ISSN: 1554-0804
Issue 215
February 26, 2009Featured Product
Patchwork Path: Grandma's Choice
Visit Our Sponsors
In This Issue:
- This Week
- Fabulist Flash Recommends
- Ping.fm
- Submission Call
- 18Q
- Upcoming Events
- Banned Books
- About the Editor
- About The Fabulist Flash
1. This Week
It's been an exciting week. We've made the final selections for Patchwork Path: Dad's Bowtie. So, it was a week of writing contracts, sending off acceptance letters, and yes, the sad part, also sending out rejection letters. Having received lots of rejection letters myself, it's strange to be on the other end of their sending.
I've been thinking about learning how to play the guitar. I was a professional bass player, mostly for musical theater bus & truck tours, for more than a decade, back in the 80s and 90s. Lately, I've been having a very strong desire to learn a new instrument. It may have something to do with all the poetry I've been writing. After all, wouldn't it be fun to turn that poetry into songs? I've been combing the local pawn shops (we've got lots of those here in Las Vegas) in search of a Seagull guitar. That's been getting me out of the office a bit in the afternoons, which has been nice in our spring weather.
No doublt about it, tweets and pings are all the rage. Last week I mentioned a local journalist who twitters and looks for stories via social networks. Here's a growing list of other journalists who twitter. Also, check out Ping.fm (see article below for details) for a way to keep up with 30 (and growing) different social network sites with a single email or mobile text message.
There's only a few days left to sign up for the Clark County Fair and LA Festival of Books advertising opportunity. This is a cheap way to reach thousands of potential book readers/buyers and you don't have to be a Las Vegas or Nevada resident to participate!
Keep Expanding,
Gregory
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2. Fabulist Flash Recommends
Advertising Opportunity
Fabulist Flash Publishing is sponsoring an exhibitor booth at the Clark County Fair & Rodeo (April 9-12, 2009). Published authors can have their books displayed, be included in a digital catalog that will be given away to fair-goers, plus have an advertising page on the Association of Local Authors website for the next year. If you're interested in participating visit AssociationofLocalAuthors.com
UPDATE...Digital catalogs from the CC Fair will also be distributed at the LA Times Festival of Books!
Registration Deadline: February 28, 2009
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3. Ping.fm
Finally, there's an easy way to keep up with all the social network sites in one place: Ping.fm.
When you update your status at Ping.fm, the service automatically updates your status on all of your social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Pownce, MySpace, LinkedIn, Tumblr, FriendFeed, Blogger, Plaxo, and Mashable, to name a few (there are 30 you can update).
Updating isn't limited to just text either. They currently support text and images and will be adding video soon.
Messages can be updated through your online account via browser, or through Mobile Phone (iPhone, iPod Touch or standard mobile phone text messaging), SMS, MMS, Instant Message (Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live Messenger), E-mail, or from Over 50 web and desktop apps (iGoogle, Spin Vox, Twitter Feed, etc.) from 3rd party developers.
Depending on the number of networks you use, it will take you less than an hour to set up your Ping.fm account to interact with your various social network accounts. Once everything is set up, you simply log into your Ping account, post your update (no more than 140 characters), and your status is automatically upgraded on all of your social networking profiles.
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4. Submissions
Patchwork Path: Friendship Star
Choice Publishing Group is seeking stories and essays about friends and friendship.
Submission Deadline: March 31, 2009.
Submission Guidelines: PatchworkPath.com
Patchwork Path: Wedding Bouquet
Choice Publishing Group is seeking stories and essays about weddings.
Submission Deadline: August 31, 2009.
Submission Guidelines: PatchworkPath.com
Presenters & Programs 2010
Advertise to 30,000 meeting and event planners in this full-color, glossy catalog from Fabulist Flash Publishing and Turning Point International.
Deadline: October 31, 2009
Details: PresentersandPrograms.com
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5. 18Q
Jessica Stone takes the Eighteen Questions
1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you?
It was an accident. I broke one of my father’s pens when I was about three and immediately stuck the spurting ink into my mouth. You know, once ink gets into your bloodstream, it never really leaves.
2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.)
I went to school whenever it looked like I might have to get a real job and so I ended up with a bunch of degrees. But my gigs outside of school have been much more fun. I’ve done a lot of different things like; fishing in Alaska, working a rodeo in Colorado, editing a trade magazine, working as newspaper photographer and – best of all – writing private biographies on commission.
3. When did you “know” you were a writer?
When I learned to print enough letters to construct my first sentence. My father sat and watched me carefully print the words, “I love you.” I don’t remember his reaction – but I was thrilled – it was the most exciting thing I’d ever done and I wanted to keep putting sentences together forever.
4. How would you describe your style of writing?
Conversational - I usually write and speak in the same voice. My favorite genre is narrative non-fiction as it allows factual information to be shared in the “over a cup of coffee” voice.
5. What is your writing process?
When I’m working on an assignment I get a tight routine going and stick with it. I’ll start at six in the morning and write until I complete a specific number of pages - usually six per day. Of course, they are horrible and need drastic editing - but that’s how I start on projects. When I’m not on assignment I journal and talk to myself, a lot.
6. What was your path to publication?
My sister and I started our own newspaper when we were kids. I wrote it and she went around the neighborhood selling it. We sold out every issue - I believed our “publishing success” was because of my sentences (now I know it was ‘cause my sister was such a cute little kid).
7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea?
I put the cover of my current book (or project) on one side of a business card and all my other information on the flip side. I print about a 1,000 at a time and hand them out shamelessly. You just never know who might want to hire a writer. It’s a cheap, portable, tax deductible way to advertise!
8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer?
People surprise me. One time I was participating in one of those “group author” signings in a mall. There were about fifteen of us sitting at a long table in front of a bookstore. A banner over-head announced “Local Author Event - Everyone Welcome!” Our books were stacked in front of us and we were poised to meet the adoring public. A woman with a gaggle of kids trailing behind her wandered over to the table, squinted up at the sign, scratched her stomach and asked, “What’s an author?”
9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity?
Other writers, artists and musicians inspire me: talking with them, reading about them, listening to their stories. Writers like Elizabeth Engstrom and Elizabeth George, artists like Nancy Ging and folks who answer this 18 Question Survey blow me away. Wow - you guys are amazing! Nature is my sanctuary and the greatest source of my creativity.
10. What is your proudest writer moment?
The first time I read at a Barnes & Noble they made one of those huge posters with my name and book cover on it. They put it in the front window and after the signing my mother climbed into the window display and “stole” the poster. It was too big to hang on her refrigerator door but she kept it in her living room for a long time. That was great.
11. What is the best advice you were given about writing?
Hemingway said two things that help me when I’m facing a blank page: “all you need to do is write one true sentence,” and “all first drafts are shit.” Elizabeth Engstrom told me to “just start the thing and write it all the way through. Fix it later,” she said, “first, just get it on paper.”
12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment?
I’ve been so dweeby so often it’s impossible to pick just one.
13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer?
Sometimes I actually save up enough money to quit my day job for a while. When that happens I travel, write and sail. But I haven’t learned - yet - how to stretch those wonderful adventures into a full-on life style.
14. What is your writer life philosophy?
Do what thou wilt and harm none.
15. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun?
Mess around on boats, mess around with critters and make lists of things to write.
16. Who do you like to read?
I’m usually in the middle of reading several books at once. I leave them all over the house (or boat). Right now I’m reading A Writer’s Paris by Eric Maisel, Writing to Change the World, by Mary Pipher and The Maytrees by Annie Dillard. Kat Richardson’s newest book, Poltergeist, just came out and I’m eager to dive into it.
17. What’s your advice for new writers?
Write everyday - even if it’s a short paragraph. The Muse loves to be loved.
18. What are you currently working on?
The second edition of Doggy on Deck: Life at Sea with a Salty Dog. The first edition sold out in the first five months! When I get that done, I have to design a new college class (the real job thing) and then I’ll start another non-fiction book about sailing.
Bibliography
Doggy on Deck: Life at Sea with a Salty Dog – Absolutely Everything You Need to Know About Cruising with Fido Penchant Press International 2007
Cruising with Critters Bi-monthly column for Nor’westing Magazine (Pacific Northwest) and Boat Journal (British Columbia).
A Secret Madness The story of one man’s struggle to face his own demons as he copes with his lover’s acute bi-polar disorder Private commission. 2005
Intimate Mergers: Using Strategic Business Planning to Create Authentic Loving Relationships Psychology/Business Private commission. 2003
Teleportation! The Journal for Metaphysical Travelers (penned as: Jessica Severn with Dr. Gwen Totterdale) Words of Wizdom International 1997
Teleportation! A Practical Guide for the Metaphysical Traveler (penned as: Jessica Severn with Dr. Gwen Totterdale) Words of Wizdom International 1996
The Fool Stories: Book Two - Dreaming of Dreams (penned as: Dr. Jessica Hart) Words of Wizdom International 1995
The Fool Stories: Book One - The Adventure Begins (penned as: Dr. Jessica Hart) Words of Wizdom International 1994
Read more 18Q interviews
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6. Upcoming Events
February 25
Writer's Pen & Grill
A social evening for writers in Las Vegas, NV
March 3
Gregory presents "Write Tight" for DaVita at the Hard Rock Hotel
April 9-12
Clark County Fair & Rodeo
Fabulist Flash Publishing hosts an exhibitor's booth for published authors. Details
April 16-18
Las Vegas Writer’s Conference
Gregory will present Internet ACE: Online Self Promotion
April 29
Meet the Authors
(Clark County Library, NV)
Gregory, and members of Laudably Tarnished: A Poetry Workshop, host a Q&A panel on poetry.
June 18
Las Vegas Writer's Group
Gregory presents 21 Elements of an Author Media Kit
July 29
Meet the Authors
(Clark County Library, NV)
Gregory and the production/publishing team for the Patchwork Path anthology series host a Q&A panel on getting publishing in anthologies
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7. Banned Books
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
A phenomenal #1 bestseller that has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three years, this memoir traces Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a sometimes disquieting, but always affecting picture of the people--and the times--that touched her life.
"This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts of all black men and women... I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood, when the people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved... Her portrait is a biblical study in life in the midst of death." -- James Baldwin
"Simultaneously touching and comic" -- The New York Times
"It is a heroic and beautiful book." -- Clevland Plain Dealer
"Maya Angelou is a natural writer with an inordinate sense of life and she has written and exceptional autobiographical narrative... a beautiful book -- an unconditionally involving memoir for our time or any time." -- The Kirkus Reviews
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8. About the Editor
Gregory A. Kompes
Gregory A. Kompes (www.kompes.com), The Writerpreneur, is the author of the bestselling 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live, and the Writer’s Series that includes Endorsement Quest, Your Online Media Kit and Should You Write an eBook. He is also a contributor to The Complete Writer’s Journal, Writer’s Bloc I, Writer’s Bloc II, Chopped Liver for the Gentle Spirit, and Chopped Liver for the Kindred Spirit. Gregory speaks frequently on internet marketing and publishing at writer and speaker events and conferences. He also teaches an interactive, ten-week, online course: Internet ACE: Online Self Promotion. The author is a monthly columnist for Writers on the Rise, Production Director for Presenters & Programs, and editor of The Fabulist Flash, an informative newsletter for writers, and the award winning Eighteen Questions, a Q&A series that collects and shares the experiences of published authors. Gregory is co-founder of the Patchwork Path anthology series, Presenters & Programs (the Premier Catalog of Speakers), and the Writer’s Pen & Grill, a writer’s social evening held monthly in Las Vegas, NV. Gregory holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Columbia University, New York, a Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning, and a Masters of Science in Education from California State University, East Bay.
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9. About The Fabulist Flash
ISSN: 1554-0804
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The Fabulist Flash
PO Box 570368
Las Vegas, NV 89157
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