The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

Category: Just Write

  • Six Sentences

    Thanks to Guy Biederman for letting me know about Six Sentences.

    Six Sentences

    It’s simple. Just write six sentences. Write anything you like.

    Guidelines

    Formatting: Six Sentences uses a paragraph format. Six consecutive sentences. No poems, no bullets. Be unconventional if using dialogue. Again, write anything you like, and tell a friend. Peace.

    Guy is a prolific writer who regularly submits his writing to publications.

    Join us to learn the inside story to Guy’s many successes: May 19, 6 pm PST, Free on Zoom, Recovery Writing of Idaho.

  • University Presses


    “The backbone of many university presses’ trade programs is probably familiar: local and regional history, cookbooks, photography books, and other sorts of consumer-friendly titles with an obvious connection to the area or university. But many also offer a home for books that are niche, experimental, challenging in various ways, and/or just kind of weird.” —Adam Rosen, Why You Should Consider a University Press for Your Book, Jane Friedman’s Blog, April 5, 2022

    A few university presses

    Fourteen Hills, The San Francisco State University Review

    The Green Hills Literary Lantern, Truman State University

    Bayou Magazine, University of New Orleans

  • 2022 Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest

    ❖ The 2022 Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest ❖

    The Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest is open to adult and young poets.

    Everyone is encouraged to enter the contest. Poets do not have to live in Lincoln, CA to be eligible.

    There is no entry fee.

    Poems must be received by Thursday, July 21, 2022

    Young Poets, 18-years of age or under, are encouraged to submit poems and will compete in a special “Young Poets” category. 

    Contest theme: People Are . . . Everything.

    Contest Categories:

    People Are Funny    

    People Are Amazing    

    People Are World Changers    

    People Are Unreasonable  

     People Are Unpredictable

    Contest Rules and Entry Form

    Contact Alan Lowe for more information and for a copy of the entry form.

  • The Disappointed Housewife

    Notes from The Disappointed Housewife editor Kevin Brennan:

    “The Disappointed Housewife is a literary journal for writers, and readers, who are seeking something different. We like the idiosyncratic, the iconoclastic, the offbeat, the hard-to-categorize. Out of the universe of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, we want to attract work that plays with form and presentation. Work that’s not just outside the box but turns the box inside out.”

    Excerpt from Mission Statement

    I took a long time debating whether to launch this literary journal. I wondered whether there’s really a need for another online gazette of literature and image, when readers hardly have time to read their friends’ Facebook pages much less an actual book now and then.

    But I got to thinking, there are an awful lot of writers out there, looking for places to share their work. And while blogs offer a kind of outlet for works of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, they are generally personal, a lot like online diaries in many ways, and most of all they aren’t curated.

    I’ve also found, as a consumer of writing on the web, that I have a hard time finding much of the kind of material I’m really interested in. After a lifetime of reading, I have a taste now for something different. Stories that are made differently, that play with form and presentation.

    Publishing, as a business, tends to incentivize writers to produce what they think will sell.

    Yet there is a place for “high risk” writing, fresh, creative, experimental, idiosyncratic, idiomatic, iconoclastic writing. Writers should be allowed to have their quirks.

    So I decided to forge ahead with this project, to see what comes in over the transom when writers are given the flexibility to “think different,” as Apple used to say.

    I’m afraid that many writers will be disappointed that The Disappointed Housewife declines their work. But it will only be because the editors envision another way the piece could be a better fit, a way that better conforms with the journal’s proclivities. It’s not you, it’s us. Don’t be discouraged. We might suggest some possibilities to you, or you can try again with something that you write with us in mind.

    Just remember, this is the place to find writing (in all its manifestations) that you can’t find anyplace else.

    Submission Guidelines

    Thank you, Guy Biederman, for posting about The Disappointed Housewife on Facebook.

     Guy’s “Language of Lies” posted in The Disappointed Housewife.

    Meet Guy in [Zoom] person:

    May 5 and May 19, 2022: Guy will teach flash fiction writing. Free on Zoom through Recovery Writing of Idaho.

    #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter

  • Brevity Blog seeks submissions

    Brevity Blog is the place to discuss issues related to the writing of creative nonfiction. “Though we don’t shy away from important issues in the writing community, the Brevity blog can also often be colloquial, personal, and at times irreverent or humorous, and our most popular posts tend to be those that are the least academic.”

    Appropriate topics for the Blog include the craft of writing nonfiction, issues in editing and publishing, writing conference and creative writing classroom experiences, interviews with writers or editors, prompts, close reading of essays or essayists, or specific issues that challenge us as we attempt to capture true experiences on the page. 

    Word Count: 500 to1,000 word range (sweet spot is 850).

    Brevity Online Journal also welcomes submissions.

  • Riddled with Arrows

    Riddled with Arrows is an online literary journal dedicated to writing about writing.

    “We seek (short) metafiction, ars poetica, and writing that celebrates the process and product of writing as art. No restrictions on genre or form, so long as the work is about writing, straight up.”

    Theme Calendar

    Submission Guidelines

    Thank you, Guy Biederman, for letting me know about Riddled with Arrows.

    Guy’s writing, Affordable Shakespeare is in the 5.1 issue of Riddled with Arrows.

    #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter

  • Write to exorcize what’s haunting you.

    “Write to exorcize what’s haunting you. Write about whatever it is you can’t get out of your head—a person, a place, a fear, a fictional scene, a memory from your past, a fantasy for your future. Allow yourself to think obsessively and shamelessly about only that one thing for as long as it takes to get it down on paper.” —Puloma Ghosh, The Isolation Journals, created by Suleika Joauad.

    This type of writing is like unpeeling layers of emotions.

    Just Write.

    The Isolation Journals is Suleika Joauad’s newsletter for people seeking to transform life’s interruptions into creative grist.

    Both free and paid subscriptions are available.

    Memory Lane offers ideas to spark writing about what a memory from your past, or a fantasy for your future.

    #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter

  • More Chicken Soup For The Soul

    Do you think submitting stories to Chicken Soup For The Soul books are for someone else, not for you? Do you think you have no chance of your writing being selected?

    Well, I know three people who have had their writing accepted.

    So, why not you?

    One of the key things is to follow their guidelines.

    Thank you, John Lesjack, for letting me know about the holiday topics (deadline 5/1/22).

    John has been published in Chicken Soup books over ten times.

    Nancy Julien Kopp has been published in Chicken Soup books over 20 times!

    Possible Chicken Soup Topics

    Angels (deadline 4/15/22)

    Crazy, eccentric, wacky lovable, fun families (4/30/22)

    Cats (deadline 5/30/22)

    Dogs (deadline 5/30/22)

    How stepping outside my comfort zone changed me (deadline 7/31/22)

    Chicken Soup Holiday Topics

    Are the memories from this past holiday season still fresh in your mind? We sure hope so! That’s why, just a few days into the new year, we are sending this request to you for holiday stories. And we mean the entire season — from Thanksgiving to Christmas to Hanukkah to Kwanzaa to Boxing Day to New Year’s. We want stories about every one of them.

    We want holiday stories that share your traditions and memories of normal times — pre-pandemic. We want your holiday stories that share how your traditions and celebrations changed because of the pandemic. Please remember to make sure your submissions are “Santa safe” so we don’t spoil the magic for our precocious readers!

    Here are some suggestions but don’t let these limit you. We know you can think of many more.

      • New holiday traditions started — and to be continued?
      • Thanksgiving — holiday fun, disasters, and family bonding
      • Hanukkah — all by itself or incorporated into your Christmas tradition
      • Kwanzaa — traditions and celebrations
      • Boxing Day — traditions and celebrations
      • The weeks leading up to Christmas — anticipation, energy, the kids
      • Using technology, Zoom or FaceTime gatherings instead of meeting in-person
      • Decorating — oh, how we love to do that!
      • Undecorating — oh, how we hate to do that!!
      • Shopping and finding the perfect gift
      • Shopping on-line only — hits and misses!
      • Staying home instead of traveling
      • Holiday humor — things that went wrong
      • Holidays through the eyes of the children
      • Around the table — eat, eat, eat and be merry
      • Family reunions
      • Unique gifts, creativity, the best gift you ever gave or received
      • Unique gifts, creativity — the worst gift you ever gave or received!
      • Regifting
      • Happy New Year!
      • Holiday miracles, amazing coincidences, answered prayers
      • Gratitude, counting your blessings
      • Seeing the silver linings
      • Forgiveness and how you used it during the holidays
      • Family dynamics — milestones, tender moments, epiphanies
      • What you learned during the holidays

    All stories and poems need to be true.

    No longer than 1,200 words.

    Written in first person.

  • Writing is magical

    Photo by Robin Hewett Jeffers

    Writing is magical. Take some blank pages, write or type on them, and as if by magic, a story appears. It may be an incomplete story and it may feel fragmented, but it’s the beginning of Your story.

    Writing can be healing, especially when you write what you really want to say, rather than listing what you did that day, journal style.  The most magical writing is when you get so involved in your writing that you lose track of time, you lose track of where you are and even, who you are!

    The process of writing can be therapeutic. With this deep writing, you may experience a release of emotions, clearing the air, and seeing old things in a new way. — “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections.”

    Personal Essay as Therapy

    Just Write!

    #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter

  • The Ekphrastic Review

    The Ekphrastic Review

    “We only publish literature inspired by or responding to visual art in some way. Our definition is flexible, but we are a niche journal and an ekphrastic writing archive and do not consider or publish non-ekphrastic work. Submissions that are not connected in some way to visual art will be deleted without response.” 

    Ekphrastic Mission
    ​
    The Ekphrastic Review is committed to the growth, expansion, and practice of the art form of creative writing inspired or prompted by visual art. 

    We define ekphrastic writing simply as “creative writing inspired by art.” The piece can be an in-depth experience of the art work, or it can use the art as a starting point for expression. The connection to the artwork or artist can be subtle, or it can be central to the work.

    Best Chances of Publication

    1. Ekphrastic translations. We are hungry for ekphrastic work from all over the world, in its original language, and translated into English.

    2. Stellar flash fiction, microfiction, small fictions: fiction from 50 to 1000 words.

    We have naturally evolved as a poetry-centric publication.

    We love poetry and always will, but we do receive a constant deluge of poetry, much of it stellar.

    We want to grow with great fiction. We like beautiful fiction that reads like poetry. We like interesting fiction. We like fiction that packs an emotional punch. We like fiction with language that stabs you in the heart, that you want to tape onto your fridge. We like fiction that shows us something new about art.

    Since we receive only a small fraction of fiction as we do poetry, and want to publish more, your story might stand a greater chance. Send your best!

    3. Ekphrastic Writing Challenges. Our biweekly prompt series is your best chance overall, as they are ongoing throughout the year. We have received as few entries as 10 and as many as 300, but we do publish multiple responses for each painting in one post, which gives you higher odds.

    Submission Guidelines

    Thanks to Guy Biederman for recommending The Ekphrastic Review. His piece, “Together Alone”, was accepted by The Ekphrastic Review

    #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter