Avatar of Angie Capozello

by Angie Capozello

NewsFlash – Vol. 4 #51

May 21, 2013 in Community News, News Flash by Angie Capozello

Elise VanCise shared the news on her blog about the Marketing for Romance Writers free online “Taste of Summer Camp”. The three-day conference will take place July 12th thru 14th.

Laura Eno was interviewed about her contribution to the “Allegories of the Tarot” anthology.

Magaly Guerrero will be giving away prizes as the finale to her May Monster Madness posts. Stop by her blog for full details on how to enter.

SAM from the My Write Side blog has a story featured on Studio 30+  “If it smells like a hare…”

Aimee Pavy had an article featured in the SilentFilm.org’s Winter 2013 issue: “Marguerite Clark: The Biggest Little Lady in the Movies.”

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Congratulations to everyone!

- Angie C.

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community through the News Hound form or by contacting me on Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the #fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

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by Tim VanSant

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 4 Number 51

May 18, 2013 in FridayFlash Report by Tim VanSant

We had 41 stories in the Collector this week with 1 Debut. Please welcome MICHAEL KIRBY to the community.

FFDO member Janel Gradowski offers us a Creativity Vitamin: Clean the Clutter in her guest post this week. What about you? Do you write in a cluttered space? Do you think clutter adversely affects your writing? Click on over and let us know in the comments.

It’s easier than ever to share your writing good news in our weekly News Flash with the form on our News Hound page.

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 report. ~Tim

The Stories: Read the rest of this entry →

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Avatar of Janel Gradowski

by Janel Gradowski

Creativity Vitamin: Clean the Clutter

May 16, 2013 in Guest post, Thursday Writing, Tips and Suggestions, Writers by Janel Gradowski

A messy work space leads to a messy mind. You have heard some version of that phrase, haven’t you? Clearing the clutter from my writing space is something I make a point to do on a regular basis. I am really not a neat freak, I can happily ignore stacks of mail on the kitchen table or precariously stacked video game boxes on the entertainment center. The reason I regularly clean up my writing space is simple. I’m more productive. That is good enough for me to spend some quality time doing clutter control on a regular basis. A clean work space leads to a less-cluttered mind.

Don’t believe me? Imagine this scenario.

You are in the middle of writing a scene. You pause for a few seconds to ponder the perfect detail to add to your villain’s appearance. Your gaze wanders from your computer screen to a stack of unopened mail. Yes, most of it is junk mail, but there are bills in the pile that could be overdue. You abandon your writing to sort through mail. Clutter has claimed more victims. You and your WIP.

Have you ever written down notes for a project and then lost them? However, in your search through the mountains of paper on your desk you did discover some notes for another story. Notes that would’ve made that story much better, but it’s too late because it has already been published. Now you’re frustrated about two stories.

Maybe you have a favorite pen that you like to edit hard copies with. What happens if you sit down with a stack of pages to edit and you can’t find the pen? You could grab another one, but there’s also a good chance you’ll waste time searching for the coveted pen. There went a nice chunk of editing time.

So how do you get your writing space clean? If your desk is a huge mess, you can tackle your clean up in stages.

  • Throughout the work day when you need to take a break, clean up a few things.
  • Sort through one pile or area at a time.
  • Set up files to keep necessary items and always have your garbage can nearby.
  • Maybe buy, or make, some nice pen holders or boxes to organize notepads, paperclips, sticky notes, etc.
  • If you tend to keep your space neat anyway, make sure to set aside some time each week to do a clutter control sweep.
  • Don’t view the process as a household chore…think of it as a benefit to your writing life.

Are you ready to start cleaning up your writing space, or do you always keep it clean?

~ Janel Gradowski

 

*image copyright Janel Gradowski

 

Guest Post (6 Posts)

We would love to have more guest posts! Will you write one? If you have any ideas or proposals that you think would improve the public presence of FFDO please don’t hesitate to send them to either editor Estrella Azul or founder Jon Strother. You can contact Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org, and Jon at jmstro@fridayflash.org with your questions, comments, or suggestions.


9 Comments »

Avatar of Angie Capozello

by Angie Capozello

NewsFlash – Vol. 4 #50

May 14, 2013 in Community News, News Flash by Angie Capozello

Adam Byatt has collected his 28 days of Post-it Note Poetry, along with a few bonus pieces into an ebook.

Emma Newman has launched a new podcast on GeekpPlanet titled “Tea and Jeopardy“. Topics include writing, geekery and mild peril. Listen to the first episode, featuring Chuck Wendig, here. Also, John Wiswell has interviewed Emma on his blog last week. Read the interview, here.

Linda Simoni-Wastila’s story “After the Tsunami”  was featured at Every Day Fiction. Linda is also pleased to have “Row House“, a story of creation out of detritus, featured as a broadside at Blue Fifth Review.

Kevlin Henney has been busy, with five flash fiction stories published, a story longlisted for the Fish Flash Fiction Prize and another picked as a runner-up in the Salt Flash Fiction Prize. His entry, “A Higher Calling“, will be included in The Salt Anthology of New Writing 2013 due out in a few months.

Larry Kollar announced the release of his new ebook, “Pickups and Pestilence,“  and will be giving away prizes on his blog to celebrate. Do drop by!

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Congratulations to everyone!

- Angie C.

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community through the News Hound form or by contacting me on Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the #fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

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Avatar of Tim VanSant

by Tim VanSant

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 4 Number 50

May 11, 2013 in FridayFlash Report by Tim VanSant

We had 56 stories in the Collector this week with 4 Debuts. Please welcome Nick Nielson, D L Shackleford, Jason Macias, and Spencer Hixon to the community.

FFDO Contributing Correspondent Dana Sitar brings us 5 Common Errors that Spell-Check Won’t Correct in her post this week and asks what common mistakes get under your skin as a writer or editor? Eye half know idle watt shoe mean, ;-) but click on over and share your experience in the comments.

It’s easier than ever to share your writing good news in our weekly News Flash with the form on our News Hound page.

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 report. ~Tim

The Stories: Read the rest of this entry →

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Avatar of Dana Sitar

by Dana Sitar

5 Common Errors that Spell-Check Won’t Correct

May 9, 2013 in Thursday Writing, Tips and Suggestions by Dana Sitar

No matter how good technology gets, you’re always going to need an editor’s eye – -yours or someone else’s — to polish your writing. Spell-check won’t catch these glaring grammar mistakes and typos.

1. Typos

Spell-check will catch a lot of typos, because they result in misspellings. But what about when you accidentally typo a real word? The most common I see in published writing is and instead of an, but typos come in many varieties. Be careful what your hands do when you’re not paying attention.

2. Using the wrong homonym

Nothing gets under a writer’s skin more than seeing these common mistakes:

  • there instead of their or they’re
  •  your instead of you’re
  •  to instead of too or two
  • it’s instead of its
  • by instead of buy

3. Using the wrong word

affect is usually a verb.

effect is usually a noun.

BUT affect does NOT mean “to bring about” or “to cause (something) to happen”. That’s effect.

Ex: The effect of four years of experience was that I was able to effect progress in any organization, ultimately affecting my ability to gain further employment.

Others include then instead of than; and I often see pluralization mistakes like woman instead of women.

4. Misspelling a name

Spell-check doesn’t know all of the people you write about, but many of your readers will. Be sure to double-check the spelling of your subjects’ names, including the preferred capitalization and spacing for names like MacArthur or da Vinci. Don’t guess; it’s rude, and getting it wrong will annoy your subjects and your readers, and cut into your credibility.

5. Punctuation Errors

My spell-check is still uncomfortable when I use an em dash without surrounding spaces (OK by Chicago style); it gives me that glaring squiggly red line that forces me to search hard for a spelling mistake that isn’t there. I haven’t had any better luck with grammar-check for punctuation, so I’ve had to rely on real knowledge and a keen eye to ensure correct usage.

What common mistakes get under your skin as a writer or editor?

This post originally appeared at danasitar.com. Image by Matt Hampel (Creative Commons)

5 Comments »

Avatar of Angie Capozello

by Angie Capozello

NewsFlash – Vol. 4 #49

May 7, 2013 in Community News, News Flash by Angie Capozello

Marc Nash’s story, “The Last Poet” has been selected for performance at JukeBox Story at the Poetry Café this Friday, May 10th.  He also has an hour long video talking about flash fiction and reading 11 of his stories on YouTube.

L.G. Keltner is hosting the Towel Day Blogfest in honor of Douglas Adams. Given that Towel Day (May 25th) falls on a Saturday this year, the blogfest will run from Friday, May 24th through Monday, May 27th, to give people the freedom to post on the day that works best for them.

Laura Besley shared a call for submissions to the Writers Abroad Far Flung and Foreign – Anthology 2013. The anthology is open to all expat and former-expat writers  – flash fiction welcome.

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Call for Submissions!  If you are a current or former member of the Friday Flash community, and you would like to help contribute to the cause, please consider contributing an article or two for our Thursday feature post. We will consider any nonfiction writing related piece that is original, thoughtful, and well written.

If you are interested in contributing to Friday Flash Dot Org with an article on writing related topics please contact Estrella or me via email or a Twitter DM and we will give it every consideration as a potential article in one of the upcoming Thursday slots.

Contact info:  estrella.azul@ffdo.org  @EstrellaAzul on Twitter, or jmstro@gmail.com   @jmstro on Twitter

 

—

Congratulations to everyone!

- Angie C.

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community through the News Hound form or by contacting me on Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the #fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

No Comments »

Avatar of Tim VanSant

by Tim VanSant

The #FridayFlash Report – Vol 4 Number 49

May 4, 2013 in FridayFlash Report by Tim VanSant

We had 44 stories in the Collector this week with 2 Debuts. Please welcome CJ Johnson and Kelly Stapleton to the community.

FFDO member A. M. Harte prompts us to Take Part In A Senseless Challenge in her guest post this week.

It’s easier than ever to share your writing good news in our weekly News Flash with the form on our News Hound page.

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 report. ~Tim

The Stories: Read the rest of this entry →

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Avatar of AM Harte

by AM Harte

Take Part In A Senseless Challenge

May 2, 2013 in Challenge, Guest post, Thursday Writing, Writers by AM Harte

Badge for The Senseless Challenge

Badge for The Senseless Challenge

By A. M. Harte

May is NaShoStoMo!

Yes: that amusing acronym stands for National Short Story Month.

We of the #fridayflash community are united by our love of short stories, so it would be a shame to let this month pass by unnoticed.

As such, I’ve come up with a perfectly senseless writing challenge to celebrate the short story format AND help you hone your craft.

THE SENSELESS CHALLENGE: THE FACTS

  1. We have five senses.
  2. May has five Fridays.
  3. Each Friday is dedicated to one of the senses.
    • May 03: Sight
    •  May 10: Sound
    • May 17: Smell
    • May 24: Taste
    • May 31: Touch
  4. On each Friday, you post a #fridayflash about that sense.
  5. Tweet your story with the hashtag #flashsense (if you have twitter).

We’ll be kicking off the challenge tomorrow with “Sight”. You could post a flash about a ghost who can only see, but not hear or smell or feel or taste. Or you could write about a blind man, and how he sees without seeing.

There are no rules. You can take part for one week or all five. You can write about not having that week’s sense or only having it.

The aim of the challenge is to become more aware of how you use senses to convey description – and hopefully have fun too!

SOME SENSELESS PRIZES

At the end of May, I’m going to poll readers on which challenge story was their favourite – each author can enter a maximum of 5 times (once for each sense).

The author of the winning story wins a print copy of Hungry For You, plus THREE 1889 Labs e-books which delve in the short(er) story formats. The runner-up will win the e-books. Winners will be announced on June 10th.

SENSELESS PARTICIPATION

Help me make NaShoStoMo an international event!

Drop me a note on my blog to let me know you’re taking part… and roll up your sleeves for some senseless writing.

Happy flashing!

~ Anna Harte

Guest Post (6 Posts)

We would love to have more guest posts! Will you write one? If you have any ideas or proposals that you think would improve the public presence of FFDO please don’t hesitate to send them to either editor Estrella Azul or founder Jon Strother. You can contact Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org, and Jon at jmstro@fridayflash.org with your questions, comments, or suggestions.


3 Comments »

Avatar of Angie Capozello

by Angie Capozello

NewsFlash – Vol. 4 #48

April 30, 2013 in Community News, News Flash by Angie Capozello

Kath Kerr will complete her 365 stories on Tuesday; she has posted one flash fiction every day for an entire year. Congrats on completing such an amazing goal!

Drew Payne has two short stories published in the anthology, “Eros at Large.”

Rebecca Emin had posts featured throughout April at the b00kr3vi3ws blog. They will also be giving away copies of her books.

“Sunday Snaps,” featuring stories and poetry by many members of the #fridayflash community and edited by Susan May James will be donating all profits to Canadian Red Cross Homecare Services.  Click here to view a video trailer and to order your copy.

The fourth book in Susan Helene Gottfried’s Shapeshifter series, “The Demo Tapes (Year 4)” is now available on Smashwords and Kindle, with print editions coming soon. It features several stories originally posted as part of #fridayflash.

 

 

 

—

Congratulations to everyone!

~~~

Call for Submissions!  If you are a current or former member of the Friday Flash community, and you would like to help contribute to the cause, please consider contributing an article or two for our Thursday feature post. We will consider any nonfiction writing related piece that is original, thoughtful, and well written.

If you are interested in contributing to Friday Flash Dot Org with an article on writing related topics please contact Estrella or me via email or a Twitter DM and we will give it every consideration as a potential article in one of the upcoming Thursday slots.

Contact info: estrella.azul@ffdo.org  @EstrellaAzul on Twitter    jmstro@gmail.com   @jmstro on Twitter

 

- Angie C.

Keep the good news coming! You can send in your news items concerning the Friday Flash community through the News Hound form or by contacting me on Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter. Or feel free to share your news by posting on the #fridayflash Facebook Group Page.

No Comments »

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