I should have been more on top of this, but recently my fellow writer Ted Wallenius (aka shredbobted) pulled together about a dozen writers to do some short story workshopping and cross-promotion. Six of them made it through the gauntlet (the other six, including myself, started but then a little then a little thing called “Life” got in the way for us). Those brave and creative souls were:
- Emily Amsel — Loss Part I, Part II & Part III
- Stephen Bent — Trees Grow Around Wire Part I, Part II & Part III
- Jeremy Miller — Corrections Part I, Part II & Part III
- Sarah Orr Aten — Smoke on the Water Part I & Part II
- Jolene Rice — An Oily Mess Part I, Part II & Part III
- Ted Wallenius — Strapped for Love Part I, Part II & Part III
If you are ever on the lookout for some talented writers and don’t have two pennies to rub together, you can probably find something worth reading from at least one of these six talented individuals. There’s a little romantic fantasy, a little body horror, a bit of absurdity crossed with action flick, several literature played straight pieces, and something I would call speculative fiction.
It’ll keep you busy for an afternoon, for sure.
One of the things I think writers don’t do as well as they might on WordPress is to promote other’s writing in a way that doesn’t feel casual, even flippant. It’s easy to reblog someone else’s writing, but that feels somewhat impersonal, if you ask me. We should tell people the WHY they should follow the link you provided, if only to write a paragraph or three as to what we’ll find at the other end of the rainbow (be it a pot o’ gold or Mr. Mercer’s outhouse).
It doesn’t have to be a review, but it could be something as simple as saying, “Here’s Ted’s tale of the seedy underbelly of Nevada whorehouses, drug dealing, a swindled rare motorcycle and a pair of suspenders may have a walk-on appearance in the story.” That gives us context and a motivation to check it out.
I’m going to try and do more posts like these, probably more individualized and fine-tuned. There is real talent out there and we need to be more supportive of each other than “Great post Julie!” Or, “I was published in a book/blog where I see zero proceeds, and it was such an honor to make someone else some sales/ad revenue with my labor. You can find it here.”
Some of these folks above have books and/or take donations. Buy them some coffee if you read something from the above list and enjoy it. They’d appreciate it, I’m sure.
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