Magpie Days - Julia Davies

In July and August, the 100 Days Project gathered story writers, poets, painters, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, and programmers together for 100 days of creative effort; unique yet built on the work of others in the collective; ranging between the participants for theme, motif, or other inspirational method.

In "Magpie Days", 100-Day-participant  Julia Davies collected her works - each of them inspired or derived by another participant's day, which is included, too. A diary of creativity and of own / outer voice, this collection leads through flowers, volcanoes, lines, curves and asemic writing.

Julia notes: "Me, I have a magpie mind, pouncing on bright and beautiful things, I guess I would like to see if I have an artistic voice, or am a collector/reflector... What can I say about the 100 days project? It was a spur, a net full of sparkles and patterns, full of things that slipped through my fingers and some that did not. I rifled through the pretty things, the skin tingling true things; paused, not long enough, at the things that made me think, and rushed at the things that made me feel. - I wanted to find my voice as a writer, or maybe as an artist, but I was so distracted by all that was on offer for me, daily! I find a voice, or two, but whether they were mine I am not sure. I look beyond now and occasionally spin stuff out of the mind threads that connected us. I want next years project to come already."

Julia Davies is a practised reader and a practising writer, and lives in Germany. She blogs at practice makes perfect.

Magpie Days 2011
The collection is online at Issuu as e-book in 4 parts, and also available as printed book.
- Magpie Days 001-025
- Magpie Days 026-050
- Magpie Days 051-075
- Magpie Days 076-100

A quick guide to Book Publishing Services (Lulu, Smashwords, Createspace, Issuu...)

This isn't news: the digital revolution changed the way books are produced, and also the way they are read.

Print on Demand (POD) makes it possible to create single copies of books, which allows to publish books for smaller and special audiences. Parallel, e-readers make it possible to read e-books in a new, leisure way.

Together, this leads to a growing range of publishing formats, and publishing services, which are especially interesting for small presses and for authors.

Below is a list of service providers, with examples of printed books and e-books that are featured in the blueprint book blog.



Lulu
Lulu is a company offering publishing, printing in various sizes, and distribution (including e-books).
Since their founding in 2002, Lulu has published over 1.1 million titles by creators in over 200 countries and territories and adds 20,000 new titles to their catalogue a month.
links: Lulu webpage, wiki-page
examples: "lulu"-books in this blog (print books + e-books)
cover: if you want to publish a book at CreateSpace, here some advice for creating the book cover

CreateSpace
A publishing/printing/distribution service that provides free tools to help self-publish and distribute books, DVDs, CDs etc. on-demand at CreateSpace and via Amazon.com. (CreateSpace belongs to Amazon, thus the listing, which only works for Amazon.com, no other countries)
link: CreateSpace
examples: CreateSpace-books in this blog
cover: if you want to publish a book at CreateSpace, here some advice for creating the book cover

Smashwords
An ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers, agents and readers that offers multi-format ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device.
link: Smashwords
examples: Smashword-books in this blog
how-to-guide: Smashword Style Guide + Marketing Guide

Issuu
Issuu is a digital publishing platform that delivers full-color reading experiences of magazines, catalogs, and newspapers.
link: Issuu
examples: Issuu-books in this blog

Related links: Red Lemonade, exPress tutorial, Wiki-Pages 

• Advice+Example: How to prepare a book cover for print-on-demand services like CreateSpace
• Red Lemonade: new experimental service: full texts online + print books (example)
• exPress: print to e-book workflow tutorial advice from Folded Word
• General information: Wiki: Print on demand  / Wiki: E-book

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Other blueprint How-to posts:

- How to create an own google map

- How to create an automatic paper.li newspaper

The Conversation Papers 1.1

The Conversation Papers is the magazine of the Conversation International project, a not-for-profit publisher that aims to publish poetry from people and places often marginalised for reasons of capital or political culture.

The Conversation Papers 1.1, online at Issuu, feature a conversation with George Messo on translation, an article on the problems of publishing in Zimbabwe, and "Dialectisism": the first in a series of essays on dialectical approaches to poetry. Poetry by: Fabiano Alborghetti, Wirndzerem G. Barfee, Nancy Charley, William Doreski, Nigel Holt, Susanna Lang, Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, Gonca Özmen and Doug Pugh.
For more articles and bilingual poetry, visit The Conversation Papers 1.2

About the Conversation Paperpress
The Conversation Paperpress is the publishing arm of the Conversation International project: "We are a not-for-profit publisher co-operatively run by volunteers, working with the donated contributions of writers and editors. Through our international anthologies we aim to publish poetry from people and places often marginalised for reasons of capital or political culture, and we have gained critical attention for their promotion of emerging and unheard voices. Our developing pamphlet and paperback series promote original and exploratory poetry, including first collections and works-in-progress. As the mouthpiece of this movement and ambition, the publications of the Paperpress are part of an open dialogue; a conversation."

Upcoming anthologies: From This Bridge: Contemporary Turkish Women Poets and Next Stop, Omdurman: The Lost Poetry of 1980s Sudan

The Conversation Papers
international magazine
available online at Issuu

Qantum Genre in the Planet of Arts (Paraphilia)

Quantum Genre in the Planet of Arts is an E-thology dedicated to the Quantum Genre in literature and art. Beautifully designed and illustrated, the e-thololgy offers a “weird-weird” fiction whose “quantum” quality lies in a way of representation of characters and their “obscure” world. It has nothing to do with sci-fi or the mainstream plot-oriented fiction. Both literary works and artistic images included in the anthology reveal a universe of diversified possibilities and characters whose quantum multiplicity and uncertainty would make one.

The anthology presents short stories by Tantra Bensko, Tom Bradley, Rachel Kendall, Dorothee Lang, Kyle Muntz, j.a.tyler, D. Harlan Wilson, and others. An article by an acclaimed film critic, Betty Jo Tucker, a founding member of the San Diego Film Critics’ Society, opens the door to the QG in cinema. It is followed by a script by Misha Chariton. Last but not least, we are proud to present an excerpt of a truly fascinating novel, Scaraboccio, quantum in essence, written by Grace Andreacchi. You can read this anthology online or download and read at your leisure: PDF.

The e-thology is edited by V. Ulea (Vera Zubarev), Ph.D., teaches decision making in chess literature and film in the University of Pennsylvania. She has published books of literary criticism, poetry and prose, including most recently, a collection of short stories, Snail (previously featured in s-Press). She writes in Russian and English, and recently become a poet laureate of Paustovsky Municipal Prize (Odessa, Ukraine).

About Paraphilia
Paraphilia is an unlicensed, underground enterprise that renounces established and arbitrary rules, regulations, guidelines, genres, categories, and all other manmade shackles. Paraphilia publishes Paraphilia Magazine and books.

Quantum Genre in the Planet of Arts (scroll down a bit)
direct links: online-version / pdf
e-anthology
189 pages