A quote on creativity and living to start off 2017

"The beautiful thing about the soul is that it's not the ego, not the personality, and not the mind.  It places no judgments, it is free from expectations. 
The nature of the soul is innocent, childlike. 
The essence of the soul is loving, its essence is joy. Sometimes it is the one unfading note of joy in an entire life symphony of suffering and pain. 
And the soul is active, dynamic. 
Its task is to gain experience of itself, the created world and universe, and the divine. 
The soul's energy--in its human form--is creative energy; its drawn to activities that are creative, especially those that mirror the soul itself as poetry writing (or story telling, imho) does. 
And the soul's goal is to return home--whatever you imagine that to mean--as an experienced being." ~ 

Sandford Lyne
in
Writing poetry from the inside out

Good News!

de`sire
/de'zi(e)r/

noun

1. A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen

Verb

1. Strongly wish for or want (something)

On Jan 1, 2016 I had this strong urge to do something with my fiction. Anything. Any small act that would let me know that I wasn't giving up on my lifelong dream.

So on that day, I polished up on one of my short stories and sent it out to the world. 

Now many months later, I'm happy to share my story, "Desire," won one of the finalist prizes in the Nelson Algren Literary Awards competition hosted by the Chicago Tribune. Woohoo! 

You can read the entire story here: Tribune Announces Algren Award Winners

I can breathe easier.

xoxo,

Mina

P.S. I'll be publishing the story with a recipe in the near future. :)