Writing Life: The Short Shot

I had written short stories for classes or if someone invited me to write one, but I had never thought about writing for the short story market until about a year-and-a-half ago when I was asked to teach a dystopian fiction class to teenagers focused around producing a short story.

I always write with my students and use the development of my own story to demonstrate the creative process. I ended up creating something in my first dystopian fiction class that I really liked and thought there might be a market for the story.

I started reading more short stories on line, attending short fiction readings, and picked up several speculative fiction anthologies, and you know what? There’s some really interesting work out there.

Many people, including myself, romanticize novel writing and make that their number one goal. But it can take years to finish a novel to satisfaction and years more to see it in print. Short story writing can be extremely satisfying because one can finish a short story in a matter of weeks or even days with genuine focus.

You need to write as much as possible to hone your skills, and short stories allow you to explore numerous ideas and worlds and characters without too much of a commitment. It’s much less tragic to toss a short story that isn’t working then to trash an entire novel.

Getting short stories published is also a great way to keep your work in the public consciousness before your novel is published (or between novels being published). Sometimes it can take a while, but generally short story publication happens much quicker. For instance, I submitted to the Futuredaze anthology in June, was accepted the following month, and the anthology will be published in February 2013. From first draft to publication was less than a year. How many can say that about a novel that wasn’t self-published?

The best part? You don’t need an agent to submit to most publishers of short stories. And, unless it’s an “invitation only” anthology, publishers will put out calls for submissions, often inspiring the writer with themes for their magazines and anthologies (Canadian Zombies! Doppleganger Dragons!)

There are also paying markets. You won’t see advances and royalties, but you’ll get paid for your words and rights revert back to the author upon publication, so if you love your characters and your story and want to expand it into a novel later on, that’s your prerogative.

Or you could choose to self-publish “ebooks” of each of your short stories at .99 a pop if you want.

Pretty sweet.

If this inspires you and you want to check this world out, here are some recent calls for short stories in the paid market:

http://www.clockworkphoenix.com/#guidelines

http://stonethreadpublishing.com/contests/

http://gabrielle-edits.com/hero2_open_submissions/

If interested in finding these markets, subscribe to yahoo groups CRWROPPS (Creative Writers Opportunities List and Duotrope (soon to be a paid listings @ $5 / month) to keep abreast of new calls for work.

And please feel free to post links to any calls you’ve found lately!

Light Letter of Unsubscription

Light Letter of Unsubscription

In honour of my decision to GET and STAY FOCUSED, I have been unsubscribing from the many distracting e-mail lists I’m on. Some are lists my conscience thinks I *should* be on, but have not made the time to read (I like to say “have not made” the time to read instead of “have not had” the time to read to recognize that how I spend my time is always my choice).

Yes, I still want to save the planet. Unsubscribing from the oil spill relief newsletter will not make me a bad person. In the past, I would see those emails in my inbox and then file them for later digestion. They’ve been piling up for months. But did I sleep better knowing they were available for immediate retrieval? No, I slept worse because they became part of the Pile-of-Unread-Unrearched-Information-Vital-to-Making-Me-a-Better-Person pile. (And let me tell you, that pile was only 1/2 the size of the Great-Unfinished-Projects pile.)

Getting rid of all that guilt and responsibility is freeing me to be more focused on what I love to do, which makes me a ray of sunshine to deal with, which can only make the planet a safer place for all (including the environment, because when I’m happy I ride my bike more).

Each time I went to unsubscribe to a newsletter, it always asked for a comment about why I wanted to unsubscribe. I used to write some generic b.s. if anything at all.

So, instead, today when I unsubscribed (hoping to bring a smile to the face of the minimum wage worker whose job it is to record, collate, and write a report about why people unsubscribe from their site) I did something like this:

Please take a moment to tell us why you chose to unsubscribe:

It’s not you, it’s me. It’s tearing me apart to leave you this way. I’m just focusing elsewhere right now and can’t be distracted by your seductive stories. Perhaps in a parallel universe, we can still be friends. Best of luck.

NOTE: If you are not good at letting go all at once, keep a list of all the enewsletters you unsubscribed from in case you ever want back on their lists.

Indie Bound, Indie Books

Last year at a writers’ conference, a small press publisher was giving a talk and mentioned that her press doesn’t sell their books at Chapters (or Borders or Barnes and Noble). You could see the audience of writers collectively twitch. What did she mean? How could her press afford NOT to have books at any of the major chains?

The issue is, that they cannot afford TO sell them there.

She explained:

Borders has over 500 stores. Lets say that they require you to send 5 books per store. That’s 2,500 books. And lets say only 2 books sell per store and they return the rest (to make room for new titles). Guess who pays for the shipping BOTH ways. The indie publisher. Not only that, the returned books are very often damaged. If this indie publisher only comes out with 3-4 titles per year it will most likely LOSE money by selling at major chains… unless they garner a major hit. And garnering a major hit is difficult for an indie publisher that can’t afford to have a separate marketing department. There might be only 2 people doing all the work.

Most people know there is a huge discrepancy between indie music and film production and the big budget music and film producers. The same holds true for the book industry as well. The internet has leveled the playing field for the indie music scene (you can create a grassroots movement online through MySpace) and technology has made it much easier to make a film for under $1 million dollars. However, it’s still extremely difficult to get your indie film into major theaters because all the space is taken up by big budget films that have major marketing campaigns. Let’s face it, indie filmmakers usually blow their wads making the actual film and can’t compete with the $20 million advertising budget of a large studio. Heck – it costs $500 just to get one bus shelter ad in Vancouver.

Internet distribution models and Print on Demand publishing have leveled the playing field somewhat for indie publishers. Especially since so many people buy books on line (it’s not like shopping for clothes, you want a book, you buy it)… but still, the discrepancies are there and because of the economy, many larger publishers aren’t taking risks on new writers.

Indie publishers are a wonderful service to up-and-coming writers. And Indie Bookstores are a service to the indie publisher and indie author, often supporting local and regional writers in ways that Borders or Chapters don’t. I remember the irony of being a featured reader at an event set up at Borders Books. I couldn’t get my books into that store. I asked them why not? I was doing a reading there, after all. I was told they didn’t deal with small presses.

I’m writing this today to remind folks that writers and publishers have to start somewhere. They have to be able to find homes other than just on line. They need places to read and interact with the public and stores that will support their work. Not everyone can get the publicity of Stephanie Meyers or Stephen King. Indie bookstores can also supply material for niche markets… like Banyan Books (spiritual/personal growth books) or KidsBooks.

I’m not saying don’t ever step into a Borders or Chapters ever again. Just think about exploring your local indie booksellers so that you might discover something new. Indie bookstores means more choice, more diversity, not just buying what the big pub houses want us to. They also put money back into the local community. I read somewhere that 20% more of your money stays local when you shop at an indie bookstore.

A great place to look for indie bookstores is INDIE BOUND, an online community of indie booksellers and other indie businesses. It’s also a great resource if you’re an indie author planning a book tour, because you can pick up the phone and talk directly to the person who can help you set up a reading. And they will even carry your books on their shelves… possibly as a featured author.

The Best Year of My Life… Seriously?!?

If someone told you that you could have the best year of your life, would you

a) fold your arms across your chest and go, “oh yeah? okay, give me the best year of my life.”

OR

b) jump up and down excitedly and shout, “awesome! what do I need to do? Tell me and I’ll do it!”

If you answered A, then this post isn’t for you. Well, actually it is for you, but you’re not ready. So, bugger off. Go on.

Okay, now that those A people are gone…

I think most people tend to want the outside world to make them happy. If only THIS would happen, then I’d be happy. I learned a long time ago that it’s the other way around. I have to get happy first.

A friend of mine desperately wants to find a partner. She’s even said to me, “oh, it’s easy for you, you have a husband.” I nearly burst a gut laughing. Yes, I just found a husband and suddenly life was great! I told her marriage is hard work and I’ve fantasized about the freedom of being single. I know plenty of unhappy married people. She wasn’t too appreciative when I told her that she needed to get happy first. Then she’d find the perfect husband.

Think about it… happy people make happily married people. Grumpy, bitter, resentful people… not so much.

The most important thing I’ve learned over the past several years is that I am the one responsible for my own peace and happiness. Stuff might happen out there, stuff that I consider bad, hurtful, wrong, immoral, but I am the one in charge of how I let it affect me. And, more importantly, how I let all those righteous feelings stop be from getting what I say I want.

I am in charge of my own success. I am the only one standing in my way. Trust me, if you made an effort to honestly look at how you stand in your own way, and then really get out of your way, I bet you’d be more successful then you could ever imagine. The ways I get in my way are sneaky ninjas. I have denied, justified, blamed, and made excuses. Many of those excuses I didn’t even REALIZE were excuses because I thought they were the truth.

In Debbie Ford’s book The Best Year of Your Life, she challenges readers to get out of their own ways and create the best year of their lives for themselves. My GBF and I took her up on that challenge. But preparing for this new best year took some time.

The first chapter is on setting your intention. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. It took us a week after we realized what a huge responsibility we are. Having this intention and being committed to that intention meant for an entire year we could no longer blame anyone else for anything. Not only did we have to stop denying the ways we sabotaged our own success, we had to do something about it. We had to take action. There would be no excuses.

One of the things Debbie tells readers to do is to post notes all over the house that say “this is the best year of your life” as a reminder. Did you just cringe a little? Yeah, me, too.

Most people live with other people. And a lot of the time we care about what they think of us. And sometimes we don’t do things just because they might think we are stupid or silly. As I was showing my GBF the signs all over my house. I pointed to one in my bedroom and said – I hesitated with that one. You know, cuz Baby might think I’m being silly.”

“Would you rather he think you’re being silly or would you rather be happy?” he asked.

The sign is still on my nightstand. There’s one on the refrigerator, too.

Start the Year with Kindness

Several years ago I had the privilege of working for Puget Sound Community School in Seattle, WA. At that time, the school was only a few years old and had no fixed address. Classes were held in different places on each day of the week (from a retirement home to a community centre to a church to a frat house). Mondays we had field trips and/or community service and on Fridays students had mentorships in the community. There were no grades. Discipline happened democratically. The kids were amazing. I was having so much fun I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to work for them.

The founder and director, Andy Smallman, is a visionary educator, although I don’t know if his down-to-earth nature would call it anything other than passion. And his passion is contageous.

While I was working there, Andy facilitated an online “Kindness Class” – a way for the larger community to be involved with the school’s program. The assignments involved committing random acts of kindness and then sharing and discussing them.

He hasn’t run the class in several years and was inspired to bring it back last fall. Little did he know that when he did, the idea would spread around the globe!

We promoted [the Kindness Class] here and on the PSCS Facebook page. The idea spread and 250 people signed up. Steve sent a press packet about it to The Seattle Times. Their education reporter, Linda Shaw… came out and did a story (http://tinyurl.com/yct838d) that appeared in last Sunday’s paper. Local TV station channel 13 then did a quick news story on it last Sunday night (http://tinyurl.com/kindnessQ13 & http://tinyurl.com/KindnessQ13-Take2).
…I have been made aware by people interested in joining future classes that the Times article has been featured in newspapers in Raleigh, NC (http://tinyurl.com/y9o8n45), Greensboro, NC, Jasper, AL, Dayton, OH, Springfield, OH, Ontario, Canada, and likely others. It’s also making the rounds on Twitter, most notably having been “retweeted” by Deepak Chopra. And today it became the “Idea of the Day” on bestselling author Dan Pink’s blog (http://tinyurl.com/y8goczb). I’ve had people from as far away as Australia ask to join.

He had such a great response that he decided to run it again this term. I was so thrilled for Andy and PSCS that I signed up for the class, too. And, it’s not too late. YOU can sign up, too. It’s completely free:

…the idea is pretty simple. Each Sunday night I’ll post that week’s kindness theme via email and on a special blog set up for our class. Your job is to consider the theme and, in a way that is meaningful to you, act on it. After completing your act, you go to the blog and post what you’ve done so the rest of us get to learn about it. Imagine each of us interpreting the same theme each week in our own way and spreading ripples of positive action out in the world. It’s a revolution of kindness…

…As a virus, your acts will impact (some might say inspire) others, even people outside of the class. Being mindful, you’ll start noticing more of the kind things happening around you. You’ll become happier, more peaceful. You’ll sleep better. You’ll exercise and eat better. You’ll feel great. You’ll infect others with optimism.

How’s that sound for a way to start off the year?  Interested? E-mail Andy at pscs@pscs.org.

Or, Check out the PSCS Kindness Class BLOG.

Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness.

Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

-Scott Adams

3:15 August 3, 2002

The 2009 experiment is almost here. I’m feeling nostalgic. I’m posting one of my faves from experiments gone by…

Join the 3:15 Experiment Facebook Group to stay in the hypnagogic loop.

from August 3, 2002
Seattle, WA

cherry blossom midnight
sneaking spoons in the
dark hollow cherished
far too many words to
not describe my heart-break
it breaks itself you know
it erases its own glee
tumbling like laundry lists
believe that memory
believe that gesture
don’t believe your eyes

touch is like grapefruit
round and sensitive
the eyes     two
vulnerable moments
of now
my god doesn’t like
traffic lights

or marshmallows

my god knows something
about picket lines
and visits to the dentist

I want more of less
much more of less
dwindling down into a single
current of          sleep
not darkness          something
lucid and malleable

perhaps I am not a poet after all
perhaps           I am a

mailbox

There is no solution
to
this mathematics

Going on a Crone Cruise!

I’ve signed up to take a cruise to Alaska with a bunch of women over 40. I’ve never considered myself a cruise person before, but I couldn’t pass this up when I heard about it.

Dara Marks, script analyst extraordinaire, will be leading a women’s writing workshop during the cruise.

We’re leaving from Seattle on August 28th if anyone would like to join us! The early bird rate is in effect until June 15. More info below.

Engaging the Feminine Heroic – August 28 – Sept 4, 2009

FTX Events is proud and pleased to announce a unique opportunity for women writers who have dared to pursue something in the creative realm and would enjoy some pampering aboard a CRUISE TO ALASKA this summer! This writer’s retreat is for anyone who might be looking to deepen their storytelling skills and uncover some of the mysteries surrounding our shared experiences of maidenhood, marriage, childbirth, menopause, crone wisdom and dying. Dara Marks, a best selling author of ”INSIDE STORY” and renowned Hollywood script analyst is an extraordinary women who has much to offer and she has teamed up with another very talented woman Deb Norton, who is a writer, actress, teacher and the Artistic Director of the award-winning Theater 150 in Ojai, California.

Limited Space Available.
Contact (604) 873-0277
or marcy@ftxevents.com

2009 Women in Film Festival Recap

The 4th annual WIFF is over… the curtains are drawn… and Vancouver sits in a thin blanket of snow. It’s a great day to rest and recuperate.

I know I’m totally biased… but I think the WIFF is one of the best film festivals around. It’s not just the great films, it’s the networking/socializing, community-building, commraderie. That and just plain nice people attend the festival. The venue is great for hanging out in between screenings.

Some highlights (too many to mention!):

I mentioned The Baby Formula in my last post, which was quite fun. I also enjoyed Carl Bessai’s Mothers and Daughters. In it, six of Canada’s top actresses improvised their lines using only skeletons of stories to portray the interwoven lives of three mothers and daughters. What a gift to have Gabrielle Rose, Babz Chula, and Tantoo Cardinal all in one film.

This gem was a true collaborative creation. Instead of having a writer, it had six actors who worked with Carl to shape the narrative. They also used real places of business and real people to interact with while filming. It was quite the guerrilla operation, and apparently an editing nightmare because each take was different. They put it together beautifully, though, and the stellar acting is worth it alone.

The fascinating film The Girlfriend Experience directed by Ilianna Pietrobruno follows (in mocumentary style) a man obsessed with prostitutes. When he falls for one, his life behins to unravel. As one would imagine, his exploits destroy his relationship with his girlfriend. The actor David Lewis is totally convincing in this raw film Sexually graphic, in case you couldn’t guess.

Short films that caught my eye:

Liminal: Ina and Joy are naked and locked in a battle of elimination. Intense and theatrical. (I met the director, Stephen Mills, he was quite lovely and had come up from L.A.)

My Name is Pochsy – What a treat. Director (and cult comedienne) Karen Hines’ first film is getting critical acclaim. Totally original, dark and funny. Shot beautifully on Super 8. Basically, it’s a character sketch… but so much more.

Roast Beef – What is it with the Quebecois? As filmmakers, they always come up with something off center. I would never say I’m a huge fan of “dance” films. They have to be something really original. This one takes place in a butcher shop… where a customer gets down and sexy to the tune of the meat being chopped and wrapped. So well done.

Another dance film, 30-Love (but you don’t even realize it’s a dance film… it’s a dance disguised as a tennis match), chronicles the demise of a long distance relationship. Quirky, just like the writer/director Alison Beda.

Bummed I missed: 50 Dead Men Walking by writer / director Kari Skogland. I was volunteering that night and missed the opening, and I didn’t want to go in late. I heard from the audience that it was excellent, so I’ll put it on my list.

Day Two Women in Film Festival

I had the romantic notion that I would live-blog some of the events at the Fourth Annual Women In Film Festival, but I’ve been too busy!

Yesterday was the festival’s first New Media Day and I was one of the principle organizers. (Here’s a tip if you’re ever organizing an event… don’t put yourself as the moderator on the first panel of the morning! Leave that to someone with a fresh brain.)

The Media Day included four panel discussions, an interactive exhibit, application demos, and a networking party with free beer from Molsens. Yay free beer! We had a social media team who actually DID live blog and tweet the event, so if you want to hear more… check out these links from:

miss604

hummingbird604 - twitter feed on monetization panel
hummingbird604 – ” ” social media how to
humingbird604 – ” ” getting your feet wired

Monica Hamburg’s Me Like the Interweb

Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun tech-blogger

As well as our NMD BLOG

After New Media day was over, and we were all buzzed, we transitioned into the opening night’s film, the Vancouver premiere of The Baby Formula, a mocumentary about a lesbian couple who, through an experimental scientific process, make sperm from their own stem cells and get pregnant with each others’ babies.

Although a few supporting characters bordered on cliche, the great performances, dialogue, and direction made them work. It’s a really fun film. I laughed, I cried. And the crazy part is that the actresses were actually pregnant  during the filming… one of them had their water break on set.

I’m a new guest blogger at Do Something Different

It’s a bit of a local space for Vancouverites… but you can now check me out over at Do Something Different.

Designer Larry Ho started the blog because he’d “had enough of the same streets, the same watering holes, the same uninspired ideas for quenching boredom.” And he wanted to remake his version of Vancouver by “diving into its pool of live performances.”

Starting in April my shtick at DSD will be about organizing guerrilla performance art. The idea is to create something communal and temporary. Something along the lines of this:

Check out more from IMPROV EVERYWHERE. Good times.