One Piece

Fall is a great time for submissions.  Calls for submissions for the month of September span the gamut from terrifying campfire stories to personal essays, from care taking for cancer patients, to retelllings of fairy tales. All of these are paying markets. ___________________ 'Monster Waiting in the Woods’ Anthology .  Emby Press is seeking submissions for a new anthology titled Monster Waiting in the Woods. "Scare the hell out of us with any monster you like, although I will be especially interested in original monsters. Then keep the tension screwed tight and the terror dial on high. Set the stories anywhere - the “woods” in the title are only a possibility." Genre : Horror, sci-fi, dark fiction Length :  2000 to 8000 words. Please query if longer. Payment : $25 Deadline : September 1 ____________________ Creepy Campfire Stories for Grownups . This anthology will contain timeless tales of extreme horror campfire stories for adult readers (over 18 years o...

He is homeless and people think he stole money from a community center donation envelope so they want to ban him. He is my friend so I bought him groceries and we took refuge from a tropical storm in an empty Miami parking garage. He is my lesson so I remembered the Buddhist perspective of what the mind goes through when it feels 'persecuted.'  I remember a few incidents of being 'falsely accused' and how awful it feels, like you want to scream but you know no one will believe you because an opinion has been formed that is largely independent of your actions. In the second grade at Highland Oakes Elementary lunch table I was accused of stealing someone's lunch. I became conscious of being the only black person at a table and not being anywhere near the alleged crime. It was my first odd experience of 'wait, what? Who is this person you speak of who steals white girl's lunches and lies?'  For my inability to confess the crime and produce another lunch I g...

Construction and the stench. Sulfur everywhere on South Beach.  Turned down one street and it was blocked: an enormous pump drilled through the asphalt, pulling up dark water next to Whole Foods.  South Beach -and Miami Beach- is being swallowed. The swampy perfume of rotting limestone  as the sea rises up through the ground.  Barrica des around enormous pumps screaming  full force into the night as they fight the Atlantic.  Floods on dry days and the soaked earth below the surface cracking the roads open, a pustulating omen.  Yuppies are still running into Whole Foods,  swerving their luxury sedans around the signs of demise, holding their nose against the hell rot of sulfur rushing to get their $20 kale shampoo their vegan cold-pressed virginal quinoa hemp yogurt.  Conspicuous consumption right up until the apocalypse.  The 'boiling lobster' affect, dying by degrees.  And now a hurricane creeps toward muddy ruins.

Updated 2/2/22 If you are self-publishing, setting a price for your novel can be daunting. Do you set the price as low as possible in order to garner the most readers, or do you set a higher price in hopes that you will make some money for your labors? And if you do set a higher price in hopes of gaining an income, what price is reasonable? In this highly informative Huffington Post article , "Setting the Price for Your Novel -- What You Need to Know," Kristen Houghton lays out exactly how to price your novel. She also talks about discounts, how retail prices are calculated and a lot of other factors that can affect the price of a book. As an all-round introduction to the topic, this article can't be beat. If you want to know which price gets the best performance in terms of maximizing readers and sales (ebooks only), Written Word Media has done a great analysis. According to Written Word, if your only goal is to maximize the number of readers you acquire: $0.99 is the m...

With the end of summer comes a renewed interest in getting back to work. For a writer, the work never really ends. In addition to getting your ideas out of your head and onto paper, you need to get your manuscript into the hands of people who will publish it, which entails a great deal of effort - as well as knowledge, preparation, and encouragement. Fortunately, there are many conferences this coming month that will accomplish just that, as well as enabling you to get connected with the larger writing community. (Speaking of getting connected - check out Dragon Con. Even if sci-fi is not your genre, this conference sounds like a hoot!) ____________________ DragonCon , Sept. 4–7, Atlanta, Ga. HUGE sci-fi event, with parade, autograph sessions, live performances, readings, wrestling (!), workshops on belly dancing, writing (yes, there's even some writing), art show. Kentucky Women Writers Conference , Sept. 11–12, Lexington, Ky.The Kentucky Women Writers Conference is the ...

There are a lot of great contests coming up in September, some with hefty prizes. The Sunday Times is offering £30,000.00 for a winning short story. Published books can win £10,000.00 and $35,000 in two of these contests, and there are also substantial prizes for short works. The Silver Linings contest is giving $2000, and Life Lessons is awarding $3,000 for personal essays. There are also prizes for poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Good luck! ____________________ Good Housekeeping "Silver Linings" Contest . "Tell us about a time when a wrong turn took you to the right place or you found unexpected happiness at the end of a long road."  Restrictions : Open to anyone age 21 or older who is a legal resident of the United States, the District of Columbia, or Canada (excluding Quebec).  Genre : Story of 1,500 to 2,500 words.  Prize : $2000.  Deadline : September 1, 2015.  Read more details   here . Helen Schaible International Shakespearean / Petrarchan Sonnet...

(Setting: Pilates Class. Wednesday Morning. An Elderly Woman walks up to me.) WOMAN: You have beautiful feet ME: ....hhhhhthanks. WOMAN: They're like a baby's feet. ME: (*welp, that unsolicited 'compliment' is gonna burn*)....mmmm... WOMAN: So smooth... ME: (*Doors opening. Basement floor: Hell*)...ah.... WOMAN: Beautiful ME: (*what man doesn't like their body being compared to a baby's?!*)... (Me dies. Slowly. Lights fade.) THE END

Here are six calls for submissions with deadlines coming up at the end of the month. Not all of of these publications offer payment, but note that RHINO nominates winning poems for a Pushcart Prize and The Collagist prints excerpts from forthcoming novels (especially if you are publishing your novel with an Indie press). ____________________ Qu – Qu is a literary magazine sponsored by the MFA Department of Queens University of Charlotte. Genres : Fiction, essay or script excerpt under 8,000 words, or three poems. Payment : Prose $100; poetry $50. Deadline : August 31. RHINO – RHINO is looking for previously unpublished poetry, translations and flash fiction. Genres: Submit three to five poems, three to five translations of poems, or flash fiction under 500 words. Payment : None, but all poems are considered for the  Editors’ Prize , which offers cash awards for the top three submissions of the year. The First Place winner will be nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Deadline : A...

I could see this one from a mile away. I agreed to go out on a date with a guy from okcupid who messaged me a few days ago. The message complimented me on my looks, interests, and spirituality. I replied with similar compliments. A dialogue began about faith, religious practices, and our beliefs. At a certain point the conversation grew stagnant and he turned it toward the physical. This is an area I'm just not good at on the phone. via text, or even in person. After six months of celibacy that was preceded by a few years of chastity in increments of 6 months or a year, I don't have the palette for dirty talk. I can write it in my plays and joke about it, but I have no sense of how to place myself in XXX world. I give the needed information, throw in a few jokes, and try to ease the conversation on to other topics without making it seem obvious. I did this and the conversation dried up. A day later the conversation began with the suggestion of meeting. I knew this was probably ...

It was a year ago when I heard the news on the way to a meeting and then rehearsal. I was in a daze and then on a plane. While taking your dog to a vet in the early morning, a truck hit your car and you were gone. With no other witnesses, no charges were filed. And then a blur of condolences. For some reason I was asked to speak at your funeral and your sister -my mother- was not. The funeral home had a slide show of your life running above you at the viewing. I wanted to be there for hours but the smell of embalming fluid was so strong that I couldn't stay for longer than a few minutes without getting a headache. At night, your sister -my mother- told me about your childhood in South Carolina and Miami. On the day of the funeral I folded up my poem and your sister -my mother- came up to the lectern. She spoke about your life. Afterward I read a short poem and sat down. I zoned out for the rest of the funeral. The singers were performing like they were on "American Idol" ...

Updated 1/31/22 You've finished editing your novel and decided to self-publish. Now you are faced with a choice. Should you spend the money on a professional book cover designer or design a cover yourself? Unless you are a graphic designer, hire someone. People do indeed judge a book by its cover. And just as an attractive cover draws the eye, a dull cover can cause readers to move on to a more appealing image. Your best chance of making sure people stop to look at your book cover is to make sure it is designed by a professional. Judging a book by its cover  The problem that faces self-publishers is how to evaluate an effective cover. "Good" and "bad" reside in the eye of the beholder. Depending on cultural tastes, what is considered "good" can vary widely. Standards also change over time. Consider Baen Press, a publisher of speculative fiction famous for its ridiculous book covers. (Some of the most horrendous covers can be found on Good Show Sir , al...

Building on its previous year's high of $870 million , 2014 saw an increase to $935 million in graphic novel sales, divided equally among digital and print. These figures are encouraging, because graphic novels may be the last great print holdout. (All we really need is one.) Why am I such a fan of print? It is because there is something irreplaceable about the smell, feel, and look of a book on paper (or papyrus). Holding one in your hands, cuddling up with it, or flinging it across the room when the author fails to deliver a satisfactory ending, are all things that enhance reading, and make it an experience that cannot be replicated on a screen. Also see: Oni Press Opens Door to Graphic Novel Submissions - No Agent Required 7 Graphic Novel Publishers Accepting Manuscripts Directly From Writers Graphic Novel Sales Hit $870 Million in 2013 _____________________________ From Publishers Weekly , July 1, 2015 By Calvin Reed Led by increases in the book trade, combined sales of graphic...

The trailer for "Stonewall" made me feel disgusting and depressed. While I reserve judgment on the actual feature, the 2 minute clip I saw that is supposed to highlight the movie gave me that sinking feeling of 'here we go again.'  Gay people of color already got erased from AIDS movies, plays, tv. And when we do appear -a la Angels in America- we are literally magical servants and sassy queens with no character arc. I  mean - fuck- how hard is it to give a brother a character arc? Here: black sister wants a bike and it has some childhood "Rosebud" meaning...and by the end...she gets the bike (or not). Was that so fucking hard to do, Hollywood? And no, she isn't magical and  she isn't a nurse pushing someone in a stroller or wheelchair. She just has a basic human need embodied in a physical object.  "Akeelah and the Bee" was held back in development for so long because movie executives wouldn't greenlight it unless they changed the teac...