Women on Writing - WOW and WOW!
Women On Writing is an online magazine and community for women writers. Among major topics are novel writing, indie publishing, author platform, blogging, screenwriting, and more. Lots of contests and general jocularity sans frittering on the part of Earth's most powerful humans.
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Today I'm excited to interview Karen Ingram, one of the runner-ups for the Spring 2021 Flash Fiction writing contest. Be sure to read her story IED first, and then come on back to read our interview. First, more about Karen: Karen Sarita Ingram is half Kentuckian, half German, and proudly 100% Army Brat. Her first published story, “The Suicide Artist,” was featured in Touchstone Literary Magazine’s Spring 2012 issue and won the Best Undergraduate Writing Award at Kansas State University’s English Department the same year. When she’s not demanding to speak to your manager, Karen enjoys science fiction and video games. Against her better judgment, she currently resides in T…
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When Chitra discovered a stray cat in need of help, she never thought they’d wind up saving each other. Struggling to come to terms with an unexpected diagnosis, Chitra returned home to Oman seeking a sense of familiarity. What she discovered instead was a very special cat who changed her life. But First, Rumi is the story of how, day by day, Rumi and Chitra got to know one another, and as she learned to love the little stray, she began to see greater life lessons about herself, her family, her home country and her place in the world. What unfolds when girl and cat meet? What happens when you follow your heart? What if the world is not as it seems? Is it worth taking a c…
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by Penny Wilson We writers all go through the same loop when submitting our work for publication. We write, submit, get rejected and repeat. I can handle that. Rejection is part of the process. Rejection makes you try harder and you learn from every rejection. There is a vast amount of differences for submissions! There are almost as many WAYS to submit as there are publications that accept them. *Some accept previously published pieces, others do not. Some consider a blog post as being Published, others do not. *Some charge reading fees, others do not. *Some places do not accept simultaneous submissions, while others do. *Some want your submission in a Word do…
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Gráinne Faller lives on the west coast of Ireland. Writing has always been part of her life, but she only recently drummed up the courage to start showing her work to anyone at all. This year she got a notable mention in the 2020 Cúirt Literary Festival New Writing Competition and had a story published in the Storgy Annihilation Radiation short story collection. She is currently working on a novel. In the real world she was a journalist for many years and now has her own communications company. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading too much, growing food and swimming in the Atlantic. This essay is dedicated to her coven of witchy mermaids, t…
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We are excited to announce the launch of another Save the Cat!® blog tour. If you are finally ready to outline your novel or screenplay, you'll want to follow along on this tour. We'll be talking about their Cracking the Beat Sheet Online Course and their Story Cards. First, what is Save the Cat!®? Save the Cat! provides writers the resources they need to develop their screenplays and novels based on a series of best-selling books, primarily written by Blake Snyder (1957- 2009). Blake’s method is based on 10 distinctive genres and his 15 story beats (the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet). Our books, workshops, story structure software, apps, and story coaching teach you everythi…
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We write a lot about success on this blog—last week on Wednesday, Cathy C. Hall wrote about the seduction of the spectacular. Sometimes, we're chasing the spectacular—an agent, the best-sellers' list, a no. 1 badge—and we don’t celebrate success of all kinds, like a published book with a smaller publisher or a story published on a website. I nodded my head the whole time I read Cathy's post because I'm the worst offender of this. I'll look at all I've accomplished so far and constantly be disappointed in myself that it’s not enough--there aren't enough reviews or followers or national publications on my bio. I had a book review column in the Sunday edition of The News-Ga…
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Recently, I sent my story around on a critique forum to get feedback, and one piece of feedback I received stopped me in my creative tracks. They accused my story of being boring. Worse, I believed them. I re-read the story and thought, good grief they are right. I almost overhauled the whole thing until I received a rejection letter. My story - yes, the one I planned on changing completely - had been rejected. Yet, something in this rejection made me pause. It made me wonder if that other person had been wrong. You see, the rejection was positive. It said, "It was good; it just wasn’t a perfect fit for the issue." Now, I know from my past experiences that receiving a pe…
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Picture of My Office (my intimate space) I just finished an interview that you may have read - but it brought to light a fun idea. Whether you are a writer or a reader, take a moment to ask yourself this question: Is there some space, person, or something in my life I know intimately ? Of course there is - right? It might be your shower - you put the shampoo in the exact same place every single time. You could find your razor in the dark with your eyes closed. The soap always smells the same. Even with soap in your eyes, you could find the towel bar, right? Maybe it's your spouse - the patch of hair on his chest, the gentle sound of her breathing just moments before the…
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Back in December, I wrote the following in an Instagram post: Here’s something you need to know about creative people. We have notebooks all over the place filled with our ideas and scraps of projects. We drink a lot of caffeine. We have periodic bouts of insomnia because we can’t turn our brains off. We get discouraged when we can’t see immediate results from the creative process. We drive our loved ones crazy. But is who we are, and we can’t change that. Nor would we ever want to. There are times when my brain is flooded with ideas and I can’t keep track of them. And then there days when I feel I don’t have a creative bone in my body left. The problem is that I strugg…
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When I wrote the title of this post, I thought when everyone reads it they will say to themselves, "One word for 2021 is BETTER!" Well, yes, let's hope. Fingers crossed. But this is my annual New Year's post about how I have given up a bunch of S.M.A.R.T. goals and resolutions; and since 2016, I have been choosing one word for the theme of my year: Organization, Peace, Calm, Grow, Create, and now... FINISH! Yes, my word for 2021 is FINISH. Since last year's word was create, it makes logical sense that this year's word is finish--"How about finishing some of that stuff you created in 2020, Margo?" (That's what my brain said to me on January 1, 2021 this year.) I have so …
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Seetha’s Bio: Seetha Nambiar Dodd grew up in Malaysia, surrounded by Enid Blyton books. She studied English Literature at university in the UK, and now lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and three children in a chaotic adaptation of Five Go Adventuring Again. Seetha writes creative nonfiction on her blog and was inspired by the Australian Writers’ Centre to try her hand at flash fiction. Her prose, poetry and freelance articles have been published in anthologies and on various online platforms. The pieces she is most proud of are the ones that honour and celebrate her family, who gave her roots, wings, and the confidence to fly. Seetha has had Honorable Mentions…
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Like you, I keep up with the blog posts here at The Muffin, and when I read a few recently—namely, Jeanine DeHoney’s A Writer’s Prayer for Serenity and Sue Bradford Edwards’ 3 Steps to Developing that New Writing Habit—something clicked in the dark recesses of my memory. Hadn’t I written something similar? It took a while to find the blog post (I knew it had something to do with writing but as you can imagine, that was not a helpful key word for my search), but eventually, it popped up on the screen: Just For Today, For A Writer. It ran right here on The Muffin in January of 2013. 2013! That was eight years ago. Well, firstly, I was pretty darn impressed that I rememb…
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Over the past few months I’ve been thinking about my leadership style, and after reading an article my husband plucked from his files and gave to me, I’ve figured out I aspire to be a servant-leader. Servant leadership was coined by an author and business consultant named Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970. He first began formulating the idea after reading a novel about a mystical journey by a group of people on a spiritual quest. A servant-leader is one whose primary motivation is “a deep desire to help others.” Here are 10 characteristics of a servant-leader: Listening intently to others. Having empathy. Helping oneself and others to heal. Awareness in understanding issues i…
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Caroline Flynn writes lovely romance books that are clean and sweet! So she's the perfect author to feature, as we get ready for February, the month of love and romance! Caroline is a Canadian writer from Northern Ontario. She doesn't have to imagine what small-town life is like--she lives it every day. Caroline loves everything book related, whether it's reading them or writing them, and she's the dog-mom of an eccentric brindle boxer named Jazz (who makes a special appearance in one of her books, The Forget-Me-Not Bakery!). Caroline uses her coffee addiction to fuel her writing passion, and the truth is, she can't imagine devoting her life to being anything other than a…
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Late in 2020, I prepped to write a middle grade science fiction novel. Because I read a lot more fantasy than science fiction, I knew I needed to compile a reading list. I found very little for this age group so I asked book fans and writers. I found online lists composed by reviewers and librarians. I requested a dozen recent middle grade novels and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. After I read the first contemporary novel, I examined the others. Every book was a boarding school story on another planet. Harry Potter goes to Mars, etc. Why oh why was the only unique recommendation War of the Worlds? And why didn’t science play a bigger part in these books? I also…
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If you listen to a Jason Derulo song, or some of Lady Gaga’s songs, you’ll notice their name appears somewhere in the lyrics. Derulo puts his name right in front, at the beginning. Gaga’s name might be missed, if you’re not listening carefully. After all, it’s only two syllables and often, it blends in seamlessly with the chorus. Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah! Roma-roma-ma! Gaga-ooh-la-la! Want your bad romance! Shameless, right? I mean, it’s so brazen to just put your name out there, like a miniature billboard, correct? Wrong. Both Derulo and Lady Gaga are simply promoting themselves… and promoting themselves is something that writers need to do (or do more often). image…
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Thinking up a story idea is simple. You’re staring off into space, or maybe a bizarre lovers' scene plays out in front of you, when wham-o! Now you have the spark, a gem of shining brilliance, and you know exactly what you want to write about. It’s a sultry romance! No, it’s more of a Gothic romance… or really, it could be a time-traveling horror story. Holy bunches of plots, Writer! What’s your story? Really? I’ve been test-writing the Save the Cat! beat cards recently and in the midst of my outline and the beats, I started re-thinking my story genre (according to the Save the Cat!’s ten genres). More specifically, I began to think that what I’d originally assumed my s…
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Are you starting a blog in 2021? Well, I sure hope you are! And if you are undecided about starting a blog, here's a post I wrote about why you should. One of the most important elements of a blog, aside from actually creating the blog posts, is having the right sort of pages on your blog. Today, I wanted to review a few must-have pages that you should create, whether you want to make a career out of blogging, or simply want to blog for the fun of it. An About Me Page The purpose of an about me page is to give readers a chance to know you. You are basically answering a couple of the most basic questions: who are you? and why did you create this blog? Of course, this i…
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Nancy Fowler is a longtime journalist who’s worked in radio, digital, print and TV news. She’s earned numerous accolades including Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. It brings her joy to amplify the voices of those who typically go unheard in mainstream news coverage. You can see some of her journalism clips at NancyMFowler.com. She’s now beginning to write in a more personal voice. Her creative nonfiction aspirations include a hybrid memoir/literary journalism project about baby-boomer parents mourning a lack of grandchildren due to a national trend: millennials having fewer or no kids. Her Facebook group, Grieving No Grandchildren, is an accepting space for women to co…
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I didn't realize I was a walking talking ball of encouragement until my husband pointed it out. Well - he didn't say it quite that way. In fact, he began by pointing out how weird I am because I hollered out the car window at an acquaintance. I guess I thought everyone did that kind of thing. I posted about the scenario on social media and learned a lot about myself from the comments made by friends and family. I'll back up a bit. I love coffee and I especially love Starbucks coffee. I fell in love with it decades ago when I was traveling for work. I appreciated the consistency of their product and customer service. No matter where I traveled, I Could count on a Venti Va…
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"The gratification comes, for me, in the doing of it. And once I've done it, I can't do anything about it if it's good or if it's bad." - Cicely Tyson (1924- 2021) In this theater of life, both personal and the writing life, the show must go on. Just as the revered award winning actress, lecturer and activist, the late Cicely Tyson, a trailblazer in theater, film, and television, is quoted as saying, "I can't do anything about it if it's good or if it's bad." For this celebrated legend, in life and in theater, the show did indeed go on, gracefully and beautifully, for 96 years. What a legacy and body of work she…
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I thought I hated writing query letters and synopsis until I discovered loglines. Simply put, a logline is a brief description, up to two sentences long, which sums up your book in a way that will hook your reader. If you’re a film writer, it summarizes your screen play and entices producers. I had to write a logline for a conference I’m attending online. They provided a helpful article which explained that a strong logline includes all of the basics – who, when, what and why. And it can be up to 75 words long. Fortunately, I had all I needed. Who: Ava, the scientist, her older brother Jaxon, an athlete, and youngest brother, lovable Teddy. When: Approx. 2…
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As a child, my older sister and cousin often called me a tattletale. There I was in my plaits with ribbons on the ends of each one and white Ked sneakers, dingy from playing, running through whoever's house I was in to tell on them. "Ooh I'm tellin'," I'd cover my mouth and yell, always leaving off the end letter g. Whether it was finding out my sister had a crush on a boy, or my cousin said the word, "Dang," which I thought was a curse word, or they kicked me out of their room, I was tellin' my parents or any other adult that was nearby on them. I'm sure that irritated my sister and cousin to no end. I know it was most likely why they mumbled under their breath and …
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I often mention in writing posts that I knew I wanted to be a writer from a very young age. I knew that once I became an adult, I'd graduate from writing stories cross-legged on my bed in black and white notebooks to writing stories for those glossy magazines I saw at the newsstand or were spread across the coffee table in my Livingroom. I know now, that had I not been so passionate and dedicated to achieving my writing dream, it may have continued to simmer on a back burner in my life, and I would have stayed in the shadows, writing in notebooks for my eyes only. If that had been the case, I would have wished for a fairy godmother, herself an accomplished writer, who …
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by Carrie Jade Williams Daydreaming will one day kill me. Literally. The part of the brain that engages with daydreams will one day be gobbled up by the Neurological disease chomping its way through the grey matter housed in my skull. To me, writing is simply daydreaming on a page- it brings me joy. I know I am not the most talented writer--I will never write a great literary work, but I am disciplined. I write every morning. I hold myself accountable. I love that I have the time to leave behind my thoughts. It’s like being an intentional ghost. I’m planning to haunt those I love with the words I leave behind. I writ…
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Steinbeck's Rules for Writing - But do They Apply to Modern Genres?
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Links: Lee Pace, Fundraising, & More
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Depositphotos_52671211_original-300x200.jpgHey there! Welcome back to Wednesday Links! This is our little cozy routine where we huddle around and talk about cool or interesting or funny things we’ve seen on the internet recently. If you’ve been keeping up with me, I had a tattoo appointment on Saturday. The artist did an amazing job on the stencil. It’s larger than I was expecting (not a bad thing!), though that meant we had to split it up. Just the line work is finished. I’ll get the color and shading done in February and I’m v -
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Why Horror of Dracula is still the best, strangest, campiest Dracula movie ever made
I don’t really love Halloween, but I love one of its main characters. I love Dracula. I don’t even care about vampires but I care about Dracula, and, not to presume that the readers of this site are particularly attuned to the oeuvres of any one of its writers, but if you have noticed a glut of Dracula content on CrimeReads throughout the past few years, especially around this season, it’s probably because of me. I love Dracula, from Transylvania to London and back again. So, if you’re looking for something to watch this Halloween weekend, I ask you to look no further than Halloween’s undying -
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The Paris Review Podcast Returns
With our acclaimed podcast, The Paris Review gives voice to the sixty-eight years of our archives. Season 3 launches today, with the release of episode 19, “A Memory of the Species.” We open with a recording of the literary critic Richard Poirier in conversation with Robert Frost for the poet’s 1960 Art of Poetry interview, from issue no. 24. Next, the Italian poet Antonella Anedda and her translator Susan Stewart discuss Anedda’s poem “Historiae 2,” published in issue no. 231. The American vocal ensemble Tenores de Aterúe then reimagines the poem as a song in the folk tradition of Anedda’s n -
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Author Spotlight: Malcolm Devlin (UNEXPECTED PLACES TO FALL FROM, UNEXPECTED PLACES TO LAND)
Malcolm Devlin is the author of the collection ‘Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land’, published by Unsung Stories, and the novella, ‘And Then I Woke Up’, published by Tor.com in April 2022. His first collection, ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ also published by Unsung, was shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Awards. He currently lives in Brisbane. Welcome back to the Hive, Malcolm. Let’s start with the basics: tell us about Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land. What can readers expect? Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places t -
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“The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.”
When day comes, we ask ourselves: Where can we find light In this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. Amanda Gorman The Hill We Climb Anyone who has ever walked through tough times can tell you that light isn’t always easy to find. Tough times can either make us or break us, but we exist in the in-between for the longest part of the journey. When we lose something we love — whether it be a job, a lover, a friend, or a family member — we are thrust into a world for which there is no simple escape. We exist between the tough times and the breaking or strengthenin -
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Horror Fiction In The Age of Covid: A Roundtable Discussion
I came to horror the same way I came to Rihanna—later than most, but with the commensurate fiery passion of a true convert. Crime and horror have, after all, been slowly converging for many years, as domestic suspense transformed into the New Gothic, and psychological thrillers took over from procedurals as the dominant trend in the genre. And yet, despite my newfound fandom, I’m about as poorly informed a horror reader as one could be (I’ve only read one Stephen King novel and it was Mr Mercedes). So I invited a whole bunch of authors with horror novels out in 2021 to join me for a roundtable -
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Scary Monsters and Spooky Freaks: Bernie Wrightson Unleashed
After mom confessed to binging on Creature Feature/Chiller Theater flicks when she was pregnant with me, I realized that my passion for horror was in the blood. By the time I was seven I’d already seen Night of the Living Dead, which gave me nightmares for a week, and was a regular viewer of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond and horror/monster movies on Saturday nights. As a comic book fan since I was a six year old New York City kid, my tastes eventually swayed from Marvel’s Manhattan-based superheroes to spooky four-color supernatural strips. While comic book shopping in -
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October’s Best Debut Novels
CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debuts in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Erin Mayer, Fan Club (MIRA) If Catie Disabato and Amina Akhtar had written the screenplay for Josie and the Pussycats, it might read something like Fan Club. In former Bustle editor Erin Mayer’s blistering debut, her millennial narrator is bored out of her mind working at a women’s magazine, obsessing over the beauty editor’s many freebies and taking as many coffee breaks as possible. “One day, she finds new purpose in the hidden meanings of a pop star’s new hit, joining a devoted group of superfans who -
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As the Wicked Watch
“Jordan, we’re live in sixty,” said Tracy Klein, my favorite field producer, nudging me to get into place. “Okay, hang on,” I said, distracted by a rush of butterflies and the sudden urge to pee, which happened every single time I was about to go on the air. I guess it was my body’s way of preparing me for the moment that never got old, but soon panic struck. My earpiece was in, but the anchors’ voices sounded like Charlie Brown’s parents. “Hey, you guys. I can’t hear. You’re not coming through very clearly. The echo is killing me,” I said. I looked up. Please, not today. In an instant, t -
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The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater
B+ The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater September 28, 2021 · Rebellion Publishing Ltd. Science Fiction/Fantasy TW/CW TW for: violence, police brutality, racism, unjust incarceration, house fire that spreads and burns down large sections of a town and causes mass evacuations, pressure to continue an unwanted pregnancy, death of a parent The Liar of Red Valley is kind of awesome, despite an abrupt ending and some world-building is -
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NaNo Planning
I know that NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short) is kicking off in just five days, but better late than never when it comes to planning, right? And this time, for once, I’m not joking around. Planning is crucial if you’re jumping into this annual November writing challenge. So for those new to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo/NaNo), let me explain what it is (or just borrow from their website as they put it so well): “NaNoWriMo is a non-profit that believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achie -
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Holiday Romance, Book Bundles, & More
John Eyre John Eyre by Mimi Matthews is $1.99! Thanks to everyone who commented and let us know about this sale! This is a retelling of the Bronte classic and has similar elements of a Gothic historical romance. Have you read this one? From USA Today bestselling author Mimi Matthews comes a supernatural Victorian gothic retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s timeless classic. Yorkshire, 1843. When disgraced former schoolmaster John Eyre arrives at Thornfield Hall to take up a position as tutor t -
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Redux: Sick Fish
Every week, the editors of The Paris Review lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine’s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by signing up for the Redux newsletter. Samuel R. Delany in his New York City apartment in 1983. This week at The Paris Review, we’re dreaming of other worlds, and highlighting writers of speculative and science fiction. Read on for Samuel R. Delany’s Art of Fiction interview, an epilogue chapter to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series, and Margaret Atwood’s poem “Frogle -
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The Undead, a Thriller, & More
Mating the Huntress RECOMMEND: Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert is $2.99! That might be the regular price for this paranormal romance novella. Elyse loved this one and gave it an A: Overall this book was a delight. It locked on to my need for female rage, for men to support that rage, and for cupcakes, and it was funny. This Halloween, love bites back… hard. Chastity Adofo knows a monster when she sees one. As soon as Luke Anthony wanders into her family’s coffee shop, she recognises
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