Month: August 2018

Five Reasons Why I Write.

All of these reasons for writing — even number six — I wholeheartedly agree with. Of course, there are so many more, but this list is a great starter for me.

WordyNerdBird

This challenge for writers is circulating on Instagram.  Because it is a very positive thing,  I decided to share mine here, too.

2018-08-27 23.02.56

 
Five Reasons Why I Write:

1. Compulsion: the words flow and I can’t stop them.

2. Satisfaction: there is immense joy in creating and crafting something meaningful.

3. Encouragement: I write about things that everyone experiences- grief, anger, pain, happiness, challenges, victories — in a way that shows others they are not alone.

4. Self-preservation: delivering justice fictionally carries fewer penalties than actually hurting people.

5. Sanity: It’s the most effective therapy I have ever had.

Bonus Reason: 6. It’s the only way I can explain my browser history.

I’d love to see you follow me and join in this fun challenge on Instagram.

You’re more than welcome to tag me in your post so I am sure to see it.

Also, I hope you feel free…

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Winners and Runner-ups! | Yecheilyah’s 2nd Annual Poetry Contest 2018

The winners have been announced! I wasn’t one and I was happy I was able to participate. I look forward to reading the work of these poets.

First, congratulations to ALL of the poets who entered this year’s contest and to those who sent us the required information in case of a win! You certainly did not come to play! My judges and I have read and reread and read again! Some of your poems had us reading out loud and going over each line. Thank you so much for pouring out your heart and soul.

We have read EVERY single entry MORE than once!

We had not one, not two, but three sets of eyeballs on this thing!

The poems were so good that we are STILL choosing a few of the poems that didn’t place to feature in our debut online magazine!

How it Works

Tomorrow, August 23, 2018, we will profile our 4th place winner, Friday, our 3rd place, Saturday our 2nd place and then finally, Sunday AND Monday we will be featuring…

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I am Soul Virtual Blog Tour Day 1

Poetry isn’t easy to write — especially poetry that has the ability to capture all of life’s beauty, bitterness, and all that lies in between, within, and with out, I think poetry is one of the ways fiction writers can polish our prose.

VEARNA'S WRITE

Bio

Yecheilyah (e-See-li-yah, affectionately called EC) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet and lives in Marietta, GA with her wonderful husband.  She has been writing poetry since she was twelve (12) years old and joined the UMOJA 23 years old Yecheilyah published her first collection of poetry and in 2014 founded Literary Korner Publishing and the PBS Blog where she enjoys helping other authors through her blog interviews and reviews.  The PBS Blog has been name among Reedsy’s best book review of 2017 and 2018 and has helped many authors in their writing journey.  I Am Soul is her fourth collection of Poetry.

HER SKIN

She has heard for too long now

that her pores breathe the colour of slave ships,

That chains has been in her smiles,

That her skin shines like a beacon on shame

Sprinkled across Mississippi cotton fields.

Sometimes her beauty sticks out

Like the moon…

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Do Publishers Care About an Author’s Online Presence? – by Debbie Emmitt…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Live Write Thrive site:

When presented with a manuscript, publishers are usually thinking ahead to marketing and how likely a book is to sell copies.

As authors, we tend to think of the audience for our website and social media as being our readers (often including a healthy dose of other authors). We often put to the back of our minds other audiences, who may be fewer in number but are nonetheless important groups. These include the media, agents and, of course, publishers.

But just how important is an author’s online platform for the acquisition process, and what elements do publishers look for on an author site?

To find answers, I contacted a large number of publishers with my questions, and a small number of generous souls replied.

Continue reading HERE

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New Publication: Copy Cat in Strange Horizons

Strange Horizons story I look forward to reading.

Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

“Copy Cat,” a collaboration between K. A. Teryna and me, is now live at Strange Horizons. You can read the text or listen to the podcast.

I have previously translated several stories by K. A. Teryna from Russian (you can read two of them at Apex) but this one is a collaboration, with K. A. writing in Russian and me writing in English, then translating her text and both of us working on smoothing out the language. It was a really fun story to work on, and I hope you will enjoy reading it nearly as much!

#SFWAPro

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Fireside open to submissions in August

It’s (one of the) most wonderful times of the year . . . no, not Christmas. No, not back to school. Fireside is open to submissions again. 😀

Advice from a Caterpillar

Fireside Fiction is the publisher of novels and novellas as well as a popular and respected short story magazine, Fireside Magazine.

Fireside will be open to novel and novella submissions during the month of August.

Announcing an Open Call for Novel and Novellas

They are open to all genres as long as the story is good. They especially want to see submissions from underrepresented voices including people of color, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ voices.

Word length:  20,000 to 120,000 words

How to submit:  Online via Submittable

Deadline:  August 31, 2018

Follow all instructions at Fireside Fiction Submission Guidelines (scroll down to Novels and Novellas)

Click here to add Advice from a Caterpillar to your RSS reader.

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Why Lit Mags Don’t Pay – guest blog post by M.R. Thomas

Before reading this I was curious and skeptical as to what I’d find in this post, but after I finished reading, reasons —
1)To build up their writing credentials
2) To reach a maximum number of readers
4) The editor who can’t pay you today may be able to pay you tomorrow — really resonated with me.

Trish Hopkinson

LAST WEEK, THE SPALDING MFA Alumni Twitter account tweeted about my small online lit mag: 

“@slushpilemag is accepting #fiction, #poetry, and #cnf submissions through @submittable & will provide feedback!” it cheerfully announced.

The post got a handful of likes and retweets. Then came this: “Do you pay your contributors?”

I grimaced as I typed my response: “Only in mugs and tote bags, I’m afraid.”

A few minutes later came the inevitable reply: “Yeah…that’s not payment.”

Exchanges like this happen from time to time—sometimes over email, sometimes over Twitter. Often they seem undergirded by an assumption that lit mag editors will reap some monetary reward for publishing an author’s work while denying them the compensation they deserve. So I thought an explanation was in order.

Following is an overview of the sad but true economic reality of literary magazines, and what writers should know as they stake out the terrain.

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