Sandra Gail Lambert

Yaddo! Happy Freakin' 60th Birthday to Me.

It was like being a senior in High School waiting for news about colleges.  I was at the mailbox, expecting the rejection like always these past four years, ready with my Plan B of putting together some sort of on-my-own writing retreat this summer, and I saw the envelope with Yaddo's return address.  "That is a big envelope," I thought.  I held it awhile.  It was big and it had heft.  I slit open the top and slid the papers out past the letterhead, date, my return address, and the salutation.  The phrase "pleased to invite you" came into view. 

So in June, a few days after my 60th birthday, I'll be heading to Saratoga Springs for a six week residency at Yaddo. (For my non-writer friends - this is a big deal.  Check out the list of alumni.) 

All of you writers with Yaddo experience, especially any of you who use wheelchairs, send advice my way.  And such big thanks to you alumni who provided references.  

The Fourth River: A Journal of Nature and Environmental Writing

The Fourth River has just published my short story "Marine Biology."  Here's an excerpt. 

Roxanne has lost track of the conversation.  She hates having hot flashes in front of the students.  She imagines the arctic seas, the pool at the hotel where they'll be staying, the beach, and braces for the post-flash anxiety.  This time it is more sadness than anything.  It separates her as if she were in a one-person submarine with a single portal that giant squid bump into and stare at her with their sideways eyes.  She is never going to be a marine biologist.  It's too late.  For the first time Roxanne understands that choices have been made.  There's no longer enough time for everything.  Her knees weaken with the grief of it, and she reaches for the desk.   

Here's how it happened.  In July, 2009 I took a short story workshop with Lauren Groff that produced the beginnings of this story.  By February, 2010 it was done enough to submit to Fourth River.  In June, 2010 they accepted it.  And just now, October, 2011, it was published.  Yep, it takes awhile.   

A Way Early "Heads Up"

 
This fall I've been invited to speak on panels and give presentations.  I'm pretty much thrilled about it.  Here's the basic, so far, information.

Jane's Stories Press Foundation Fall Retreat - October 14th - 16th in St. Augustine. 

Florida Literary Arts Coalition "Other Words" Conference - November 10th - 12th.  Also in St. Augustine.  

The Alaska Quarterly Review

Here's the contributors' list for the just-released issue.  Scroll down and yes, right there, that's my name.  "Rolling in the Mud," my essay about Paynes Prairie, has found a home.   

The Fourth River - Another Acceptance!!!

Almost a year ago at the Anhinga Writers' Studio Workshop, I took a series of short story classes taught by Lauren Groff.  They were fabulous, and right there in the conference room I started a story.  By October, I thought it was ready to send out.  In November, I saw that it wasn't really and worked more.  During February, I sent it to The Fourth River, and today they accepted it.  In writing world time, this all went quite quickly.  

The Fourth River wants "writings that are richly situated at the confluence of place, space and identity, or that reflect upon or make use of landscape and place in new ways ." 

This is exactly what I try to do.

Blue Crow Magazine

Yep, this week I'm published.  Blue Crow Magazine's premier issue is out.  Order one now.  Join the Blue Crow Facebook group and leave comments about what you read.  Congratulate me as much as you would like.  It's a good week for a little bit of success.   

Blue Crow Magazine

It won't be available for a week or so, but here's a preview of the cover.  It's beautiful, isn't it?  These Blue Crow guys are doing a great job.  And if you squint, see, there's my name in the list of contributors. 

 

Blatant self-aggrandizement - but I need a little right now.

 
"Another standout story is Sandra Gail Lambert's “Looking for the V,” a short story written about a group of friends—two lesbian couples and one single woman in a wheelchair—who embark on a weekend kayaking trip. This story describes the peace that comes with being single, traveling down a wide stretch of river, and learning how to appreciate what you have. It shows how living in the moment brings much joy to the heart."

Jenny Greenfield's review of Something to Declare in the Feminist Review does talk about more than just me, me, me.  Check it out.   

Lavanderia - A Mixed Load of Women, Wash, and Word

Yippee.  Lavanderia - A Mixed Load of Women, Wash and Word is an anthology of written/spoken word and photography from City Works Press, and it includes a piece of my writing.    

Although I haven't actually seen a copy yet, anything that "highlights the universal ritual and common interaction of people, places, and things found between loads of laundry" and has chapter headings such as "Hose Stroll," "Dirty Deeds," and "Rocks and Rivers" has much promise.  

Here's a mini-excerpt from my contribution to the anthology:

Two arms snaked around her neck, overlapped on her chest, and tightened.  "Jesus loves you" was a whisper in her ear, and the moistness of the woman's breath dripped onto Ivy's neck.  Controlling the urge to bite the woman's flesh down to the bone, Ivy sunk only her nails into the soft forearms and held on as the woman tried to escape.  Ivy turned her head to bring their faces close. 

"Fuck you bitch, and fuck Jesus.  Touch me again and I'll call the cops. 

P.S. I can't make this blog editor put an accent over the "i" in Lavenderia.  Sorry.

  

Collective Fallout is out

 

I arrive home after a 14 hour day of tucking my mother's whole life of belongings into one small room and leaving her for her first night in the new place, and in the mailbox there it is - a journal with my name in the table of contents.  It was such good timing.

Collective Fallout, edited by Eric Crapo, is a twice yearly journal "dedicated to queer-themed sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and mystery fiction and poetry."  It's available in print or as an e-download.  Just click here to order.  

Now, here's the place where I would talk about the other contributors.  However, I came home that night, my arms full of old papers of my mother's, tired into stupidity, and after flipping through the journal, I fell asleep.  I woke up, went right back to moving chores, and now, I can't find the journal.  I've looked everywhere.  It might be in that box with my dead father's Army Air Corps enlistment records from 1938 or maybe under the stacks of old checks from just decades ago. 

Looking obsessed me for awhile, but I've given up and ordered a replacement copy.  I can tell you my story has lesbians, the Everglades, a swamp goddess, a serial killer, and infidelity with a park ranger.