Editor Shoshauna Shy has published my 101-word story, “Home is Where the Heart Is,” at 101 Words.
This story was inspired by my dear cat Perry.

What a thrilling morning. The Dribble Drabble Review has nominated my micro story “Historia de La Iglesia Católica del Sagrado Corazón” for Best Small Fictions 2024. This is a huge honor, and I am so tickled.

Here is the story, which I have posted before.

I know I don’t talk about rejections very often, but I sure get them. I had fun with one of them, making an erasure out of it and posted in on Facebook where it was seen by the editor of the amazing MacQueen’s Quinterly who posted it with some other rejection erasures. They are all funny so take a quick look!
In October I discovered that my flash story “Incident at Shady Acres” was first runner up in the Julia Peterkin Literary Awards sponsored by South 85 Journal. Now the issue has been published with the winning story and the runners up.
I hope you like this ecofiction story. Pretty pleased with this one. https://www.south85journal.com/winter-2023/incident-at-shady-acres-by-luanne-castle/
Here’s an adobe preview image of a haboob.

Filed under #amwriting, #writingcommunity, Arizona, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literary Journals, Publishing, Writing, Writing contest
Editor Keith Hoerner has published my 50-word story (called a Dribble, which makes me a Dribbler!) at the illustrious The Dribble Drabble Review. The story is called “Historia de La Iglesia Católica del Sagrado Corazón,” but the story itself is in English.
https://www.flipsnack.com/AB7B77BBDC9/the-dribble-drabble-review-2023-issue-viii.html My story is shown below or on page 27, but be sure to check out some of the other fabulous stories! They are all either 50 or 100 words, so quick reads.

This story was suggested to me by a story I heard when I was in Costa Rica in early 2020.
Filed under #amwriting, #writingcommunity, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literary Journals, Publishing, Writing
Editor Robert McEvily has published my six sentence story at, you guessed it, Six Sentences. The story is about animal rescue and called “I Got Sick of Making Excuses for Dog #586 at Paws Perfect No-Kill Shelter.”
https://sixsentences.blogspot.com/2023/10/i-got-sick-of-making-excuses-for-dog.html
My “perfect” rescue cat Perry is in the bag.

Filed under #amwriting, #writingcommunity, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literary Journals, Publishing, Writing
Today, I have a new microfiction up at Bright Flash Literary Review. This 150-word story is called “Detective Work” and features an evidence board.
Here is the link: https://brightflash1000.com/2023/09/07/detective-work/

Filed under #amwriting, #writingcommunity, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Literary Journals, Publishing, Writing
Today (August 31, UK time) I have a new microfiction up at Paragraph Planet. The daily stories are 75 words each–and that includes the title.

This story is about the creative spirit that only can die out with the person.

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Before I talk about the tour, editor James Lewis so kindly published three of my Rooted and Winged poems in Verse-Virtual‘s March issue: https://www.verse-virtual.org/2023/March/castle-luanne-2023-march.html I hope you like these poems. “Gravity” is about my grandfather gardening in the muck of Kalamazoo. Yes, muck. That is the wet black soil that Kalamazoo is known for, which is why Kalamazoo is known for being the Celery City.
I’m thrilled to announce the blog tour for my new poetry chapbook Our Wolves which features poems about the Red Riding Hood story. You can find out about the tour here: https://poeticbooktours.wordpress.com/2023/02/20/our-wolves-by-luanne-castle-spring-2023/ I hope you’ll follow along!!!The paperback book is published by Alien Buddha Press and will be available starting this Sunday for $10.99.
Bloggers: if you would like to piggyback onto the tour in the month of March, I would be happy to share an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy pdf) of the chapbook in the hopes that you will like it enough to review it on your blog and on Amazon (and any other social media sites you care to) in March. If so, please let me know.

Filed under #poetrycommunity, Fairy Tales, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing, Writing
Don’t miss my interview yesterday with poet Millicent Borges Accardi: https://writersite.org/2023/02/06/from-mrs-virtue-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-an-interview-of-millicent-borges-accardi/ Millicent talks about the teacher who instilled her love of poetry as a kid. It so happened that the teacher was the daughter of a famous poet. She talks about her Portguguese heritage, both generally and the literature as well.
In January, I had another ekphrastic piece, this time a poem, taken at Visual-Verse. I neglected to mention last time that we only get one hour to write these to the art prompts. It’s a very intense process. https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-tournament/
Are you interested in a Giveaway for Rooted and Winged? LibraryThing is running one right now. https://www.librarything.com/ner/detail/46725/Rooted-and-Winged
Main Street Rag has published my review of Justin Hamm’s Drinking Guinness with the Dead. While I can’t post a copy of the review as it’s a print issue, I can tell you I give it two thumbs up. Hamm’s work is really tied to the Midwest and its vast once-farmland, so while anyone would love it (I think), Midwesterners would especially cherish it.
My daughter’s wedding was a year ago this coming Sunday. So look what I made for daughter and son-in-law. A wedding junk journal.

I had to find this nifty little suitcase after I realized that with the fragility of the book (cuz junk) and their lifestyle the book wouldn’t last long without protection. I was able to add in their wooden ring boxes, little place cards, extra photos, and the napkins from their previous courthouse wedding where we drank blue prosecco and ate cookies. Last year’s wedding was the whole shebang because that’s what they like.
See inside on the left? That’s a little clutch I made out of plastic grocery bags to store the cassettes of their wedding music.


That project was loads of fun, but now I’m about hearted and laced and sweetthinged out.
The editors at Rind Literary Magazine have published my creative nonfiction piece, “The Gamemaster and the Reluctant Daughter,” in the new issue, #15. You can find it, beginning on page 33, here:
I hope you enjoy the story. Again, it relates very closely to the memoir I am working on.
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Our bobcat, as seen through the window.
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My positive hopeful plans for 2022 include making my daughter a wedding junk journal, which she’s excited about. I am collecting pretty little scraps and ephemera for that. Then I joined the Ugly Art Club, and I’ll see how that goes. Also, I want to study drawing faces a bit. And I need to get the publisher all the pieces for the poetry book. I really need my headshots retaken. I don’t like the last ones, except the accidental one of me holding Perry. (Should I just use that?) And, finally, I will be attending a special workshop at the Tucson Festival of Books for my memoir. I’m working on a collection of Red Riding Hood poems. So we’ll see how the year goes. Lots of plans. We’ll see what God has in store for me heh.
What are you planning for yourself this new year? Go get 2022!!!!