Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Fifty Shades of No

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on 30 Sep 2014| 5 Comments »

Dragons AheadRejection: a small message written in fog and tea leaves from which a writer tries to extract any clue as to where the hell he went wrong.

I’ve got ’em–a big thick stack of ’em–and now that I’ve re-entered the fray of short story marketing, I’m getting more. Unfortunately, as cryptic as were the rejections I amassed a decade ago, the ones hitting my desk these days are totally inscrutable.

But last week’s Submit post got me thinking about those old rejections…Was there more to learn from them than I thought? So I went up into the attic, pulled down the dusty, crack-edged binder, and started to paw through them.

Here’s what I found.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Submit

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on 25 Sep 2014| 1 Comment »

Dragons AheadI’ve never liked the word “submit.” To Submit, to place under, to capitulate, to yield.

Nope. Never liked it.

When I started writing, I learned a new meaning for the word “submit”: to send for consideration a manuscript, born of sweat and tears, wrapped in prayers and orisons, in hopes that, against overwhelming odds and counter to all probability, an editor will find it pleasing and bestow upon it the gift of acceptance.

And submit I did. Often and regularly. For years. I have the rejections to prove it (more on them, next week). For now, though, some thoughts on the mechanics of submitting your work to markets.

First: Do it.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Self-Flagellation

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on 04 Sep 2014| 9 Comments »

Self-Promotion: the crude and unappealing practice of marketing one’s own work; in British slang, often called “flogging.”

I’ve only met one writer who actually enjoys flogging his books. He travels up and down the coast, reading excerpts, glad-handing, meeting people, building an impressive network. For every other writer I’ve met, mention the word “promotion” and watch them wince.

We hate promoting our books. HateitHateitHateit. Some writers hate it so much, they don’t do it at all.

But according to ND Author Services (aka NDAS, run by bestselling authors Barb and J.C. Hendee, who–believe me–know what they’re talking about), there’s some good news. As with everything else in the publishing industry, self-promotion–the very nature of it–is changing.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Two, Please

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , on 26 Aug 2014| 11 Comments »

Stack of BooksEmbedded within this paragraph is an “error.”  Can you find it?  Is it glaringly obvious?  I’m guessing that it isn’t.  In fact, I’d bet that until I point it out to you, you won’t realize it’s there.  Want a hint?  It’s not grammatical.  It’s not punctuation, either.  It’s . . . Wait for it.  Wait for it. . .

(more…)

Read Full Post »

Unexpected Interest

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 04 Aug 2014| Leave a Comment »

Bath Abbey Fan VaultingSometimes, the word “interesting” isn’t enough.

This weekend past, as well as being sad, stressful, productive, lazy, and maddening, was also interesting.

It was the 31st anniversary of my wedding. It was the yahrzeit of the death of my wife’s mother. It was a weekend of plans, and of disrupted plans. It was a weekend with three reservations to the same restaurant, each one made and canceled in daily succession. It was a weekend of editing, rereading and rewriting my latest short story (“The Book of Solomon”), proofing it, polishing it, and then sending it off to a paying market.

It was also the weekend when I got an email from the Senior Librarian in Sumner, WA, asking if I’d be interested in participating in a panel, this October.

Yeah, “interesting” doesn’t really cover it.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

What Once Was Lost

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , on 17 Jul 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lupine Hi-RiseI’ve never really been one who lost things. (Except for gloves. I used to lose gloves all the time.) And I’m especially good about computer files. After once losing the first three chapters of a novel, I got really strict about my file management methods.

So, back in the mid-Naughties, when I “lost” a handful of poems, I was pretty mad at myself. Granted, I had a couple of “vascular events” during that time, brought on by workload and stress, but still, I was disappointed. I mean, how can you “lose” a computer file? Luckily, I was able to recreate most of them from offsite storage, but a few were lost and gone forever.

Then, two days ago, while editing my latest short story, I noticed a folder in my “Writing” directory. The folder was labeled: Poetry.

Guess what I found in there.

Here’s one of them: Non-Euclidean Geometry

k

Chamomile

Read Full Post »

Keeping Track

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on 10 Jul 2014| 4 Comments »

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiOkay, so I don’t always think things through.

Ages ago, when I was writing nothing but short fiction and sending out MSS to the far corners of the publishing world, I had an idea for a computer application for writers. It was a struggle to keep track of where my dozens of MSS were; where they out with a publisher? For how long? Too long?

So I thought: What if you could enter the names of all your MSS into an app, note when you sent it out, and keep track of where everything was and how long it had been there?

It seemed like a good idea, and so I cracked my knuckles and began to write the code for my MSTracker app.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »