Why Do You Write?

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Evaluating a Publisher’s Website

Updated February 20th 2016 Submitting your work to full length publishers is a terrifying process partially because you are facing potential rejection and partially because it is not easy to know if the publisher will treat your work fairly. I have written before about how to avoid bad publishers in the article Red Flags. Sometimes…

Fireship Press: Open To Submissions

Updated April 2019: Fireship Press changed ownership and there have been some issues since the transition. You can read more here. I would not recommend them at this time. Fireship Press is a small press that focuses on publishing books with a nautical theme, historical fiction, and history books. Fireship press publishes about 15 books…

Writing Prompt: Ghost Story

I love a good ghost story, not the kind that are told around campfires where the ghost is terrorizing a family, or is passing as a young woman in a dress for a night, but the stories that play around with what a ghost is. For example, the ghosts in Harry Potter served a lot…

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: For the Love of a Good Title

A good title can go a long way. It can intrigue the reader and it can even change one aspect of a story, so that the reader interprets it in a different way. Some of my favorite classic titles include A Widow for A Year, Love in the Time of Cholera, Pig Earth, A Wrinkle…

The Six Word Memoir

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Writing Prompt: Words from Another

For this prompt I want you to grab a book off your shelf, it should be a book that is written by someone who has a writing style that is very different than your natural style. It can be a book you have read or one you have not. It could be a book of…

Seven Stories Press: Open To Book Submissions

UPDATED October 6th 2020: They are no longer open to unsolicited submissions. Seven Stories Press is an independent publisher that has been around for twenty years. They have published a number of highly respected books. Their books are distributed by Random House. Seven Stories Press primarily publishes fiction and non-fiction as well as the occasional…

The Best Original Title Contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…

Quote of the Week

Felony & Mayhem: Open To Book Submissions

Updated: March 7th, 2024: They are no longer accepting submissions and appear to have to stopped publishing new work, at least for the time being. Felony & Mayhem is a print mystery book publisher founded in 2005, with fairly good distribution in brick and mortar bookstores. They initially focused only on re-issuing books that had…

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: The Curse

A curse is a common trope, from Fairy Tales to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, curses have been used to throw a twist into the plot. Sometimes the reader knows the curse from the start, which is how most fairy tales work. Or sometimes they know the curse from the start but they don’t know the…

The Best First Line Writing Contest

Congratulations to the winners of this week’s writing contest! They are listed below. But first, a bit about our contest series. Every week we are going to have a contest on our Facebook Page. The contests will change from week to week, but the winners will always be published in the magazine. The contest winner…