Monday Monday...

1Chron. 29: 11 Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
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Well yes, today is Monday.

Had a nice weekend, rich with family and church. Now today is Monday my rest day? ha ha ha, as if. Cleaning, trudging, working, preparing, that’s what’s on today’s agenda. But I couldn’t go on with this week without giving you something to do in your writing life.

Have you been sending out your work? Have you made it a priority? Don’t worry, I’m the procrastinating type too. Maybe next week my vision will be a little clearer as to what on this God’s green earth I’m supposed to do!

Here’s a market or two from Funds for Writer's, (one of my favorite sites) to keep you busy writing AND submitting!

UNTIED SHOELACES OF THE MIND
http://www.untiedshoelacesofthemind.com/sample/

Pays three cents/word up to $30 for short fiction.
Submit genre or literary stories between 100-2,000
words. Our preference is between 500-1,000 word stories,
but we will happily accept longer stories. See online
for defined categories.


OUTSHINE
http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/outshine-submission-guidelines/

In dire need of submissions. A Twitterzine for optimistic,
near future prose poems. They're flash length, and look ahead.
Looking for: prose poems of optimistic, near future SF that
fit within the 'tweet' limits (check out Twitter); i.e.
maximum 140 characters long. Pays $5 each. Limit one submission
per week. Only pays through PayPal.

WHISPERS PUBLISHING CONTEST
http://www.whispershome.com/contests.html

NO ENTRY FEE
Beginning January 1, 2010, Whispers Publishing will host
the "Make it Quick" writing contest. The contest is open
to all writers published and unpublished. Looking for
Erotiquiks which are hot, steamy stories of 2,000 words
or less. These must be complete stories with a hero, heroine,
and a plot. Be creative and don't limit yourself. Any genre
or time period is acceptable, but the story must follow all
of Whispers guidelines and can not include any of the taboos
listed on the submissions page. So whether it's the West you
long to write about or a futuristic world of your own
creating, challenge yourself by tightening your story into
2,000 words or less. Deadline January 31, 2010.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $25, an award
certificate, a contract for publication, and a promotion
package upon publication of the work.

First Place Winner: $15, an award certificate, and a
contract for publication. Second Place Winner: $10, an
award certificate, and a contract for publication.
Third Place Winner: $5 and an award certificate with
consideration for publication at editor's discretion.
Two Honorable Mentions will receive award certificates.

Worthwhile Newsletter?

One extends one's limits only by exceeding them.
M. Scott Peck

Thoughts for Thursday

Well today is going to be a long day. Is it Friday yet? I want this day to be over so I can move on and breathe again and maybe, just maybe, feel normal again. ha ha Me normal?

My thoughts for Thursday are about the writing industry. I receive tons of newsletters from the writing world and sometimes I wonder why I’m even subscribed. They’re chock full of tidbits on the industry, some have markets and some just go on and on.

I can tell you who my favorite Newsletter is from, Hope Clark. She has a website too and dagnammit, it is full of info too! And she doesn’t speak down to a writer, she speaks as if we’re all on the same page of our journey.

Some of the newsletters sound as if they are all speaking to well published authors in the industry. As if everyone has hopped on the publishing train and is going to ride off into the sunset while reading their newsletter on their laptop. Come on people, well published authors are off in some far away tropical location basking in the sun,frying and wrinkling their bodies while waiting for the next check to come in.

The reader who reads the newsletters are people who are still in the learning phases and the hunting for markets phase. Some writers don’t even bother with newletters (egads!) and they just make google their best friend.

My advice for the writer today is this: Peruse those Writing Newsletters. Make the most of them and allow them to become a valuable tool in your inbox. Don’t be inundated with spam, the newsletters are not the spam in the industry, they are the wielding tools in the biz. Remember that.

Funds for Writers ~ an extremely helpful site for the new writer and the old shoe.

Is today over yet?

*snap*

I’m off to drift through the day like a carpet out of the realm of Aladdin.

Thanks for dropping by...

To market, to market...

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
A. A. Milne

So you want to market what you write? I have subscribed to hundreds of Writing related newsletters only to be let down. I’ve canceled most of them because the links to a market was either useless because it went nowhere, or the link took me to something to buy, like a BOOK on markets.

I find that in a world where every dollar counts, even the Writer's Marketing industry is trying to make that buck too. Here’s an example: I get the email, open it to find an authors note, oh he or she is so sweet when they use my name like we’re friends from way back.

Joni, how would you like...etcetera. Here comes the sales pitch. To keep our newsletter FREE we’re making this offer to you at no charge. Link link link. Free market database this is not!

Okay where is the free market database? You click the link and it takes you to sign up pages, offers of purchasing a market data base, or our site is under construction.

I don’t know, people. I think I’ll just stick to blogging since the writing industry is so overwhelmed with competition. NOT! As a writer we need to persevere in this dangling economy and dig until our nails bleed!

So without further adieu, here is some legitimate markets that might look good to you!

p.s. excuse the blood smeared page. *wink*


A Cup of Comfort
Frequency: 4 books per year
Circulation: 60,000-250,000 (depending on book)
Accepts Email Submissions: Yes
Website URL: http://www.cupofcomfort.com/GeneralMenu/
Description: Best-selling series of books featuring inspiring true stories
Editor(s): Colleen Sell
Email: wordsinger@aol.com
Phone: 541-942-3405
Fax: 508-427-6790
Guidelines URL: http://www.cupofcomfort.com/WritersGuidelines/ for writer's guidelines information.
Address: P.O. Box 863
Eugene, OR 97440
USA
Needs: Stories must be true, original, inspiring or uplifting, written in third or first person, and in English.

Preference given to anecdotal and emotionally evocative creative nonfiction stories and narrative essays. Please, no poetry, journalistic articles, commentaries, profiles, eulogies, letters, journal entries, diatribes, composition papers, book chapters, or fiction.
Length: 1000-2000 words

Payment: $500 grand prize per book/contest; $100 each for all other published stories. Upon publication. Contributors receives byline and free copy of book.
Length: Up to 6,000 words

Art/Photo Needs: Accept artwork (typically photography) for cover, no inside artwork.

Payment: $5 and contributor's copy

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Publisher: Penny Publications
Established: 1956
Website URL: http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/
Description: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery is a monthly publication that presents stories packed with suspense, mystery, and intrigue.
Guidelines URL: http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/guidelines/ for writer's guidelines information.
Newsstand Listing: Subscription Information http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000066SZO/writerswrite
Address: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
475 Park Avenue South
New York , NY 10016
USA
Needs: Because this is a mystery magazine, the stories we buy must fall into that genre in some sense or another. We are interested in nearly every kind of mystery, however: stories of detection of the classic kind, police procedurals, private eye tales, suspense, courtroom dramas, stories of espionage, and so on. We ask only that the story be about a crime (or the threat or fear of one). We sometimes accept ghost stories or supernatural tales, but those also should involve a crime. You might find it useful to read one or more issues of AHMM; that should give you an idea of the kind of fiction we buy.

Length: We prefer that stories not be longer than 14,000 words; most of the stories in the magazine are considerably shorter than that.

Christian Science Monitor
Established: 1909
Frequency: daily
Accepts Email Submissions: Yes
Website URL: http://www.csmonitor.com
Description: International, general-interest daily newspaper published as a public service of the Christian Science Church. Pulitzer-Prize winning; est. 1908.
Guidelines URL: Click here http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/guidelines.html for writer's guidelines information.
Address: One Norway Street
Boston, MA 02115
USA

Needs: The Home Forum is looking for upbeat, personal essays of from 400 to 1,100 words. We also publish poetry (25 lines is a long poem, for us). Every Tuesday we publish Kidspace, feature stories (main story and at least one sidebar) aimed at children ages 6 to 12.

Payment: Personal essays: $75 to $150, depending on the way it's used, length, and the editor's subjective assessment.
Poetry: $20 (haiku) to $40.
Kidspace articles: $150 for main story of 750 to 900 words, $50 to $75 per sidebar. We like to have at least one sidebar per Kidspace, ideally two.

You want more??? More markets? Don’t let me do all the work. Try and find some on your own. You’re welcome to come back and share with me!

Have a gracious glorious day! And remember... always find something within every single day that you live, to be thankful for. You’ll be better off!