The Fabulist Flash

Number 6

Red Rock Cards (Package of 6)

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. The Writer's Bookshelf
3. Nurture Your Artist with a Field Trip
4. Tip of the Week
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

There's good news and bad news this week from The Fabulist Flash. The good news is that The Fabuilst Flash website has a great new look. Over the past week I've rewritten the website code. The bad news is that because of the changes, and the limitations of my HTML knowledge, many who tried to visit The Fabulist Flash website over the past week have had access problems. I want apologize to anyone who suffered or was frustrated by their lack of access. A good apology, sincere and heartfelt, always makes me feel better. Any bookmarks you currently have for The Fabulist Flash might not work. Please visit http://www.fabulistflash.com and reset your bookmarks.

Another odd thing for subscribers was that they didn't get their newsletter on time. The company I use to send out the newsletter did a server upgrade over the past week. Hopefully this will take care of delivery issues. If you missed an issue, visit The Fabulist Flash archives, available from the home page.

The past week has been inspiration filled for me. I take at least one artist date every week. Sometimes it's an afternoon spent at the movies. Other dates are spent at bookstores. Last week's date was a drive along the north rim of Lake Mead and through the Valley of Fire State Park. The scenery is gorgeous here in the desert Southwest. It was nice spending the day driving alone, stopping and taking pictures, and experiencing a few hundred million years of geology in a single afternoon. The date provided a little perspective, too. Some great creations take several millenniums to accomplish. If an editor spends two months before getting back to me about a query who am I to complain?

This week's featured product is just one example of my trip through the Valley of Fire State Park.

In this week's feature article I talk more about artist date inspiration.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes is a freelance writer and photographer. Learn more about Gregory and his work at http://www.Kompes.com
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What inspired your latest article idea? Email Aha@FabulistFlash.com
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2. The Writer's Bookshelf

The Successful Writer's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles by Eva Shaw

A review by Gregory A. Kompes

I highly recommend anything that Eva Shaw has written, and that includes The Successful Writer's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles. Dr. Eva Shaw is one of the nation's leading authorities on all things nonfiction. She's written more than 60 books and well over a thousand articles. Dr. Shaw also teaches a series of online writing courses through the edtogo.com education system.

The Successful Writer's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles is chock full of all the ins and outs of selling and writing magazine article advice.

This book, $15.95 at bookstores or directly from Dr. Shaw online, goes through the entire process, step-by-step. It starts with deciding if you can actually write for magazines, and then discusses coming up with ideas, bubbling (a form of brainstorming) the story, writing the query, researching the markets, and finally researching and writing the article.

Along the way, Dr. Shaw, in her positive, upbeat style, tells success stories and gives advice from her many years experience.

If you want to write magazine articles and can only afford one book on the subject, this is it.

Learn more about Dr. Shaw at http://www.evashaw.com

For this title and others of inspiration to writers visit The Writer's Bookshelf.

3. Nurture Your Artist with a Field Trip

Nurture Your Artist with a Field Trip

By Gregory A. Kompes

Every week I grab my journal and camera and head out. Where do I go? I visit the local, state, and national parks in the area, museums, bookstores, and new cafes. I take hikes and drives. I take weekly Artist Date Field Trips.

By adopting this idea of spending time alone, pursuing my own interests, and treating my artist to a weekly date, he's coming out of his shell, becoming more expressive, and I really like him. My artist is a fun guy. He's witty, interesting, playful, and intelligent.

O.K., it's weird to talk about myself in the third person. While I do have a split personality at times, my boyfriend will concur, I don't usually talk about those personalities as different people. I did enjoy Sally Field as Cybil, but that's a different column.

Where was I? Artist Dates, right? I'll happily give credit where it's due. This idea of Artist Dates isn't original to me. They're one of the keystones of Julia Cameron's workshop, The Artist's Way. Like many, I resisted my dates early on. There were other things to do: errands, projects, housework. You know the litany.

I started small by going to the movies. It was wonderful to sit in the dark theater and be transported into another world for 90 minutes. It was easy to give myself permission to go the movies. Getting permission? Why was this important to me? Ah, a realization: I was afraid to do things alone, for myself. There's a lesson.

Within a few weeks I'd seen all the movies of interest to me. What now? It would be awhile before the movie line-up changed. But, during those weeks, as part of the tasks from The Artist's Way, I'd made lists of dreams, desires, activities I was interested in. I turned to those lists. I went on a date to a museum. I got in the car and drove. I dusted off my camera and visited a state park. I started turning my dates into little weekly adventures, Field Trips.

Field trips were fun in grade school. Some days I pack a brown-bag lunch including egg salad, an apple, and a can of soda wrapped in tinfoil-it doesn't taste the same as thirty years ago, but it evokes great memories of zoo trips and history museum visits.

Now, I look forward to my Artist Date Field Trips. I spend an afternoon every week exploring, taking hikes, visiting new locations, driving. I take little risks and chances by doing and trying new and different things. I listen to my artist; I go where he suggests.

What do you love? Where would you go in your own town that you've never been before but always wanted to visit? What inspires you? Ball games, museums, bookstores, woods, rivers or lakes? As writers and artists we need to experience the world. This experience doesn't need to be on a grand scale, although it can. Experience is what you make it, where you make it, and how you make it. The important thing is to take time out for you and your artist. Just an hour or two spent doing what you want, where you want, and how you want, will nurture your artist, opening up your heart, mind, and soul.

4. Tip of the Week

"The real importance of reading is that it creates an ese and intimacy with the process of writing....The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with our pen or word processor."

Stephen King, from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

5. About The Fabulist Flash

ISSN: 1554-0804

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