I Don’t Only Submit to Paying Markets, But I Keep in Mind the Writers Who Do

 

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Before the month of August came around, I decided to take a break from not only my monthly newsletter, The SPARREW Newsletter, but also from my weekly Substack posts. My brother passed away close to the end of July and I needed time to focus on my grief. Plus, I had eye surgery coming up (or so I THOUGHT I did; it’s being rescheduled again! This time, possibly in September), so I did not want to stress over gathering material for my newsletter while recovering from eye surgery. (But rest assured, subscribers, that even with my eye surgery being in September, the September issue will STILL go out! I have a cut-off date of the 20 for every month on curating material for the newsletter, and the eye surgery will likely be AFTER the 20 and then that issue will go out on the 30 of September, which gives me a few days to focus on recovering from surgery!)

 

However, because there is a submission deadline coming up for one of the anthologies mentioned in previous issues of the Substack, I decided to take a break from my break to send out an “upcoming submission deadlines” issue tomorrow, August 18, to remind everyone about it. And because I recently gained 100 subscribers to my Substack (thank you, readers!), I am celebrating by throwing in other submission calls that also have forthcoming deadlines.

 

So, as I was gathering that material over the past couple of days, there is one call for submissions that made me pause.

 

This particular call for submissions did not pay writers. However, it was also hosting a contest, and only one lucky winner would receive $100.

 

That still counted as a paying opportunity for writers, right? Not in my book. Why? Because the odds of winning that contest and getting the $100 was seriously stacked up against anyone entering it, because they probably would receive a ton of submissions for it, making the competition fierce.

 

Even so, while I submit to both paying AND nonpaying markets, I understand that there are writers out there who ONLY submit to paying markets. I respect these writers, especially since I tried doing that once myself and I know how hard it can be to get an acceptance! I also keep these writers in mind when I am writing articles containing paying markets.

 

These writers would not be interested in the nonpaying markets! 

 

So in order to keep my own list of pending deadlines something that subscribers would want to know more about, I should only list the markets with forthcoming deadlines that pay writers.

 

This does not mean I frown upon the nonpaying markets. Heck, I used to be a nonpaying editor too! I have no ill will towards the nonpaying markets. They can go about doing their thing!

 

Also, the WOT anthologies which Twisted Dreams Press is still accepting submissions for only pays with a print copy of the anthology and not with money. With 70 writers in all 7 books, paying each writer with money would create bankruptcy! (Everything is out of pocket for us.) So until one of us gets an angel investor or someone makes a generous donation to the press or one of us wins the lottery, we can only pay our anthology writers with a print copy of the book.

 

But when I am the author of an article sharing about OTHER submission calls for writers, then I will list the paying opportunities. This will also apply to other submission calls I list in my Substack posts. I think that sharing only the paying opportunities for writers is my best bet, and what a majority of writers would be most interested in.

The Dream Forest: My new children's book that was worth the wait

 

Where do writers come up with ideas for things to write? For me, anything is fair game. I’ve gotten ideas for things to write from my dreams, life experiences, decorations and even other books I was working on.

 

With my latest children’s book, The Dream Forest, I got the idea for it from a poster. Specifically, a quote on a poster. However, it took several years before that idea turned into a full story.

 

One day, when I dropped my youngest off at preschool, I saw a poster hanging on the wall that said “The forest belongs to every living thing.” This quote resonated with me so strongly that I felt I had to put that into my writing somehow. It took some time for me to figure out a way to do it!

 

In fact, it took 11 years.

 

Meanwhile, I had bits and pieces of an idea of what kind of story it was going to be. I had a main character (although without a name!) and a general idea of what happens in the story. So, with those bits of ideas, I eventually got around to enlisting my young illustrator, Centauri, to draw pictures for this book. At this time, Centauri was 14 years old.

 

It would be some years until I finally actually wrote the story. In fact, it happened earlier this year. I just sat down one day and the story hit me out of the blue. I hurried to the computer to start typing the words that were running through my mind. I didn’t stop typing until the story was done.

 

That first draft went through several revisions and then a beta read. Then the day came when I felt it was ready for production.

 

The only problem was, I didn’t have a title! That’s right; all this time, I hadn’t figured out a title for this story. I had the illustrations and the manuscript, but no title. I realized that I also didn’t have a blurb for this book, which is what I was going to need. So I wrote the blurb and, in doing so, came up with a title for this book. Yay!

 

The Dream Forest is the title I came up with. Those words from the blurb just seemed to stand out. (The actual blurb on the book does not have those words, however. I rewrote the blurb during production.) That’s what I called the book and that is the book I now have available in print.

 

It is quite unusual for me to take so long to figure out a story from an idea. My youngest has been out of preschool for years and my young illustrator is now a college student who is selling his very professional artwork. I think the story took so long just because life just got crazy. Or maybe I was meant to write it now and not then. Then, I was an alcoholic. Now, I am sober for over 4 years and I do believe that I am writing better because of it. So, basically, The Dream Forest is my first children’s book since becoming sober. That is significant! Maybe it came at the right time after all.

 

I really think my writing has improved now and perhaps that is why this story was able to reveal itself to me in all its glory. I had this idea for a project but I didn’t see it to completion at the time. That is what happened with some of my other WIPs; I was meant to finish and submit them years ago but … life just happened and I was a mess. I think the drinking contributed to me being so unorganized and just “touch and go” with everything. I am back to work on all of my books and WIPs now, seeing all of them to completion, and I am doing a lot better now. I am stronger, healthier, and my thinking is clearer. Now I am in a much better position to be a better writer and I am picking up unfinished projects where I left off on them.

 

I am just glad this is one of those projects that I can now count as “complete” on my list of books. I only hope it is a story young readers will enjoy.     

Celebrating the Seasons: New Poetry Book Seasonal Songs Inspired by Children's Artwork

Several years ago, my kids, Jennifer and Jesse, each created a beautiful picture representative of a season. For Jennifer, it was a tree with Fall-colored leaves. For Jesse, it was a splash of white paint on a gray surface, representing snow. Later, Jennifer also drew me a picture of a “Spring setting” and after I had all 3 of those pictures up on my wall, I thought, 'Hm, something’s missing. I know! Summer!'

Since I already had two “season pictures” from Jen, I decided I would ask Jesse to draw me a picture of something that says "summer." So he drew a picture of a boy about to go fishing at a pond during a hot summery day. I liked the way he drew the sun because it really looked like it was shining so brightly and making the day really warm.

Now I had all 4 of the seasons in pictures on my bedroom wall. And for a long time, those pictures remained there for me to see every day.

After some time, however, it would seem that those 4 pictures of the 4 seasons would start to catch the attention of my muse. I soon found myself writing poems about the seasons. The first poem I wrote was about the summer and, when winter came that year, I wrote about finding frost all over the grass in our backyard and other winter-related poems. Then I moved on to the other seasons.

Soon enough, I had enough poems for a poetry book. I had some difficulty figuring out a title for this one, but I eventually settled on the title “Seasonal Songs.” I chose this title because someone was advertising their poetry book with the title “Seasonal Songs” but when I saw the cover of their book, the title was different! I frowned and muttered, “That book is not called Seasonal Songs.” Then I started thinking about what a catchy title “Seasonal Songs” was. And I thought, ‘Hm, Seasonal Songs. I like it!’

So I selected Seasonal Songs for the title of my new poetry book.

Since I had planned to bring this poetry book out this month, I contacted my cover designer and editor to see if they were able to work on the cover and edits for this book this month – preferably before the month was out. Fortunately, they were able to fit it in and I was able to get all the formatting of the final draft done in time, too.

Now my new poetry book, Seasonal Songs, is out now and available for purchase. Yay! So far, the print version of this book is available. It will be available for the Kindle very soon.

While this poetry book is mostly written for children, I hope readers of all ages would enjoy this book.

Thank you to my kids, Jennifer and Jesse, for granting me permission to include the artwork that inspired these poems in this book. Thank you to Denise Bartlett for editing this manuscript so quickly and for doing a fabulous job on the edits. And thank you to Charlotte Holley for yet another amazing cover for this book! I am very grateful to you all.

Here is the blurb for Seasonal Songs:

The seasons of the year can bring so much happiness, joy and magic into our lives. From the snowy hills of winter to the falling leaves of autumn, the new life of spring and lazy days of summer, the seasons are times for enjoyment and gratitude. Seasonal Songs celebrates the seasons with poems that will bring back happy memories and embrace the beauty of the changing times of the year.

This book is mainly written for children but can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. It includes color illustrations by my children, Jennifer and Jesse Wilson.

Buy link