One Piece

March is a popular month for conferences. Shaw Guides lists 27 conferences this month, including annual events for several state and national writers organizations. The larger conferences are jam-packed with speakers, workshops, book signings, readings, and, of course, pitch sessions with agents. But there are also smaller, more intimate gatherings this month, focused on the craft of writing and niche markets. Registration is still open for all of these conferences. You can see their full schedule of events by clicking on the links. ______________________ Puerto Vallarta International Writers Conference 2015 , March 6-8, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Speakers: Elise Capron of Dijkstra Agency, Caleb Pirtle III, Sarah Cortez, James R. Callan, Carmen Rodriguez, Thomas Pulley, Donna Dahl, Melissa Frost, Evelyn Bryn. LA Writers Conference 2015 , March 14, 2015. Los Angeles, CA. "Learn how to sell your book idea in the boot camp and practice your pitch to an agent in the pitch session. ...

As usual, Romance dominated Smashword's bestseller list for 2014. Of the top 25 bestselling novels, 16 were Romance. Four were historical fiction, which appears to be making a comeback, and six were YA, which did well everywhere last year. The mean price was $2.99. _________________ From Publishers Weekly :  Also dominating the annual list were series. According to Smashwords Founder Mark Coker, 21 of 25 books on the list are by series writers, and all the authors have at least one series starter priced at "perma-free." "We've been advocating this strategy for six years," Coker says. "It works. We introduced enhanced series metadata capabilities in late 2013, and this set the stage for some strong series performance in 2014." List from Publishers Weekly . Rank Title Author Genre Price 1 Broken Silence Natasha Preston Romance $2.99 2 Mud and Gold (Promises to Keep: Book 2) Shayne Parkinson Fiction $2.99 3 Settling the Account (Promises to Keep: Book...

2 rancid derelicts on opposite ends of a subway. populated w/ oozing sardine cans, broken whiskey sighs. a zonked out druggie  steering steel ward wheels, he whisper: "Up On the Roof." lullabies slurred lolling. down the aisle, his plexiglass eyes stare off to frozen whorls of dust, sweeping soiled newspapers spirals up frosted fetid tunnels of arctic underworlds. Empire state of minds. The anthem verse: 1 long tuberculoidial swing howl keening through the sore postulates of this endless winter march. here after.

March is a long, cold month that has Ides. (They all do, but the Ides of March is Shakespearian!) It's a great month to focus on writing, and everything that getting published entails. There are lots of writing contests with deadlines in March (some even fall on the Ides), and they cover the spectrum from poetry to Hoosier lit. Short story contests abound. So, don't be shy. Take a chance and enter a contest. Who knows, you may win! ____________________ The Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award  is sponsored by Broadside Lotus Press.  Restrictions : This competition is open to African American poets only. If you have already had a book published by Lotus Press, you are ineligible. However, inclusion in a Lotus Press anthology does not disqualify you.  Genres : Poetry collections of approximately 60-90 pages.  Prize : $500 in cash and publication  by Broadside Lotus Press within the first three months of 2016 as well as free copies and discounts.  De...

I am starting to enjoy impairment n-abilities to hear sharp sunder parked between plosions and fricatives. Slipped gears grind smoke and spark in my ears which sprout mufflers of pubic tuffs stretched cross stitches of skin seams. Fried grease riots pop and splatter glottal gristle still sizzling off clapping skillets swearing tongues. Spatter asper clangs on kitchen stoves. This spreading splendor feeds emaciated impressions, but for me fete dribbles snippets from my loosened slack.  Come again? Could you regurgitate scooped syllables off sawdust sentences?  Words need to be spoon-fed softly. Teeth shattered, so let me gum my meaning.  

Here are two new agents actively seeking writers. Heather Flaherty (Bent Agency) is looking for children’s, middle grade, and young adult fiction and nonfiction, as well as select new adult fiction, and pop-culture or humorous nonfiction. Sarah Nagel (Writers House) is looking for psychological thrillers, horror, mystery, suspense, literary fiction, realistic Young Adult and Middle Grade with a hint of magical realism, and for nonfiction - medical ethics, true crime, humor books and memoir. Heather Flaherty of The Bent Agency Currently closed to queries About Heather : “I grew up in Massachusetts, between Boston and the Cape, and started working in New York City as a playwright during college. This pushed me towards English as a focus, and after a lot of country-hopping in my early twenties, I wound up finally beginning my publishing career in editorial, specifically at Random House in the UK. That’s also where I became a YA and children’s literary scout, which finally landed ...

Is it challenging? -to my views -to my categories of race, class, sex, gender - does it reverse an -ism or -ology? Psychology, philosophy, nationalism, humanitarianism, Is it inspiring/transformational? - aesthetically transformational in its live performance - spiritually and emotionally transgressive Is it dangerous? - dark primordial place -terrifying and tapping into subconscious Is it vital and timeless? -both in the now and beyond it -does it bridge the gap between immediate relevance and cross-generational When I sit down to write something I'm reviewing these thoughts in my head. Time is short. Writing is arduous and lonely skill to funnel the immense abundance of creative power into the digest-able syllables. Where is the passion that keeps this going? Am I -as Wayne Dyer would say- being a host to angels or a hostage to ego? Do I dare to step out once again without knowing where this will go and how it will end? Trusting in invisible intuitions, instincts, guides. Piecing...

Anthologies are themed collections of short stories and/or poems by various authors and published as a single book. In most cases, anthologies are put out by publishing houses, but sometimes anthologies are published by magazines as well. Anthologies are also printed by vanity presses. (Don't submit to those. Vanity presses demand payment, and they will do nothing but harm your career.) It is a good idea to get your work into a (legitimate) print anthology for several reasons: 1) Publishing houses that put out anthologies generally get a wider distribution than magazines; 2) Print anthologies don't preclude publishing your story online, or on Amazon, later on;  3) Establishing a relationship with a publishing house may pan out later when you are ready to publish your novel; 4) Anthologies are a great writing credit; 5) Many anthologies accept reprints, which will extend the life of your stories. Below are eight publishers looking for speculative fiction short stories. Their req...

High as a Himalayan. performance enhancing pills syringe syncopated shots praying over spinning gold tops like disc jocks and when the record skips the zombies moonwalk cross craters of California concrete and  sidewalks have got stars under yr feet cuz our eyes only look down at gold sprayed names r 4 elites because we don't recognize our inheritance in ribcaged beats. and the sharp treble ancestors cries our names were written. tagged in the sky. RPMs of the 365 days revolving round groove and black tie events where the music plays n' btwn the needle's sunrise. Revolution's evolutionary progression is 2 cause and seek 2 create more aggression cause the music needs the drum line of 12-gage shotgun impression. Nowadays these dayglo designer stayed glued 2 their grindr, Tinder reminders of circumferential situations circumstantial collaborations show me what u working w/ what's ur GPS situations? And it's 1 small step 4 man 1 giant leap on2 greasy throbbing thoug...

Both sexes, it appears, enjoy nonfiction. MarketWatch recently trumpeted this headline: " The huge difference between what men and women read ." You can always get readers to open an article about the differences between men and women - after all, I did - because apparently we have not yet figured out what they are. There are, as I have long suspected, differences between men and women. According the the National Endowment of the Arts, men are more likely to read nonfiction books than fiction, while the opposite holds true for women: 55% of women read fiction in 2012, and 48% read nonfiction. The real news here is not that 7% more women read fiction than nonfiction, or that more women read fiction than men.  It is the steady decline in the total fiction-reading population. ____________________ The waning literary leanings of American adults Year Percentage of adults who read fiction 1982 56.40% 1992 54.20% 2002 46.60% 2008 50.20% 2012 46.90% A ten point drop may not appear to...

Sour sop colognes the Carolina dirt hills. Scoured pennies saved for the butcher’s saw hacking smoked pigs spinning over a freedman’s ember pit. Fevered eyes feast on the crackling crimson snout and stiletto hoofs.Burnt vinegar vapors and sepia filters on a world of my mother’s childhood. *** Coiffed lacquered layers sway as she steers to Broward County hospital. My father in passenger side surrender, a hostage buckled to his seat. We listened to all the CDs, tapes, and the afternoon radio rattles male enhancement ads. I break somber silence with a question: childhood? My mother was a Carolina Tomboy chasing brothers through mud puddles, caked in the red clay song, tossing back off warehouse cliffs into cotton silos, tumbling nights at the mill, sliding between the chain fences, climbing to the warehouse summits and flinging themselves down into clouds pristine mound smudged by swan dives and belly flops. *** My mother underneath a sackcloth smuggled out of the Carolina hills in a da...