Podcasts for the Time-Challenged

Writers 1 Response »
May 182012
By Catherine Russell – FFDO Correspondent

Making time for self-improvement while writing, reading, and meeting all of life’s other obligations is a problem faced by aspiring authors everywhere. Downloading podcasts is one of the easiest and (usually) free ways to claim time for education.

A podcast is a downloadable audio program that you can listen to on a device (either computer or mp3 player) at your own leisure. You can listen to content on virtually any subject you like, usually without cost, whenever it is convenient. It is an easy way to snatch some extra story or nonfiction time when you are otherwise engaged doing dishes or driving to work.

Podcasts can be downloaded manually from your computer, but a much easier way is to simply use a podcatcher. If you use your phone as an mp3 player and you have internet connectivity, you can download a podcatcher application. If not, you can also search and download one onto your computer. My personal favorite is DoggCatcher on my Android phone, available through the Android Market. Another method would be to use Google Reader on your computer, open up the audio in another tab, and listen while browsing the web or doing other things.

In the interest of reclaiming time that would otherwise go down the drain with the dirty dishwater or out the window while driving, here are a few suggestions for aspiring authors and other bibliophiles.

Podcasts

I Should Be Writing by Mur Lafferty (@mightymur) – started out as a podcast for wannabe fiction writers. Now that she had published with a traditional publisher as well as self-published several podiobooks and ebooks, she continues to share her journey, commiserating with her listeners, cheering their triumphs, dispensing advice, and interviewing authors.

Grammar Girl by Mignon Fogarty – a podcast of quick and dirty tips for the grammatically challenged, or just those who would like to brush up on their punctuation skills. Not only is the show informative, it is entertaining as well.

Functional Nerds with Patrick Hester (@atfmb) and John Anealio (@JohnAnealio) – not specifically a writing podcast, but one that features interviews with many genre authors for those looking to stay current on new and upcoming books and authors.

Writing Excuses features four professional writers discussing the craft of writing. The podcast begins with the declaration, “Fifteen minutes long because you’re in a hurry and we’re not that smart.” While the format is short, the podcast hosts most definitely give intelligent and thoughtful advice.

So, if you have not tried these podcasts before, I urge you – in the interest of both education and entertainment – to reclaim some of your driving time by giving them a chance.

—–

Author Catherine Russell shares her life with her high school sweetheart, their son, and two ferocious puppies in the Wilds of Ohio while writing short stories, editing her novel, and learning more about the craft every day. Her work has been published in Flash Me magazine, Metro Fiction, Beyond Centauri, and the ‘Best of Friday Flash – Volume One’ anthology. More of her writing can be found on her writing blog at ganymeder.com.

Posted by JM Strother at 12:36 am

News Flash – Vol.3 #50

Community News, News Flash 2 Responses »
May 152012

Lily Mulholland has some exciting news about the short story anthology, New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan, in which her story ‘The Brewer’s Son’ was selected for inclusion.

For National Flash Fiction Day on May 16th, Marc Nash will be publishing his second anthology of flash on Kindle, 16 stories called “16FF”.

Justin N. Davies has won the latest Flash 500 competition with his story “Dandelion Breeze”. It is up on the Flash 500 website and will be printed in the next issue of Words With Jam magazine.

Recently,  Rachel Carter has put together a flash-fiction anthology, ”Kissing Frankenstein and Other Stories”. It is a not-for-profit publication available at Lulu containing 53 different flash-fiction written by 40 different writers from all over the South West of England. Some of the writers are well-known (such as Tania Hershman) and other were new writers. Read all about it here.

Writer’s Digest has named Alex Carrick’s personal blog as its web site of the week. If you go to Writer’s Digest website and scroll down the right side of the screen, you’ll notice the description saying: “Alex Carrick’s blog is clean, crisp and entertaining. His stories range from humorous to thought-provoking, making it a fun read.”

Eric J. Krause has been interviewed about ”Ghost Betweens” and writing over at Different Outcomes. Go here to read his answers.

Over at Write Anything, Tony Noland is bemoaning the failing health of the apostrophe key on my old laptop. This has graver consequences than you might realize. Go read his article.

Jon Strother has a wonderful guest post, “The Challenge of Writing Flash Fiction”, up over at Amwriting.Org.

Congrats to all!

 

This is a great turnout for the NewsFlash this week as well, isn’t it so much more fun when you all send in your news items and the post is this long and wonderful? Thank you!

~ Estrella Azul

 

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community to Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org or by contacting her on Facebook or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the#fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

 

 


Posted by Estrella Azul at 8:22 pm

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 3 Number 50

FridayFlash Report No Responses »
May 122012

We had 68 stories in the Collector this week with 1 Debut. Please welcome Simon Towler to the community. The stories this week fall under 13 different genres, including one each in Crime, Noir, Romance, Urban Fantasy, and Western. What a wonderfully diverse community we have!

I don’t remember the last time we had more than 60 stories two weeks in a row. May is shaping up to be a prolific month. Keep up the great work!

As always, if your story is not in the listing below please go to the Collector and add the details. It will be in next week’s listing. ~Tim Continue reading »

Posted by Tim VanSant at 2:30 pm

News Flash – Vol.3 #49

Community News, News Flash 3 Responses »
May 082012

An Indian film maker is hoping to turn one of Tom Gillespie’s #fridayflash short stories “My Beloved Edith“, into a short film. Check out the original and then imagine the Bollywood version!

Dan Powell’s submission to 1000 Words has been accepted and will apear sometime this month. 1000 words is celebrating National Flash Fiction Day by, over the course of May and early June,  posting the best of stories written in response to the images on their Pinterest board. At the time of writing, two of Dan’s stories have already been accepted. Dan also received his copy of “The Best British Short Stories 2012″, in which his short story, “Half-mown Lawn” appears.

“Red Riding Hood Revised”, Cahterine Russell’s #fridayflash, was published in the most recent Beyond Centauri. This was the first time she has received a contributor’s copy (as all her other sales were online or no contributor copy).

As A.B. Wells, Alison Wells is launching her debut novel, space comedy “Housewife with a Half-Life” today, on Tuesday May 8th. It’s available on Amazon.com, on Amazon.co.uk and on Smashwords.

Eric J Krause’s “Ghost Betweens” is now available for purchase in paperback at CreateSpace for $9.99. If you don’t have a Kindle or free Kindle Reader App, now is your chance to read his Young Adult Paranormal Romance/Adventure. (And do not let the YA tag throw you; it is a great read for adults, as well!) Click here to find it in the CreateSpace shop. Amazon will also be selling the paperback for the same price. That will be ready in 5 to 7 days. Enjoy reading, folks, and do not forget to leave a review at Amazon if you enjoy it!

101 Fiction, John Xero’s website, where he has been posting his own 101 word stories for over a year, is now open for submissions from anyone! The #fridayflash community has brought him plenty of visitors and great comments, now he hopes some #fridayflash folk might like to contribute stories too. 1 word title, 100 word story. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, surreal. For guidelines and submissions go here.

 

This is a great turnout for the NewsFlash this week, isn’t it so much more fun when you all send in your news items and the post is this long and wonderful?

Congrats to all!

~~~

As you might have noticed last week, we have a brand new FAQ page here on FFDO. Go check it out if you are new to #fridayflash, a new community member or an existing member wanting to spark your memory of all things #fridayflash.

~ Estrella Azul

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community to Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org or by contacting her on Facebook or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the#fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

Posted by Estrella Azul at 11:04 am

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 3 Number 49

FridayFlash Report 2 Responses »
May 052012

We had 61 stories in the Collector this week with 6 Debut stories from 5 authors. Please welcome H.W.Litchfield, DL Thurston, Elizabeth Myrddin, Steve McHugh, and Patrick Anderson Jr. to the community. The stories this week fall under 16 different genres, including one each in Action, Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, and Suspense. What a wonderfully diverse community we have!

We are just a few weeks away from celebrating another anniversary of the #FridayFlash meme. I mention that now in case you want to plan something special to mark the occasion. (I wouldn’t say no to cake, for example. ;-) )

As always, if your story is not in the listing below please go to the Collector and add the details. It will be in next week’s listing. ~Tim Continue reading »

Posted by Tim VanSant at 2:36 pm

Life and writing are messy - but you’ve got to love the challenge!

Guest post, Writers 8 Responses »
May 032012

Ever since Christmas 2010, I’ve been consciously taking refuge in reading. It’s the only thing that actually helps in forcing my mind to stop all the chattering and relax for a bit.

I’m feeling very lucky, though, because I absolutely love reading! I can read a book in a heartbeat. I’m a firm believer that reading affects our writing, especially enriching our vocabulary. So, I copy passages that especially touch my heart, acquire knowledge and discover new things, analyze, interpret and appreciate those written words.

And, when I’m really lucky, I find answers to questions I never even knew I had.

Bird by bird is my favorite book for 2011, and this is one of the passages which caught my attention and keeps popping up in my mind.

What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here – and, by extension, what we’re supposed to be writing.

~ Anne Lamott

I love how honest and true it rings.

Because, let’s face it, most of us grew up learning how to do everything right – how not to color outside the lines, not to leave food on the plate, not to think of ourselves first, not to break the rules, not to step off the beaten path, not to make messes and mistakes, not to write about that particular embarrassing family holiday for our English composition homework because it’s private, and so on.

When, in fact, doing (well, trying to, at least) everything right only wears us down; perfectionism is tiring.

Coloring outside the lines makes us unique with a different vision than others’.

Leaving food on our plates means we’re done for right now, but we’ll eat again when we’re hungry.

Thinking of ourselves first isn’t selfish, but necessary, and makes us happier so we can make the people around us happier.

Breaking the right set of rules which don’t work for us sets us free to do something we love.

Stepping off the beaten path will lead us to find, and especially to make, our own way to where we need to go and not somewhere other people envision us to go.

Making messes and mistakes may set us one step back, or even more steps back . . . but we need to make mistakes in order to find out who we aren’t.

And finding out who we aren’t helps us find out who we are and why we’re here. There is no better way to learn and to grow.

And, by extension – with a little imagination and a lot of courage we can write about that particular embarrassing family holiday even if it feels like it’s private; because we’re writers and that’s what we do.

We’ll change names, setting and character descriptions, we’ll enhance specific traits and leave out others, we can even call it fiction; no one has to know it was a true story.

Maybe it won’t work, maybe it will be boring. Maybe we’ll rewrite it and it still won’t work. We’ll write something else.

Maybe we’ll write and rewrite a lot of stories which won’t work. They’ll challenge us!

But after writing them, we’ll know. We’ll get there.

We’ll know what we’re supposed to be writing.

When I’m not afraid to fail, I won’t. When I’m not afraid to fall down, falling down won’t feel like failure. I have fallen down enough to get more comfortable with it, to know how productive it can be, how necessary it is to growth. Still, when I sense the ground beneath me giving way, I have to remind myself that it’s OK if I falter.

I have to remind myself that it’s more than OK!

~ Jan Denise

 

Happy writing everyone!

~ Estrella Azul

 

Originally posted as a guest post by Estrella Azul on Fear of Writing.

Posted by Estrella Azul at 6:01 pm Tagged with: , , ,

News Flash – Vol.3 #48

Community News, News Flash 1 Response »
May 012012

Dan Powell’s story, “Strutting and Fretting“, went live at The National Flash Fiction Day flashes site which is up and running in advance of the May 16th celebrations.

“Golden Opportunity”, PJ Kaiser’s story which appeared in “Literary Mix Tapes:  Nothing But Flowers”, has been selected for inclusion in the “Movie Project”.

You can now purchase the e-book version of Eric J Krause’s “Ghost Betweens” for Kindle, on Amazon.

***

Alan Baxter woke up to a Ditmar Award nomination. Read all about it in his blog post.

The No Sleep Podcast is adapting Al Bruno III’s story “The Man That Ate Newborns” into an audio play.

Over at Write Anything, Tony Noland answers the perennial question: “How’s that novel coming along?”

Have you signed up for some dark and quirky urban fantasy from Emma Newman, as part of her Split Worlds project? You are missing out if you have not. This past week, she was over at Jon Strother’s place with her flash fiction, “The Necessary Witness – part two”.

We really do have such a talented group of writers here. Congrats to all!

~ Estrella Azul

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community to Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org or by contacting her on Facebook or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the#fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

Posted by Estrella Azul at 6:17 pm

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 3 Number 48

FridayFlash Report No Responses »
Apr 282012

We had 58 stories in the Collector this week with 2 Debuts. Please welcome Fayne Riverdale and Wakefield Mahon to the community. The stories this week fall under 15 different genres, including one each in Crime, Experimental, Historical, Literary, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Romance, and Suspense. What a wonderfully diverse community we have!

We have only three stories this week with an unspecified genre. I know how difficult it can be sometimes to decide what genre fits a story best. Many of us don’t think about genre when we write — it’s more of a marketing term than a writing term — and I confess I’ve entered stories as unspecified a time or two. But genre is something that may draw readers to your work. And we all want to draw in more readers, don’t we? Unspecified will remain a choice, but we hope you’ll consider whether your story might be better served if you specify a genre.

As always, if your story is not in the listing below please go to the Collector and add the details. It will be in next week’s listing. ~Tim Continue reading »

Posted by Tim VanSant at 5:08 pm

News Flash – Vol.3 #47

Community News, News Flash 2 Responses »
Apr 242012

One of Linda Simoni-Wastila’s wee fictions has found a nest. “Mama Loves Birds” up at Blue Five Notebook.

The Best British Short Stories 2012, in which Dan Powell has a story included, was published at the beginning of this week. Dan’s local library will be buying in a copy and are asking their reading group about his doing a reading and/or some kind of writing workshop for them. Also, Dan’s story, “Peekaboo”, has been accepted for the imminent National Flash Fiction Day anthology Jawbreaker. Dan has been quite busy. He was interviewed by Nuala Ní Chonchúir regarding his writing over on Nuala’s blog Women Rule Writer.

After a six month break Mari Juniper is back to writing. Here is the article she wrote for #Amwriting.org, the important lessons she learned from her time away.

Tom Gillespie has signed a publishing deal with Crooked Cat Books and his new novel, “Painting by Numbers”, will be out later this year.

Eric J. Krause is having a release party for his young adult paranormal novel, “Ghost Betweens”. You can join in while it runs from April 24th until the 27th.

Congratulations to all!

~ Estrella Azul

 

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community to Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org or by contacting her on Facebook or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the#fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

Posted by Estrella Azul at 10:17 am

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 3 Number 47

FridayFlash Report No Responses »
Apr 212012

We had 55 stories in the Collector this week with 1 Debut. Please welcome Sasha to the community. The stories this week fall under 13 different genres, including one each in Action, Experimental, Paranormal, and Thriller. What a wonderfully diverse community we have!

The length of flash fiction makes for good reading when you’re on the go. Do you read #FridayFlash on a mobile device such as a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or smartphone? Would you be interested in some sort of FFDO app? Let us know in the comments.

As always, if your story is not in the listing below please go to the Collector and add the details. It will be in next week’s listing. ~Tim Continue reading »

Posted by Tim VanSant at 3:14 pm
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