Rod Raglin's Blog, page 7

Free Ebook – Mad Maggie and the Wisdom of the Ancients

Two passionate opponents, the antithesis of each other are about to clash over the future of a grove of Ancient Old Growth Forest on a secluded island. Can love find a middle ground? Eco-Warriors Book 3

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The Cynical, Critical Writers Group – Fragile egos and delusional dreamers need not apply.

After I was banned from my fifth Facebook writing group for being “critical, negative, rude, abusive, cynical, sarcastic (I liked that one) and unsupportive, I took a moment to reflect. Was that person really me?

I thought I was analytical, honest, forthright, constructive, witty and realistic. Is it because I don’t agree with what members post that they are so hostile toward me and go whining to the administrators? Am I being unsupportive by asking if they got paid when a member raves about having their flash fiction piece accepted in some obscure online magazine? Is it critical to point out that the meter is off in a rhyming quatrain about unrequited love? Is it cynical to suggest that paying to have your novel published by a “hybrid” publisher is not a great achievement? I mean, are the majority of aspiring, emerging, new or otherwise unsuccessful authors all delusional?

I asked myself; would I get more out of participating with these groups if I changed my attitude, overlooked the obvious and lavished them with praise for insignificant accomplishments? After all, they’re not insignificant to them. If I pursued the adage “if you can’t say something positive, don’t say anything at all” might I still be able to keep my tattered integrity intact?

My first challenge was a post that stated “My story didn’t win the competition, but what I do like about this contest is all the longlisters will be published in the paper anthology, along with the publishing of all of them on the website”. I can understand writers crowing about being “shortlisted”, though in my mind that amounts to being one of the first losers, but being “longlisted”? I want to ask what does that mean? How many are on the long list, everyone who entered? Is it worth the entry fee you paid? Instead, I take my lead from other members who gush, “Good job! Powerful story.” “This is awesome. Being longlisted is a big accomplishment!” and reply, “Way to go!” and add love, like and care emojis.

The next was a 74-line free verse poem about growing old (the word was used 17 times in the piece) that read like a short essay with sentences broken intermittently so you’d know it was meant to be a poem. It included hackneyed references to Depends, eyeglasses, medications and memory loss but there were some promising lines including “the newest medications made from strings of syllables clotting in your mouth” and “the amputations of the harvest, the isolation of the wintering.” If the author deleted the clichés, worked on reducing word repetition and made an effort at originality as he did with those four lines something positive could be achieved. Poems take time to ripen and mature. Ask Leonard who took five years to write “Hallelujah”. Maybe the author would like some constructive suggestions? Nope. His poem had collected 31 comments including “fine poem”, “great writing”, and “really liked it” with the majority agreeing with his sentiments about aging. Only one person commented on the actual writing highlighting one of the lines I’d picked out. I decide to comment on the two lines, no emojis, no superlatives. My magnanimity had run out – already.

Why am I doing this?

I’ve learned more about writing fiction from other writers than from any other source – books, courses, seminars, etc. But there’s a caveat, they must be serious about the craft. It’s apparent to me that at least ninety percent of the membership of any Facebook writing group are dabblers, hobby writers, even those who don’t write but imagine they will someday. The conundrum is many of the authors I rely on, who have improved my writing with their insight and suggestions have come from these same groups.

I’m not sure what the solution is but it isn’t being counterproductive by spewing blather to make someone feel good about a weak piece of writing they’ve posted. Until I figure it out, I guess I’ll just keep getting ejected from these groups, though hopefully connecting occasionally with some like-minded writers to continue a relationship outside social media. Not to worry, there is no end to new writing groups. Maybe I’ll even start one myself, the Cynical Critical Writers Group, a group for writers who can endure negative, rude, abusive, sarcastic but honest and constructive comments to enhance their craft. Fragile egos and delusional dreamers need not apply.

#WritingCommunity #amwriting #writers #authors #criticism #ego #craft

FREE E-BOOKS – SUMMER BACKLIST BLOWOUT – 2024 – 3

Download your free copy ‘til August 1 at

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FOREST

Lost gold, lost love, lost hope compels Matt to return home.

The Forest is waiting.

The BIG PICTURE

A young woman, a camera, an uncompromising ethic. Politics, murder, photography.

The BIRD WHISPERER

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Love on the rocks, cultures in conflict, climate in crisis, women at risk,

birds on the brink.

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FREE E-BOOKS – SUMMER BACKLIST BLOWOUT – 2024 – 2

Loving the Terrorist

What would you risk to save a wild place you love? Everything?

Eco-Warriors Book 2

Triumvirate

Love for Power. Love of Power. The Power of Love.

 Canada is collapsing. Three friends can save it – but not together.

Cold-Blooded

Mystery, romance and reptiles.

Mattie Saunders Series Book 2

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How to spot fraudulent publishing websites and protect yourself from scams

Scams abound in the publishing industry and author hoping to publish their work has to be hyper-aware.

This is a link to an article from the forum home of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Amazon’s publishing platform.

As the author of 13 self-published novels, two plays and a collection of short stories, I know my way around the self-publishing industry. I highly recommend using the KDP platform. It’s relatively simple to navigate and gives an author easy access to reaching millions of readers on Amazon. Best if all, it’s free.

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/How-to-spot-fraudulent-publishing-websites-and-protect-yourself-from-scams?language=en_US&forum=KDP%20Forum

Challenging Age Discrimination in Publishing

This is the latest skirmish in my campaign to rid of discriminatory messages from the submission pages of publishers. You know the kind that “encourages” writers from “marginalized groups” to submit their work suggesting they’ll receive some special consideration.

This began as a submission call on Facebook from a new online literary magazine called Thin Skin. Their editors feel “the literary world is still skewed towards younger writers”, and to overcome this bias they “prioritize writers over 50”.

Here’s my initial response followed by the reply from one of their editors separated by italics.

I’m interested in your new online publication, Thin Skin, however, I think your “vision” might be misdirected.

I don’t believe “the literary world is still skewed towards younger writers”. That sounds like rationalizing a lack of success. There’s only one reason I’m not a successful writer and that’s because my writing isn’t good enough (yet). Any other reason is an excuse.

However, I do believe stories about aging with older protagonists are disregarded by the editors, most of whom are young enough to be my children. Growing old, being old is a lack of context problem for someone in their forties. They simply don’t get it. Furthermore, they don’t want to get it because inevitably all these unpleasant things will happen to them.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for these stories to be told. If your magazine was to focus on writing about the experience of aging, rather than the age of the writer, I think it would be a great asset.

As it is, I’m concerned that your “favouring submissions from new writers over 50” is discriminatory, defined as “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, “age”, sex, or disability. The acid test is to turn the “favouring” on its head. How would you feel about a publication that openly stated they gave precedence to submissions from writers under 50?

I’m undertaking a personal campaign to rid discriminatory messages from the submission pages of publications. They usually take the form (similar to your request for submissions) of offering special considerations for writers they (the publisher) deem are from marginalized groups (the list keeps growing).

Submitting to Thin Skin would certainly eliminate a great deal of the competition for me, but personal integrity (what little I’ve left) prevents me from doing so, notwithstanding you may not accept my work even if I did.

I hope you’ll reconsider your “vision” to include all writers regardless of age who submit stories as long as they address the theme of aging and being old.

Dear Rod,

Thank you for getting in touch. You raise some good points, but we still feel there is a need for a literary magazine to showcase the work of older writers. By that, we mean writers who took up writing, or more often revived their passion for writing, in later life. Many (but certainly not all) literary magazines are run by younger undergrads or postgrads, often doing an MFA (if you’re in the US) or an MA (if you’re in the UK) in creative writing. Their youth, and I do not mean that in a disparaging way, means they are skewed towards writing that reflects their concerns. As for setting up Thin Skin because we haven’t had any success elsewhere, you only have to look at our masthead. We were all only able to focus on our writing in later life, which is the case for many older writers. Equally, some of the writers who are submitting already have publications under their belt, others are sending us their first submission.

As for a magazine dedicated to the experiences of ageing, we ruled that out when we set this up. We have no problems with receiving submissions about ageing, as long as they are good enough to be published, but we didn’t want to restrict the subject matter. We’ve already had some great submissions that are nothing to do with ageing, but they are written by older writers.

Finally, campaigning to eliminate all discrimination in the literary world is an excellent venture, but favouring the over 50’s is not discrimination. Indeed, many publications now exist that discriminate in favour of minority groups, such as people of colour, or non-normative sexuality. Sometimes there needs to be a safe space where writers can find their feet. This applies to older people too.

I’m sure I won’t change your mind, but if you’d like to send us a submission about ageing or anything to do with age, we’d be happy to read it.

Abigail Seltzer (Editorial Team member)

* * *

Dear Abigail,

Thanks for responding and taking the time to explain the reasoning behind the philosophy of your publication.

I think it’s important to have discussions about issues like this one (discrimination in publishing), though I understand most people aren’t interested and would rather get on with it – in your case the first edition of The Thin Skin. Nevertheless, I have a few more concerns, questions and clarifications arising from your response that you might want to consider – or not.

– You write the stories the editors are drawn to “reflects their concerns”. I agree. It’s not the age of writer (how would they know) that prevents the editors from choosing these stories but rather the content. That’s why a publication with a theme of aging, and the myriad of issues that surround it, would be an asset. The theme has no limitations and could be addressed in any genre – sci-fi, romance, action, mystery and literary.

“As for setting up Thin Skin because we haven’t had any success elsewhere, you only have to look at our masthead.” I didn’t say you haven’t had success, I said I haven’t. A good story, well-written will have success. If it doesn’t, I suggest it’s not because of the age of the writer (or the age of the editor), the colour of their skin, or their gender identity. It’s because it’s poorly written.

It’s not a matter of “restricting the subject matter”, but rather writing about the same subject from a slightly different perspective

You write that “Indeed, many publications now exist that discriminate in favour of minority groups, such as people of colour, or non-normative sexuality.” Two wrongs make a right? Whether discrimination works for me (as in the case of submitting to The Thin Skin) or against me, it’s still discrimination. How can I justify calling out publishers for giving special priority to other marginalized groups and then accept it when it benefits me

As well as the issues we’ve discussed, here are some additional concerns you might want to consider:

1. Shouldn’t acceptance go to the best-written, most appropriate story and not be based on race, gender, age or other protected characteristics? If not does this not lower the standard of literature?

2. Policies that continue to prioritize writing by marginalized groups by providing them with special privileges create the perception writers in these categories are less competent or accomplished. In the case of Thin Skin, I can imagine readers thinking “not bad – for an old guy/gal”.

3. How and who has determined that the “literary world is still skewed towards younger writers”? Is it backed up by evidence or just a gut feeling?

4. How do you ascertain the writer’s age? How do you validate it?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Rod Raglin

Dear Rod,

Thanks for engaging with the debate. I do think it’s important to have these discussions. However, so many people have been enthusiastic about this new venture that I think we’ve struck a chord. We will of course be looking for the best, and we want submissions from anywhere in the world, any ethic background or sexuality. Our only ‘exclusion’ criterion is age. This is not discriminatory as age is a protected characteristic, like race, sex and disability. I don’t really agree with you that marginalised writers are getting special privileges. They’re simply getting the chance to make their voices heard, and to tell stories that might not be accepted in the ‘mainstream’ literary world (often dominated by the UK, US and to a lesser extent, Canada and Ireland.) As for ascertaining age, when a writer’s work is accepted, we ask for a brief bio and thumbnail photo. A rough and ready means of assessing a writer’s age, but one we feel is better than demographic form-filling. Interestingly many of our submitters volunteer their ages when they submit. Of course, they may be lying, going against the flow of pretending you’re younger rather than older. Something we may explore in future!

Dear Abigail,

May I please ask what you mean when you write, “Our only ‘exclusion’ criterion is age. This is not discriminatory as age is a protected characteristic, like race, sex and disability”. Indeed, there are protected characteristics in most Western countries that include those categories but are you saying that’s prevented discrimination? Discrimination is rife and I’d suggest getting worse in most areas of our society as well as in publishing.

“I don’t really agree with you that marginalised writers are getting special privileges. They’re simply getting the chance to make their voices heard, and to tell stories that might not be accepted in the ‘mainstream’ literary world…” The question I’ve been asking publications is to be specific about the statements they make on their submission pages. Here’s an example from the submission page of Fiddlehead, a prestigious Canadian literary mag;

“We particularly welcome submissions from BIPOC writers, writers with disabilities, LGBTQQIA+ writers, and writers from other intersectional and underrepresented communities. If you are comfortable identifying yourself as one or more of the above, please feel free to mention this in your cover letter.”

Is Fiddlehead simply encouraging writers who identify with marginalized groups to submit their work (why wouldn’t they?) or, are they suggesting their work will receive special consideration? If the latter, what might that be? If they’re not giving these groups special privileges, why include this statement?

I have yet to receive an answer that makes sense. Those editors who deem to respond say something similar to what you have, that they’re simply giving marginalized writers the chance to have their voices heard. But what does “the chance” entail?

When you write marginalized authors are just being given an opportunity “to tell stories that might not be accepted ‘mainstream’ literary world” what type stories are you referring you? Does a marginalized author’s story have to reflect the struggles of his/her group? What about a BIPOC author who writes fantasy or speculative fiction? Are their stories given priority as well? Why?

I’ve been all around this subject numerous times with a lot of publishers and authors and the solution appears to be to do away with any special privileges and read all submissions blind so the work is judged solely on literary merit.

There’s still an opportunity for Thin Skin to fulfill its vision of being a publication “for older writers looking for a home for their work” and not be discriminatory. Simply make the criteria for submissions a minimum age. Lots of publications are specific about who can submit. There are publications for every facet of the LGBTQ+ spectrum, for women only, teens, BIPOCs, etc/. That’s not discriminatory because within their specific category, no one is getting special treatment. Whereas in your case, Thin Skin editors “prioritise writers over 50”, which means all things being equal you’ll publish the older writer. That’s agism. Agism is discrimination.

Comments?

Thanks, Rod

Thanks Rod. I appreciate your interest, but I’ve said all I want to say. Our criteria may not be perfect, but we’re satisfied with them for now.

Best regards,

Abigail

Visit Thin Skin and judge for yourself at https://thin-skin.com/

#discriminaton #discriminationinpublishing #marginalizedauthors #writing #writingcommunity #amwriting #writers #authors #submissions #ageism #olderwriters #publishers

#FreeEbooks! Backlist Blowout Summer 2024.

Saving Spirit Bear – Eco-Warrior Series Book 1

Local Rag – Politics, media, murder

The Rocker and the Bird Girl – Mattie Saunders Series Book 1

Download your free copy ’til July 4, 2024 at

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Bait and Switch has been published in Unlikely Stories Mark V

Unlikely Stories Mark V is an electronic magazine of literature, art, and culture “that attempts a direct engagement with society and sociopolitical issues.” They believe “that art and philosophy are synonymous, and that they are the appropriate source of all social activism and political thought.”

My story, Bait and Switch, is about an elderly man grocery shopping and being confronted by rising costs and wondering what he can do about it on a fixed income. What could be more “direct engagement with society and sociopolitical issues” than that? What he decides to do it to address this challenge could be considered full on “social activism” motivated by considerable “political thought.”

Despite the high-minded rhetoric, this is a simple, short story about something we’ve all been confronted with – grocery store’s bait and switch tactics. Perhaps you’ll empathize with Arni’s dilemma.

You can read it now at https://www.unlikelystories.org/content/bait-and-switch

A New Perspective on Passion has been published in Short Beasts

My flash fiction story, A New Perspective on Passion has been published in Short Beasts, an online flash fiction literary magazine. The story revisits an old love affair under new circumstances and gives a new interpretation to the adage, “the spirit is willing though the flesh is weak”.

You can read it now at https://www.shortbeasts.com/…/new-perspective-of-passion

#flashfiction#shortfiction#freestory#readers#Passion#oldloveaffair#aging @shortbeasts

East Van Saturday Night now on sale in East Van bookstore

“And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time.”

Why you can take the boy out of East Van, but you’ll never take East Van out of the boy

East Vancouver has become gentrified and at the same time romanticized. It was neither when Rod Raglin was growing up on East 4th Avenue in ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Indeed, it was the neighbourhood you hoped to get out of rather than move in to.

A low-income, blue-collar neighbourhood, adults spent their evenings and weekends in the Legion while their kids were raised on the street. They left home in the morning, showed up for dinner, and were gone again until “the gun” sounded at 9 p.m. He was one of them.

During the time away adventures were undertaken, friendships were forged, and character was created. East Van Rules was not only meant as a challenge, but also a code to live by.

East Van Saturday Night – Four short stories and novella, is fiction that focuses on coming of age events during that era; a ten-year-old playing for the elementary school softball championship, a teenage tough strutting his stuff at the local dance, a hippie youth hitchhiking across Canada during the Summer of Love.

Watershed moments told from a perspective that explains why you can take the boy out of East Van, but you’ll never take East Van out of the boy.

Now available in E-book or Paperback at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

and now at Spartacus Books