Steve B. Howard's Blog, page 150

Thanks for reading and commenting Tim. I appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading and commenting Tim. I appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed it.

I will definitely check it out.

I will definitely check it out. I’ve been writing a bit of cyberpunk recently, so the sci fi prompts would be very helpful I think.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Thanks for reading and commenting. I changed the title and fixed all the embarrassing typos. I wish I earned enough on Medium to hire an editor, lol.

9 Facebook Writing Groups I’m a Member Of

“turned on gold iphone 6” by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

I wrote The Internet Troglodyte’s Method to Get Your Work Noticed a few weeks back about using Facebook groups to gain followers for your Facebook author’s page and to find new readers for your work. I mentioned a few of the groups in that post, but I thought I would give a better description of the main ones I use.

“people doing fist bomb” by rawpixel on Unsplash Authors 36K members: This is a great group for sharing links. With 36k members, it’s one of the larger ones. Almost every day of the week they allow you to share either your author’s page, blogs, links for your book, book covers, or other sns. They have very specific guidelines on what you can and can’t post, so be sure and give them a quick read through before posting anything. Promote Your Book Here! 5K members and Promote Your Book Here 12K members: Similar names, but different groups. At 5k and 12k followers respectively though, both of them are worth checking out. They are also very similar in what they allow writers to post. Both of them are great for posting book links and often have Facebook author pages and other sns link posting days. Writers Group 100K members: This one is huge with nearly 100k members. But sadly, it can be, and more often than not is, a cesspit of trolls, non-writing related posts (The God Squad lives here apparently), and pleas for writers to finish other member’s homework. But when members do link shares, which they do often, it is a great chance to gain a lot of followers. You can also post your work there for feedback, but I’ve heard the response is either zilch or pretty trollish rather than helpful. Fiction Writing 41K members: Another huge and very active group. They also give writers a chance to submit their work to their anthologies. The other writers here are very helpful and the admins are quick to step in when the trolls do come a calling. One of my favorite go-to groups when I have questions.Writers Assembled 15K members: A very good group especially for nuts and bolts sorts of questions. The other writers are always very helpful. They also allow you to post your work for feedback. I haven’t tried it, but it seems like most of the feedback writers receive is constructive and useful based on the responses I’ve seen in the discussion area. Writers’ Mutual Support Group 248 members: A very new and fairly small, but rapidly growing group, that is made of mostly Medium members. It is a great place to share work from Medium and ask general questions about how to use Medium effectively. A lot of great writers regularly post links to their work here and give advice. 10 Minute Novelist 11K members: One of the very first Facebook writing groups I joined. There are a lotof very experienced writers here that are happy to answer questions about the ins and outs of traditional and self-publishing. They also have a weekly link share that is a great way to find more readers for your work. Zombie Pirate Publishing Writers Group 1K members: One of the most fun writing groups I’m a member of. It has a real “we are all in this together feel to it” with very little drama like you see in some of the other groups. The founder of the group is very active here and often provides lots of excellent info, prompts, and questions about writing and publishing to keep the discussions lively and interesting. Publishing Fighters 45 members: Last, but not least, well least in terms of members, is my own little group. It is small, but I know most of the writers there personally. I try and post new stuff there 1–3 times a week. Most of it is related to using Medium, publishing, and tips to help you improve your writing. A cozy little group that is happy to answer your questions.

And there you have it, the best 9 Facebook writing groups I know of. Join up and start building your reading audience!

9 Facebook Writing Groups I’m a Member Of was originally published in Publishous on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A .45 in the Face

“selective focus photography of man holding pistol” by xandtor on Unsplash

There were several stories you told about Vietnam that almost ended me. Or, I should say almost ended you thereby assuring I would have never existed. This time it was for a pair of socks. You’d returned to the barracks to get the green wool ones, warmer in the skin drenching monsoons while on guard duty. A drunk Green Beret is sitting on your bunk when you return. Dead cold eyes regard you, track you, so you ask him nicely to move so you can get your socks. And fast as a cobra strike, there’s a cocked pistol jammed in your face.

Urine ran down your leg, but it was so humid any sweat down your spine would have just blended. You said you didn’t know how long you stood there stock still like you were already a corpse; hunched over, halfway to your foot locker with that black pistol in your face, an inch from your nose.

Then there was a friend. His friend? Your friend? It didn’t fucking matter. The voice was calm enough to soothe the wild demons back into their dark caves. You got your socks, put them on over your boots, and spent your guard duty in pissed stained fatigues.

too late to understand
when the rabid dog’s bite comes
well before his bark

A .45 in the Face was originally published in The Creative Cafe on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Daily Corporate Zombie March

“people protesting” by Damien Checoury on Unsplash

In the soft morning light, I see them walking
slowly towards the dark subway station. Dead
potential, a long line of Japanese salarymen
all dressed in dark blue or black suits, white
shirts, dark ties, dead-eyed and resigned.

Those thirty and over, I see it in their defeated eyes,
the fallen baseball star, the crushed manga artist,
the Judo master to beaten up to make the Olympic team.

But it in the young, twenty-two, fresh from college; that
small living flame scorching its way towards freedom
still cries out in the morning crush,

“I will find a way out of this!”

The Daily Corporate Zombie March was originally published in Resistance Poetry on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I agree. I don’t have a choice about the continuous stream of stories that enter my head all day…

I agree. I don’t have a choice about the continuous stream of stories that enter my head all day long. All I can do is write them down and send them out into the world.

Satori in the Slipstream: My Short Story Collection

Satori in the Slipstream is a collection of dark stories that will take you to those places where the brutal clarity of truth is sometimes revealed. Follow the tales of a young woman in Japan trying to escape her past in a Buddhist temple; a junkie street artist trying to draw away his demons with his art; a Japanese soldier confronting the horrific destruction and death in Hiroshima; a young hustler on the streets saying goodbye to his dead friend; and an office lady in Japan contemplating a fatal leap from the eighteenth story of her apartment building. All these stories and more.

https://www.books2read.com/b/mZP7ap

EXCERPT From Shoe Horned:

I rolled out from under my newspapers and cardboard tent, thinking maybe today I could paint the changes into my life that I’d been dreaming of for the past fifteen years. I saw it all in my mind, but that’s about as far as it went. Under a little ray of sunlight that shone down into the alley, I called home. Ugly blotches and swirls or ink ran out onto the paper. I was trying to capture the change I wanted in my life, but I couldn’t get the picture to slide from my head, down through my scabby arm, and out of the pen onto the paper. It just wouldn’t come. Knowing my life as well as my art was at a stand still, at least for today, I put my pens away, and stepped out of the alley and into the street to make my living.

Street art is mostly survival art. Out here I’ve got the pictures I draw and my empty pencil cup for handouts, and sometimes a sale, but not much else. The setup’s the same every day. I come out from the alley, put my back against the wall of Johnson’s Grocery Store facing the busy sidewalk, lay out my newest pictures and all the ones that haven’t sold yet, put out my pencil cup, and wait.

People out here on the street, running from their business appointments and hair salons, are mostly dreamers. All my pictures of the celebrity faces showing them the lives they wish they could live are like a stop sign in the middle of their busy day. They pause in their steps, look at the pencil-drawn sports stars, rock stars, movie stars, and political leaders, and for a second, they’re out of their complicated little lives for a while; then they see me.

There’s a fly that sits on the wall behind me all day, just watching with those freaky eyes that see eight-thousand versions of me; but that don’t make me feel down on myself like the human eyes that stare, but can’t see anything. Even the blind man’s dog, that I swear can smell my soul, doesn’t judge like the blind man’s eyes do. I know what I am, but I don’t always want to be reminded. It’s the eyes turned down looking through me like I’m not even here that dig the deepest. I live in the dirt, but that don’t mean I am the dirt, even though I can feel it deep inside my pores.

If you enjoyed this excerpt please check out the rest of the short story collection here:

https://www.books2read.com/u/mZP7ap

I hope so.

I hope so. It’s baffling and demoralizing to get ignored by agents and publishers and yet get so much praise for from people on Medium especially since most of them are excellent writers as well as readers.

Thanks for reading my stuff Alex.

Thanks for reading my stuff Alex. I appreciate it. I haven’t been to Sydney, but I visited Melbourne twice. Life on the streets is rough anywhere. Especially for those poor people who are suffering from mental illness like the guy in Eugene was. I hope he has since been able to find some help.