven’t properly formatted it yet) and 84,400 words of romantic goodness.

You know what that means, of course? It means I’m on the hunt yet again. I need a publisher for this latest masterpiece, and to get one, I probably need a literary agent to get me into the gate of literary publishingdom. So that means you’ll be hearing from me.

The first round of query letters will be aimed at the few literary agents who’ve given me reason to hope in the past. Second round will go to the best literary agents I know who are currently accepting romantic subs. Third round will be every other agent I have the energy to send an email or letter to. After that I’ll start addressing every reputable publisher that doesn’t actually require a literary agent.

Eventually, I’ll find a home for ALWAYS FAITHFUL. It’s a good story, and I wrote it well.

If you’d like to get a jump on your competitors and have a preview of ALWAYS FAITHFUL, just drop me a line at michellegflye@gmail.com. I’m sure I can find time to email you a chapter or two.

Thanks in advance,

Michelle Garren Flye
Author of three of the best romance novels ever

In Defense of the Shape of Women

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It’s been a long time since Rush Limbaugh was able to say anything to upset me. In recent years, he’s seemed more like a pitiful old man trying to stay in the limelight than anything else, but he finally did it again. He got under my skin. In this day and age of every woman wanting to look like the models on the front of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, ol’ Rush decided to point out that our first lady wasn’t swimsuit material.

Really, Rush? Like you ever have been.

Let’s look at Michelle Obama with a critical but unprejudiced eye. She’s 47 years old and she’s had two children. She dresses nicely and she’s always well-groomed when in public. (Not so sure I can say the same for Rush!) She started the “Let’s Move” campaign to promote public awareness of childhood obesity and hopefully help prevent it. Rush, for some odd reason, seemed to think he was qualified to criticize Mrs. Obama’s eating habits.

Okay, time for a reality check. Women today need to stop being ashamed of their bodies. I’ve had three children, and I’ll tell you, my body does NOT look like it did when I was 18 or 19 years old. My last kid was really tough on my shape, and I’ve got bulges in spots that probably will never go away, at least not without surgical assistance. However, I don’t think I’m a cow, either, and it makes me sick to hear anyone call a decent-looking, average weight, middle-aged woman “overweight”…or worse.

It’s time to get over this obsession with looking like movie stars. I don’t expect all men to look like Christian Bale or Johnny Depp, though it might be nice. Women have curves, guys. Some of those curves aren’t always in the right spots, but if a woman eats reasonably and exercises regularly, maybe we all need to accept that curves and even bulges aren’t necessarily a bad thing.

My Quest for Validation

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On a writing site I frequent a debate has sparked about the validation I feel every writer seeks. Someone asked why do you write and I responded with the word “validation.”

Okay, not every writer wants validation for their work from outside sources. Somebody pointed out Emily Dickinson as an example of a writer who never sought outside validation for her work. Many writers write in a journal they never expect anyone to see. But certainly every writer who puts their writings out there for public consumption is looking for some form of validation.

So who are we seeking validation from? Readers certainly. Editors and publishers definitely. Ourselves? Well, I feel pretty sure if we put our work out there, the self-validation has already been taken care of. I know I have a lot of confidence that I’m a good writer. I also believe I’m a pretty good editor. So I don’t need self-validation, and that’s why I send my work out to be published.

Do I want my work to sell? Yes. I want to make money off my writing, preferably a lot of money. But as you know from my HONEOWP initiative, I don’t really want the money, at least not right now. What I want is to be able to say that a lot of people are reading what I write, and are willing to pay to do it. That’s the ultimate form of validation for a writer, in my opinion.

Does this mean I want to be conformist? Not necessarily. It’s true that what I write is fun, entertaining, and that’s all I want to do at the moment. But I think every artist of every type should seek to stretch the boundaries, to make people see things a little differently. Of course, this is sometimes hard to do. As has been pointed out quite often in the writing community, if you want validation from a reader, you have to get it from an editor/publisher source first. If you’re not writing something an editor/publisher is willing to take a chance on, you’re stuck in the self-publishing world, and while some people are able to make that work, it’s a long, hard road.

But then again, what isn’t in this business? Day after day we writers put ourselves out there in the written word, hoping to get some feedback, whether it be positive or negative, praying we’ve written something that will touch someone in some way. If we’re lucky, we find out we did. If we’re really lucky, we are able to get our words out to a lot of people and we get the ultimate validation, whether it be a lot of money, a bestseller, an article in a large print journal, a short story in Best American Short Stories, or a winning entry in a writing contest.

Good luck to all my fellow writers in their quest for validation, and if you’re a reader, take a minute to give your favorite author a pat on the back. Believe me when I say, even if he or she is a very successful author, they’d love to hear from you.

The HONEOWP Interview

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I’m sorry I didn’t see the email about this until too late to announce it yesterday because Valentine’s Day would have been a very appropriate day for it. You might have heard about my HONEOWP initiative where I donate my royalties (or a minimum of $25) to charity every month. For more information, see HONEOWP Update or HONEOWP Charities to the left. You might also remember that author Steve Lowe has joined me in this for the month of February. You can find a link to his blog Shitzengiggles under HONEOWP roll call.

Well, now AJ Brown has decided to get to the bottom of our motives for doing this. I’d already added AJ to my HONEOWP roll call (Type AJ Negative) because he blogged about my project a month or more ago. Well, now he’s conducted an interview with Steve and myself, and you can find it here: The HONEOWP Interview. I hope you’ll check it out and take time to explore AJ’s website. He’s done quite a few interesting interviews with even more interesting writers and his “Blood Bank” has some really great free fiction in it.

Five Books I Will Always Love:
1. Little Women
2. Murder on the Orient Express
3. Swan Song
4. Anne of Green Gables
5. Watership Down