Prompted - An International Collection of Poems

Prompted - An International Collection of Poems is a poetic charity project: all profits benefit LitWorld, a non-profit organization working towards global literacy.

The idea was conceived by an international group of poets that met at Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides, and with the permission granted from Writer's Digest, were able to choose previous prompts from the site to use in the book. Edited by Pearl Ketover Prilik and published by Really Love Your Book , the project was completed in six months. The anthology includes a forward by Robert Lee Brewer.

Among the "prompts" included: type of person, inverted pyramid, prayer, location, love/anti-love poem, all I want, message in a bottle, water, time of day, and after leaving here.

The poets: Daniel Ari, Michele Brenton, Salvatore Buttaci, Anders Bylund, Janet Rice Carnahan, Diana Terrill Clark, RJ Clarken, Barbara Ehrentreu, Hannah Gosselin, Michael Grove, Jacqueline Hallenbeck, Patricia A. Hawkenson, Michelle Hed, Linda Hofke, Cara Holman, Jane Penland Hoover,  Khara House, S.E. Ingraham, De Jackson, Elizabeth Johnson, Iain Douglas kemp, Pearl Ketover Prilik, Kim King, Laurie Kolp, Andrew Kreider,  Catherine Lee, Amy Barlow Liberatore, Shannon Bo Lockard,  mike Maher., Nikki Markle,  Buddah Moskowitz, Bruce Niedt, Connie L. Peters, Nancy Posey,  Jane Shlensky,  Jay Sizemore, a.m. Trumble, Sara Vinas, Paula Wanken, and Claudette J. Young

Links and charity info
Prompted: An International Collection of Poems is now available through Amazon and Barnes&Noble. There also is a Kindle edition. For more details about the collection, visit Laurie Kolp's blog, and for more about the charity, visit litworld.org. A synopsis and biographies of the collection are online in the blog of the editor Pearl Ketover Prilik: Prompted (keep scrolling).

Related links: charity projects, poetry

see haiku here: Snowman series

Last week, haiga (haiku+artwork) artist Kuniharu Shimizu started a snowman series in his blog see haiku here.

The blog itself is home to more than 700 haiga. The first snowman of the series appeared on December 19, with an introduction to the theme, and an invitation to send snowman haiku: "The snowman is something of a special treat for me in the winter time ever since my child days. Here where I live, it does not snow much though the temperature goes down quite low. The snow falls occasionally but not enough to make a good clean snowman. Last year was different, we had days with heavy snow. Kids and adults (me included) were out in the field, eagerly making snowmen. We were all happy to have great winter friends, the snowmen. I will be posting snowman haiga for a while. I am looking for good snowman haiku. Anybody?" (Snowman haiku 1)

Since then, several Snowman haiku went online already. The image to the left is from Snowman haiku 7. There also is a haiku from BluePrintReview contributor Stella Pierides included, which is how I learned about the blog: Snowman haiku 5.

Note: Kuniharu Shimizu is currently looking for new snowman haiku to continue the series: "This is the last haiga of the snowman series. Yet, it is still in the middle of winter. If anyone come up with good snowman haiku during this season, please share it with me." (link )

For another selection of haiku with a winter mood (from winter nights to stillness to christmas trees), try this link from the archive: see haiku here - December 2010.

Kuniharu Shimizu
see haiku here is the blog of haiga (haiku+artwork) artist Kuniharu Shimizu: a priest of Tenrikyo, the advisor of World Haiku Association, and the judge of WHA Haiga Contest. Kuniharu Shimizu lives in Tenri, Japan, near a city called Nara.

related links: web projects, art, international, poetry

Inter/National Short Story Day 2011

Thursday 22nd December is the shortest day of the year. It also is Short Story Day in the UK. To celebrate prose’s short-yet-perfectly-crafted form, there's a special event website: http://www.nationalshortstoryday.co.uk/

The page features videoclips of short story readings and interviews and story recommendations, quotes and links to short story organisations, as well as links to story sources, publishers, and other pages of interest, like this TedTalk: The danger of a single story.

The Short Story Day invites to "pick up a short story and let your reading take you to territories previously unexplored."

Int'l Short Story Day
There also is a related international twitter account: Int'l ShortStory Day with more links and notes, here just 2 of the links:  a blog of daily short story reviews and a book giveaway.

If you are into story videoclips, check out the Short Story Day Facebook-page for additional short story clips and links.

website link:
Inter/National Short Story Day 2011

related links: short stories, writing events

Thrush - Inaugral Edition

Thrush is a new online journal that focuses exclusively on the poetry and poets. The journal will appear six times a year, in the months of January, March, May, July, September and November. A special edition is now online: Thrush Inaugral Edition - December 2011.

The inaugral edition features 23 poems by 10 poets: Maureen Alsop, Hélène Cardona, Cindy Goff, Nathalie Handal, Anna Journey, Ada Limón, Rachel McKibbens, Sheila Nickerson, Amber Tamblyn and Ocean Vuong.

About Thrush
Thrush is edited by Helen Vitoria (Editor in Chief) and Walter Bjorkman (Associate Editor + Web Design). The first regular edition will appear in January of 2012, for complete submission guidelines, please visit the submissions page. "Why the name Thrush? Thrushes are a species of bird, the songs of some considered to be among the most beautiful in the world. We love that and that is how we feel about poems."

Thrush
online poetry journal

related links: first issues, poetry

YB issue 5: Animals

How might we speak to the animals, yes, but also how might they speak to us, and what might they say?

The animals in YB Issue 5 are various and varied, mythical and fantastic, glorious and ordinary, urban and country. They come to us on four legs, on two, on eight, on none. They are terrestrial, arboreal, and aquatic. They have hopes and dreams and stories to tell…. The attempt to understand another animal is an imaginative leap as well as a moral undertaking, and the contributors to issue 5 have met the challenge, and wonderfully.

YB Issue 5 features poetry by Jason Badgley, Lisa Marie Basile, Carol Berg, Andrea Carlisle, Sherry Chandler, Mark deCarteret, Risa Denenberg, Kathleen Kirk, Karla Linn Merrifield, Neila Mezynski, George Moore, Dawn Pendergast, Vivian Prescott, Sarah J. Sloat, Linda Umans, and Leslee Rene Wright. The issue also includes a book review by Karla Linn Merrifield, and a gallery by Ron Kostar.

About YB:
YB is a journal of poetry, published twice a year, in June and December. Each issue has a theme; the last was Windows, here at the BluePrintBlog.  Each issue is also accompanied by an eBook, in the case of issue 5, available at Amazon. Issues 1-5 can also be reached from the YB main page, here.
The managing editor of YB is Rose Hunter, with assistant editor Sherry O'Keefe. Kindle edition by Sherry O'Keefe. 

YB Issue 5 Animals, online.

eBook (Amazon).

a river of stones: January 2012

The river of stones started in January 2011 with a blog and an invite: "Why would you want to join in? - Because choosing something to write about every day will help you to connect with yourselves, with others, and with the world. It will help you to love everything you see - the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the beautiful and the ugly. You don't have to be a 'writer' to get involved. The process of paying attention is what's important."

The result: more than 350 people across the world paying more attention to what was around them, and writing small stones. The birth of a new community of daily writers. A new movement - a river of stones. Which turned into a book in summer: pay attention: a river of stones - and induced an ongoing twitter stream: twitter/smallstone.

The River: January 2012
Now the next river is taking first shape with an announcement and an invite to join. 'The river' consists of everyone writing small stones during January, whether you keep them in your notebooks or publish them somewhere on the web. This January we will be cheering you all on by organising 25 guest posts by all kinds of marvellous writers. All infos are online at: The River: Jan 2012 

About the river organizers
Fiona Robyn is a novelist, Buddhist and creativity coach and blogs about being a writer at Writing Our Way Home. Kaspalita is a Buddhist priest and blogger and is married to Fiona.

Foreign Flavours (Writers Abroad)

The online writing group Writers Abroad released their second anthology of short stories and non-fiction articles: Foreign Flavours.

The anthology takes as its theme food, drink and recipes from around the world. It is a tantalizing collection of fiction and non-fiction, full of spice and flavour and sprinkled with mouth-watering recipes. Including 64 contributions and 33 delicious and appetising recipes, this wide-ranging, sometimes bittersweet, contributions show how adaptable an ex-pat has to be to leave familiar dishes behind and venture into the culinary unknown.

Contributors live in and have written about the following places: Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Corsica, Cyprus, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malawi, Mallorca, Morocco, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Wales.

All proceeds of this anthology are going to The Book Bus, a registered charity whose mission it is to increase child literacy in Latin America and Africa

About Writers Abroad
Writers Abroad is an online writing group, founded in 2009. It provides a forum for ex-pat writers to exchange ideas, views and news on writing and to offer support and constructive feedback on each other’s work. Membership numbers are limited but ex-pat writers can apply to join if they are able to support the group’s initiatives and aims.

Foreign Flavours by Writers Abroad
250 pages
$14.93

Mixitini Matrix - Issue 1

Mixitini Matrix is a multigenre, multidisciplinary journal of creative collaboration that features fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and visual art created by two or more people, or works offering perspectives on the process of creative collaboration.

Editor Leslie LaChance says: "I cannot be creative in a vacuum; I don't think anyone can. My creative life is fed by other artists and thinkers, near and far, present and past. That is certainly true for other artists as well, and is, indeed, a "given" in the creative process. I wanted to develop an online publication through which we far-flung artistic kindred spirits could acknowledge our connections to others, share our work and enjoy the fruits of our collaborative adventures."

The debut issue of Mixitini Matrix is available online at Mixitini Matrix - Current Issue. It includes work by Marilyn Kallet, Joe Kendrick, Rachel Joiner, Jack Rentfro, William Henderson, Laura Still, JeFF Stumpo, Leonardo Ramirez, Clint Alexander, Henri Michaux, Darren Jackson, Dorothee Lang, Steven Wing, Brian Griffin and Wayne White.

About Mixitini Matrix
Mixitini Matrix is a collaborate work itself by by Leslie LaChance (Editor&Publisher), Mattie Davenport (Managing Editor), Brittney Reed and Kate Hein (Assistant Editors) and Jeff Wilkerson (Design and Development). Mixitini Matrix aims to publish at least twice per year, fall/winter and spring/summer. They will begin to accept submissions for their spring 2012 issue on January 15. Invited formats and suggested collaborations can be found on their submission page.

related links: first issues, on writing

The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide

The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide provides practical advice for authors and publishers on how to market their books. Although the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide was originally written for the benefit of authors who publish and distribute their ebooks at Smashwords, the suggestions included in it are universal.

The guide begins with a short summary of how the Smashwords platform assists an author’s marketing, and then continues on with over thirty book marketing tips any author can employ, and that cost nothing to implement other than the investment of time: "Some of the tips require only a couple minutes of your time, yet will reap dividends for years to come. Other tips require a greater ongoing investment of your time and attention. Do the easy things first."

Direct link to PDF: The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide

Mark Coker is founder of Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform for indie authors, publishers, literary agents and retailers. His is co-author of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the wild and wacky world of Hollywood celebrity. He also wrote the The 10-Minute PR Checklist.

The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide
by Mark Coker

The Peppermint Bottle - Sherry O'Keefe

Sherry O'Keefe's The Peppermint Bottle crosses boundaries, borders and genres. Originally blog posts, the pieces in this collection are finely crafted vignettes and illustrated prose poems full of wry and touching observations, and are now gathered in a format that emphasizes how brilliantly these pieces stand alone but also interconnect.

"Lost and found objects and snippets of strangers' conversations point to both our isolation and connectedness. The thoroughly charming narratorial voice is equal part dreamer and quirky practical, but always astute, and interested in exploring the surreal disjunctions in everyday life that most people don't notice - or don't write about." - Rose Hunter

An excerpt is online at BluePrintReview: The Peppermint Bottle.

Sherry O'Keefe is a direct descendent of several Montana pioneers and was raised in a remote power camp along the Missouri River in Montana, learning early on there are no rowboats waiting in the dawn. Mother to two, sister to four, cousin to dozens, in many ways she is the least of the story-tellers in her Irish family. She attended MSU-Billings on a music scholarship where years of playing viola taught her to count to four repeatedly and how to appreciate the off-beat on and off the concert stage.

She is the author of Making Good Use of August (Finishing Line Press). Her most current poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Escape into Life, Camas, Switched-on Gutenberg, THEMA, Terrain. Org., PANK, Avatar Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Prick of the Spindle, Inkwell, Pirene’s Fountain, The High Desert Journal and Main Street Rag. Currently working on a full collection, Cracking Geodes Open, she is a poetry editor for both IthacaLit and YB Journal.

Sherry O'Keefe: The Peppermint Bottle
98 pages, full color
also available as kindle e-book

>language >place anniversary edition "Streets, Signs, Directions"

> Language > Place is a joined blog cyber journey featuring international perspectives on language and place.

One year ago, the first edition of the language/place carnival went live. Since then, almost monthly, a new edition followed - each a journey in itself, hosted by different bloggers in places that reach from Hong Kong to Slovenia and New Zealand to the States. Now the anniversary edition launched. The theme of this edition is: Streets, Signs, Direction.

Following its own theme, this edition offers 3 ways to explore and visit the contributions: a found poem, based on single lines from each contribution, an itienary of contributions with notes and links and a geographic map which also includes the former editions.

Call: Edition #12 of > language > place will be hosted by poet & writer Linda Hofke. The feature theme for edition #12 is “Food" - but as always, a wide range of contributions is welcome. Submissions are now open, deadline 20th November, guidelines.

About the  >Language >Place blog carnival
To create a collaborate cyber journey that features international perspectives on language and place, in different formats, and with different languages included - that's the concept of this collaborate project. The main language is english, the carnival consists of a central page that links to all participating blog. An overview of previous editions and more background information is available at the Language Place info page.

> language > place anniversary edition (#11)
a web project

related links: web projects, anthologies

Lost Children: A Charity Anthology

A collection of 30 flash stories from around the world, The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology is now available for purchase! All proceeds go to two children's charities to support exploited, neglected and abused children PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children and Children 1st Scotland.

The anthology is now available for purchase on Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.

Stories featured were sent by writers from the USA, Poland, Hong Kong, Portugal, India, Scotland, England, Canada, and one told by a Lost Boy of the Sudan to his teacher. Authors included: Susan Gibb, Sam Rasnake, Nicolette Wong, Susan Tepper and many more - the whole list is up at: The Lost Children blog.

About the book + the editors
The project began as a flash fiction challenge when Fiona Johnson and Thomas Pluck donated to the two charities, over at Ron Philips' Flash Fiction Friday and Fictionaut. 30 of the best stories were chosen to be included in this anthology, edited by Fiona, Thomas and Ron.

Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Only $2.99 (all proceeds go to charity)
The e-book is available at Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Smashwords in various formats.

PS: For Smashwords, you don't need to register and simply can pay via paypal and get access to multiple formats, including pdf. (the Ed just tried, works well).