New Regular Writing Opportunity

Today, I met with Rob Alway, who has (very) recently launched a local on-line news magazine called Mason County Press.

He's looking for quite a few regular columnists who can fill any number of niches, and I'll be writing about quiet outdoor recreation in West Michigan. No surprise there, right?

We're still working on the exact name of the column, but it will probably run on Thursdays.

Rob hopes to attract readers who are looking for human interest stories in and around Mason County, Michigan. He's not trying to compete with the Ludington Daily News as a purveyor of hard news. There used to be a print newspaper called the Mason County Press. It covered more of the small towns in the county than the News could, or still can. Rob hopes to bring back some of that small-town flavor.

He also plans to make good use of the kinds of advantages there can be by designing for the web right from the beginning. Rob says "We are a county of communities, each separately unique and each linked by together by an incredible spirit of kindness and pride." Check it out!

Submission to Glimmer Train

Well, I worked up some courage and submitted a short story to Glimmer Train.

"One of the most respected short-story journals in print, Glimmer Train Stories is represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize, New Stories from the Midwest, O.Henry, New Stories from the South, Best of the West, and Best American Short Stories anthologies."

There are contests every month. For a $15 entry fee you are buying a shot at a $1500 first prize. Some months you can also do standard submissions, which are free, but you would only get $700 if your story is accepted. Even my ego isn't large enough to think I'd win first place, so I saved the $15 and did a standard submission.

I entered the story that didn't place in the contest I sent it to last fall. This is not a blind submission, so I can say that the title is "The Room with No Name."

I can also say that the story is much better than it was in October. It's amazing what a few months away from a piece can do for it. I had thought it was great! Today, I realized that it had way too many adverbs, several trite expressions, and too many long sentences. It could probably be improved even more. But I feel as if I've done as much as I can with it for now, and I've sent it out once again, to try to make its way in the world.

Some Painful Editing

After getting feedback from my writing support group, I realized that I needed to make a major change in the beginning of Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp.

I had thought that Ana could become involved in the lives of the Corliss Leonard family through becoming a tutor with the adult literacy program. But then I learned that someone with this program would never be sent to a student's house. So I had to backtrack and change all of that. It's going to be fine.

The church can still sponsor the literacy program, and Corliss can still have signed up. I changed it so that Ana has volunteered to find out what else the family might need. This actually gives her more latitude to visit their house, and Corliss would still want to talk to her about the whole situation.

The painful part comes in because I have now spent a lot of time just reworking four chapters that were already pretty well done. O well, they needed some other work too. There was too much exposition, and not enough interaction between characters. It's tricky to introduce a serial character in subsequent books without boring familiar readers to death, and yet getting in enough detail to fill in new readers.

The comments from the West Side Gang have been very helpful!

You can buy book 1, News from Dead Mule Swamp, for only 99¢ at Smashwords, Amazon, or iWriteReadRate.

Writers Weekly Short Story Entry

We received our length and topic paragraph at noon Central Time today. Length is not to exceed 850 words. Entries are due by noon Sunday. The theme is publicly posted, so I can share it.

"Blue ice stretched to the horizon, fading into the blinding rays of another waning winter sun. She shivered violently as the shifting mass groaned under her feet. She instinctively glanced down, looking for cracks under the transparent sheen. Suddenly, she tensed and dropped to her knees. Desperately clawing at the ice, she screamed... "

The deal is... we don't have to use this exactly. We don't even have to use it very specifically. But, the essence of the scene must be in the story so that the judges can be certain the story was written for this contest.

Writers Weekly likes unpredictable tales with surprise endings. They have a whole page full of trite plots that they see over and over again. Writers are urged to skip these, as stories using them will go nowhere.

I spent about an hour contemplating a plot. One thought jumped out at me, but I had to figure a way to turn it into a story. Once I had the scenario, the first draft was easy.

I liked it. Then I read it over a few more times and decided that I didn't like it. Then I decided it was trite, after all. I mean... all stories can be reduced to one of a handful of plots. Fussed about that for a few hours. Finally changed one line, and now I'm feeling better again.

Time to sleep on it. Hopefully, I'll still be satisfied in the morning and will submit it!

Accepted to Lightning Source

I've decided to go with Lightning Source to print paperback copies of News from Dead Mule Swamp. This is a print-on-demand service.

They give the publisher (which is me, under the name Books Leaving Footprints), full control over the text, cover, etc. They are strictly a printing service. That means it's also my responsibility to get it right.

After filling out a couple of application forms this week, I was informed today that I have been accepted.

It will still be a while before the books will be available. I'm waiting for the Library of Congress number, and then I have to format the pdf file, and create the full cover. The front is done, of course, but the back and spine will need at least basic design.

A Failure to Seize an Opportunity

I just spent a weekend with a decent-size group of friends, from a wide variety of locations (most in Michigan). Way too late, I realized that I should have printed up some cards with basic info about my recent publications to take and hand out.

I am weak at marketing, and don't like to be pushy, but this was a complete failure.

If I had handed out some cards, it would have given people an opportunity to see what I am doing, and the chance to order book(s) if they want. I could have done all that without being obnoxious at all.

Lesson learned- I'm going to design some cards, and try to develop the backbone to hand them out.

Toby & Harry at Twin Trinity for Only 79 cents

My short story, "Toby and Harry," can now be purchased for only 79¢ at Twin Trinity Books.

This story is out of the norm for me, but it's the first one that was accepted by Twin Trinity to become available for purchase. This price is the best you will find, because Twin Trinity can sell for a lower price than is allowed on Smashwords or Amazon.

Why not give it a try? (but please don't avoid forthcoming stories if it's not your cup of tea)

Here's the blurb:

There are things that go bump in the night, and then there are kids who wake up with bumps from the night. Toby, a devious and disturbed little boy, only seems to love his teddy bear, Harry, even though Harry is worse for wear because of it.

Toby is the type of child who is hard for even his mother to love, but does he really deserve what happens to him? Guess you'll have to read to find out!