Savvy Author's Blog Up

At the end of this month I'll be teaching at Savvy Authors a Writing for E-zines class. In prep for this class my Blog post is up.

Make Your Stories Do Double, Triple and Even Quadruple Duty By Keeping Your rights By April Grey

One of my short stories is in an on-line anthology, it is also in an e-zine, and is due to be released in a "Best of" print anthology. Next year I intend to package this work with two of my other already published short stories as a collection to sell through Kindle and other Internet distributors. That's one short story published four times. And the payment isn't only in cold hard cash; every time a story of mine is published I reach more readers and build my platform.

This is the beauty of writing short stories. They endure as long as you hold onto your rights. And with the advent of e-publications, one needs to be ever more careful against publishers using unfair contracts. Many e-publishers want to hold onto your work until the end of time--which is okay--let them archive your story, just make sure the contract says non-exclusive rights. This means they will let you re-publish your work elsewhere. And you do want to be able to see your story out in the world as many times as possible.

For the rest of the blog please head here.

 

Info about Writing for e-zines
The best piece of advice I ever had as a budding novelist was to also write short pieces. The benefits of publishing short stories and/or non-fiction articles with e-zines (and other publications) are huge. You can make a name for yourself as a writer, create a platform, improve your craft and get paid by selling to e-zines. This course will teach the beginning writer how to research markets, evaluate their own work, write a cover letter/follow up query and track their stories. Students will submit a short piece of 3,000 words or less to the group (a work in progress is okay). Syllabus: 1) Introduction, Introduce yourselves and How to research markets: Top down or bottom's up? 2) Where is your niche - Finding a good match Everyday Fiction and other markets 3) Evaluating your work and finding helpers - come up with a list of ten potential markets to share with the group. Formatting. 4) Tracking your efforts - How many short stories, keep sending them out - Something extra. Not just good for e-zines. Keep track of anthologies, use topics as writing prompts. The question of self-publishing. Wanting to create a track record of sales and publications for a platform and to prove in the game. After publication (make sure you don't sell rights for more than a year) then can self publish as a promotion.
WHEN:	Jan 28, 2013 - Feb 10, 2013
COST:	$20 for Premium Members $30 for Basic Members Cancellation policy: Registrations are non-refundable except when the workshop is cancelled by Savvy Authors.
REGISTRATION:	Click Here to Register at Premium Member rate

You gotta have a gimmick.

 



"You Gotta Have a Gimmick"- Ethel Merman

When it comes to writing there's pantser and plotters. There are the people who start with an idea and others, like myself, who start with a character who has a problem.

 

I spent twenty years in theatre, my BA and MFA are in theatre, and for me writing is like creating a play. In media res means you have to choose where to start and stop the story and for heavens sake don't start it at the beginning. And not too close to the climax,either. There has to be time for the readers to get to know the characters and care.

 

Do you have a flash fiction piece, a short story, novella or novel? Or a novel series… Many short stories wind up as novels.

 

Are you going to go first person point of view, second person, third or *gulp* omniscient? In my debut novel I did both first person and third. And half the story was in the past and one half in the present, switching between chapters until the past caught up with the present. I didn't plan this, I'm a pantser. I did try having a linear time sequence and it didn't work.

 

Was it a gimmick? Did it work or alienate the reader? So far no complaints, but then some people might have stopped reading and not told me.

 

It seems to me that there are rules being created and getting ignored all the time in both genre and literature.  The important thing is to be open to risk.  Don't be afraid to be different.

 

So do you have a system? What's your Gimmick?

Leave a comment and share your tricks.



On Killing the Angel

The Bitch is Back

Staying on top of our writing isn't easy. No (wo)man is an island and if you are lucky you will have many, many distractions in your life. I say lucky.

 

I spent many years of my life doing theatre. It was my family; I had no time to date or start a family of my own.  That was cool for about 15-20 years. When the fun began to fade, I thought maybe an art which kept me closer to home would be good.  So I took up writing. Now here was flexibility. I filled notebook after notebook with short stories (this was pre-computer, only a friend or two had them) and even made my first sale. Then I met my future hubby, we courted and wed. Next came the patter of little feet.  I admit I took a very long break from writing. Around the time my son turned six, I felt comfortable enough in my role of wife and mother to return to it.

 

It seemed the perfect occupation for a stay at home mom and home schooler. Seemed, which leads us to the angel… the infamous angel of the Victorian era whom Virginia Woolf wrote about. The perfect wife who put aside all her personal needs to meet the needs of her family, yeah, you know her.

 

In Woolf's 1931 essay, "Professions for Women" (originally given as a speech to the Society for Women's Service and then posthumously published), she writes:

 

I discovered that if I were going to review books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom. And the phantom was a woman, and when I came to know her better I called her after the heroine of a famous poem, The Angel in the House. It was she who used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews. It was she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her. You who come of a younger and happier generation may not have heard of her--you may not know what I mean by the Angel in the House.

 

Well, we are of a younger and happier generation, but the Angel in the House still lives and she is one hell of a mean bitch.

 

I fight her each and every day as I look at the pile of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, or even when I decide to cook something simple (or order in) so I can meet a deadline.

 

So, spill it. Have you met the Angel? Share how you either killed her or put her in her place. Please leave a note, I love hearing from you.

A Very Sticky Wicket

There's an internet controversy going on -when isn't there?

This time about a YA novel, Save the Pearls.  I haven't read the book, and it's not on my list to read, but it has lead to a cautionary story.

The author in this case has written a book which supposedly will help young adults understand racism. Wonderful. We need to have greater awareness if we are to create a better world.

Unfortunately, in the process of tackling this important topic the author, Victoria Foyt, may have reinforced racial stereotypes.

So the question is how does one write about racism without falling into this trap?

One writer who I follow wrote about this saying that he has wanted to do a similar book but was unsure if it wouldn't be misinterpreted. This guy is a terrific writer, if anyone could write a great novel using this topic, it's him.

So I wonder. Are we all stuck writing within our own little fishbowls of culture, race or religion due to fear that by commenting on racism we will somehow make it worse? How do you approach writing characters that are of different  backgrounds from your own?

Do we comment on racism or perpetuate it?