Jan Parker

Artist/writer Jan B. Parker lives and works in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. Her work has been published in the Broad River Review, GERMMagazine, LitSnack, Main Street Rag Quarterly Journal, Manzanita Writers Press’ Wine, Cheese and Chocolate, MoonShine Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Pear Noir!, Press 53 Open Awards Anthology 2009, Voices from the Porch, and Writing Through Your Divorce: The Blog. Jan won second place in the 2011 Methodist University Emerging Writers’ Competition, was a finalist in the 2010 Rash Awards from Gardner Webb University, received honorable mention in the 2010 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, and won first place for her novella Trading Moon in the 2009 Press 53 Open Awards. Please visit her on Facebook and at www.writerjanbparker.com.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. The blessings of my children (and theirs)
2.  A wealthy store of good and delightful friends
3. Frequent and easy communion with the writing community
4. Laughter (and tears)
5. Crayola Crayons (and notebook paper)
6. My big fat unabridged dictionary (and a compass to find my way out of its lovely jungle)
7. My 1925 bungalow (and its wide front porch)
8. My Wednesday Night Writers’ Group (Laura, Nancy, Jack, and me)
9. Going barefoot (in red-clay soil)
10. Danny Johnson, my beloved friend (and ones like him who teach me the worth of belonging)