The Book That Changed Your Life

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

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: Coffee Poem

The prompt this week is a little different. Your challenge is to write a poem about coffee. Although there is one tiny catch. You can never use the words coffee, beans, black, milky, cafe,  or caffeine in this poem. You must convey the idea of coffee, of drinking it, without ever mentioning these words. Obviously,…

8th House Publishing: Accepting Book Submissions

Updated December 2024: After taking more than two full years off publishing new books, they returned, and are actively publishing and accepting work again. They have been back for over around a year, so I’m adding this update. 8th House Publishing is a newer publisher based out of Montreal and New York. They publish poetry,…

Contest: The Best Character Introduction

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

Writing Prompt: Secret Library

Many great modern novels are about the love of books and libraries. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store and The Shadow of the Wind are just two examples.  Both books are about imagined secret libraries. Your prompt today is to write about an imagined library that is for some reason or another a secret. Now this…

The Thirty Word Short Story 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…

Writing Prompt: Stuck

Imagine that a character is trapped somewhere. It could be a small room, a well, a crashed car, a stuck elevator, or any number of small claustrophobic  spaces. They have been stuck there for at least thirty minutes when you start writing your story. This is important because they already have to be nervous at…

Quote of the Week

The One Sentence Pitch 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…

The Case for Chapbooks

Chapbooks are very small books, usually no more than 30 pages in length, 50 at the most. They frequently have no spine and are often bound with staples. They have been around for a long time, at least since the 16th century, when they were associated with fiction, but now they almost always function as…

Quote of the Week

Writing Prompt: Rhyming Poem

Poems don’t have to rhyme anymore. They haven’t in a very long time. Still, every once in a while I encounter someone who believes that poems have to rhyme, that it is one of the requirements to writing a poem. Most of the time I write in free verse, without any rhymes except the occasional…