Chicken Soup for the Soul Calls for Submissions – March 2010
March 2nd, 2010

…Results Stories…
Have you read a particular Chicken Soup story and, after reading it, found that it changed your life? We are looking for stories on how a story made important changes in your life and what specifically happened to you after you read it. Please be sure to let us know the title of the story that touched your life. ***Please note: If you do not see a book title that fits your story, do not submit it to us at this time. Keep the story in your files and keep checking back with us. We are adding new titles all of the time. Hopefully we will add one soon that will be perfect for your story. Please remember that our editors can only consider stories for the titles listed on our Possible Book Topics list. In the case of “Results Stories,” they will only consider stories having to do specifically with this topic and description above.

Grandmothers
Everyone has a great story about the unconditional love between grandmothers and their grandchildren. We are looking for wonderful stories celebrating grandmothers and grandchildren, written by grandmothers about being a grandmother, and by grandchildren about their grandmothers. Stories about stepgrandmothers and honorary grandmothers are welcomed also. We are not looking for stories from children so please save those for a future book. The deadline date for story submissions is March 31, 2010.

Grieving and Recovery
Grieving is a difficult process that those who have lost a loved one must go through in order to get to the recovery phase. This important collection of stories will be like a support group that will offer comfort and understanding and show you that, no matter how devastating your loss is, you are not alone. You can get through the process and, with time, you will regain your strength and move forward with your life. The deadline date for story submissions is March 31, 2010.

My Cat’s Life
As many of you know this title was going to focus on the grieving and recovery process we humans go through after the loss of a beloved cat. However, despite the many heartwarming and inspirational stories you have submitted, we decided that the topic is too narrow. In its new form the book will focus on all the memorable ages and stages our cat’s lives. Starting with kittens, it will cover the prime years, aging cats, and finally the twilight and the end, when our dear friends leave us. We want to capture the experience of living through the natural life cycle with our cats. Because of the title’s initial form we expect to have a nice large section on grieving and recovery (which isn’t filled despite our collecting submissions!). The deadline date for story submissions is March 30, 2010.

My Dog’s Life
As many of you know this title was going to focus on the grieving and recovery process we humans go through after the loss of a family dog. However, despite the many heartwarming and inspirational stories you have submitted, we decided that the topic is too narrow. In its new form the book will focus on all the memorable ages and stages of our dog’s lives. Starting in puppyhood it will cover a range of middle years, senior dogs, and finally the twilight and the end, when our dear friends leave us. We want to capture the experience of living through the natural life cycle with our dogs. Because of the title’s initial form we expect to have a nice large section on grieving and recovery (which isn’t filled despite our collecting submissions!). The deadline for story submissions is March 30, 2010.

Preteens
The preteen years – those years from nine to twelve can be rough from both a physical and emotional perspective. You are not a kid anymore but you are not yet a teen. There are so many issues to deal with and sometimes it feels like you are all alone. You are not! The stories in this book – almost all of them written by preteens just like you – will prove that to you. We are looking for stories that will inspire you, make you laugh, make you think and let you know that life is not as bad as it might seem. The deadline date for story submissions is June 30, 2010.

Teens
A completely new book on one of our most requested topics – TEENS. The stories in this book, written almost entirely by teens, will be stories that you will want to read again and again. They will serve as your guide on topics such as the daily pressures of life, love, school, friendships, parents and much more. We are looking for stories that will encourage you, inspire you, make you laugh, make you cry and show you that, as tough as things can get, you are not alone. The deadline date for story submissions is June 30, 2010.

Thank you!

Click Here to Submit Your Story

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Posted in Publication Opportunities |
InkyBlots Blog Carnival – March 2010 Edition
March 1st, 2010

Welcome to the March 1, 2010 edition of Inkyblots.

Anne Valens presents Top 50 Freelance Writing Blogs posted at Journalism Degree.

Anne Simone presents The Future of the Book: Top 12 Trends posted at Online Degree Programs.org: Top Online Degrees.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Endearing Limerick (Poetry Prompt) posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog, saying, “limerick and poetry prompt.”

Characters

Livia Blackburne presents Using the Fundamental Attribution Error to Control Character Sympathy posted at Livia Blackburne.

Livia Blackburne presents The Art of Internal Observation posted at Livia Blackburne.

Arian Adams presents My Dog, My Hero posted at The Dumbass Chronicles, saying, “A humorous tale of my mischievous childhood as told through the eyes of my dog.”

Fiction

MaxwellDB presents Lennivolchuck Falls posted at MaxwellDB, saying, “Weird short fiction set in, of course, a weird place.”

Yvaine presents 16. Picking Autumn posted at My Vanilla Nook.

Genre-centic

Robert Terrell presents did not hear posted at the existential poet, saying, “The Existential Poet blog contains original haiku of poet Robert Terrell. I write about many subjects – seasonal, inner states and moon haiku, with an existential attitude.”

C. Bosco presents Critique of Pure Poetry posted at Hammers of Flight, saying, “Metrical units used to play on Descartes’ tautology “cogito ergo sum”, ipso facto referencing rationalism and – to a certain degree – the response of transcendental idealism. Hope this is applicable to inkyblots carnival criteria. cheers”

Robert Terrell presents galactic dreamers ? haiku posted at the existential poet, saying, “The Existential Poet Blog contains my original haiku poetry. I maintain a strict form, the 5-7-5 syllable structure, which suits my poetic creativity very well. I write about all sorts of subjects, with an existential (human feelings) attitude. Many of my haiku have seasonal references, and many focus on inner states of being. And, I love moon haiku!”

How-To

Missy Frye presents Harvesting “Evergreens” a guest post by Ami Hendrickson posted at Incurable Disease of Writing, saying, “A day working on your evergreens can result in a stack of new queries, contest entries and submissions.”

Eldon Sarte presents EGAD #3 – Interview Authorities: Single Question | Wordpreneur.com posted at Wordpreneur.com, saying, “Here’s just one idea in a growing and on-going series of posts on Wordpreneur featuring “easier and faster ways to pump out useful, sellable ebooks.”"

Livia Blackburne presents Slow Motion Descriptions For Important Moments posted at Livia Blackburne.

Missy Frye presents Add Funny to Your Fiction: a guest post by Jan McInnis posted at Incurable Disease of Writing, saying, “3 quick tips for adding funny to your fiction.”

Sandy Ackers presents Perfectionism: A Great Muse-Strangler, Part 4 posted at Strangling My Muse: Struggling to Live a Creative Life in a Stressful World, saying, “How to deal with your inner perfectionist and believe in your writing.”

Joel Friedlander presents What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know about Editing posted at TheBookDesigner.com, saying, “A rundown of the editing process from acquisition to proofreading. Enjoy!”

KPC presents Is Elance a Scam? posted at Kpcwriting’s Freelancing Blog.

KPC presents What is Elance? posted at Kpcwriting’s Freelancing Blog.

Tiffany Colter presents A Writer’s Business Team: Part 3 posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, “This article talks about how editors and marketors build your writing business.”

Nick Daws presents Three Great – and Free – Email Newsletters for Writers posted at Nick Daws’ Writing Blog.

Publishing and Agents

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Fight Firewalls With Kindle posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog, saying, “Info and limerick about publishing your blogs on Kindle.”

john c erianne presents iDon’tPad, YouPad? posted at Diary of a Mad Editor.

Tiffany Colter presents Interview with author Jennifer AlLee posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, “This article is an interview with author Jennifer AlLee.”

Tiffany Colter presents MacMillan, Amazon.com, Authors and Readers posted at The Writing Examiner, saying, “This article talks about the changing face of publishing.”

Tiffany Colter presents Interview with Sarah Hamaker posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, “This article is an interview with freelance editor Sarah Hamaker.”

Worldbuilding

Livia Blackburne presents Princess Academy: World building around a central setting posted at Livia Blackburne.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of inkyblots using our
carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our title="Blog Carnival index for “inkyblots”" href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_8077.html">blog carnival index page.

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Posted in Blog Carnival |
Sunday Scribblings – 204 Big Dreams
February 28th, 2010

In honour of the Olympics and the amazing things that people are capable of, the prompt this week is: big dreams.

I don’t try poetry much because I think I’m not good at it, but this one inspired some choppy prose poetry. Hehe.

Big Dreams

My dreams,
small in the eyes of others,
holding
infinite beauty.

Echoes
from within my soul,
laughing at the non-existent,
so-called ‘impossibilities.

Held
in a baby’s smile,
in a clear full moon,
lighting my path through darkness.

My dreams
of infinite beauty
forever existing
within my reach.

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Posted in Sunday Scribblings |
My Juggling Act! by Fleur McDonald
February 25th, 2010

I’m finding that a lot of people ask how I juggle being a mum, a farmer and a writer.

Well, after a quick trip to the laundry, that I thought was empty (I thought wrong!), I think the most honest answer is, I don’t do it very well… but I’m getting better at it!

When I first started writing, I would get so obsessed with the story I was working on, that everything else faded into the background. I would ache to sit in front of the computer – I had to! There were characters that needed to come out. Never mind that the kids told me for the forth morning in a row, they didn’t have any socks and Anthony had mentioned that his work-shirts were all dirty and hadn’t I noticed the garden had suddenly turned into a jungle and what was I going to do about it?!

I’ve since understood that I need to manage my time better. I can’t send the kids to school, in the same shirt, three days in a row – the teachers will notice! (Although they are all very nice and wouldn’t say anything!)

I now try to limit my writing to early mornings (between 4:30am and 6:30am, when the kids wake up) and later in the afternoons.

Even if my characters are threatening a revolt, the mundane part of life still happens, kids need feeding and the farm and our animals still need looking after. After all, the farm is our main job.

So, if Anthony leaves early, which he often does, especially in the summer, I get up with him, make his lunch and once he leaves, I hit the computer. Often in these early hours, I answer emails and write ones up, that I need to send. I might write a blog or two and then re-read over the section of writing I’ve written the day before. I then make some notes of what I want to achieve over the day and write down my ideas, so I don’t forget – you wouldn’t believe how many brain waves, I’ve had that I’ve lost, because I didn’t write them down.

No matter what stage I’m up to, at 6:30am on the dot, I have to stop. The kids need to get up and be supervised. Lunches need to be made and the day, discussed!

Once they’re on they’re on the bus, the main aim is to tidy the house and garden (if I’m not working on the farm), hang out a load of washing and do all the boring things! If I even go near my office, I get distracted by Facebook, more emails and other authors websites!

All that done, I hit the keyboard. (Once again, without going near the internet.) If I’ve had a good run, I might get two or so hours worth, of good, solid writing in. I need to set the alarm on my phone, half an hour before I’m due to stop, so I can, once again, write down any ideas that I haven’t got to put down. That way, I don’t feel like I’ve left anything unfinished. There is nothing worse, than glancing at the clock and realising you’ve got two minutes to make it to the school bus and it takes you five to get there! I just feel that I need to go straight back to the computer… that doesn’t benefit my kids then and they feel like I love my computer more than them.

And there are, of course, the days, that all my good intensions fly out the window and I get stuck at the computer from the minute I put the kids on the bus or I’m in the sheep yards all day. Those days, I carry a pen and notebook with me, where ever I am!

So for any of you, who thinks writing might be glamorous and I just swan in, sit down and start typing… I wish! But I do try to get those three words together – mum, farmer and writer! They are all my passion.

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Posted in Guest Posts |
Wordless Wednesday
February 24th, 2010

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Posted in Wordless Wednesday |
Leaving the Comfort Zone
February 19th, 2010

I began reading a fantasy trilogy early last year and in the first book I became rather attached to one character. She wasn’t a major character – at least not at the level she should have been after the first book – but I identified with her all the same and looked forward to the chapters with her in it.

I finished the first book, then the second, and hoped that in the third book, there would be something great for her. Her own happy ending. Unfortunately for me, she was (literally) ripped apart toward the end of the book along with her lover.

Needless to say, I was a bit upset and nauseated at the turn of events.
As a reader, I felt a bit pissed off for a while, but the writer in me emerged eventually and calmed me down. See, the writer in me recognized the brilliance of the move. Of course it would be more potent to kill her and her lover off because first, she was expendable, and second, it just might get the reader to feel something.

Goal accomplished.

Writing within your comfortable boundaries might satisfy your grandmother and Uncle Dick, but it won’t get your reader to feel much or take anything away from the story once s/he is done reading. (That’s assuming you’re talented enough to keep their attention through an entire story.)

The quote “Kill your darlings” is actually a lot better advice than you might think. In fact, it might be one of the more important pieces of advice you’ll ever hear.

If you need a little exercise in the killing department, take a character you like from your current work in progress and create a scene in which s/he dies. Violently. If anyone thinks you’re a bit off, you can tell them I told you to do it.

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Posted in Characters, General |
It’s Okay to Stop
February 18th, 2010

It’s okay to stop and put the pen down.

Yesterday I went to the air conditioned library to escape the brain melting 100+ degree heat of the Australian sunshine. While there, I had one of the best writing days I have had in a long time, finishing up the work day at over 3,000 words typed for the day.

Do I attribute this to a fabulous muse? The delicious smoothie I had while there? The wonders of air conditioning?

Perhaps, in part, but by and large I attribute it to the fact I took a few days off writing. I tried not to think about it. I relaxed. I went people watching.

Basically, I did what every writer needs to do now and then not only to write better but to manage to keep whatever amount of sanity you have:

Get out of the writing room!

Yes, writing is about putting your ass down in the chair and getting some writing done, but it’s also about living. If you never get out of the writing room and experience life, then who do you think you are going about as if you have something to write about?

If possible, sometime this week get out and go somewhere new. Or, at least, go somewhere you rarely go. On your lunch break, after work, whenever works best for you. Go somewhere new and live it up. Experience things.

Do it because this is one of the few times I’m going to tell you to get your bum out of the chair.

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Posted in General |
When Characters Speak Up
February 16th, 2010

I try to be a nice human being. I try to keep my karma nice, shiny and clean. I make plans with the full intention of following through on them in a timely matter…

Sometimes the world just doesn’t like me.

The world doesn’t like you? Try being me.

Excuse me? Who are you?

I am the woman you haven’t even taken the time to name yet.

Um…

In the story you started! The one that has been floating around in your brain the last few weeks? The one you finally started writing?

Oh, I see. I haven’t given you a name yet, have I?

No. At this point, I’m still the nameless wonder floating around in your messy head. You haven’t named me. You haven’t even put me in a scene yet!

Well, that’s because you-

I know it’s because I don’t have a name yet! Time, time, time. You’re always rabbiting on about not having enough time. You’d better make some time or you can kiss this sexy leading lady goodbye!

Wait. You’re from the desert. You wouldn’t say ‘rabbiting on’. That’s something I would say.

Just make some time and pick out my damn name already!

…

As you can see, a lot of things have been taking up my attention lately, so my plans haven’t being going as I had originally hoped they would. Between life, work and finishing up my column for my new spot in the Mornington Peninsula papers (yay for me! Newspaper writing.) I have been running behind. As per usual.

Do forgive me. I fully plan to be more organized, caught up -

And plan to have given me a name!

All of that, by next week. Until then…

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Posted in Characters, General |
Avoidance Tactics
February 15th, 2010

Okay. The house is quiet – as quiet as it will ever get, anyway – and it’s time to write. No distractions, just pure writing time. Pure writing time that you have been waiting for so long. Now you can get cracking on the current work in progress and –

Hey! Look! Is that snow? I think that’s snow. Gosh, the first snow of the season. Lovely. Oh, shoot. Did I forget to do laundry? I haven’t even thought about dinner tonight…

No one can procrastinate like writers can. We’re a strange bunch; when it comes to actually sitting down and writing, our attention span suddenly morphs into that of a hummingbird’s. Scrubbing the kitchen floor never looks as appealing as it does when you have your novel to work on.

Some writers have no problems with this. Or so I’ve heard.

I’m a procrastinator of the highest order. If I have time, I’m tired. If I’m not tired, I have other things to do. If I don’t have other things to do, I don’t have the right notebook, pen, lighting, chair… Yeah, I’ve even used the chair excuse.

Don’t take this to mean that I don’t love writing. I do. However, when you get a case of the Evil Editors playing with your brain and let them win once, it’s like you give bunnies Viagra and set them loose; suddenly, the next time you go to write, you have thousands of Evil Editors in your brain telling you why you suck. A lot.

After my Evil Editors grew to plague numbers, I decided to come up with three things to help me focus:

1. Remind yourself that all you are doing is playing games with yourself.
2. Ask yourself what you’re so afraid of.

And

3. If the EEs still exist, give them room to roam on a blank page. Then pick them off in any way you choose.

I prefer a machete.

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Posted in Editing, How To, Humor |
Calling All Authors – Promotion Opportunity
February 13th, 2010

I’m used to posting the calls for submissions, not putting out my own call. :P Anywho, I have a fun promotional opportunity for the new year. I’m working on a new blog called “Life in the First Draft” that focuses on – yep, you guessed it – anything and everything to do with the first draft. Be it making time to write, those funky little writer habits you have or just the fun things you have on your desk, I’m looking to create a comfortable hub for any and all aspiring writers. (And for established writers as well! We have to go back and face that first draft again and again…)

So, let’s get to the nitty gritty. What I’m looking for:

*One (to three) guest post/s in the range of 250 – 500 words – with a title, please
*Any pictures that correspond to your post (for example, if you decide to write a ‘my desk/my writing space’ guest post – take a picture of it!) .jpgs please
*A brief biography with a link to your website and/or blog
*A picture of you or your book cover

Easy peasy.

If you’d like to participate but are feeling a bit stuck for a topic(s)…

*Introduce us to your writing space (with pictures, hehe)
*How do you make yourself write when you don’t want to?
*Do you have a daily word count goal or do you go by some other measurement?
*How do you balance your ‘regular’ life with your writing life?
*Finding inspiration
*Anything on character, plot, setting, research, etc
*What has been going on in your mind before you sit down to write the first words of that first draft?
*Are you a ‘planner’ or a ‘pantser’ (outline or no outline)?
*Finally typing ‘The End’ on your first draft…

Please send all guest posts to jmfictionscribe (at) gmail (dot) com.

Dates will be scheduled in the order they come in, so it’s sort of a first come, first serve. When you email me, I will email you back with the ebook and the date you will appear at Life in the First Draft.

Cheers.

PS. The URL is: http://lifeinthefirstdraft.blogspot.com/

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Posted in Announcements |
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