January 2023. Devon is being interviewed by Voyage Raleigh Magazine. Apparently, she’s a hidden gem of creatives.
January 2023. Devon is a semifinalist for the Doris Betts Fiction Prize for the short story, “Sixty-Two.” (Semifinalists, unfortunately, are not listed publicly.) In related news, her friend Theresa Blackinton wins second place.
December 2023. Devon is awarded another residency at the Weymouth Center for the Arts on a week when her friend-writer, Anita Collins, and Anita’s husband-singer/songwriter, Wes Collins, will be there. Festivities (read: hard work) commence in January.
November 2023. Devon wins Nanowrimo! Apparently, it’s a first. 50,000 words on the page in November! And now I have a tee shirt.
August, 2022. In June, the home school was packed up and a workspace for writing was created in the family room’s bay window. After a summer of intense “post-Pandemic” (safe) travel, Devon is now working full time as a writer for the first time in seven years.
March, 2022. Devon is offered a residency at The Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Devon will be headed to Arkansas at the end of September for a week.
February, 2022. Devon starts the process of decommissioning the school room and setting up her new workspace in the family room. The process will be complete in June. Everything is about to change!
December 16, 2021. Devon’s flash fiction story, “Pinned Up,” is published in Every Day Fiction.
November (end), 2021. “Pinned Up,” a flash fiction story, will be published by Every Day Fiction online lit mag.
October, 2021. Devon heads to Weymouth Center for the Arts in Southern Pines, NC, for a one-week residency where she will be putting the final strokes on The Journey of Clement Fancywater and strolling down small-town streets drinking tea clouds and buying books she shouldn’t be.
August, 2021. Devon gets a letter to revise and resubmit a flash fiction piece not once, but twice. See November for further developments.
June 6-12, 2021. Devon travels to Delray Beach, Florida to virtually attend the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing annual conference, as a Parent-Writer Fellow. She spends between seven and ten hours a day on Zoom (in classes, readings, meetings, and lounges) and the little bits in between laying in the shade on the beach, swimming, and walking in the full sun around town.
April, 2021. Devon is again given a writing residency (yay!) at Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities. She will be headed to their (haunted) house in October.
April, 2021. Devon is awarded a Parent-Writer Fellowship for the Martha’s Vineyard Writing Institute Conference in June. Since it’s a virtual year due to a pandemic, she is looking for a solitary place to stay. May update: she has been gifted a stay at a relative/arts patron’s veeeery nice second home in Delray Beach, FL.
March 13, 2020, and on. The Covid-19 stay-at-home order begins, as does the list of projects to get done during this time. Besides hopping on the April Camp Nanowrimo with a goal of 25,000 words, Devon has goals for writing, editing and submitting short stories, op-eds, and a novel or two.
October 12, 2019. “The End” goes smack dab in the middle of the last page of The Family Elephant’s Jewels. Phew! Next begins the process of edits and shopping for agents. Who wants to be a first reader?
October 2019. Devon travels to the Weymouth Center for a one-week writing residency. The goal is to finish work on The Family Elephant’s Jewels and continue work on The Journey of Clement Fancywater, after which Devon will begin looking for agents to represent the novels.
Summer 2019. Devon begins applying for writing residencies and grants. She also prepares to teach a year-long writing class to 5th and 6th grade homeschoolers. This will begin Devon’s fifth year of homeschooling, and she plans to return to full-time writing in 2022.
April 2019. Devon attends a one-day writing seminar in Cary, NC and begins a few short stories.
June 11-18, 2018. Devon is a writer in residence at the Weymouth Center. Her project is The Family Elephant’s Jewels and–while numbers aren’t everything–she puts more than 30,000 words on the page. And enjoys herself enormously. The book is now one section away from being complete in it’s first draft.
May 2018. Devon gets a rest-of-the-year contract as a food reporter. Cool beans. “This is Bridget Jones, for Stand Up! Britain, looking for tuna.”
April 2018. Devon tackles a 20,000 word writing goal for Camp NaNoWriMo, and makes it to right around 13,000. We’re blaming it on the 5-day migraine. And life.
March 2018. Devon signs up for Camp Nanowrimo. which is right around the corner, in April. The goal is 20,000 words. Yes, while homeschooling.
March 2018. Devon gets her first-in-a-long-time writing contract, this time with QSR Magazine (a restaurant trade magazine). Her first articles should be appearing in May.
January 2018. Devon is accepted as a writer in residence at The Weymouth Center. She will be staying in their haunted house, in a quiet, internet-free room, for a week in June. She will be working on The Family Elephant’s Jewels.
October 24, 2017. Still full-time homeschooling. Illustration work on a reprint has been completed and the final manuscript should be sent to editors before the end of the year. Devon is also pursuing some writing residencies for the summer of 2018, when she will also be doing NaNoWriMo again.
February 16, 2017. Still full-time homeschooling, Devon has joined a new writing group and is about to start another, and is also very busy sweeping distractions from her many spinning plates. Look for new content on The Starving Artist in February, and new stories and books beginning in March.
the starving artist 