Publishing Tricks One on One

By Cheryl Wilson Smart

Maybe getting writing published comes easy for some, but it hasn’t for me. I didn’t sit down at my laptop, write the lovely words, and send them away on golden butterfly wings as the literary world shouted, “Yes! Yes!”  The publications are visible. What isn’t visible is the work that leads up to that first publication, painstakingly climbing the ladder one rickety rung at a time, over a period of months, even years. No rung can be over-stepped, some are more rickety than others – study, read, write, research, strategize…submit your work. Then rejection. Piles and piles of rejection, so much rejection you wonder if you can even write at all (last time I checked, my number was closing in on a hundred). It’s a long, slaving time before that first story, essay, or poem hits. When it hits, other publications follow you get noticed. Soon, there’s a flood of emails, Facebook messages, texts and phone calls all geared toward one question –How’d you do it?

The question of how I did it was posed to me so often; I began teaching publishing tricks one-on-one. I spent hours sitting across hopeful and attentive writers picking my brain for the secret. Soon, I was holding workshops, speaking to crowds, sharing my tricks for getting published. So, what gets writing published? Good writing, of course. Equally important though is a savvy strategy for presenting your work.

The writing:  It’s true that degrees open doors, particularly those geared toward studying the craft of writing.  But that’s not to say there aren’t other avenues toward finding success in writing.  If a formal education in writing is not possible or desired, writing workshops and writing groups are a valuable alternative, as well as a good companion to formal education.  Nothing strengthens writing like strong critique from other writers.  At least half of getting work published is to offer something worthy of being published.  The way to create something ready to be published is to study writing and practice.  A lot.  And revise.  A lot.

Starting small:  Every writer has those moments where we’re sure we’ve written the most beautiful thing and surely the New Yorker or the Atlantic or Southern Writers Magazine (J)will publish it immediately!  Slow down, amazing writer person.  You may get there, but it’s a process.  Remember the ladder?  Say you’ve been climbing that ladder.  You’ve studied your craft, honed your writing skills, you have a polished draft to send out.  But where?  Research!  Literary journals are a tremendous resource to emerging and established writers.  Go to your library, read every lit journal and magazine you can find (search in Unbound Periodicals), see which ones are a good fit for your writing.  Send your work there.  If you’re writing apples, but peddling your apples to orange dealers, you’ll only frustrate yourself and those to whom you are sending work.  Make the time, read the journals, target the ones appropriate for your writing, make a list, then be brave and send your work.  Other resources for researching literary magazines and journals is Duotrope, CRWROPPS, (Creative Writers Opportunities List), New Pages, and The Writer's Chronicle.  These are your research tools.  And don’t forget online journals and magazines.  Publishing through online-lit journals and magazines is the quickest way to get your name in the literary circle.  Try them.

Cover letters and bios:  Once you’ve earned a few publications, its fine to say, “Here’s my stuff.  Thanks for considering it.”  If you’re anxiously seeking a first publication, however, be creative.  Humor the editors, offer something anecdotal, and tell something interesting about yourself – can you tie carhopping in the eighties to writing?  Of course you can, you’re a writer.  Think of your cover letter as a dangling carrot.  Most editors see hundreds, even thousands of submissions.  Say something in your letter that will make an editor want to open your submission first.  Be just as creative with your bio.  A bio is a synopsis of your life as a writer – where you’ve been published, awards you’ve won, where you’ve studied.  Blah-blah-blah.  Bios are more intriguing when they trace other segments of your life.  Do you have a pet chicken named Princess Fluffy Butt (that’s a real chicken name, Google it, you know you’re going to).  Do you collect airline barf bags, unused hopefully (also real…Google). 

Back to rejection:  If you’ve chosen writing as your path (or it chose you), rejection is the stone on the path that bruises your heel.  Toughen up.  Usually rejection doesn’t mean your writing isn’t good, it may mean your work is not a good fit for where you’re sending it (See above: Research!), it may mean your writing needs more revision, it may mean the pages are full already.  As Sylivia Plath noted –   “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.”

Helping others:  Writing is gratifying.  Getting writing published is marvelous.  Writers are not in competition with one another, we are in it with one another.  Help fellow writers – especially emerging writers – find their way to success.  That was my motivation for this blog post.  

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Cheryl Wilson Smart is a final year MFA candidate studying Creative Nonfiction at the University of Memphis, where she is recipient of the 2015 Creative Writing Award in Nonfiction. She is current Managing Editor, past Assistant Managing, and past Nonfiction Editor of The Pinch. She has publications in The Collagist, Appalachian Heritage, Cleaver Magazine, Word Riot, The Citron Review, Little Patuxent Review, Pine Hills Review, Apeiron Review, and others. Her essay, "Horses in the Wrinkle" has been nominated for The Best American Essays 2016. See cherylsmartwriter.com to read other works.

First K-cups, Now We Have A Short Story Dispenser

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine    

When I first saw the story of the Short Story Dispenser on CBS Sunday Morning Show, Dispensing With Words, I immediately thought of my new coffee dispenser.  I must admit as hard as I struggled against the K cup way of making coffee, I am now a proud owner of a Keurig 2.0 coffee maker. Oh I have yet to give up my beautiful Kitchen Aid coffee bean grinder, my delicious coffee making Cuisinart Extreme Brew 10 Cup Thermal Programmable Coffeemaker or my collection of coffee beans I have favored over the years. In the back of my mind I tend to think this new way of making coffee will not last and I can easily return to my old standbys. But truth is I really like my Keurig 2.0 and the variety of coffees especially The Donut Shop flavor. This new way may actually stick.

The same could be said for the innovative strides of the French in Grenobel. There has been placed in public places vending machines that dispense short stories. The choices are 1 minute, 3 minute and 5 minute stories. The Short Edition machine dispenses these to the reader at no cost. These eight original machines set off a world of interest literally. Orders are coming in from around the world.

Now what does that mean for writers? It means another opportunity to get your story out there. The company put the call out for stories and it took a while but the stories started coming in. They questioned how a publisher would do it today and began with the 8 machines and no short stories. The Publishing House of Short Edition came up with a vending machine for literature and flung the door open wide. Five years ago the http://short-edition.com/ website went up and within a week they had their first story. Some five years later there are over 10,000 authors and a community of some 150,000 regular readers that share these stories and their comments.

The best of the stories are collected and printed in book form. The feedback given from the readers determine the most read and enjoyed. What a great way to do it! If your readers like you then you are published!

You may be interested in this. After all it would be great to see people standing around looking at your short story instead of staring at a phone with who knows what on it. If your story is well liked it could be published in book form. What a great thing to have happen.

So, grab yourself a cup of that great K cup coffee and sit down   check out the website and send in one of your short stories. Once you are published share with us, let us know how this works out for you. We would love to see you make it on Short Editions

 

How Do I Write?

By Roger Rapel

I am fortunate in my writing as I have real-life situations to draw from, albeit I have to fictionalise the work yet it always has an element of truth.

Retiring as a detective sergeant after spending 30 years in the UK police I have served in many departments including tactical firearms, drug squad, CID and Crime Squads–to name a few, but was always on the front line.  I’ve spent years investigating serious crimes including murders, rapes, child abuse and many other criminal activities.

There is nothing like having experience to draw from; it empowers you, but then you have to be careful not to go over the top; try to find a happy medium. Using the theme, what would the readers like to read rather than what you want to write about; it has to be interesting and semi factual. Just look at CSI, it’s written mostly to reach an audience; but based on some truth. My service in the police gave me an eye opener to real life situations and the depravity that some people stoop to.

Writing with impact, I try not to use embellishment. I draw on police report writing skills, being factual and to the point.

I read somewhere, (can’t remember for the life where) ‘Don’t write 20 words when 5 will do.’ So I keep to that theme. Plus another quote from somewhere, ‘give the reader credit to work out who is speaking.’ Once the initial opening is over between two people, it is unnecessary to keep on writing he said, she said.

I have learned by bitter experience to read and reread what I’ve written. Words will hide from you, reread and there it is; a major mistake hiding. Put it down, read again in a week and you will find more. Then finally, after all the corrections, you are ready to submit to a publisher.

Finding one is not easy, but persist, they do exist.

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Roger Rapel is the author of Missing, which released in January 2016; Gift or Curse, Abducted and Cindy Where Are You. His social media links are: 

Website: www.rogerrapel.com  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/david_parle

Email: rogerrapel@yahoo.com  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.parle1

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-parle 

Publisher: Ravenswood publishing

When Genres Collide

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

One can only guess what Jane Austen would think of the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  In 2009, author Seth Grahame-Smith and Quirk Books cleverly capitalized on a current hot topic by sinking their teeth into Austen's 1813 classic, creating a new novel of manners and monsters.  A movie of the same name made it to theaters in February 2016.

Call it a parody, call it a mashup, but whatever you do, don't call it a one hit wonder.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies started a zombie apocalypse of its own, inspiring other authors to write such twisted tomes as:

• Alice in Zombieland
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
• Little Women and Werewolves
• William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Empire Striketh Back
• Grave Expectations
• Android Karenina 

Grahame-Smith continued to contribute more of his own fangy fare with 2010's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Even fairy tales have not been safe from those who would rewrite history. That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White and Zombies picks up where happily ever after leaves off. It turns out that Snow's resurrection doesn't come without a certain complication.  Which makes me fear for Sleeping Beauty, who was dead to the world even longer than Snow before her prince showed up.

More than simply grabbing the coattails of a passing fad, a good hybrid novel not only captures the spirit of the original material but adds its own page-turning twists.  Another popular genre, Steampunk, shares a similar premise of mixing the ordinary with the extraordinary.  In this, H.G. Wells was well before his time.

Author Kerry Nietz shared how he came up with his novel Amish Vampires in Space in the May 2014 issue of Southern Writers: "For me, it was an interesting mental challenge. Could I intersect three genres—Science Fiction, Amish, and Vampires—and produce a compelling and plausible story?" Nietz succeeded, and followed up with 2015's Amish Zombies in Space. 

Perhaps you can think of other mashup possibilities.  I myself would enjoy a novel in which Sherlock Holmes matches wits with The Mad Hatter.  These two insane geniuses on opposite ends of the mental health spectrum would make for a very fun read indeed.

But let's not stop there.  Might I also suggest these titles, just ripe for the writing:

• Calamity Jane Eyre
• Little Orphan Annie of Green Gables
• Green Eggs and Hamlet

With so many genre mashups yet to be tapped, don't be dismayed if the zombie and vampire trend is not the bandwagon you feel like hopping on.  All you need is a little imagination to come up with another idea worth fleshing out.

Memoir Writing – Courage Required

By Maureen Hager

I have one of those stories – you know the ones where others gasp as you are telling it. For years, I lived with the shame, guilt, and condemnation of my past mistakes. It was time for me to confront the past and move forward.

A misguided search for love and acceptance led me into a world of drugs and life in a motorcycle gang. Caught up in a violent gang war, I became a victim of two gunshot wounds when a rival gang opened fire with M16 rifles. Within those few seconds, the crippling bullets forever changed my life.

In my determination to start a new life, I encountered the hope and healing of God’s transforming love. Often people would say to me, “You ought to write a book.” I always balked at the idea, after all; I’m not a writer. I wouldn’t know where to start, and the thought of it was so overwhelming.

Eventually, I did begin to write. I was passionate about taking my story and using the scars of brokenness to offer hope and healing to other broken people.

What would be required to begin writing my memoir?

Courage to be transparent: If I was not completely honest and sincere, who would I be fooling? How could I give a credible account of my story?

Vulnerability: A belief that your story matters and a willingness to unlock painful memories.  

Trust the healing process: Deliverance happens as we share our personal trials and triumphs. 

                                           

My introduction to becoming a writer was literally a cry-out to the Lord, “Help me!” This has been my heart’s cry with each new chapter. I remind myself that the Lord would not call me without equipping me.

I searched the internet for writing resources and found helpful blogs and advice. I attended my first Christian writers’ conference and brought with me an unsure heart. In my hand, I held my book’s outline and prologue willing to offer it up for critique.

It was at this first conference that I met many incredible writers and editors. What a relief for this newbie writer to know much-needed support would be available along this writing journey. 

Because of their generous hearts, I not only learned writing tips, but I gained the confidence that my story needed to be told.

I am a perpetual writing student. I am so grateful for the help from authors who are willing to share their experiences and to give a little shout of encouragement along the way.

Writing my memoir has been a great challenge and a great blessing. I know you have a story to tell, do you have the courage to do so?

Write from the Heart

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Maureen Hager is a survivor. Her passion lies in empowering women to receive healing from their brokenness through the love of Christ. Once a wounded victim in a biker gang war, her painful journey led her to a place of restoration. Her testimony of deliverance and hope has impacted women of all ages. She is currently writing her first book based on her journey through emotional, spiritual and physical trauma. Website: www.MaureenHager.com Twitter: @Maureen_Hager Blog: www.OutoftheBrokenness.com  Facebook: Maureen Hager – Out of the Brokenness  Pinterest: Maureen Hager 

   

The Word Carpenter

By Julie Saffrin

I grew up in a three-bedroom rambler in Bloomington, Minnesota. When I was twelve, Dad built himself a workshop. Pegboards surrounded it. Mounted hooks held sawdust-topped tools. Baby jars held screws, nuts, bolts, and nails. On the floor, an old toy box housed wood scraps. The whole place was filled with possibility.

Dad decided to make me a desk. I watched him at his drafting board as he sketched out plans. Once finished, we went to the lumber store. He lifted a two-by-four to his eye. “Try to pick straight boards, Julie. The warped ones are worthless.” If the board was straight, he looked for knots. “They’re tough to drill and hard to hide under paint.”

I loved to work with Dad. I think he liked spending time with me and the chance to polish his daughter’s grammar. One Sunday after church while in his shop, he cut angles with his radio arm saw and I sanded boards.

The Vikings game was on. “Which team are you voting for, Dad? The Vikings or the Packers?”

My father, who minored in English at Stout College in Menomonie, Wisconsin, replied, “One roots in football, Julie.”

Lesson learned.

I wrote many stories for school on that desk. Life moved on.

In my thirties, I turned serious about writing, and Alzheimer’s began its twelve-year war with Dad. His workshop door stayed closed. I took creative writing classes and he went to doctors’ appointments. Day after day he lost his wallet while I discovered my writing voice. I watched his love of wood diminish to a paper sack, into which he’d placed receipts and a deck of cards, as he wandered, confused, in the house.

The disparity between what he’d lost and I gained crushed me at times. Medications failed to bore into the twisted tangles of Dad’s mind, his chisel, now worthless on brain plaque. When the disease stripped away his vocabulary, I used the still lessons of being in his presence to read him my latest revision, which he seemed to enjoy.

For I had a purpose to write. I wrote about life because he was prevented from living it.

And that is why I’ve kept the desk, currently stocked with books, board games and photo albums, in the basement.

Dad now shares space with Heaven’s other carpenters. But my desk is his visible signature. It affirms he was once fully here. It tells me, I too, must leave my mark, through writing, in this world.

Today as I write, I look at the words on the page, and I hear Dad whisper, “Choose the best boards, Julie.” His carpentry skills taught me well. I outline a story, plane away extra words, let shavings of prepositional phrases pile up around my feet.

As for knots, I’ve grown to like them. A challenge, yes, but I find tough characters are sometimes the best to know.

And when I finally see my published words, I catch the sawdust scent of a proud carpenter, and smile.

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Julie Saffrin is the author of the popular gratitude book, BlessBack(r): Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life, Kissing the Shoreline: Quotes and Reflections to Live By, as well as published articles and essays. She received her bachelor's degree in Print Journalism and English from the University of St. Thomas. Julie divides her time between Minneapolis and Ottertail County in Minnesota with her husband Rick,  a golden retriever named Mick, and their three sons and their families. She blogs at http://www.JulieSaffrin.com.
Julie can be found at website: http://www.juliesaffrin.com
Facebook Author Page:  Bloglovin': http://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/julie-saffrin-13965849?
Instagram: http://instagram.com/juliesaffrin Pinterest: Pinterest.com/gadhill/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gadhill Flipboard: www.flipboard.com/saffri2014
Google+: Julie Saffrin Amazon:Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/juliesaffrin

Writing, Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

Memphis has had the hottest weather of the year this week. Heat is oppressive and drives everyone inside to seek air conditioned rooms. This was true on Monday night when I tuned into the Republican National Convention. I normally pass on viewing the antics of both political party's conventions. I've been there done that and have several t-shirts, pins and hats. However, after watching the RNC candidate enter to the Queen song, "We are the Champions," I was intrigued. Via the New York Daily article, rock band, Queen was not and issued the following statement, "Queen does not want its music associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country." Minutes after Melania Trump's speech, social and news media turned hotter than Memphis weather.  

This is not a political blog post. It is about authors, plagiarism and copyright infringement. As an author, plagiarism and copyright infringement is a serious charge and can land you in a courtroom for years. In today's technological atmosphere, it is just too easy to check if your words are yours. At plagiarism checker you can easily find interesting articles about plagiarism and copyright infringement. This site has two free printables you can share with other authors and writing groups. 

Starting in middle school, students are required to turn their work in to turnitin.com. If your work is deemed plagiarized, a student can find themselves suspended from school. A high school and college student could be expelled for plagiarism or not citing sources within a paper. Students learn early that their writing should be their writing, period. 

Do you remember the 1989 Academy Awards where the opening was a Snow White theme song and dance number/skit? The Academy was sued for use of Snow White by Disney who held the rights.  In March 1989, Frank Wells, Disney's president and chief operating officer, said at the time, "we have great respect for the academy and for all that it does, we were therefore greatly surprised and dismayed when we viewed last evening's Academy Awards ceremonies to see that our Snow White character had been used extensively without our permission." 

As an author, excluding the obvious legal ramifications, I want the satisfaction of being a success with my own words not using someone else's. How about you?

Conflict in Romance Stories

By Ellen Butler

The framework for romance writing includes conflict between your hero and heroine. Conflict can entertain and carry your couple through a 70K word novel, but done incorrectly will have your reader tossing the book aside for something better. Without the conflict between your hero and heroine either a) your story isn’t a romance or b) Your novel becomes a nice short story about how a couple met and got married—The End. When writing conflict there must be a fundamental reason for your characters to be at odds. Below are three easily made mistakes in romance conflict creation.

The Misunderstanding - The biggest mistake in romance writing is the creation of conflict because your characters don’t talk to each other. Maybe they heard part of conversation and made inaccurate conjecture. This is called The Misunderstanding which you can use for a chapter or two, but The Misunderstanding can’t be your main source of conflict throughout an entire story. It gets old quickly and a reader will want to reach through the pages and slap your main characters for being so stupid.

The Love Triangle – Be very careful using a Love Triangle. An open Love Triangle where a woman has to choose between two good men rarely happens to adults. It’s more likely to happen to struggling teens or new adults, but even then it’s rare. What usually causes a Love Triangle is a significant other sleeps with a person outside of the relationship—we call that Cheating and can certainly make for great conflict, like vase throwing conflict, but isn’t a true Love Triangle. It’s also difficult to pull a Love Triangle through an entire book, if you start with a Love Triangle, it needs to end sooner rather than later. Using the Love Triangle as your conflict throughout the entire book will also wear on your reader’s patience because it makes your hero/heroine look like a wishy-washy flake who doesn’t know their own mind and can’t make a decision.

The Third Party – What do I mean by this? A woman falls in love with a man, but her annoying sister is intrusive, doesn’t have her act together, or uses her as a doormat and the couple fight about this. Now this is true conflict and certainly happens in real life. Families stick together and can become enablers of bad behavior and written well it can last an entire manuscript. However, if your character throws off the chains of the family screw up, you need to build up to it. Don’t give me 250 pages of a very sweet character who plays the doormat then have her stand up for herself in the last 5 pages of the book. We need to see the character grow through the book and perceive smaller steps being made before the big break.

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Ellen Butler twitter style: author, mother, wife, shoe lover, chocoholic, fashion fan, sarcastic wit, autumn enthusiast, dancer, book worm, and good-time devotee. Ellen is an award winning novelist living in Northern Virginia with her husband and two children. She writes sexy, sassy romances with laugh out loud humor and edge of your seat suspenseful women’s fiction. Her recent release includes the Love, California Style series. When she’s not writing Ellen can be found running around after her children, giving interior decorating advice to neighbors, or holed up in her favorite chair with a glass of wine. Ellen admits to having a penchant for shoe shopping and is an admitted chocoholic. Stalk Ellen At: Website: www.ellenbutler.net  Twitter: @EButlerBooks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EllenButlerBooks

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/EllenButlerBooks

Which Books Increased in Sales? What Genres?

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine

Great news for authors. Printed books are up! This is according to Nielsen Company. You may not be familiar with them but they know what consumers watch and buy by studying consumers in more than 100 countries. “Viewing trends and habits worldwide.”  They reported, “Sales of traditional books increased almost 3% while sales of e-books dipped. This means e-books’ share of the total market slipped from 27% in 2014 to 24% in 2015.

Here is what they reported on genres. They said, “Certain genres maintained a larger share in the digital realm than others, including Romance and Thrillers. Trending was non-fiction. It was the highlight of 2015 with 12% growth in children’s and 7% in adult.”

Some writers I know are glad to hear the news that print books are up. While it is nice to download a book immediately and read, there is just something special about holding the printed book in your hands. Does that sound old fashion? Maybe…but holding a book has a special feeling. Perhaps it transports our memories back in time.

 As a child, we only had printed books. Living in a small town, I could walk to the Library. For kids who loved to read the library was a big deal. During the summer, I would walk the two and half blocks to the library, check out five books on Monday morning. By Friday, I had finished the five books. Each Monday I would return to the library and repeat checking out five. Many summers I read more than most of the kids in my class. But I do remember a couple of kids who would read more sometimes. The beginning of each school year the teacher would compare how many each kid read and the winners always got a treat.

However, it truly wasn’t a race for me. I loved reading; being taken to other worlds and meeting new characters. I knew even as a kid by reading the books I was visiting places I had never been and might never go.  I still love reading. I love being transported into other worlds by authors and meeting their characters and learning their stories.

Writers give readers a special gift if only for a while, they transport the reader out of their world into another time and place meeting different people.

Remember, when you are writing you are opening doors for your readers.

On Being Productive

By Edith Maxwell

I’m often asked how in the world I can write three novels a year. For one thing, my publishers set deadlines, and panic is a great motivator! More seriously, I approach my fiction writing as a career. I left my most recent day job – writing software manuals – three years ago. I’m not retired; this is just my new (and, I hope, last) full-time job.

My most creative time is in the mornings. I’m always up by six AM and writing by seven. Ramona DeFelice Long, a writer and editor friend in Delaware, cyber-hosts morning “sprints.” It’s a great way to work. She posts the sprint thread on Facebook every morning sometime before seven o’clock. Bunches of us from all over check in, writing things like, “Running down for a second up of coffee,” “Here, but barely,” or “Got up early, already have one sprint under my belt.”

Then we do nothing but work for an hour straight. No email, no Facebook, no phone. Just work. If I’m writing a first draft, my goal for the morning is 2000 words. Sometimes, if the story is flowing, I can churn out almost half that in the first hour. If I’m revising, I dive in and polish, trim, elaborate, whatever the book needs, for the hour.

At eight I surface, get some more coffee, grab a bite to eat, and then set the timer again. I find turning off those exterior distractions is so important to letting the words flow. It’s also key that I don’t schedule anything but writing for my mornings. I leave appointments, exercise, and all the considerable business side of being an author for the afternoons.

I have other author friends whose creative time is later in the day, and others who have a day job and sprint on their lunch breaks. We each make it fly in our own particular way. By working every morning but Sunday, and with some focus, I manage to write three mystery series. And I’m living my dream.

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Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and the Country Store Mysteries (as Maddie Day), as well as award-winning short crime fiction. Maxwell, a former technical writer, farmer, and doula, is Vice-President of Sisters in Crime New England and Clerk of Amesbury Friends Meeting. She lives north of Boston with her beau and three cats, and blogs with the other Wicked Cozy Authors. You can find her onFacebook, twitter, Pinterest, and at her web site.

Write on a Round Desk

By Michael H. Thompson

A: “Why would any writer believe me, you ask? Maybe it’s because they have highly creative minds.”

Q: “What’s a round desk have to do with creative writers?”

A: “It’s simple, really. Round corners … they’re round, no sharp edges. Do you know what that does to the human mind?”

Q: “Afraid you’ll have to explain.”

A: “Well, I’ve experienced this phenomenon for some time. In fact, I’ve had plenty of experience with the “four-corner creative killers,” I now call them.”

Q: “What’s four corners got to do with anything?”

A: “Two problems with four corners. One, the edges interfere with your creative liberty.”

Q: “Really? That’s a new one for me.”

A: “Well, those square corners are out there in the periphery of your eyes. Your eyes are connected to your brain, right?”

Q: “So?”

A: (I pointed to my temple.) “Those square corners become interference to the mind, like a bad song stuck in your subconscious.”

Q: “I’m not buying it. That makes no sense to me.”

A: “Sorry, bad analogy. Let’s try this. We all have a subconscious, right? God made us that way. Now the subconscious, what does it do?”

Q: “I don’t know, you tell me. I thought I was asking the questions here.”

A: “You are. I just wanted you to consider the subconscious. You do know it detects things in our minds we’re not even aware of, right? Now put that thought into this thought … square corners on a writing desk suck up the energy in our writing.”

Q: “How so?”

A: “Simple. Our subconscious recognizes them, but our conscious self doesn’t. A round desk shaves off those intrusive little gremlins, leaving us free to write without subconscious distraction.”

Q: “You’re kidding me, right?”

A: “No, try it sometime.”

Q: “I think you’re insane.”

A: “Why?”

Q: “Well, for one, your computer screen is square. It’s not round. How do you explain that for your subconscious?”

A: “I can’t. I can only tell you that it’s not the machine we’re using to create our work; it’s our surrounding that subconsciously interacts with our work.”

Q: “Hemingway! He wrote at a square desk. What about him?”

A: “Please, keep your voice down. The library guard. She’s already watching us. But you’re right. And my point exactly. Hemingway was a stiff writer. He never loosened up. Too stilted … the square corners got him.”

Q: “You’re crazy, you know that?”

A: “I’m sorry I disappointed you. I think I asked more questions than you did, though. Oh, and there’s one more thing I forgot. With that circular periphery, most of your desk mess is out of sight, which could be another distraction disaster. You cool with that?”

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Michael Thompson was a successful ad agency owner, winning numerous national and international awards. After selling his firm in 2011, Michael turned his attention to full-time writing. His latest novel is The Rector, available on Amazon in print, on Audio Book, and Kindle. Two graphic novels on the life of David from the Old Testament–DAVID–The Illustrated Novel came first. (Volume 2-won first place BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL and BEST INTERIOR DESIGN, 2012, from USA Book’s INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS. Volume 1 won the Silver IPPY for Graphic Novels in 2011 from the Independent Publisher Book Awards.) Next was a sci-fi thriller (CLOUDS ABOVE) that was serialized in a monthly magazine for a year. (Out in book in 2016.) Michael writes Christian novels that entertain, intrigue, and shine a light on his Jesus. He’s a member of the ACFW, Mystery Writers of America, The International Crime Writers Association, and the Southern Writers Association. Visit his website, www.michaelthompsonauthor.com to learn more.

Benghazi –The Rest of The Story

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine    

Paul Harvey passed away in 2009 but many of us can still hear that big booming voice telling us “The Rest of The Story”. Harvey was always interesting and informing. Harvey informed America and made us look into the mirror and see ourselves as a nation. Harvey spent 5 decades speaking to as many of 24 million people a week. He was recognized as a great American and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. A great man and a great career we could all learn from. What would Paul Harvey say about Benghazi?

Having worked in government in a position that was watched over by the media from the start of the day until days end, I know what the difference is between what went on and what was reported. I know that each evening I could watch the local news and wonder how they came up with the story that was reported. I always thought of Harvey and wanted to tell the public what the rest of the story was. The same has been presented to us about the tragedy in Benghazi. All we have seen is the finger pointing and have yet to hear the actual events of the attack. Now we have an opportunity to do so from someone that was there on the ground.

Michael Zuckoff’s book 13 Hours, The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, was written from the view of a 6 man security operation, made up of former Navy SEALS.  This security force was contracted to protect CIA workers nearby.  Although they were not ordered to go they took it on themselves to protect Americans. It sets the record straight on the events of that night of September 11, 2012. It is presented as the truth and not something shrouded in the mystery of governments reports and media spin.


When the movie, made by Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, opened some complained that it did not address the political aftermath and what was done or not done to protect the compound. Zuckoff’s explanation was that was not in the scope of the film or book. “It’s what happened on the ground, on the rooftops, in the streets when these events came to pass and everybody who was involved…that became a bit of the mission statement.”

13 Hours is a good example of what a writer can do with a well-known topic. Zuckoff had the benefit of a story that was widely known and although controversial in the political world did have what is known a “good legs” to carry the book further than something connected with an unknown event. Veering away from the controversy, which opened the door to readers, and presenting a story of the tremendous self-sacrifice by a few extraordinary men when there was no help coming was brilliant and needed to be told. They did not arrive at the consulate in time. They then returned to another siege at their compound which many of us were not aware of. There they lost their leader in that fight.

Telling “The Rest of The Story” may be something you would want to do. You may know a behind the scenes story connected with a well-known one. Tell us that story. It worked for Paul Harvey for 5 decades. Maybe we too can make a career of telling "The Rest of The Story".