Paying it Forward
Roxie's Blog: a site for writers, artists and illustrators, songwriters, and others seeking submission venues plus thoughts and snippets of interest
Sunday Funny: Happy (or not) Mother’s Day!
As my family awaits the first grandbaby, I think about my daughter and her future Mother’s Day gifts…I extend this to all moms, tongue in cheek, of course!
Need a last minute gift? “Wrap an empty box as a present, with a note inside that says, ‘Fill me, please.’” Details…
The cards you wish you could give, “Happy Mother’s Day to my mother-in-Law…Here’s to another year of fake smiles, passive-aggression, and barely tolerating one another.” Not that this suits anyone you know. More cards…
What you’re likely getting for Mother’s Day, from the family, “…age 12-17, aggressive indifference…” How about some suggestions for moms with rebound kids, taking a page from literature, “Hamlet’s Gertrude: Take [thy] clingy son out of [thine] house…” Read more…
In closing, the final word comes from Bridget, mother of two sets of twins, with her excellent post on what not to give on this special day for moms…
Happy Mom’s Day!
review seeks essays
The Vocabula Review
Seeks “…essays about issues related to the English language, culture, and society.”
categories accepting: personal essay, poetry, newsworthy, book excerpts, etc.
rolling submissions
Also sponsor a writing contest
Read guidelines carefully, fee only if more than one entry
(scroll down to find contest box: click)
Top Twos-Day: Make it a double!
A day late and a dollar short? Make it two! Very short on both time and papery things these days. 
I’m tardy, guilty as charged, but I’ve been bizy, hear the whining? Though good busy, for sure.
Preparing, oh yeah, for my daughter’s baby shower, a week ago Sunday, despite the torrential rain and wind. She wanted a high tea, pictured above, and what my little girl wants, she gets, LOL. Hard to believe she’s now a mom-to-be.
And then there’s the meetings, oh my! Lawyers, web designers, authors, and others, to set up the publishing company. Plus the upcoming prep for the SCWW conference in a little over a week. Join us, if you’re in the area: register here.
Onward, to the two items of interest this week, which we can call Top Thursday, hmmm… doesn’t have the same ring, does it?
Here we go: Still the biggest news to cross my desk in the last eight or so days, O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference for Publishing (TOC) will sadly come to an end. Tim O’Reilly stated in his column, “For the past few years, we’ve been focusing on development of a platform code-named Atlas, and bringing that to fruition is central to our future plans. Atlas is a tool for collaborative writing (currently being used by authors of about two-thirds of the books in our pipeline), one-touch publishing in all formats (including print-on-demand), and an interactive online reading platform that takes full advantage of the digital realm.” Ahhh, so that’s what’s up their sleeve!
Also in the news: ta da…..my publishing company’s site is up, though we’re still modifying and constructing it! Our name is Sunscribe™. Come over for a quick preview and then we’d love to have you stop back for the official opening of submissions: I’ll keep you posted at
http://sunscribe.net
. The team pictures are not up yet, more fun than herding cats, gathering those bios and pics! So, *deep sigh* much to look forward to. We are proudly Forward Focused™ on Facebook and Twitter, stop by and say “hi”!
Just one more picture, before you go…
Sunday Funny: Shakespeare’s Swine
A very talented writer, of Shiteki Na Usagi , mentioned a must-see video. OOOOhhh, she’s absolutely right, totally worth your time.
You’ve never heard the THREE LITTLE PIGS like this!
If you’re in the South, why not stop by?
I’m getting ready to speak at the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop (SCWW) Intensive on May 18, 2013. If you’re in the area, I want to extend an invitation to you! This workshop, Bridging the Publishing Abyss, is open to anyone who is a writer, interested in becoming a writer, or may be curious about the process of writing and getting published.
This year we welcome four speakers: Jonathan K. Rice, an award winning author, editor and publisher of the Iodine Poetry Journal; Lee Q. Miller, author, historian and an adjunct professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology on Aging, Death and Grief at Winthrop University; Roxie Hanna, editor, publisher and ghostwriter who this year has launched a traditional publishing firm featuring children’s books, fiction and non-fiction including poetry; and Craig Faris, a seventeen-time published author of short fiction, one-act plays and thriller novels.
We offer sessions for poets, children’s writers (picture book to YA), memoirists, as well as fiction, and nonfiction writers. Sign up for up to four of thirteen one-hour sessions by visiting the website
http://www.rockhillscww.org/
.
The event includes lunch and is only $15.00. Feel free to pass this along to your friends who may be interested as well!
The schedule:
8:45 – 9:15 Registration and Opening
9:15 – 10:15 Session One
- Celebrating Life through Memoir part one: be sure to sign up for part two in Session Two
- The wrong way to get published
- Children’s Picture Book Perplexities
10:15 – 11:15 Session Two
- Celebrating Life through Memoir part two: be sure to sign up for part one in Session One
- Make your writing pop and grab attention
- Fabulous Fiction Falsehoods
11:15-11:30 break
11:30 – 12:30 Session Three
- Nuts and Bolts of Creating Legacy: an introduction
- Drowning the Agent
- How to get your poetry published
- Young Adult Enigmas
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch and Book Signing
1:30 – 2:30 Session Four
- The wrong way to get published
- How to get your poetry published
- Nonfiction Fibs
2:30–4:00 Book Signing and Readings by SCWW members
I’d love to see you there!
Roxie Hanna
Friday Pep Rally
image from office.com
Both as a country and individually, many have questioned the events in Massachusetts, Texas, and along the Mississippi River, plus countless other places worldwide with one word. Why?
Personally, I’ve been facing a quiet storm. One adviser and two other friends jumped on a band wagon to set up a ‘competing business’ under my company name. Why?
I don’t have the answer, to either of those questions. And honestly, I learned a long time ago, I may not find them. Life doesn’t come with a manual: “Flip to page 49, paragraph iii to address this issue.” But as sure as I’m writing this I will tell you, “Nothing is EVER wasted!” (Be sure you use this as a quote attributed to me, Roxie Hanna, k?)
My close friends know this mantra; tell me they hear those words in their own heads when they come across a situation that is unexpected or heartbreaking. I repeated the words aloud, swallowing the strength they offered, “Nothing is EVER wasted.”
Never one to theorize about politics, religion, or sciences, let me postulate that these events are connected. The commonality is people. People recovering.
So, after I saw interviews with those affected most by these instances, I gave myself a pep talk. “If folks can recover, and commit to a future, why am I even considering a moment of self-pity?”
I straightened my shoulders, picked up my proverbial pompoms and marched into the kitchen for a chunk of dark chocolate.
The name of the game is survival. For whatever time we have here. Chocolate is a survivor’s food. I AM a survivor. Of many things.
What does this have to do with writers?
Well, let me jump on my soapbox, pompom in each hand, “You can do this. No matter what reaction you face, situation that presents itself, or tragedy that plays out, you can and must continue on the path you started.” *waving pompoms*
You are a writer, and know that since, “nothing is ever wasted,” you can adjust
image from office.com
your attitude, edit your work, change your plot-line or whatever you need to do for success as defined by you. Nike has something, Just Do It! And don’t stop.
We’re in this together, person to person, shoulder to shoulder, come hell or high water, or both.
*Exhaling, one more shake of those fluffy puffs in your direction,* this concludes our pep rally this week, “Go YOUUUU!” *setting pompoms down*.
namaste,
Roxie
Top Twos-Day: spring has sprung
Tonight is World Book Night, where readers pass out paperback books to encourage reading. Are you participating? How you can be involved…
Now on to the top two items to cross my desk this week.
One of the major marketplaces to swap info, rights, and snipes is at the London Book Fair. Publisher’s Perspectives contributor Porter Anderson pulls the curtain back to reveal typical sniping, which may be shocking to newbie authors. Last year the attacks were focused on self-publishers, and this year, well you know you want to read it…
No brakes needed, on the Penguin Random House deal, as yet another approval stamp, from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Competition Bureau slips into place, according to Mark Medley at the National Post. More here… Just China is left, standing alone against the merger, for now. Catch the backstory about the EU’s approval and others…
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