Kory M. Shrum's Blog, page 22

#Mondayblogs: Finding #Motivation When You're the Boss

As someone who is is charge of her own time (no start time for work, no children, undemanding live-in partner), it can be really hard to find motivation!

Too often I find myself thinking: "I don't have to be anywhere today! This isn't due today, so why don't I play Sims and watch Sense8 instead?" (I haven't actually started watching Sense8 yet, but it looks AMAZING!)

This great blog post by Leo of Zen habits got me thinking about this and the many faces of procrastination when dealing with "nonurgent" tasks.

If you're self-employed, self-published, or just a writer, it might worth a read.

So what do you do to create urgency? Well, here is what I did. I asked myself some questions:

Why does this book/project matter?Why is it important to me? What do I love about it? What is the COST of procrastination? The consequences?What’s stopping me from getting to work?
If you were to answer all of these questions about your current, task/project/book, it might provide some powerful insight into your work habits and as my charming mother would say "light a fire under your ass."
What do you do to motivate yourself when the deadline is nonurgent?

5 Fab #Free #Books #amreading

 Over 1100 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ reviews 

A phone call from an old friend sets Dr. Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mysterious manuscript he's hunted for over five hundred years. He never expected a young student librarian could be the key to unlock its secrets, nor could he have predicted the danger she would attract. 

Now he and Beatrice De Novo follow a twisted maze that leads from the archives of a university library, though the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation hundreds of years in the making. 

Kindle (FREE)  Kobo (FREE) Nook (0.99) 



On Sale For A Limited Time Only! 
Cameron Winters is a freak. Fortunately, no one but her family knows the truth …that Cameron can read minds. For years Cameron has hidden behind a facade of normalcy, warned that there are those who would do her harm. When gorgeous and mysterious Lewis Douglas arrives he destroys everything Cameron has ever believed and tempts her with possibilities of freedom. Determined to embrace her hidden talents, Cameron heads to a secret haven with Lewis; a place where she meets others like her, Mind Readers. 

But as Cameron soon finds out some things are too good to be true. When the Mind Readers realize the extent of Cameron’s abilities, they want to use her powers for their own needs. Cameron suddenly finds herself involved in a war in which her idea of what is right and wrong is greatly tested. In the end she’ll be forced to make a choice that will not only threaten her relationship with Lewis, but her very life. 
On Kindle (Free), Nook (Free), Kobo (Free), iBooks


Jeff Resnick hardly knew his well-heeled half-brother. But after suffering a fractured skull in a vicious mugging, he reluctantly accepts the fact that he has a long and brutal recovery to face--and his closest of kin can provide him with the time and place to do it.
Now, Jeff is haunted by unexplained visions of a heinous crime--a banker, stalked, killed, and eviscerated like a ten-point buck. When Matt Sumner's murder is discovered, a still-recovering Jeff realizes this was what he had seen. Jeff must not only convince himself of his new-found psychic ability, but also his skeptical brother Richard Alpert. Since Sumner was Richard's banker, both brothers have a stake in finding out what happened. With Richard's reluctant help, Jeff's investigation leads him to Sumner's belligerent family and hard-nosed business associates, none of whom want him snooping around.


Free on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks




Eric can't remember the recurring dream that keeps waking him in the middle of the night with an overwhelming urge to leave, yet he spends each day feeling as if he desperately needs to be somewhere. With no idea how to cure himself of this odd compulsion, he decides to let it take its course and go for a drive, hoping that once he proves to himself that there is nowhere to go, he can return to his normal life. Instead, he finds himself hurled headlong into a nightmare adventure across a fractured Wisconsin as the dream reveals itself one heart-pounding detail at a time. 
Free on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo


Also for a limited time visit  www.jeremybatesbooks.com  to receive a free copy of Jeremy's novella BLACK CANYON*** 

American movie star Scarlett Cox and her husband, hotel tycoon Salvador Brazza, head to Africa to get away and resuscitate their ailing marriage. When robbed of their money and passports, they seek help from the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam on the very day Al Qaeda chooses to bomb it. In an eyeblink they are taken hostage and whisked across the border deep into the Congo, one of the last truly wild places left on earth. 

Battling terrorists, deadly wildlife, and cannibalistic rebels, Scarlett and Sal must find a way to survive in a violent, primeval world. And the only person who may be able to save them is the assassin sent to kill them. 

Kindle, Nook, Kobo

#Recipes for Your #Vegan Sweet Tooth #amnotwriting

I was going to say something else about writing, publishing, or poetry. Then I thought nah! You know what this blog needs? SUGAR! That's right. I'm having a super sweet tooth attack right now. So instead of writing meaningful blog posts, I'm shoveling spoonfuls of ice cream into my mouth AND googling recipes.

Here are the five most promising ones I've found:

Raw Walnut Fudge

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough "Larabars" (totally making these for our roadtrip to Colorado next week!)

Smlove Pie (If Paula Deen--the chubby version--made vegan pies)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Creme--I rolled the cookies in sugar before baking. Because I'm hard core!

Lavender Lemon Cookies--ERMERGERD

Okay, so I'm drooling on myself.

Excuse me.

#Mondayblogs: Tom Wore Red. #amwriting #craft #description

Writers often have a penchant for describing clothing in their work. Tom wore a red shirt and jeans. Jack had a blue button down with rolled up sleeves. 
The only problem is that while color IS a vivid descriptor, it's boring as *&^%. 
You say: "But I want them to know what (s)he looks like Kory!" and I can't say too much because I'm guilty of falling into this kind description of clothing as well.
But let's consider this:
Perhaps it will be more useful to describe clothing that lends depth to the character. Make the clothes (or lack thereof) count.
What does the clothing say about a person? 
It can reveal their socio-economic status (thrift store T-shirts with
              peeling lettering)personal habits (stains, tears, missing buttons)personality (pants frayed a hem= doesn't care about details or is too
       poor/frugal to pay for tailoring. Beliefs or passions (sports jerseys, homemade sweaters by loved
       ones or self, WWJD/Namaste sayings, or geek/nerd references)How the clothes fit/condition (poorly because of sudden weight
       gain, or loss), wrinkles or pleats,        personal alterations such as a cut collar or a sown up whole can
       reveal personality traits
Any of the above tells us more about the character and what is going on with them--resulting in a far more interesting character development than just saying: "Tom wore a red and jeans".

#FridayReads: T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" #amreading #poetry

Recently someone asked me what I thought the best horror/fantasy poems were out there and I must admit I was totally stumped. While I rectefy that by quickly expanding my knowledge of great SFF poetry, I do want to share what my first gut reaction was to the question: "T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland'". It is a beautiful, apocalytic poem if I ever read one. And if you haven't, you need to read it yourself as soon as possible.

Here's the first section (it's roughly a 14-page poem) to start you off:

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering
Well, don't stop now. Read the rest.

Where Can I Submit My Short #Fiction? #SFF #amwriting

Here's to you SFF writers out there working hard for the money!



AE

Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Asimov Science Fiction

Buzzy Mag

Cemetery Dance

Clarkesworld

Cosmos

Crossed Genres

Daily Science Fiction

Escape Pod

Flash Fiction Online

Grantville Gazette

Lightspeed magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

Nightmare Magazine

Strange Horizons

Tor.com


Feel free to add your own in the comments! :)

Kory

Working the Tension in ALL. THE. WAYS. #amwriting #craft

One of the panels at the RT Booklovers convention hosted Patricia Briggs (amazing author of the Mercy Thompson series) and several other amazing women to talk about how to increase tension in your writing. Many things were said, but what I took away from this talk was that only you (as the creator of your characters) will know how to create tension in your own work.

Here are the questions you should be asking yourself (because only you can answer them). The answers will help you create tension in your writing:

1) What stands between your character and their goal?
2) What happens when two characters want the same thing or the opposite thing?
3) Is your character trying to reject their nature or embrace it?
3a) What are the repercussions of rejecting/embracing their true nature?
4) What happened in the past to create their present goal(s)?
5) What are your character's disadvantages in trying to reach their goal?
6) What lie does your character believe about himself/herself?
7) In what way is your character broken or flawed?
8) In what areas are your character(s) struggling to grow?
9) Put different characters together and see what happens. 
 a.) How do their personalities clash? 
 b.) How do their ambitions (or lack thereof) create tension?
 c.) If they must work together, what are all the pitfalls of that partnership?
 d.) If they oppose each other, in what ways do they sabotage the other's schemes?


Hope this helps! :)

Kory

June #writing #contests Part 2 #amwriting #fiction #poetry

June 19

Crook's Corner Book Prize

Cultural Center of Cape Cod Poetry Competition

Hollywood Book Festival

The Pen Factor's Boutique Writing Competition

The V.S. Pritchett Memorial



June 26

Oregon Literary Fellowships


June 30

Autumn House Press

Barrow Street Press

Bauhan Publishing May Sarton Book Prize

Chaucer Historical Fiction Contest

Cider Press Review Book Award

Metaorphose Fall Kick-off Contest

Knoxville Writers' Guild Annual Writing Contest

Glimmer Train Fiction Competition

William Van Wert Fiction Award

Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize

Lit POP awards

Individual Artist Grants for Women

The Moth Short Story Prize (International)

National Poetry Review Press Book Prize

Colorado Writers Creative Nonfiction Contest

Onidawn Book Prize

Parlor Press Poetry Prize

Red Hen Press Short Story Award

Katherine Anne Porter Prize

Drue Heinz Literature Prize

North Street Book Prize

Writer's Village Short Fiction Competition

ARRAN THEATRE POETRY COMPETITION

July 1

Bellevue Literary Review 


L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future ContestRichard J. Margolis Award

Tufts Poetry Award

Muriel Craft Bailey Award

Spring Travel Writing Contest

Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award

Clive Cussler Adventure Writer's Competition


SATURDAY EVENING POST GREAT AMERICAN SHORT STORY CONTEST
RICEPAPER’S FICTION CONTEST

#Mondayblogs: June (Part 1 of 2) #Writing #Contests #amwriting #fiction #poetry

So there is a lot of information here! And it can certainly be frustrating if your pocketbook will not allow you to enter every competition available to you. Therefore, I suggest that you think about what work you have ready (what is your best?) Submit those few perfect/near-perfect stories/poems to the competitions you like best or think are best suited--however many your budget allows. Also, don't forget that entry fees are tax-deductable, writers ;)

Good luck!

This list is arranged alphabetically and by deadline:

June 5
Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition


June 15

Bitter Oleander Press (poetry)


FenCon Young Authors Story Contest Apocalypse

Chronicles Short Story Competition
The Galtellì Literary Prize
TISHMAN REVIEW POETRY CONTEST











PULP FICTION’s The Hummingbird Prize for Flash Fiction

December Curt Johnson Prose Awards

New American Press Fiction Prize

New Rivers Press Short Story Award

Philadelphia Stories Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction

Ropewalk Press Chapbook contest

Towson University Prize for Literature

#Fridayreads: Happy Release Day to @beloveddust! #amreading #poetry

Look at this beauty!

Congratulations to Stephanie Bryant Anderson for the release of her debut poetry collection, Monoxygotic/Codependent. 

What the critics are saying:
In Monozygotic | Codependent, Stephanie Bryant Anderson’s poems are concerned with splitting the self and uncovering the woman beneath the familial myths. Yet the essential paradox for Bryant Anderson: when the self has a twin—a ‘shadow,’ a ‘dark-haired mirror girl’—what then of the split? These poems ache; in the style of Southern gothic, these poems are ‘filled [with] piano ribs, a slow blues loaded with heavy bees and suicide ghosts.’ Bryant Anderson’s are poems of survival, built in fragile and beautiful shell casings, stanzas deceptively elegant and delicate, for what pinions each graceful couplet is a fierceness of spirit, a deep-seated desire for life, always life, even in the midst of pain and memory, ‘shaped as an open field plagued by black irises.’ I am broken and remade by these poems. 

—Jennifer Givhan, 2015 Winner National Endowment for the Arts fellowship 


From the collection:

"The Hanging Field"

Though we never stopped, we stared
from the backseat of our car—our flat-bottom boat—at the body darting
from the end of a rope. I remember the road,its lines, yellow and broken, the crowd
and a cloud shaped like a hare.Now the field comes back into view:I’ve dreamt a horse into the field, or the horse
in my dream came to save me—notsome knight—but the horse,
and I climbed onto his back to keep fromsuffocating. But it was more than that—
I was trying to suffocate myself & this crazybeautiful horse came running into the field
and his wild body kept me from hanging.In the sky the scent of tobacco paraded,
and the magpies flew their black kites.
You can snag your copy here. (Already got mine, we can discuss soon!)


ABOUT STEPHANIE
She is the founder of Red Paint Hill Publishing. She has worked also as editor with Up the Staircase Quarterly, Inkception Books, and she served on the Editorial Board for The Manatee, Southern New Hampshire University’s literary journal. Nominated for Best of the Net, storySouth Million Writers Award, and twice for the Pushcart Prize, Stephanie is the mother to two amazing boys. Besides poetry she enjoys kickboxing and math.

You can find her on Twitter, Facebook or her website.