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

Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce - Peter Clothier (Parami)

Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce is a collection of essays spanning thirty years of engagement with the culture of our times. Peter Clothier is a long-time student of the dharma and a meditation practitioner. In this context he examines the qualities of compassion, perseverance, and discernment in his reflections on the artist’s predicament in a world that judges success in terms of celebrity and material reward. Persist explores ways today's artists in any medium can find fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and joy in alternative and more lasting values.

Peter Clothier has served as an educator and an art school dean variously at the University of Southern California, Otis Art Institute and Loyola Marymount University. Clothier left academia many years ago to devote himself full time to his writing. He still describes himself as a “recovering academic.” A student of the dharma who follows a daily meditation practice, he is the author of the online weblog, The Buddha Diaries; his political passions find their outlet in his regular contributions to The Huffington Post.

About Parami Press
Parami Press is an independent book publisher situated in Vancouver, Canada, and focuses on books from a Buddhist point of view. Their book program includes:  "One Monk, Many Masters - The Wanderings of a a Simple Buddhist Traveler" by Paul Breiter; "The Ten Perfections - a Study Guide" by Thanissaro Bhikku and "Mapping the Dharma" by Paul Gerhards.

Peter Clothier: Persist
collected essays
132 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9779774-1-3

note: this book feature was inspired by Jean Morris' blog post "Persist"

The Paris Magazine

In 1967, the famous Paris "Shakespeare and Company" bookshop that was founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, published a literary magazine called The Paris Magazine. Two more issues of what was meant to be a quarterly magazine followed after long intervals. Now, in 2010, Shakespeare and Company picked up the magazine again.

The fourth edition of Paris Magazine is edited by former Granta managing editor Fatema Ahmed, and includes fiction, nonfiction, and illustrations. Shakespeare and Company says: "More than forty years later, and in keeping with that sentiment, this fourth edition is meant to be an intriguing and unfamiliar place for both its writers and readers—just like the bookshop itself."

The Magazine is available at the bookshop, or can be ordered online - for the contents and some excerpts, visit the Paris Magazine website. You'll find photos, and an interesting introduction by Sylvia Whitman, daughter of Geroge Whitman who founded the Paris Magazin. Here's a quote: "Having now drifted into bookselling myself, but in a very different era from my father, I often find myself being looked upon apologetically as a representative of the old world, someone who believes in the book as a living thing." 

The magazine page also includes the story of how the fourth edition came into being - told by editor Fatema Ahmed, who also gives an introduction to the edition: "This fourth issue takes as its starting point the theme for this year’s festival: Storytelling and Politics. It may seem surprising to see a short story by this year’s winner of the Prix Goncourt next to an essay on the literary merits of a manual for diagnosing psychiatric disorders; or Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s translation of one of Apollinaire’s most famous poems beside a neglected satirist from the Indian subcontinent. It may seem surprising but it shouldn’t be. All these writers, and the others, share an interest in what it is that only literature can do, and the unlikely forms it can sometimes take."

The Paris Magazine #4
edition 4
€6 at the shop
online order €9,50 (France), €12,60 (Europe), €13,40 (World)
related links: on writing & reading, mixed formats, about a place

PS: the Ed arrived at this magazine while doing research for a trip to Paris. for more Paris moments and links, visit this post: Paris, Shakespeare, Dehli, Louvre..

How to Write Your Way Home - Fiona Robyn

How to Write Your Way Home by Fiona Robyn is an inspiring ebook that combines writing advice with a story.

Lorrie, who has pea-green eyes and mousey hair, lives in a narrow grey house and works in a call-centre in a grey office building. If you asked her whether she was happy, she wouldn't know how to answer you. Until she is shown something that's right under her nose, and which changes everything...

Paired with Lorrie's story are simple instructions that help to feel more connected with oneself and the world. The book also contains information on hunting & polishing "small stones" (pieces of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment, more here: pay attention: a river of stones), and advice on how to build a creative network & much more.

This is a free e-book, you can download your copy here: How to Write Your Way Home

Fiona Robyn is on a mission to help people connect with the world through writing. She is a novelist, a blogger, a creativity coach and a Buddhist. She writes a weekly inspirational newsletter & runs e-courses. She started writing small stones in '05, launched a handful of stones in '08, & started a river of stones with her fiancé Kaspa in '11. She is very fond of earl grey tea and homemade cake, her cats Fatty and Silver, & the lovely Malvern hills (which she can gaze at from her home office window). Her novel "Thaw" has been previsouly featured in Daily s-Press: Thaw by Fiona Robyn)

How to Write Your Way Home
free e-book
62 pages

related links: on writing, e-books