Max Ellendale's Blog, page 8
February 4, 2013
February 2013
Happy February! Daylight is growing on the East Coast and spring is on the horizon. I’m very much looking forward to the warmer weather ahead and exciting new writing events!
I’m happy to report that I will be running my first workshop in March! I’ve co-facilitated in the past, however, this is my first independent venture! I’d like to thank Donna at Cuppa Pulp Booksellers for hosting me and our fellow writers! I’m looking forward to the big day and hope to provide everyone with valuable writing information. Get ready to write!
I’m also proud to announce that book two in my Legacy Series is complete and now in the hands of my lovely editor! More details to come once contracts are in order.
In other projects, my Young Adult fantasy is well into the query process. I haven’t any happy news to report just yet but I’m patiently (or impatiently at times) awaiting replies. I’m also working on a poetry chapbook project. I’ve researched some chapbook publishers and contests though have yet to submit my work. I’m working on adding some bits of prose and photographs to the piece. My confidence wavers at times but I’ll find the nerves. Writers always do!
Cheers,
Max
January 9, 2013
didn’t you know…
SOL
I can’t focus today and I
don’t know why.
It’s not even like I’m
too angry to cry.
I can’t settle in, my thoughts
are all mucky. I’m not
in too much pain, for that
I am lucky.
I want to be home,
to walk away from here.
I swore I’d be gone by the end
of the year.
But I’m still stuck
without a dime or a buck,
I’ll just have to accept
that I’m shit out of luck.
… that sometimes I’m a poet.
~Max
The Four Agreements
The Four Agreements:
1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
[Source: http://www.toltecspirit.com/]
January 6, 2013
January 1, 2013
January 2013
It’s the dawn of a new day and a new year. My hope is that 2013 will be the year of risks and change for me. I’m in desperate need of a personal apocalypse. In essence, it’s time for me to break things down and focus on my writing. I’ve only begun at this point, but I will take some big steps to achieve my dream!
I’m proud to announce that book two in my Legacy Series is complete and will soon be in the hands of my lovely editor! It’s a fair bit longer than its predecessor though I’m sure it will fluctuate depending on edits. I will release the title once I’ve decided on the spelling and after contracts are signed. In other projects, my Young Adult fantasy is well into the query process. It’s holiday time so I doubt I will have any updates for several weeks but I’ll keep my heart and mind in a positive place. I’m also working on a poetry chapbook project. I’ve decided that, despite my reserves and concerns, I’m a writer and all of my work has value. I’m about thirty pages into the chapbook and hope to reach sixty before I start the submission process on it. That will be a whole new adventure for me. I haven’t a clue about poetry submissions or publishers, but I will soon find out! I’ve also worked on some literary magazine submissions for short-stories and poetry. I’ve learned that this process is much slower than I thought, however, I will press on.
Many blessings for the new year!
Cheers,
Max
December 16, 2012
The best writing advice I ever received…
For this post, twenty authors and writers contributed the best writing advice they ever received. As writers, we sometimes find ourselves discouraged by the lengthy process toward success. I’ve created this post as a source of support, guidance, and reference.
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“The best writing advice I’ve ever received was…”
1. Raven McAllan: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received was write as you can, not as you think you should. Also…Remember, all reviews are subjective and you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Raven is the author of Rogue Scandals (Wallflowers Don’t Wilt: To Please A Lady and A Most Unusual Mistress), Ladies of London (La Bella Isabella: The Best Man’s Bridesmaid: A Most Unusual Mistress), The House on Silk Street (Silver Silk Ties: A Shimmer of Silk). Links: Blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
2.Caitlin Hensley: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received was from a great book on writing that I read. The book said to write for yourself, not other people. If you spend all your time imagining how friends or family would react to what you’ve written, you’ll never be truly happy with your books. So write, and enjoy writing, and don’t think about possible reactions until you’ve typed out every word.” Caitlin is the author of Paranormal Legacy, due to be released March 2013. Links: Blog, Facebook.
3. Laura Monti: “Try to avoid adverbs and adjectives ending in ‘-ly.’ Show don’t tell, paint a picture with your words. Watch the vocabulary when expressing a story. It is not a time to show off a sophisticated vocabulary. Readers don’t like to look words up in order to understand what the writer is talking about.” Laura is the author of The Last Christmas Tree.
4. Michael “Mag Dee” DeNobile: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received: Read like a writer and write like a reader. The two actions are inseparable. When we read, in addition to being entertained, we should subconsciously be studying how the writer constructs letters into words, words into phrases, and phrases into poetry, prose, and drama. When we write, while we first write for ourselves, we need to be aware of our intended reading audience, who we want to read our work. We need to study our audience by getting engrossed in their culture, their euphemisms, their lifestyle, even in a figurative sense. Then, write. Read, then write some more.” Links: Facebook, Twitter1, Twitter2.
Quote: “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” ~CS Lewis
5. Jessica E. Subject: ” The best writing advice I’ve ever received was… to join a critique group and have my work read and critiqued by other authors.” Jessica is the author of Beneath the Starry Sky, Satin Sheets in Space, and more. Because everyone in the universe deserves a happily ever after. Link(s): Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon.
6. D. F. Krieger: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received was the answer will always be “no” if you don’t try.” D.F. is the author of various titles at Secret Cravings Publishing, Evernight Publishing, and Breathless Press such as To Honor, The Submission, and His Prey.
7. Adrienne Thompson: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received was to forget about word counts and to write until the story is completed, let the story guide you and you can’t go wrong.” Adrienne is the author of Bluesday, Been So Long, When You’ve Been Blessed (Feels Like Heaven), Lovely Blues, and See Me. Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo.
8. Ivy Bateman: “The best writing advice that I’ve ever received wasn’t even advice, it was an observation I made. A few years ago, a shop I worked in hosted a monthly writing group. It had been ages since I’d written anything and years since I’d showcased anything I’d written to the public. The topic for the group that month was gardens and spring and I wanted to write a heartfelt piece about my Grandmother and her garden. However, the more I thought about it, the further away from writing it I got until, literally about an hour before the group was to meet, I thought of my daughter and how she wrote. Ever since she learned to write, she has been writing stories. To get the to point, the advice she offered me, or rather showed me, was to stop thinking and just write. So, I picked up her cue and followed her technique; I sat down with some paper, but a pen in my hand, put my head down, my pen on the paper, stopped thinking and wrote. I was amazed how much I could write when I stopped thinking too much. I’ve written that way ever since and every day I’m thankful for “advice” my daughter taught me.” Ivy is the author of Between the Lines and The Fifth Story, both of which are published by and available at Breathless Press. Her next released, Baby, You’re Cold Inside is set to be released from Breathless Press on Dec. 21, 2012. Links: Twitter, Facebook, The Fifth Story By Ivy Bateman, Book Trailer.
9. Kelly Darrow: “You have enough here for two books. Drop about a hundred pages. Author of Shop Side and The American Dream Poetry Collection. Links: Shop Side e-book and print version: goo.gl/u2LUz, http://goo.gl/8iYuO, http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/The-American-Dream-Poetry-Collection
10. Donna Miele: “…was from Emmy Laybourne, author of Monument 14. When writing a first draft, don’t let that asshole writing partner in your room… you know the one, who peers over your shoulder and says, ‘Oooh, that really sucks. No, you can’t write that. You know what? It’s really not happening today.’ That guy is great for telling you when you’re drinking too much, or for reminding you not to yell at your mom, or curse in public. But you can’t invite him along while you’re writing a first draft.” Donna is the author of Excisions, Cuppa Pulp Booksellers and Writer’s Space owner and manager.
11. Maria Costa: “The best writing advice I ever received was to keep writing. Good, bad, awful, excellent… Keep going!” of Readwriterevise.com.
12. Tanya M. Beltram: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received was stop making writing harder on yourself by being your worst analyst. There’s a group of people out in the world waiting to do that for you, so why be one of them? Your role is to make your writing journey as easy as possible. If your chapter one sounds better as chapter three, move it there without thinking. If half of your last chapter sounds better as a chapter one, start cutting and pasting. You know your work better than anyone, so do everything you need to do in order to finish your book, short story or poem the easiest way you can. Leave judgment for your editors, audience and critics. Your job is to just write. Why stress something that you have the power to always fix?” Inkwell Journal‘s former Editor-in-chief (2011-2012) and Fiction editor (2010-2011). Links: loasw.wordpress.com (coming soon!)
13.Erika Kimberly: “The best advice I’ve ever received came from a workshop I took with Toi Derricotte, co-founder of the Cave Canem Foundation. She explained to us that as writers our job is to uncover the details in the poems we wish to tell. So sometimes we sit down to pen what we think is the “the” poem but, it’s not. There is always a deeper place, a deeper space where the real poem comes from. That space is where raw emotions dwell but too often because they’re powerful we don’t use them as much as we should. In the workshop we did three writing workshops that lead us to our ‘hot spot’. Her advice to us was to write quick declarative sentences about the situation you want to write about. For example, I was tired. I was hungry. I was cold. Then, she told us to take one or two of those sentences and flesh them out into a paragraph about the situation. Finally, we used that create the poem. I’ve used this exercise many times to help me write about things that were layered in emotion when I didn’t know which angle to use to get in and pull the poem out. So in short, the best advice I’ve gotten so far is to sit down and find your hot spot!” Links: www.ErikaKimberly.com, Twitter.
14. Maureen Mancini Amaturo: “1. Keep writing. The only writer who never succeeds is a writer who quits. 2. Write scenes that show, don’t tell. Let the action happen and the reader can feel it along with the characters. Make your writing real and take full advantage of the five senses in your scenes. 3. Get out there. Join writers groups, critique groups, classes, and attend writers conferences. Network. 4. …and the advice I give other writers, especially young writers, if you can speak, you can write. It’s a matter of letting the words to to print instead of voice. Write as you would speak. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that you are writing!” Links: Unicorn Writers’ Conference.
15.Frank Valbiro: “The best writing advice I ever received came from my editor, Pamela Palmer Mutino. She instructed me to always lock into a train of thought that focused on the human condition. No matter what the subject matter is, you need to find elements in a story that could be relatable to a reader who lived in the 21st century, or the 10th century. Jealousy, anger, hope, joy, love found, love lost, fear, irrational anxieties; it’s all relevant to living a human life at any point in our history. Quality literature isn’t dated.” Author of Phantasma, Jet Fuel Crucifix. Links: Amazon.
16. Lorraine Danza: “The best writing advice I’ve ever received was… ‘don’t be afraid to go far enough’ by Pat Gauch.”
17. Alicia Zadrozny: “My inner radio station is perpetually set to KFKD (as Anne Lamott coined in Bird by Bird.) It plays loudly. It reminds me of my failures. It doubts my abilities. It gets particularly deafening when I sit down to write. I’ve worked in publishing and journalism and have absorbed a lot of writerly advice along the way. The best of it tells me to turn off the chatter and just sit down and do it. The authors I most respect do this too. They are free of excuses. They are not free of neuroses exactly, but they have the ability to sit down and turn the down their radio stations to an acceptable level. So I try to do the work of a writer and just sit down and write. But I admit it still not very easy. Thankfully, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield landed in my path. In it, the author and screenwriter lays out that to destroy the inner beast of Resistance I must decide if I am a professional. Amateurs let themselves get distracted–they don’t do the work. Professionals show up to the job every day despite success and failure and soaring self-confidence and crushing self-doubt. After reading it, I decided that I will be a professional rather than an amateur. I will go to battle every day. I will write. Professionals can’t necessarily revoke KFKD’s license. But they can make it the least interesting programming of the day.” Links: www.aliciazadrozny.com.
18. Tiffany Fuentes: “The greatest writing advice I’ve ever been given came to me when I was desperate for guidance. I spent a year creating a manuscript and after it was done, nothing changed. Yes I worked hard, but only I knew the sacrifices that were made. The paper wasted and the sentences that repeat themselves from memory in different arrangement each time, because there are so many options, and the brain makes writing choices while actively considering other options. I thought about who was going to read my work and be honest with helpful feedback, but even those that know I write aren’t going to read thoroughly enough, even if I did give it to them. And so, writers don’t have enough time to read, and/or compare their pages to those of best selling authors, but why on Earth would they do that, but by this time, the only thing he/she can ask is, “What the hell am I doing?”
That was when John J. Herman brought me back.
‘All writers go through periods when they ask themselves, What am I doing? Yes, that’s a part of the trade. But there is no certain answer.
The world doesn’t NEED new novels, etc. We ultimately do it because we want to, I suppose. Because we think we’re not bad, have a little to say, enjoy the process while it’s going well, and don’t want our lives to seem entirely meaningless. The truth is, we all drown in the end, so we must do whatever the hell we please and some of us write books!”
Once you accept that you don’t have to actually do anything but survive. Everything else seems so much easier.” Links: www.tbagsbklyn.com.
19. Gayl Taylor: “The best writing advice I ever received was to write, write, and then write some more. Write every day whether it is 100 words or 1,000. Shut down the internal editor and don’t stop until you write ‘The End’.” Author of Ride a Cock Horse, Lady Luck, and co-author of The Hero Sandwich. Links: Facebook1, Facebook2, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon.
20. Max Ellendale: In writing this post, I realized I was one author short! So I figured I’d put in my two cents. “The best writing advice I ever received was given to me by Joanna Clapps-Herman and later John J. Herman. Both of these wonderful writers and teachers gave me a list of Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules for Writing Fiction. To this day, I refer to this list whenever I’m tackling a fiction manuscript. They are as follows:
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
Start as close to the end as possible.
Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 1999), 9-10.”
***
Thank you to ALL of the contributors to this post. Your advice and wisdom is a blessing. Whether published or not-yet-published, words from other writers and authors is an valuable source of motivation and encouragement. Today, I leave you with a bit of my own advice… no matter what you endeavor for in life, DO WHAT YOU LOVE so that you can love what you do.
Cheers,
Max
December 12, 2012
Unicorn Writers’ Conference
Here’s some information on the 2013 Unicorn Writers’ Conference. I’m hoping to attend this year. It looks like a great time!
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UNICORN WRITERS CONFERENCE is a non-profit organization that offers insight, networking, learning from publishing industry insiders sharing information not usually available to authors! This conference focuses on both the creative and career aspects of writing. VALUABLE FOR BOTH BEGINNERS AND PUBLISHED AUTHORS. Now in it’s fourth year, Unicorn has been featured in Writers Digest and has been sold out every year. Register early.
NAME: Unicorn Writers Conference
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 2013
TIME: 8 am – 8 pm, one-day conference
PLACE: Saint Clement’s Castle, 1931 Portland-Cobalt Road, Portland, CT 06480
(860) 342-0593
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: MATTHEW PEARL, New York Times and international best-selling author
• Breakfast, served, sit-down lunch, and after-conference networking party and appetizers
included. Full dinner included for a small additional fee.
• Keynote address
• 30 one-hour workshops offered, free to select which you want to attend during the day
• 26 Literary Agents on hand for panel discussions and networking
• Editors from top NYC publishing house
• Published authors from every genre will lead workshops on fiction, non-fiction,
children’s/YA, mystery,sci-fi/fantasy, humor, poetry, and more.
• Opportunities for 1-1 manuscript and query letter reviews with any of our faculty members,
agents, or editors. for an additional nominal fee.
• On-site book sale including titles from all featured speakers who will autograph all purchases.
COST: $275, includes all workshops, breakfast, lunch, appetizers, and networking party.
$325, includes all of the above plus full dinner
Go to www.unicornwritersconference.com or email Conference Co-Chairman, Maureen Amaturo, at m2g90@optonline.net for more information.
Can register on line now at www.unicornwritersconference.com for both the conference and 1-1 reviews.
Reserve early! These sell out every year.
During the conference day, attendees will attend the Keynote Address PLUS choose 6 one-hour workshops.
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Hope to see some of you there!
Cheers,
Max
December 6, 2012
December 2012
Happy December! I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the end of 2012 (not the end of the world though, I could sure do without that!). It’s been a stressful yet productive year. It’s been a bittersweet year filled with both success and hardship. I’ve set a few goals for 2013! The first is to continue building my mentoring and consultation practice. It’s going very well thus far! I’m excited to help new writers develop their ideas. My second goal is to get find an agent to represent my YA. I have to admit, I wasn’t diligent in my efforts this year to get it out there. And my last goal is to boost sales of Glyph and get book two out there! I also hope to make a big, long-awaited life change but that one is still on the maybe list.
Anyway, that’s it for me this December. My best to all of you and Happy Holidays!
November 28, 2012
Yes, Your Submission Phobia is Holding You Back
[Re-blogged from http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/yes-your-submission-phobia-holding-you-back ]
Yes, Your Submission Phobia is Holding You Back
By Michelle Seaton
If you’re feeling discouraged about your work, I guarantee that your number-one problem is this: You aren’t submitting enough. I might not know you, but I know I’m right about this.
In 12 years of teaching at Grub Street, I’ve learned three truths about students:
They don’t submit enough, especially the most talented ones. Read that sentence again and then ask yourself how many times you’ve submitted something in the past year. Yeah, I thought so.
Many of my most talented students never submit anything. This makes me crazy.
The students who publish most often submit constantly, as though it’s their job, or their final year on Earth. And guess what? It works.
I think I know why you don’t submit: It’s easy to become so comfortable in the womb of the supportive workshop or writers’ group that the thought of having a cold eye cast on your work is paralyzing.
Also, we writers are expert liars. Here are the top three lies we tell ourselves.
Rejection is all powerful. You think rejection is proof that you have no talent or that the work is no good. Actually, the only thing a rejection proves is that you sent out your work. Good for you. I suggest you collect ten of these and then reward yourself.
I will submit this story soon, when it feels finished. No you won’t. For most stories and essays there is no moment when it will feel good enough. Submit before you feel ready. Like, today.
I’m afraid that my work will end up in a journal that’s not good enough. Right. Because keeping the work moldering in your hard drive for a few years is a much better fate for it. No one knows how prestigious a journal is or isn’t—except for those at the very top. So stop obsessing.
In my class on submitting essays, I insist on several things. First, that students submit each work to no fewer than 10 journals at once. Twenty is even better. Yes, journal editors hate this advice, so don’t tell any that I said to do this. But this is what you must do.
Someone in class always asks if they should read the journals before submitting to them. The short answer is no.
Should you be reading journals extensively? Yes. Should you subscribe to several? Yes. In fact, if you are a Boston-area writer and you don’t subscribe to one of the many outstanding local lit journals, well, that’s a crime. But right now we’re performing triage on your submission phobia, and the last thing you need is six months’ worth of homework with which you can procrastinate. Go to each journal’s website and look at the work that’s posted. For now, that’s enough. Want a great shortcut to compiling a list of journals to submit to? Visitwww.duotrope.com , which now lists nonfiction markets.
Second, I insist that writers have a boilerplate cover sheet into which they can insert the name of each new story, essay or poem and its length. An ideal cover sheet is short and perfunctory. Why? Because editors don’t read them. Your work speaks for itself.
Finally, I make writers sit down and set a date on the calendar—for this week—when they will submit a particular work.
Are you still reading this article? Stop now and start submitting.
Michelle Seaton has been an instructor with Grub Street since 2000, teaching such classes as 6 Weeks 6 Essays, Tour of the Essay, and Master Narrative Nonfiction. She is also the lead instructor and created the curriculum for Grub Street’s Memoir Project, a program that offers free memoir classes to senior citizens in Boston neighborhoods. Her nonfiction work has appeared in Yankee, Robb Report, The Pinch, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and on the NPR show, “Only a Game.” Her fiction has appeared in the Sycamore Review and Quiddity International Journal. She is the coauthor of The Way of Boys (William Morrow, 2009).
November 23, 2012
seeking authors to feature
