shopify analytics ecommerce tracking
Walsh and Bolton Twitter Unconference Advertise Facebook Book Zazzle Search

Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time in Fall 2018

By 8 Comments

What are your submission or rejection goals for 2018? Inspired by Lit Hub’s 100 rejections per year post, I got 93 rejections 2017 and aim to cross 100 this year. Since my last contest roundup, I’m at 99 rejections for this year! Read my latest responses in the latest edition of The Rejection Quarterly.

This submissions season covers deadlines from September 1, 2018 through November 30, 2018. Fall is a great time to be submitting. As another academic year begins, many university-affiliated literary journals reopen their reading periods. Thanks to Literistic, Poets & Writers, Submittable Discover, and New Pages for many of these contests. This time, I focused a bit more on contests without fees and flash fiction, because my heart has been wrapped up in shorter forms lately.

Much like editors are looking for reasons to reject work, I want to focus on opportunities worth my time. Thus, my list of writing contests below includes reasons to submit to that particular writing contest. May you find a promising opportunity among this list and spend less time searching for where to send your exceptional work.

[Read more…]

Book Business: A Bookseller Interview

By 2 Comments

The book business is divided between two divergent yet synergistic entities: art and commerce. As authors, our stories are imaginatively composed, subjectively appreciated, and diversely interpreted. These qualities don’t particularly abide by Wall Street rules, but to make writing a vocation, the work cannot exist in a void. Whether we like it or not, there […]

Confessions from a Weary Writer

By 84 Comments

If my life were a reality show, this would be the part where I’d sit alone in a darkened room—just me and the camera. I’d speak in hushed, urgent tones. This is where I’d spill my guts and tell you my deepest darkest fears. Confession 1: My writing is at a low point, and I […]

How to Create an Unforgettable Author Visit

By 9 Comments

I don’t remember much about elementary school, but I’ll never forget the time my favorite author, Ann M. Martin, of Baby-Sitter’s Club fame, came to visit. As she stood before my second-grade class talking about her books and writing process, I hung on every word. I still remember the answer she gave when a classmate […]

Is Collaborative Writing on the rise? And Making the Most of It

By 6 Comments

There’s no disputing that social media has disrupted and changed, perhaps forever, the way we receive and deliver information. It has also changed how we read—and because of this, I think it goes without saying that it has influenced our stylistic choices as writers. But another phenomenon seems to be emerging, beyond style and digitized […]

The Mysteries of Creativity and Meditation

By 29 Comments

Lately, I’ve added meditation back into my writing routine. Wait. Before you click to the next thing, hear me out. Meditation doesn’t have to be strange or alternative or hippie. It’s just a tool, a way to discipline your mind. Writing fiction is a mysterious process. We all know this. We might not be comfortable […]

The Editor’s Clinic: Balancing Character and Situation in your Hook

By 6 Comments

Once again this morning, we’re looking at how best to draw your readers into the story.  Broadly speaking, there are two ways to do it.  You can give your readers a gripping situation with dramatic possibilities.  Or you can give your readers a character they want to get to know better.  And as usual in […]

mersin escort