Writing Life: I Am a Writer

I belong to the Dallas Writing Practice Group. A recent assignment was to write why “I am a writer”. Here’s what I wrote …

I’m a writer because I enjoy writing.

I get my ideas from the world around me as well as the fantasies within me.

I try to write for a regular period each day.

I believe in using adjectives and adverbs frugally.

I structure my work-in-progress by writing according to how the story seems to be telling itself instead of writing to a prepared plot outline though I know my major plot points.

I realize writing self-discipline by making myself work whether I’m in the mood or not.

I handle the difficult, ‘writer’s block’ or ‘dry’ times by working on something else to keep good writing habits.

I attempt to make my work as good as it can be by editing, rewriting and polishing.

In seeking an agent or publisher I research the market thoroughly and learn how to make a professional submission. I also read books by writer’s the potential agent represent or by the publisher where I believe I’m a good fit.

I receive rejection slips with a twinge, and then move to the next submission. It’s not personal.

I see myself in the future finding satisfaction in writing novels and narrative nonfiction my readers enjoy.

I want to write because I have characters and stories bursting to come to life. I have voices in my head that need to escape to paper or keyboard.

If you a writer how would you explain why you are a writer?

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Book Review: “Tiger Tank Manual: Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger 1 Ausf.E (SdKfz 181) Model (Owner’s Workshop Manual)” by David Fletcher, David Wiley and Mike Hayden and published by Zenith Press.

“Tiger Tank Manual: Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger 1 Ausf.E (SdKfz 181) Model (Owner’s Workshop Manual)” by David Fletcher, David Wiley and Mike Hayden and published by Zenith Press.  The Tank Museum in South Dorset in the United Kingdom (UK) was in a unique position to write a new chapter in the Tank story with its own discoveries on restoring and running Tiger 131, which is the centerpiece of the manual.

“Tiger Tank Manual” is unique as we follow the story of Tiger 131 from April 1943 in Tunisia in North Africa to its arrival in the UK in October 1943 to its renovation and refurbishing thanks to the national Lottery. It is a short work of only 164 pages. “Tiger Tank Manual” gives an amazing insight and inside look into purchasing, owning, and even operating one of the world’s most outstanding engineering feats and fighting vehicles.

The use of personal remembrances of what it was like to operate and command such a vehicle in wartime gives you a “you were there” feeling. he recollections of what it was like to be on the receiving end of the Tiger’s 88 mmm gun shared by Lieutenant Gundgin in the Foreword really helps set the book’s tone.

The pictures, illustrations, line drawings, statics are amazing. The “Tiger Tank Manual” gives the necessary background on the history and development of the tank. You get the story of Tiger 131 down including forensic and crime scene analysis of the battlefield damage to the tank to include the ammunition used against the tank!

You are given a specular cutaway drawing of the tank from the School of Tank Technology. Note: I am a former US Army Ordnance Corps officer whose military occupational specialty was maintenance. I supported the old US Army M60A2 tank. The detail in “Tiger Tank Manual” rivals any Technical Manual. I cannot over emphasize the quality and variety of the pictures. They left me with the felling I had crawled all over the vehicle as well as I examined every detail inside the tank. They are amazing.

You get a glimpse into the mind of the museum as to why they restored Tiger 131. Again, detail pictures as well as description guides you through the process. Such details as paint selection and viewpoints from volunteers working on the project make you feel part of the project.

The “Tiger tank Manual” includes a chapter on running the tank. The detail given to the start-up procedures and riving the tank makes me want to get in the driver’s seat and take it for a test drive.

The detail given to “The May back Engine” may appear to be overkill to some, but the tank enthusiast or automotive engineer will enjoy the examination of the engine and its auxiliaries. Everything from ventilation to the gearbox and transmission as well as the steering and drive shafts (final drive) is covered.

Having supported annual tank gunnery for several years had my curiosity peak in the chapter devoted to firepower. Excellent coverage is given to tank gunnery from the ammunition down to aiming and firing the gun.

The explanation of the deployment and tactics of the Tiger lets you have an understanding of the German’s strategy. The book concludes with a nice appendix of the surviving Tigers.

While the book may not be for everyone, any military enthusiast will enjoy the book. Any tanker or former tank crewmember will enjoy the book. I believe it would be a worthwhile addition to any military history library as well as any collection dealing with World War II. Additionally, automotive engineers will find the book simply amazing.

Read and reviewed by: Jimmie A. Kepler February 29, 2012. Note: Jimmie is honorably discharged as a Captain in the ordnance Corps US Army where he served as a maintenance office and supported a tank battalion (2nd Bn 77th Armor 2nd Brigade 9th Infantry Division) in 1978.

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Short Story Site of the Week: ELQ/Exile Magazine and Exile Editions

About

ELQ Magazine (Exile: The Literary Quarterly) is now an 8×10 perfect bound 160 page magazine. We have received great feedback on our format change, and continue to receive national and international recognition for maintaining our decades long tradition of being a forum which presents a rich and varied selection of new and established authors and artists – over 1000 contributions found in our pages since 1972!  We draw our material (literature, poetry, drama, work in translation, and the fine arts) from English and French Canada, as well as from the U.S., Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and all around the world. And, because Exile’s history of publishing is so uniquely appreciated by readers (many of whom are writers themselves) it now acts like an antenna, locating and attracting many diverse voices, searching out and encouraging the most distinctive new writing at home and abroad.

Publisher: Michael Callaghan. Editor-in-chief: Barry Callaghan.
Editorial Board: Diana Kuprel (fiction), Ray Ellenwood (translation), Richard Teleky (poetry)
Submissions Editors: Gabriela Campos and Nina Callaghan
Contributing Editors: Daniel David Moses, Gary Michael Dault, Leon Rooke, Joe Rosenblatt, Rosemary Sullivan, Jerry Tutunjian, Seán Virgo.
Main Offices: 144483 Southgate Road 14 – GD, Holstein, Ontario, N0G 2A0.
Submissions and correspondence: ELQ Magazine/Exile: the Literary Quarterly, 170 Wellington Street West, PO Box 308, Mount Forest, ON, N0G 2L0

Note from the Publisher:

In February through May, 2011, we will be undertaking three significant upgrades/modifications to the site: 1) a comprehensive Author Bio Page featuring a photo, the works published to date, email/website/blog links, audio and/or video links, and further author-related information; 2) a dynamic Dual Site that makes available through one site – http://www.TheExileWriters.com – Exile Quarterly history alongside Exile Editions’ 170+ authors and nearly 400 books printed to date, for your reference and/or purchase; 3) an Author’sBlog featuring a host author owriting and responding, as well as a bi-weekly Publisher’s Update Post on current and coming publishing. Many of these individual features will take the rest of the year to compile for public presentation, but by May the structure and many features will be available.

Throughout the process, our indexing of the Volumes printed to date will remain active, as will the schedules of Events and Promotions, Ordering an Individual Introductory or Renewal Subscription and/or Multiple-use Subscriptions, Back Issue ordering, etc.

We at Exile hope you enjoy, and can make use of, this reference site for Exile, The Literary Quarterly.

Thank you for visiting.

Michael Callaghan
Publisher

We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF), and the Ontario Arts Council–an agency of the Government of Ontario, for our publishing activities.

Source: About – http://www.exilequarterly.com/quarterly/about/

Submit

Submitting your work to EXILE The Literary Quarterly

We strongly suggest that you read two or three issues of Exile to get an understanding of the “flavour” of our selective taste with regard to what we publish in our journal. We are particular in our belief that we have a duty to ourselves (and our readers) to publish the best of both established and new writers–and artists–and we therefore have a very refined selection process. Also, the mistake many authors make is that they think submitting everywhere and anywhere is their best chance of getting published (and this is increasingly evident as authors want to dump their work on publishers via e-mail) … but this is not the case here, as we are quite deliberate in who we select (and, if we do choose you, only to find out the same submission has been chosen by another publisher, you will never appear in Exile – hence, our No Multiple Submission policy). This said … we wish you the best in your writing endeavours!

Some simple Guidelines for submitting to Exile:

1) As noted above, We DO NOT accept Multiple Submissions (ie, if you have submitted the work you want to send us elsewhere, then do not submit to us); and we DO NOT accept electronic submissions/e-mail submissions (these will simply be deleted upon receiving).

2) For FICTION/DRAMA, we accept an average of 10-20 pages, although sometimes 1-2 pages, or as many as 30-40 pages, depending on the “body” and “individual integrity” of the work. This means that submissions generally fall within these lengths, and are expected to be a selection of your highest quality material.

3) For POETRY, it is similar in that you can submit a few poems, or up to fifteen, again depending on the body of work.

4) ARTISTS should submit ten to fifteen 4×6 photos, or colour-accurate photocopies, of their work, and should consider the body as a whole so we have the option of doing a Colour Section with them. You can also provide a Web site address, so that we can view more of your work if need be (please give exact links that take us to works that complement those you’ve submitted–we do not want to browse through your complete site).

5) Otherwise, we have no further particular guidelines except that you choose your work conscientiously, mail it in to us to the address below, and include a SASE if you want it returned (it usually take 3-4 months to receive a reply). For artists, be sure that your SASE is durable/safe and labelled accordingly (ie. Fragile, Photos, etc.) for you to have your works returned undamaged.

Direct your submissions to either the Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Art Editor, at:

ELQ/Excelsior Publishing Inc
170 Wellington Street West – PO Box 308
Mount Forest, ON, N0G 2L0
CANADA

6) Three additional Submission to be aware of:
a) As we also make available OAC Writer’s Reserve Grants (we finalize our recommendations at the end of January), we do accept submissions during the application period time frame; please indicate this on your submission if this is your intention. Note: before submitting for this grant, please go to the OAC (Ontario Arts Council) Web site at http://www.arts.on.ca for information and guidelines on submitting your work.
b) The $5,000 Vanderbilt-Exile Short Fiction Competition – open Sept 23, 2011 to Feb 6, 2012 for submissions.

c) The Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Competition – details available mid-December.

Source: Submit – http://www.exilequarterly.com/quarterly/how-to-submit-work/

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Poetry: Your Best Friend by Jimmie A. Kepler

Your Best Friend

If ever you find yourself being broken apart,
Because the one you trusted has broken your heart,
And all the time you find yourself crying,
While on the inside you feel like you’re dying,

Call on me if you feel lonely,
Come to me when your life needs to mend,
From time to time you need only,
Someone with love unconditional – your best friend.

One time life gave you a fright,
Existence was as black as a moonless midnight,
You were feeling so out-of-place,
With no one to hug or embrace,

Then you saw the light,
You came to me in the middle of the night,
And you ran to me to give your heart,
And that’s when your new life did start

Call on me if you feel lonely,
Come to me when your life needs to mend,
From time to time you need only,
Someone with love unconditional – your best friend.

Copyright © 2008 by Jimmie A. Kepler
Originally published in: WORDS..RHYMES..POETRY & PROSE!
Also published in: Writing After Fifty

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Poetry Site of the Week– Wet Ink: the magazine of new writing

About Wet Ink
Wet Ink is put together by a passionate team of writers and a designer who decided to do something about the lack of opportunities for writers to publish their short works and readers to access them.

After much discussion, that ‘something’ became Wet Ink—an attractive quarterly magazine that showcases the best new writers alongside established authors: from fiction writers and poets to memoirists and social commentators. We publish a wide range of styles, from traditional to experimental, literary to quality genres, depending on the submissions we receive.

Wet Ink is designed to look and feel as good as it reads. Our dedication to encouraging new talent extends to all areas of the magazine—where possible we also use emerging photographers and illustrators. We’re also committed to reviewing books from small or new publishers, which you might not hear about in other publications.

The Wet Ink team is based in South Australia and is an independent non-profit incorporation. We rely on sales, subscriptions, sponsorships and advertising to survive. We are also kindly supported by the Australia Council Literature Board.

Since our first issue was published in December 2005, some of our contributors (including some whose work we were the first to publish) have gone on to greater things—from winning literary and photographic prizes to having their first book published. We like to think that we’ve contributed to their success.

Submissions
Wet Ink welcomes new contributors, for both writing and images—we give their work as much consideration as we do that of established professionals.

We publish fiction (including genre fiction), creative non-fiction, poetry, memoir, essays and opinion pieces. The one thing we look for is high quality, so please send us only your best work.

Please note that we accept no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. And we reserve the right to change the submission guidelines without notice. Make sure you read our submission guidelines thoroughly before submitting work.

Source – About Wet Ink: http://www.wetink.com.au/about.htm
Source – About Submissions: http://www.wetink.com.au/submissions.htm

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Short Story Site of the Week: Stumble Magazine

About Stumble Magazine:

Founded in 2008, Stumble is an independent magazine devoted to short fiction and photography. We publish new content regularly on the web, and a print edition twice a year.   Stumble publishes new and emerging artists as well as established writers and photographers. Our mission encourages a diversity of content, and we strive to find stories and photography that vary in tone and style.   Stumble doesn’t adhere to a specific aesthetic–-we just dig through the pile and publish what we like. We believe in the future of fiction. We think the web is a beautiful space. Above all, we love to be surprised.

Source: http://stumblemag.com/blog/about/

Submission Guidelines:

FICTION:   We are looking for short literary fiction that is challenging, interesting, and original. We don’t care if it’s traditional or experimental, as long as it’s good. The ideal length is 3,000 words or less. We publish regularly online, and a print edition twice a year.   We accept submissions year-round via email. Please attach your story in .doc format. A few words about you is always nice.   We’ll respond as soon we can, usually within a month.   Please send your writing to fiction@stumblemag.com   PHOTOGRAPHY:   We publish photography that we find beautiful and intriguing. Take a look at the work we’ve published already if you want to get a sense of the kinds of things we like. We feature a new photographer every two months.   Ideally, we would like a link to your online portfolio. If your work is not online, please send us your portfolio as a low-res PDF.   Please send your photography to art@stumblemag.com   THANKS IN ADVANCE:   We can’t make our little magazine without all of the exceptional unsolicited work that we receive. A real live human being will read/look at anything you send and we really appreciate the opportunity. Thanks for sharing your work!   PAYMENT:   None at the moment (not even for us). But you’ll get a couple of free copies of our print issue, and our eternal gratitude.

Source: http://stumblemag.com/blog/submit/

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Poetry Site of the Week: Gadfly Online

Gaga knows. Obama knows. Banksy knows. If you’re reading this, we’re willing to bet you know, too—culture and the arts translate directly into our everyday lives. Gadfly Online is there to throw those cultural transfusions into high relief. Gadfly is for people who itch to know more about the arts, personalities, and cultural events of our time. Our readers demand a unique perspective, both in what they think and what they read. From Justin Bieber to Muhammad Ali, from rickrolling to the War on Drugs, we keep you informed of American pop culture’s ever-unfolding drama.

Created to provoke readers to recognize the day-to-day relevance of pop culture, we transcend the hype over culture, literature, television, film, and the arts to challenge the assumptions of a dynamic and diverse America. Gadfly strives to provides its readers with thoughtful coverage through current features on fresh faces, new sounds and trends-in-the-making, as well as retrospectives on the kingpins of pop culture, whether mainstream or underground. We also aspire to provide a forum for artistic expression for all shades of artists—from poets, to painters, to film makers, and so on—by giving talent a chance to shine. We are always seeking additional editorials and commentary—Click here for more info on how to contact us. Let us hear from you.

Where Did We Come From? Launched as a full-size print publication in 1998, Gadfly Magazine—the progenitor of Gadfly Online—provided a forum to artists known, unknown and some still in the embryonic stages of their development. Harnessing the infinite resources of the internet, the magazine transitioned from a print publication to an online pub in 2001, yet the mission remained the same: to explore culturally significant events and the individuals behind them and bring the best in popular culture to our insightful readers.  The articles published in Gadfly Magazine are preserved and available in our online archive.

Awards Pronounced “odd, eccentric and eclectic” by the Washington Post, Gadfly was selected in 1999 by the Utne Reader’s Eleventh Annual Alternative Press Awards for Best Cultural Coverage. Utne commended the magazine’s diversity of coverage, saying, “Gadfly’s stupendous eclecticism makes this glossy bimonthly second only to the Library of Congress as a warehouse of American pop culture.”

What’s In A Name? In an old Greek myth, Zeus, king of the gods, loved a mortal woman, Io. When Hera discovered her husband’s infidelity, Zeus was forced to turn Io into a cow in order to shield her from his wife’s wrath. Not to be deterred, Hera sent a tiny gadfly to nip and tickle the cow, a prickling torment that some believe continues even today.

Gadfly Online is a publication of Gadfly Productions.

Gadfly Productions, Gadfly, and the associated graphic images (e.g., capital G with fly superimposed and Gadfly cartoon character) are marks of Gadfly Productions, owned by The Rutherford Institute. Called “odd, eccentric and eclectic” by The Washington Post, the Utne Reader selected Gadfly in 1999 for best Cultural Coverage for their Eleventh Annual Alternative Press Awards. “Gadfly’s stupendous eclecticism makes this glossy bimonthly second only to the Library of Congress as a warehouse of American pop culture,” Utne stated. “And number one when it comes to fun reading.”

Source: http://www.gadflyonline.com/wpblog/?page_id=146

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Writer’s Life: A Mixed Bag

Rejection:

I received a note from one editor that was discouraging. A couple of items they had accepted aren’t being published. No, they weren’t rejected. They returned first rights back to me. The magazine is going on hiatus for a while and if no funding is found going out of business. So, I’ll need to sell them else where.

Editing:

I edited three chapters today. I am finishing rewriting one chapter (chapter ten) where I am removing a lengthy section that is a great description, but doesn’t move the story along as well as deleting a second section that is nothing more than a back story info dump of a couple of paragraphs. I’ll do a better job of weaving a few of the essentials of the back story and get rid of the non essentials. The need to do this jumped out when I was rereading chapter ten. While I love writing beautiful, lengthy descriptions, I know they have to move the story along. Otherwise I might as well be writing copy for a real estate advertisement!

Writer’s Group:

I’m attending the weekly meeting of the Dallas Writing Practice Group tonight. It’s not a critique group. I go the the DFW Writer’s Workshop when I feel that need. it’s not a how to do the business of writing group. It is a pen to paper group. We do a lot of the stuff Natalie Goldberg talks about in her classic book, “Writing Down The Bones”.

Old T-shirts:

I’ll wear an old t-shirt I got a couple of years ago at DFWCon (the DFW Writer’s Workshop Annual Convention). I’m took a picture of me wearing it with my webcam.

Attending ConDFW:

Saturday, I’ll attend the ConDFW. It is a literary science fiction and fantasy convention featuring writing- and publishing-focused programming, science programming, excellent guests, art show, charity book swap, short story contest, and a slew of non-traditional activities such as the Sci-Fi Spelling Bee. It is run by the Texas Speculative Fiction Association, a 501 (c)(3) organization. 100% volunteer-run.

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Short Story Site of the Week: Stupefying Stories

About STUPEFYING STORIES

STUPEFYING STORIES is a direct-to-ebook-only original fiction anthology series. Each month, STUPEFYING STORIES is committed to bringing the freshest new fiction by the hottest new authors directly to your e-book reader, tablet, phone, or other mobile device.

It’s not a magazine?

STUPEFYING STORIES is often mistaken for a magazine because we release new titles monthly. However, we operate as an anthology series, buy anthology rights, and keep the fiction we publish available for readers to download for three years, as opposed to the months or weeks a conventional magazine keeps fiction on the market. Also, we don’t publish any of the cruft—the movie reviews, opinion columns, display advertising and the like—that clutters up traditional magazines. We publish great stories, and only great stories.

This difference should become clearer when we launch our STUPEFYING STORIES PRESENTS series of original theme anthologies beginning in Spring 2012.

It’s not a semiprozine?

One term that has been applied to us recently is “semiprozine.” We dislike this term as we do not publish “semipro” work by “semipro” authors. While we are more open than most publishers to considering work by new writers at the beginnings of their careers, what we are looking for are great stories, pure and simple, written by writers who would be well-known pros, if they could just break through the layers of institutional inertia surrounding the conventional publishing industry.

We’re particularly interested in stories by non-U.S. writers who are having trouble breaking into the American market. It’s a big world out there, and with distribution already in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and everywhere else the Internet reaches, we intend to be a part of it.

Why e-book only?

After more than 30 years’ experience in the commercial fiction publishing industry, we’ve come to four conclusions: conventional print publishing is hellishly expensive, insanely wasteful, ludicrously slow—and the money spent on printing, binding, and distribution is much better spent on paying authors more.

The future belongs to e-book publishing and Internet distribution. We’ll always be fond of hardcover books printed on bound paper, but we’re in the business of publishing new fiction for the new century, not manufacturing sentimental artifacts and simulated antiques from the last.

If you agree with this philosophy: JOIN THE EXPEDITION! HELP US MAP OUT THE FUTURE OF PUBLISHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY!

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About the Editor

Thirty-some years ago, STUPEFYING STORIES editor-in-chief BRUCE BETHKE was an aspiring young writer trying to break into print with a little story he’d titled, “Cyberpunk”—and thirty years later, the arguments about that story still rage.

After a writing career that saw Bethke become a Philip K. Dick Award-winning author whose stories and novels have been reprinted world-wide in 17 languages at last count, as well as a two-term member of the SFWA Board of Directors, in 2005 Bethke founded the online writing workshop that became The Friday Challenge, and in 2008 he co-founded Rampant Loon Press, the corporation that publishes STUPEFYING STORIES.

In 2011, after studying a variety of emerging publishing technologies and commissioning several design experiments, Bethke launched STUPEFYING STORIES as a monthly, direct-to-ebook only, original fiction anthology series.

To date, Bethke remains the editor-in-chief in charge of STUPEFYING STORIES and driving force behind the forthcoming STUPEFYING STORIES PRESENTS line of direct-to-ebook theme anthologies. He is also the senior editor in charge of a line of original and classic reprint novels that Rampant Loon Press will be debuting in 2012 and 2013.

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About the Publisher

Rampant Loon Press is a Midwestern publishing house dedicated to the seemingly radical proposition that if we produce high-quality work, conduct our business dealings in an open and ethical manner, and always treat authors as we ourselves would wish to be treated, we can build a successful publishing business without all the layers of bean-counting and bureaucracy that hamstring the big publishing dinosaurs.

Source: http://stupefyingstories.com/

Comment: The sole purpose of the post is to introduce readers to the site.

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Poetry Site of the Week: Duotrope

Welcome to Duotrope, an award-winning, free writers’ resource listing over 4125 current Fiction and Poetry publications. Use this page to search for markets that may make a fine home for the piece you just polished. Use the menus at the top and right to explore the rest of the free services we offer writers and editors, including a free online submissions tracker for registered users. We usually make several updates per day, and we check each of the current listings regularly (at least once a month) to ensure the most up-to-date database humanly possible. So far this week, we have checked guidelines for 1074 listings, and we have made 676 updates, affecting 166 listings. The last update was made 0 hour(s) and 40 minute(s) ago.

Source: http://duotrope.com/index.aspx

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