EMBLAZON: a new group of writers

Emblazon: a blog for writers of stories for tweens

Emblazon is a new group of authors who write for readers aged 11 to 14 has just launched a new blog dedicated to the art and science of writing for this special audience.

“Some call them upper middle grade; others call them low young adult. They’re somewhere in the middle and can lean either way. We call them Tweens,” the group states on its About page.

The members will post about some aspect of reading and writing literature for Tweens on the first three Wednesdays of every month. “The fourth Wednesday is your turn. That’s when we host a monthly feature called Tween the Weekends.”
As part of the launch, Emblazon is giving away signed paperback and e-book copies of stories by member authors for Liking the books and authors. Check out their Launch Giveaway page for details.
Good luck to the Emblazoners in their drive to “write stories on the hearts of children.”

Visit the blog at emblazoners.wordpress.com.

The Odyssey of this Writer

Hey y’all. My blog is named “The Odyssey of this Writer,” and it’s the story of how I became a fantasy/sci-fi/romance (combo) writer. At least for the current six-book series I’m doing. I post every Tuesday and keep it short. So follow if you dare and click if you like. It's gonna be a heckava ride. You're going to think I'm insane. (That is if you don't already) ;)
It's so weird how I got started being a writer. It will take a while to tell you, so I'll just divide it up so you only have a couple of paragraphs to read each week. I'll try to post on Tuesday mornings. Yesterday flew by so I'll start on a Wednesday.

I've always been a storyteller. And in case you didn't know, I've got the first book published from a six-book series called The Savior Project. The book is titled, The Chosen One and it's all from my dreams. The next five books are also from those dreams. Sometimes I'd wake up thinking these things really happened. I used to tell bedtime stories from those dreams to my kids when they were little.

Anyway, I always wanted to write. Even while at UVa in business school, I took some journalism classes and wanted to switch careers but I received some STRONG advice from family members not to become a starving artist type. So I waited 30 years to become the starving artist type.

So last week was the intro and I said I was gonna tell you how I finally began writing. This fellow was buying my car back in 2005 and while test driving it, with me riding shotgun, casual conversation led to the subject of “What do you do?” I went first and said I was in information technology.

The guy acted surprised saying I didn’t appear to be that type of person, rather an artsy/creative type.
I asked what he did and he said he was a writer. I said that I always wanted to be a writer.

“Really?” was his response. “Got something to write about?”

I said yes and proceeded to tell him the story of Chris Gates and the Savior Project – of course in an abbreviated form. Then I was telling him my baseball story and he stopped me and said, “Dude, you gotta write this stuff. It’s so new and fresh – not the rehashed crap that’s out there now.”

The fellow bought the car and I never saw him again. I was left with the thoughts and desire to write. I sat on that idea for a year and didn’t do anything except think about writing. One day in June of 2006, I hopped on my computer and made notes on all the different stories that I wanted to write. There were 7 stories with the Savior Project series being six books. I sat back and remembered that all of these stories had been dreams – dreams that I felt I actually lived in. So I took a whack at beginning the first book from the Savior Project series, The Chosen One. After I began the first few sentences, I found out something. That’s for next week.
Fritz Franke

Where to find The Chosen One in paperback and ebook: AMAZON;

BARNES& NOBLE 

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Two

                                                         

He stared into the bar room mirror, saw himself sitting at his left. At least  the two of them were still alive. Who could tell them apart! With a killer out there, he knew damned well, if the contract had a priority clause, he'd be written in it: "Take down Greg Wasser." Gregs 1, 2, 3, 4? Who the hell was counting! Truth was, as far as Greg Wassers went, the only targets left amounted to just himself...the real Greg Wasser...and Greg 4, the only clone to survive whatever psycho was out there murdering him an ego at a time.

"It's a woman," Greg 4 whispered, lips barely moving around the cigarette dangling from the corner of a handsome mouth. "So help me!  A woman!" he repeated.

Wasser wished he looked as good as his clone. So this is what I would've been if somebody had done a pre-natal spring cleanup, he thought to himself. The same wavy black hair I had till I was forty; dark brown eyes sparkling without the hassle of contacts or these glass-glare specs of mine; skin without wrinkles; full set of good strong teeth;  not to mention, at the rusty age of sixty, a sex life... 

"She's alone. No outfit. No agency. No lab. No strings. I got to Greg 3 just in time to catch his dying words: 'She wants Wasser's ass,' he mumbled. "Wasser's brass? Wasser's stash?  Wasser's... I kept asking. Just before he went flat-line, he repeated it  slowly, as clearly as dying  permits: "She...wants...his...ass." 

        

A woman! How ludicrous! Greg Wasser laughed. Here he had it all figured: he'd broken the law. Clone Excess. Big-shot billionaire notwithstanding, nobody, not even President Rodham, could opt for two clones. Wasser had four! Republicrats got wise and were out to fry him. That made sense, even though he'd kept the illegal clones undercover at Wasser Ozone Layer Inc. Even though he had single-handedly saved the whole frigging planet back in 2013 patching up ultraviolet poopholes in the sun net, which incidentally put a stop to further cancer outbreaks. Better than this? thought Greg Wasser. Four clones. Rodham's pissed. The AARP wants me dead. Walt Disney's rolling in his cryo-capsule. Okay. All the jealous, yellow-bellied, law-abiding scuzzbags in Washington and Tokyo. But a woman?

"Who is she?" he finally asked, then caught her reflection approaching.

When the gun exploded, Wasser knew what came out of it had ripped him apart.

His glasses fogged up. He could hardly make her out. Then her face appeared and with it came the best he could speak: "You!"  

"I couldn't resist, hubby mine. Look at those shoulders. That face! You outdid yourself, Gregor. You got careless. Should've quit with Greg 2. But Greg 4, now here's a hunk to kill for! A switch, Mr. Wasser Face. You go... without your billions!...and  your clone stays."

Greg nodded yes to dying.

                                                             #

The above story “Two” is one of 164 flashes in Flashing My Shorts by Salvatore  Buttaci, published by All Things That Matter Press, and available at Amazon.com in book, Kindle, and audio book editions. Flashing My Shorts, the perfect smorgasbord of tasty treats for everyone! http://www.amazon.com/Flashing-My-Shorts-ebook/dp/B004FN1V8S/ref=tmm_kin_title_0  

BIO

Salvatore Buttaci is an obsessive-compulsive writer whose work has appeared widely.  He was the 2007 recipient of the $500 Cyber-wit Poetry Award. His poems, stories, articles, and letters have appeared widely in publications that include New York Times,

U. S. A. Today, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, Cats Magazine, The National Enquirer, Christian Science Monitor, Adventure and Learning, and Red Room.

His latest collection of short-short fiction, 200 Shorts, is available in book and Kindle editions at

http://www.amazon.com/200-Shorts-Salvatore-Buttaci/dp/0984639241/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314991699&sr=1-1

A great seller since 1998, his book A Family of Sicilians… is available at

http://www.lulu.com/shop/salvatore-buttaci/a-family-of-sicilians-stories-and-poems/paperback/product-11022798.html

He lives happily ever after with his wife Sharon in West Virginia. 

Minding the store



Image by David Shankbone, courtesty Wikipedia Commons, used under
Creative Commons licence.



Hello. My name is Scott Bury and I’ll be your editor for the next two months.

As you read in the last post, Siggy is taking a sabbatical over the summer, going to Europe (lucky!) to visit family and finish her next book. And while she could have handled WGT from Europe (or the International Space Station or anywhere else with an Internet connection), she knew she needed a break from her routine.

So, I volunteered to step into the breach.

All for the art’s sake. 

How I’ll spend the summer

As the interim editor, naturally I plan to continue the pattern Siggy established in 2011: publishing the words of writers about the topics they want to write about. As it says on the “Become part of the Get-Together” page, we encourage you to contribute posts on any topic under the sun.

Over the past year and a half, a lot of writers (myself included) have written about the act and the art of writing, itself. A few have contributed poetry or excerpts from novels. Some have written about social issues, others about personal tragedies and triumphs, and still others have contributed recipes. (Is anyone else hungry?)

I want to continue this variety.

But first, who am I?

Some of you may have read my words on this or other blogs already. My own blog is Written Words, which focuses on writing and publishing, but also covers politics, society and communications technology.

I have contributed three or four posts to WGT over the past year and a half, too: some writing tips and the occasional diatribe about the failings of the commercial publishing industry. I am the author of two books now available from various e-tailers: The Bones of the Earth (a historical fantasy) and One Shade of Red (an erotic romantic comedy spoof).

And I’m a journalist and editor, too. You can find links to all this stuff on my blog, if you like.

Let's talk about you.

Enough about me. Now, let’s focus on how you fit into this picture.

WGT has always published the broadest possible range of perspectives, ideas and subjects. Publishing is not the same as it was, and WGT is a chance for writers to shake up the publishing world and the blogosphere!

At the same time, writing about the topics you’re most interested in for WGT will expose your work to a new, growing and exciting audience.

What we want

While the topic can be almost anything (nothing defamatory, libellous or obscene, but scandalous is okay — we’ll let you know if you’ve somehow gone beyond our boundaries), we do have some criteria.

• Your writing must be of professional quality, showing good structure, organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation and diction.
• Contributions should be no more than 800 words.
• Your submission must include
• a brief biographical note about you ("The Frankestein Monster was assembled by a madman in Transylvania, and currently lives somewhere in the Arctic Ocean with sled dogs and a frozen corpse. He is the author of seven books of rambling drivel, including The DaVinci Code.")
• links to your own blog, website, author page or somewhere we can see your other work
• links to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and/or other social media sites
•  a picture of you in .jpg format
• an illustration for the piece, itself, also in .jpg.

Email your contributions as attachments to me, scott.bury@iauthorsi.org.

I’m looking forward to reading your work.

This is going to be a fun summer!

Scott Bury

"The change will do you good"

 

Whenever I picked up the Irish Times at my local news agent’s, the owner would smirk, handing me some pennies back. “Here’s your change…The change will do you good!”
How about you? Are you afraid of change or do you welcome it?
Change affects all parts of life: political change, climate change, job changes; fashion & lifestyle are all subject to change; women know this because they go “through the change.” Some changes we humans have no control over—only our attitude towards it.
Some people hate change because of the uncertainty involved. Some find it easier to deal with the devil they know. The opposite isn’t desirable to me: being stuck in a rut, a predictable outcome, no change for the better? No thanks!
However this is not meant to be a philosophical treatise.  You may have noticed some changes to this website. Due to a two-month sabbatical that is taking me on another home swapping trip to Europe to see my family and hopefully finish my book, Scott Bury will mind the shop. He is a very experienced editor, published author and return contributor who kindly agreed to keep this website afloat in my absence. Now you can follow us on @WritersGT. Submissions will go to his email address for the time being. There have been some changes in layout.
What will not change is our mission statement to publish excellent content by bloggers and writers from around the world while providing a platform to highlight your work. The goal of WGT has been to offer exposure to readers through a growing network of dedicated authors who promote each other’s work. The more…the merrier: So tweet and network away to your heart’s content!
We all love comments! Don't hesitate to give us some feedback. Everybody needs encouragement!
Thanks to everybody contributing here and making this site a success. Wishing you a productive and safe summer,  I’m only an email away on the other side of the pond. Cheers!
Siggy Buckley 

A Poor Boy’s Love Song

 
What does it mean to me
All the fine talk
Of tender lotus buds simmering gently
Or of steamed chili peppers
Opened to find their hidden seeds

When my garden lies fallow
In the drought’s sweltering heat
When my land is lost to power and to greed
When there are cesspools
At the end of my street

What to me are honey drenched dates
That drip in sweetness
From sugared moments
When my hope is choked in terror
Buried in the drifts of dust and sand
And the olive trees die

In the rage of war and hate

What to me
Is the taste of ripened pears
Laid bare by hungering shank
When the smug of self satisfaction
Wreaks in the hallowed halls of banks
And destroys the honesty of leaders
Who only use their power
For privilege and for rank

All my journeys end in alley ways
Scribbled corners
Graffitied walls
And the ruins of concrete

But come here anyway
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you dream of me
Each night you fall asleep
Make this one moment’s lie
Sweet
Somehow make me want to be

c  5/21/13
Sandy Hartman

 So much turmoil in the world today.  It is time to write of one of the toughest issues that exists globally....unemployment and the lack of futures for so many young men. These youth will never reach their potential and we well never benefit from the loss of their talent and their work in our world. They hold our futures.  We will share their loss, no matter how indirectly.  What better calling for writers then to write of the great global issues that we as a people face.

If you wish to view the photos and slide shows as well as listen to the audio clip of this poem, you are invited to my web site at

www.eonwriter.com

Sandy Hartman

Sandy Hartman is a poet and blogger.
Member of www.NLAPW.org, Jacksonville chapter

Snippets of Meaning: an introduction to memoir writing

Welcome back to Philadelphia Writing!  In our last column I introduced you to the genre of memoir but I didn’t really explain the nuances of memoir.    Let’s get started.

Memoir writing proves to be a special genre as writers touch readers through shared experiences while providing the audience that none of us ever truly live in isolation.  As a craft, memoir writers enjoy the best of writing by applying fiction and nonfiction writing techniques to their prose.  Even better, a memoir can contain different types of genres such as essays, speeches, poems and even illustrations.   More historical types of vignettes that weave news and period-related events into a life story.

So the rules for writing a memoir are free and flexible so long as you tell a story about a time in your life where you can show readers growth or change.  However, what a memoir is not is a cradle to grave story of your life, that would be an autobiography.

A memoir focuses on a slice of life such as a time period, event, historical connection or life period and then teaches a life lesson or shows a change experienced by the author .   Memoirs serve as snippets of chances taken, adventures had and emotions experienced.   Well-written memoirs touch the reader at their deepest roots and evoke emotional responses such as humor, sorrow, conflict, or suspense.   Memoirs can be uproarishly funny or heartbreakingly sad or somewhere on this spectrum of emotion.    By combining the author’s stories with the elements of fiction, readers become fully engaged and can relish in a meaningful, well-told story.

As you write, your memoir will be able to answer key questions such as:

1. Why an event happened
2. How an event happened
3. What did the event mean or teach you?

Everyone has a story to tell, so before you run from the idea of writing a memoir, think in smaller snippets.  Most memoirists start with vignettes, or small life stories.  As their collection of vignettes grows, then the author starts to consider how or if there is a memoir hidden among the notebooks of little stories

Want to give this a whirl?  Use the following prompt to dig some potential memoir vignettes.

Describe your favorite childhood holiday.  Who was involved, what happened, where did it occur each year, what where the highlighs and lowlights?  How would you change the holiday if you were in charge today?

Our next edition of Phiiadelphia Writing will feature Philadelphia-based memoirist and artist Barbara Hammond.  You can preview Barbara’s work at the Blogstress Network.

For more information on memoir writing, contact Cheryl Stahle at cherylstahle@gmail.com or       Facebook @Your Best WritingGroup.