M.L. Desir's Blog, page 26
June 18, 2019
Does Fantasy Lit Have to Be Real to Be Fantastic? – by Joshua Grasso…
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
When submitting a story to a speculative fiction magazine recently, I got a surprisingly fast rejection — we’re talking hours, compared to the usual 4–5 weeks. I was stunned, hoping that I had some formatting issue that made it auto-reject, or that the editor was so taken with the first few sentences that he/she thought, “hell with it, I’m accepting it on the spot!” (ha).
The reality fell somewhat short of both scenarios: the story received a cu...
What I Like… And What Frustrates Me… About Twitter
It seems to me that people either love Twitter or can’t stand it. I am definitely in the former category, for several reasons:
It’s direct. You follow someone? You see their tweets. You don’t follow someone? You live in blissful ignorance. My feed is full of creative, positive people and exactly zero politicians. It’s a great way to filter reality.Everyone who follows me can see my posts in real time, without any interference from the platform itself. Twitter sends e...
Rattle Poetry Prize
The annual Rattle Poetry Prize offers $10,000 for a single poem to be published in the winter issue of the magazine. Ten finalists will also receive $200 each and publication, and be eligible for the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote.
Additional poems from the entries are frequently offered publication as well. In 2018 we published 31 poems that had been submitted to the contest from just over 3,000 entries.
With the winners...
Diana Paton: “The Racist History of Jamaica’s Obeah Act”
Diana Paton (University of Edinburgh professor and author of The Cultural Politics of Obeah) writes in detail about the history of Jamaica’s Obeah Act as public figures call to decriminalize (or not) the religious practice. As she explains, the Obeah Act in Jamaica has been to reinforce class and race hierarchies as “those who supported harsh Obeah laws, including many middle-class Jamaicans, intended that the law should intervene broadly in everyday cultural life to wean J...
June 6, 2019
How to sneakily describe Characters by Shaina Krevat
Today I welcome the wonderful Shaina Krevat onto my blog, who shares her methods for describing characters.
Check out her article below and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section for her.
View original post 1,194 more words
Authors Beware! (part two) – The Secret Vanity Publishers Operating as Independents
This post is especially helpful! Thank you!
Last week I spoke about what to do if you were thinking about getting your book published by an independent publisher. I covered the positives and negatives of both the smaller and bigger indie publisers and gave tips on how to research a publisher before submitting your manuscript to them.
While explaining all this I touched on the indie publishers who aren’t so good. As a book blogger alone, I’ve encountered a few indie publi...
Authors Beware! (part one) – Not All Indie Publishers are Equal
I am so glad I found your blog! *New Follower Alert* Chris, at The Story Reading Ape, brought me here! Thank you, Kitty. ^_^
I’ve been lucky and privileged enough to be given the chance to work with many publishers over the last few years. I’ve had the chance to read and review books for both traditional and independent publishers as well as work with them on guest posts and author interviews on my previous blogs as well as this one. But as a future author (hopefully!) who...
Rejection: Why it Feels So Awful and 7 Ways to Heal the Hurt. Plus a Secret – by Ruth Harris…
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
on Anne R. Allen: No. Non. Nein. Nyet. No way.
And, in case you haven’t suffered enough: لا (That’s Arabic for “not right for us.”)
And it’s not just you.
If you’re a writer, you will be rejected.And you will be dissed. Period. Comes with the territory. (Sorry about that.)
Continue reading HEREMichael Dash passes away
Michael Dash, professor of Francophone literature in the Departments of French and Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, and known for his work on Martinican writer Édouard Glissant, passed away on the morning of June 2 in New York City. I first met him when I was a graduate student and he a young UWI professor, and his example of diligent, insightful and committed scholarship has guided my own career. He will be sorely missed.
Born in Trinidad, Prof. Dash...
May 29, 2019
7 Tips to Writing an Ending Whether You Want To or Not
That’s a heavy quote . . . Let’s lighten the mood with a humorous list of ways an author can end a story.
Don’t do it! You might never have another idea and people already like this one. Even if you have another idea, it might pale in comparison to what you’re working on at this moment. You can never stop! Squeeze every bit of lore out of this story and then give it an open-ended finale to allow yourself to come back later. Eternity is the only way to survive!Aim f...
