One of the hardest things for a writer is to find their own voice, to find the stories that belong to them. While Rochita Loenen-Ruiz's essay is about the Philippines and Filipino sci-fi, his take on finding the stories within us holds true for everyone. http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2010/07/21/finding-our-stories
Angela Slatter has the best thought about author platforms I've read in a while. You need product to sell before you need the platform to sell it from. http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2010/07/20/pondering-author-platform
With a hat tip to Charles Tan, I found this post filled with Australian markets, and yes, some of the calls are also looking for writers from the international community. You can check out the links here http://editormum.livejournal.com/246699.html
I don't know how many of you click on the links over there on the left, but for you newbie writers or someone who's just stuck and needs a little advice you might try Robert Gregory Brown's site, Casting the Bones. He has loads of essays about everything a writer needs to know about writing from getting the words down to getting published. http://www.castingthebones.com
Since finding Richard S. Wheeler's blog, I've become a regular visitor. I love that's he's been in the writing game for so long and is willing to share his thoughts and views. Today I read an essay about Montana's Literary life and had a peek into the world of James Crumley and his influence on the writers he met. Mr. Wheeler has also been pondering the difference between literary and popular fiction through a variety of posts but "It's Still a Mystery" seems to have nailed the difference pretty well. http://www.richardswheeler.blogspot.com Drop on over and read through some of his posts, you'll be the richer for it.
And just a bit of a brag. I'm in an e-book!! A very cool first for me. Jason Evans has published a book filled with the winners of the past twelve Clarity of Night contest winners. My story is "Civic Duty" which won third place in the Midnight Road contest. You can download the book for free at this link http://clarityofnight.blogspot.com/2010/07/extra-bonus.html And not just for my story - the book is filled with excellent flash pieces!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Post Conspiracy Notes
Do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you? The last few days have felt that way for me. We've had a rolling line of thunderstorms going through the area, with more expected today, which require the unplugging of the computer so it doesn't blow up. Then yesterday I spent an hour trying to get my printer back to working. Did you know that pushing cancel doesn't cancel anything? The darn thing kept printing over and over as many times as I'd pushed the print button on the computer. It finally ran out of print commands and it's back to working properly (and, of course, I've got my fingers crossed about this!) But, I'm still here and today, at least for now, the sun's shining and maybe I'll get caught up with my emails and posts and maybe get a story written.
End of whining. I've got a few links for you this morning.
Jersey Devil Press has closed to submissions until August 1. They're just taking a vacation, not closing shop, thankfully.
Did you know that the Rose and Thorn Journal took genre submissions? This is a non-paying market but the zine looks great and while they're a literary zine, they publish in all the genres. They're looking for stories up to 3000 words. You can find all the details at http://www.roseandthornjournal.com/
Looking through the Aurora Wolf site, I discovered that while they publish sci-fi and fantasy, they're also looking for private detective stories. So, if your PI is a werewolf or maybe a sorcerer, you're covered. http://aurorawolf.com/ The truth is, you don't have to look in the usual places to find markets for your mystery stories. And experimenting with mixing genres is good for the writing muscles.
I know that many of you are putting together collections of shorts for Kindle and some of the other reader device sites so I thought this essay, "What Sells an Anthology" might be of interest. Nancy Fulda takes a look at cover art and what might catch the reader's eye. http://nancyfulda.livejournal.com/258340.html
And lastly, J.D. Rhoades has started an interesting discussion over at Murderati this morning about story telling vs writing well. http://www.murderati.com/blog/2010/7/21/who-cares-if-its-well-written.html Should be interesting.
End of whining. I've got a few links for you this morning.
Jersey Devil Press has closed to submissions until August 1. They're just taking a vacation, not closing shop, thankfully.
Did you know that the Rose and Thorn Journal took genre submissions? This is a non-paying market but the zine looks great and while they're a literary zine, they publish in all the genres. They're looking for stories up to 3000 words. You can find all the details at http://www.roseandthornjournal.com/
Looking through the Aurora Wolf site, I discovered that while they publish sci-fi and fantasy, they're also looking for private detective stories. So, if your PI is a werewolf or maybe a sorcerer, you're covered. http://aurorawolf.com/ The truth is, you don't have to look in the usual places to find markets for your mystery stories. And experimenting with mixing genres is good for the writing muscles.
I know that many of you are putting together collections of shorts for Kindle and some of the other reader device sites so I thought this essay, "What Sells an Anthology" might be of interest. Nancy Fulda takes a look at cover art and what might catch the reader's eye. http://nancyfulda.livejournal.com/258340.html
And lastly, J.D. Rhoades has started an interesting discussion over at Murderati this morning about story telling vs writing well. http://www.murderati.com/blog/2010/7/21/who-cares-if-its-well-written.html Should be interesting.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Market Notes
Just a reminder that today is the start of the Clarity of Night flash contest. Submissions of 250 words will be accepted until July 28. The rules for posting stories have changed this year, so be sure to read through the guidelines. You can find all the details at http://clarityofnight.blogspot.com
And there's only two days left to get your entry into Spinetingler's revenge contest as their deadline is July 21. http://www.spinetinglermag.com
A new e-publisher has been passing along calls on the SMFS board. Untreed Reads is looking for Steampunk stories of over 5000 words for one anthology and Thanksgiving stories for the other. This is a royalty paying market. You can find the details and a list of other calls here http://www.untreedreads.com/?cat=64 and their home page is http://www.untreedreads.com This looks like it could turn into a great market for short stories. They're also looking for single author sci-fi, mystery, and fantasy submissions.
There's not a lot going on market wise, I guess everyone is on vacation.
And there's only two days left to get your entry into Spinetingler's revenge contest as their deadline is July 21. http://www.spinetinglermag.com
A new e-publisher has been passing along calls on the SMFS board. Untreed Reads is looking for Steampunk stories of over 5000 words for one anthology and Thanksgiving stories for the other. This is a royalty paying market. You can find the details and a list of other calls here http://www.untreedreads.com/?cat=64 and their home page is http://www.untreedreads.com This looks like it could turn into a great market for short stories. They're also looking for single author sci-fi, mystery, and fantasy submissions.
There's not a lot going on market wise, I guess everyone is on vacation.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday Musings
I was looking out my window wondering what to write when I spotted a turkey buzzard circling on the wind. Such a heavy, ugly bird, but put him on an updraft and he's as regal as an eagle. I see them often, drifting on the air currents, flying high above us, but I also see them along the road picking at roadkill. They're not very impressive then, but that's their job in this world.
Writing is rather like that at times. When the words are flowing and the story makes us laugh or cry we're taking flight, flying above all the carrion that weights us down in life. Then there are the days when the words get stuck or sound stupid or the story is just such a mess that we want to quit. Instead we hit the delete key, ridding the world of our literary roadkill, then we sit back and try again.
All of life is like that, full of those roadkill moments that give the splendiferous moments the ability to help us soar. We need them both to fully appreciate what we have in life.
Writing is rather like that at times. When the words are flowing and the story makes us laugh or cry we're taking flight, flying above all the carrion that weights us down in life. Then there are the days when the words get stuck or sound stupid or the story is just such a mess that we want to quit. Instead we hit the delete key, ridding the world of our literary roadkill, then we sit back and try again.
All of life is like that, full of those roadkill moments that give the splendiferous moments the ability to help us soar. We need them both to fully appreciate what we have in life.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Congratulations, Spinetingler!!!
A huge congratulations to Spinetingler!! The online zine has just made the approved publications list for the Mystery Writers of America which makes their short stories eligible for Edgar Award nominations. Hooray!! You can find the announcement here http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2010/07/16/breaking-news-spinetingler-stories-now-edgar-eligible/
It's just been in the past year that the online zines have made this list. Other online publications that are approved include The Back Alley, Necrotic Tissue, and SnipLits. Hooray!!
It's just been in the past year that the online zines have made this list. Other online publications that are approved include The Back Alley, Necrotic Tissue, and SnipLits. Hooray!!
Writing Tips and Markets
I know, I know, I skipped a day. The muse was calling and how can you turn your back on such a beautiful voice? But I've got all sorts of goodies for you today, from writing tips to markets.
BV Lawson has posted a bunch of links about writing, publishing and marketing over at her great In Reference to Murder blog http://inreferencetomurder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/07/tips-and-tricks-for-writing.html
In the last post I mentioned a screenwriting contest and the lovely Brian Lindenmuth sent me this link to a screenwriting tip site about writing unlikeable leads. http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip83.htm But we both had a problem with the site, in that you can't find the other posts. I clicked on the My Blog link and clicked back to the site from there but the site automatically redirects you to the current tip.
And if you're in need of a few chuckles to start off your weekend give this site a try http://slushpilehell.tumblr.com/page/1 My thanks to Michael Bracken for this one!!
And a few markets:
First up is a flash market called Short Fast and Deadly http://www.shortfastanddeadly.com/ This is a non-paying market looking for shorts of 420 characters or less. Now I don't twitter or facebook so I have a question. I expect that characters refers to letters and punctuation marks but does it also count the spaces?
Aurora Wolf is an online sci-fi zine that is putting together a Fairy Tale anthology. They're looking for short stories from 2000 to 6000 words with an October 1st deadline. They want new fairy tales or stories that put a new spin on the old ones. The pay is $15 plus a copy. You can find the details here http://aurorawolf.com/guidelines Just scroll down for the anthology details. They're also open to shorts for the zine, the pay here is $5 per story.
M-Brane Press http://www.mbranepress.com is launching a new zine called Fantastique Unfettered. They're looking for short stories up to 5000 words with 4000 to 5000 being their sweet spot. they're paying $33 for stories appearing in first issue due in the Winter of 2010. They're looking for all the sub-genres of sci-fi except for the hard science stories, as they mention they have another market for that type of story. You can find all the submission details at http://www.fantastique-unfettered.com/p/writer-guidelines.html
BV Lawson has posted a bunch of links about writing, publishing and marketing over at her great In Reference to Murder blog http://inreferencetomurder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/07/tips-and-tricks-for-writing.html
In the last post I mentioned a screenwriting contest and the lovely Brian Lindenmuth sent me this link to a screenwriting tip site about writing unlikeable leads. http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip83.htm But we both had a problem with the site, in that you can't find the other posts. I clicked on the My Blog link and clicked back to the site from there but the site automatically redirects you to the current tip.
And if you're in need of a few chuckles to start off your weekend give this site a try http://slushpilehell.tumblr.com/page/1 My thanks to Michael Bracken for this one!!
And a few markets:
First up is a flash market called Short Fast and Deadly http://www.shortfastanddeadly.com/ This is a non-paying market looking for shorts of 420 characters or less. Now I don't twitter or facebook so I have a question. I expect that characters refers to letters and punctuation marks but does it also count the spaces?
Aurora Wolf is an online sci-fi zine that is putting together a Fairy Tale anthology. They're looking for short stories from 2000 to 6000 words with an October 1st deadline. They want new fairy tales or stories that put a new spin on the old ones. The pay is $15 plus a copy. You can find the details here http://aurorawolf.com/guidelines Just scroll down for the anthology details. They're also open to shorts for the zine, the pay here is $5 per story.
M-Brane Press http://www.mbranepress.com is launching a new zine called Fantastique Unfettered. They're looking for short stories up to 5000 words with 4000 to 5000 being their sweet spot. they're paying $33 for stories appearing in first issue due in the Winter of 2010. They're looking for all the sub-genres of sci-fi except for the hard science stories, as they mention they have another market for that type of story. You can find all the submission details at http://www.fantastique-unfettered.com/p/writer-guidelines.html
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
This and That
This one is for Patti since she asked a few posts back about why everyone was so fascinated with vampires. The essay by Jeaniene Frost is called "Why Women Find Vampires Hot" http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/06/30/why.women.love.vampires/index.html?fbid=6ApMBfqHgHU And no, plastic fangs and a black cape won't cut it, guys. ;-)
The Johnny Boggs interview is up over at Book Life Now http://booklifenow.com/
newpages.com has their July call for submissions pages up http://www.newpages.com/literary/submissions.htm One thing I noticed about this anthology call for stories about animals that was listed http://theanimalanthologyproject.yolasite.com/ is that there is no mention of pay but there doesn't seem to be a publisher attached as it states on the site that there's only a possibility of publication. And if I read the about page right this is a teenage girl putting this together, so please proceed with caution if you decide to participate in this project.
And Anthologies Online http://www.anthologiesonline.com/ has posted their July calls also. Among the anthologies there are also various contests including one for a screen writing contest. Lots of interesting calls over there this month.
The Johnny Boggs interview is up over at Book Life Now http://booklifenow.com/
newpages.com has their July call for submissions pages up http://www.newpages.com/literary/submissions.htm One thing I noticed about this anthology call for stories about animals that was listed http://theanimalanthologyproject.yolasite.com/ is that there is no mention of pay but there doesn't seem to be a publisher attached as it states on the site that there's only a possibility of publication. And if I read the about page right this is a teenage girl putting this together, so please proceed with caution if you decide to participate in this project.
And Anthologies Online http://www.anthologiesonline.com/ has posted their July calls also. Among the anthologies there are also various contests including one for a screen writing contest. Lots of interesting calls over there this month.
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