professor_scarl's profile
AGE:
40
LOC: United States
GEN: Female
LAST LOGIN: April 17
LOC: United States
GEN: Female
LAST LOGIN: April 17
I’m an English professor and writer, first published at 15 in Kentucky Writing and have been published in literary journals, like The Gadfly, and I sometimes write freelance for the local paper. I’ve also edited a children’s book for a friend. I am currently working on finishing four novels, 100 children’s books, innumerable poetry, songs—lyrics and music, a bit of adult writing, but, most importantly, I NEED AN AGENT AND A PUBLISHER.
Items
Version 1
1 Review
0 Comments
I’ve stepped off into the deep. I can no longer touch bottom. The water’s murky here— full of blood and broken promises, bitter regret and rotting flesh. It is scary, dark, lonely and cold. I cannot catch my breath; my screams have become whispers. Violent war waged on in my mind, and I lost the battle for my soul. Guilt, doubt, shame, and fear are the four corners in this wasteland. I cannot escape; no one is coming to save me. I will die in this abysmal place. Though I weep and wail at the ...
Version 2
4 Reviews
4 Comments
There are ten on my left arm and eleven on my right. I marvel at the amazing level of symmetry and control unexpected of such a random act of desperation. On my left leg I have six yet twenty on my right. It seems I favor the right, which is ironic considering the depraved wrongness of it all. I can’t believe some are over six inches long. Trailing off into the curves of my flesh, out they stretch over my body like some wretched, perverse interstate system, deep, red and jagged—most of them p...
Version 1
1 Review
0 Comments
I watch you feed in the dimly lit room; Noisily you slurp up your meal, pawing my breast like a hungry kitten. You stop to lick the milk dripping from your wet, red lips and nuzzle—your fur a cuddly mix of blue terrycloth and dark, sticky fuzz— with your feet wiggling ever closer to me. The warmth of our bodies is healing as tiny beads of sweet sweat shine on your head like a halo. Your gaze is raw and intense as you effortlessly plumb the bottom of my soul with your blue eyes. I am full of t...
Version 1
3 Reviews
1 Comment
There are ten on my left arm and eleven on my right. I marvel at the amazing level of symmetry and control unexpected of such a random act of desperation. On my left leg I have six yet twenty on my right. It seems I favor the right, which is ironic considering the depraved wrongness of it all. I can’t believe some are over six inches long. Trailing off into the curves of my flesh, out they stretch over my body like some wretched, perverse interstate system, deep, red and jagged—most of them ...
Version 1
3 Reviews
1 Comment
I’m a ruby of a woman— wretched and red. I wanna wrap myself around you— get in your head. Don’t you smell me linger ‘round your empty bed? Change the sheets all you want to, You can’t change what we did. Chorus: Yeah, there are ties that bind, like chains unseen, but they can’t deny this heat between you and me. [It’s burnin’ inside of me] And though nothin’ satisfies you— no one you need. I wanna make you want me deeper— howl, ache, ‘n’ bleed. Can’t you hear me whisper— cryin’ in the wind? ...
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Reviews
I like this piece, can feel its unsteady rhythm, its stumbling state. Without these distractions, certain forced cliches and/or wording, some mechanical errors, this piece could rock as a song. I feel it in its cadence, its rhythm that is reminiscent of Pink Floyd perhaps. If you're interested, I would LOVE to share my specific ideas, suggestions on possible edits just here and there. If you think I should keep my ideas to myself, I'll just let that be you not writing me back. ;) All in all, ...
Overall, you have a good feel for sensual detail--how things look, smell, taste, sound, and feel. Your main character, Oenn Savage, is mysterious enough; however, as the piece is now, there is no incentive for the reader to care about him. If you want the novel to be successful, the reader must be able to label this main character as sympathetic or not. Either way, he must be fleshed out enough so that he seems more than a cliche' straight out of old '40s crime novels. Right now you do not gi...
I must confess I could not tell what exactly your subject was. The language was at times beautiful; however, it was also at times tedious, like an uneducated person who has stumbled on to a thesaurus. There were no concrete images in which to ground the work. The piece feels very stream of conciousness--one loaded with vague, big words that lead the reader nowhere. What is the subject? Who are these slaves to circumstance? What is "passive vs. active participation in reality"? I'm sorry, but ...
As an English professor, I can't help but immediately go to the mechanical (grammatical) errors in the query letter. For example, many words need to be hyphenated ("an 81,000-word, fictionalized memoir" and "a first-person narrative") and the use of second person ("yourself") is distracting because it alters your meaning; I am assuming you mean "only to find herself." Next, I would advise to include a bigger excerpt from the work. . .perhaps a paragraph. Finally, as a reader, it felt forced a...
Please allow me to introduce myself. . .I'm a wicked English professor, so perhaps I do not, even though I would like to think so, represent the majority of readers. For me, your mechanical errors were distracting and weakened your piece's integrity and its merit. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed most of your word choice. Perhaps "sod in the final line could be changed to something more raw? You haven't mentioned the music, but with its rhythm in my head, I took it to a late '70s glam ro...
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