News Flash!

Congratulations to Claudia, winner of THE SPARROW SISTERS by Debutante Ball guest Ellen Herrick. 

Check back next week, where we will announce the winner of this weeks giveaway–THE STAR SIDE OF BIRD HIILL, by Naomi Jackson!

From the 2016 Debs

Louise Miller is busy doing writing exercises to help her choose among three novel ideas for book two. She  just turned in a list of songs that she quoted in book one for the permissions department, and is wondering how she ended up writing so much about traditional music when she set out to write about baking.

Jennifer S. Brown is going through her copyedited manuscript. Shivers of joy went through her when she saw her style sheet. So official! She is checking and approving every change, clarifying things that needed to be clarified, and tweaking ever so much.

Heather Young is working on jacket copy and waiting for the next round of revisions (and copyedits, which will come at the same time) from her editor.

Abby Fabiaschi is excited to report that I LIKED MY LIFE is in production with a revised January/February 2017 publication date. She’s been told patience pays off in the hardcover world, so she’s working on developing that virtue, which has alluded her so far. Revisions on Book 2 are well under way!

Aya de Leon turned in her revisions to her editor! Also, her novel’s cover was revealed this week on Flavorwire, as part of an essay about the perils of writing a smutty book for grownups while raising an inquisitive kindergartener.

For Writers

Resources

We stumble across so many things that would be of interest to other writers that we thought we’d share a few here:

• A great article on how to market your book by a bookseller and an author:  How to Sell Your Book
• Ten tech tools for writers, by Amy Stewart, author of Girl Waits With Gun:  Ten Tech Tools
• Ten tips on author readings by Randy Susan Myers:  Ten Reading Tips
• Why breaking the rules can be so much fun:  Break the Rules

Places to Submit

Flash fiction is deceiving because on one hand, it’s short and fun to write and how hard can it be to write 500 (or 750) words? On the other hand, writing something that is compelling, a full story, and 500 (or 750) words is incredibly hard. Flash fiction can be satisfying–write that first draft while waiting for a response from your boss or your kid’s swimming class to end or for the pasta water to bowl. But flash fiction can be challenging–fine tune and trim and make that story really shine. Once you’ve written a flash you’re excited about, the places to submit are endless. Most major literary journals accept flash fiction (and nonfiction!), but some specialize in the shorter form:

• Oblong accepts fiction under 1,000 words and publishes a new piece every Tuesday.
• 100 Word Stories publishes (surprise, surprise) stories and nonfiction that are exactly 100 words long (not including title).
• Nano Fiction accepts pieces under 300 words.
• Flash Fiction Online wants stories between 500 and 1,000 words. Science fiction and fantasty pieces are great; so is literary fiction.
• Hobart is looking for pieces for the website, both fiction and nonfiction. While they are okay with pieces under 2,000 words, they prefer ones under 1,000 words.
• Word Riot wants flash fiction under 1,000 words.
• Flash is an international journal and pieces for that can be no more than 360 words, including the title!
• Two Sentence Stories publishes all stories of two sentences. Anything you submit, they will publish, so have fun with this.
• Vestal Review bills itself as “the oldest magazine dedicated exclusively to flash fiction.” They require stories of no more than 500 words, plot required!
• LampLight is a quarterly magazine of “dark fiction.” They’d like fiction under 1,000 words and no “vampires, zombies, werewolves, serial killers, hitmen, excessive gore or sex.” This is a paying market.
• The Citron Review takes microfiction (under 100 words), flash fiction (under 1,000 words), and flash nonfiction (also under 1,000 words).

Writing Prompt

Speaking of flash fiction…

Pull a book off your shelf at random. With your eyes closed, open the book and point to the middle of the page. Okay, you can open your eyes now. Take the sentence at which you are pointing and incorporate it into a short-short story.