Friday, November 17, 2017

The Scribblers Newsletter Authors


Yes, we have a newsletter.
Yes, it's amazazazing.

Check out our past issues

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Each issue includes, but it's not limited to
° Submission Calls (tons of these!)
° Agent and Publisher Spotlights
° Writing Competitions
° Author Spotlights w/ submitted pieces
° Writing Prompts, Tips, and Tricks
Our focus is bringing new and underrepresented writers publishing opportunities to help reach larger audience. Check out the Scribblers Facebook Writing Group for more contests.

Want your work considered for publication? See our submission call!


Meet the Scribblers Chamber Newsletter Staff… 


J Snow, creator, editor, author

J. Snow is a poet and author of psychological thrillers and tales of terror whose work has been described as disturbing, visceral, haunting, and powerfully evocative. Snow pulls inspiration from personal experience to provide readers a peek inside the splintered psyche of an abuse and abduction survivor while utilizing her unique insight of the depravities hidden behind the smiling faces of sociopaths to breathe life into harrowing characters that have both horrified and fascinated those of conventional morality for generations. Snow has had six short stories and fourteen poems accepted for publication in various anthologies, is the founder of the
Scribblers Writing Organization, editor of its newsletter  and author, co-administrator of its online writing community, and Co-founder of Blood Puddles — Silent Screams in Liquid Darkness: A Literary Journal of Horror, and still finds time to write daily. She is currently working on a debut novel and the first in a planned series of memoirs, a means to battle the stigma surrounding mental illness and give voice to abuse victims struggling to speak for themselves.  



Josh Darling, author

Born on Long Island, Josh Darling's first short story was published while he was still in High School. Struggling with learning disabilities, he dropped out of college and wandered across America. He worked oddball jobs to make ends meet, including short order cook, answering phones at the Home Shopping Network, and telemarketing for conmen. When not fishing, he's a full-time ghostwriter and editing guru. Currently, Josh Darling lives in Central Florida with the love of his life and their son.



Colin Palmer, author

Colin is young man of fifty-nine years who has been putting pen to paper over fifty of them. He began as most do, school environment with short essays receiving acclaim from both students and teachers. Beginning his first novel 14, using imagination and local knowledge, he set the scene for an epic novel that would take him almost 40 years to complete. During the 1990’s, a short-lived experience with an international publishing group somewhat soured his literary ambitions; however, taking the professional editing skills he learnt during this sojourn, he began the journey of improving upon that novel,then a second, and a third in quick succession.
Colin self-published those three novels plus a compilation of short stories in 2016. Colin still actively writes, the need never waning. He strives to write “different” for the sake of the art and for his own entertainment. The majority of his work is “old fashioned” story telling style in a surprising collation of genres ranging from horror to romance with heavy dashes of fantasy and paranormal. Colin's wish is for more people to read for pleasure, an escape from the critical world we all now live while he, born and bred in Australia, currently lives in Eastern Europe as the darkness is much more cathartic for creation.

“I write all of my work to entertain myself, and sometimes, the icing on the cake is that somebody else likes them as well!”
Colin Palmer



Andrea Delo, author

Andrea Delo is an author and poet. She will be self-publishing her first novel, In Her Eyes, by the end of 2017. She writes romance novels, and is beginning to delve into the world of supernatural romance. Andrea writes short stories, mainly of the horror genre, and her poems range from light to dark, depending on her mood. She is a self-described crazy girl, whose deepest thoughts are written into every piece of her work. If an interesting experience happened in her mind, it’s most likely written into a poem. Andrea resides in Pennsylvania, with her boyfriend, Eric, and her dog, Sammy. Her loves in life are coffee, reading, writing and men.



CL Steele, author

While CL Steele resides in Indiana, most of her time is spent dreaming up new worlds and magical places filled with complex characters on life journeys. Most of her work is the Sci-fi/Fantasy genre where she concentrates on Magical Realism, Near Future, and Futuristic worlds. She has been published in a few anthologies and is looking forward to the release of her novel PS--Death in 2018. As a contributing author, she hopes to write articles which help the new author get started and persevere in the writing world. 


Dr. Rick, author

Dr. Rick used to be an ER doc with over 50k encounters, all while dealing with a terminal diagnosis. After 30 years of that, he’s now retired and lives in Redmond, WA, home of Microsoft, with his husband of 14 years and their service dog, Felon. His son, a professional photographer, who will be 36 this year, lives with his wife in LA. Dr. Rick began writing free verse in 1996 shortly after the death of his “sister” of the same terminal diagnosis and has been published. He writes poetry inspired by struggles with stigma and exclusion aimed at promoting health and wellness in others as well as himself. His topics include mental health conditions, HIV-1 infections, and the intersection of the two, among other topics. A citizen of the Great NorthLeft (Puget Sound), Dr. Rick has lived in western Washington most of his adult life, minus an eighteen year hitch in and around Tampa Bay. He grew up in the Midwest and “escaped” to the northwest after university.
Dr. Rick thrives on critique and wants to thank everyone who has encouraged his work over the years. He feels extraordinarily blessed to continue to draw breath, and does his best to give back the abundant gifts he’s been given.



Brandon Scott, author

Brandon Scott is an author who scribbles macabre tales from the mountains of North Carolina and a musician who had been known to compose a lyric of two during his leisure time. His education in Clinical Psychology, where he studied the dark side of people before pursuing his writing career, has helped him create deeply haunting, multi-dimensional characters for his stories. After a stint with Scribner Inc., he took a hiatus from writing but never set down his pen. Within a decade, Brandon returned to the craft armed with some millage under his belt. His first attempt at getting published upon his return was successful with publication of his short story “Associate Boogeyman” in the Zombie Pirate Publishing anthology Relationship ADD Vice. He has since been a contributing author for the Scribblers Writing Organization newsletter, co-administrator of an online writing community, and Co-founder of Blood Puddles — Silent Screams in Liquid Darkness: A Literary Journal of Horror, and still continues to spin stories daily. If Brandon isn’t hiking up the mountains that inspire him, then he is dabbling in history, literary classics, or blackjack, but most nights he’s up listening to the voices — voices that pull him into the darkness with “what ifs” and he writes down every word they say…

Monthly Choice Award Winner (September)

You Gotta Have Heart
By Brian MacGowan





I was down at the pub shooting pool, I had just sunk my last ball scoring myself $500. I raised my arms like a prizefighter yelling “Yeah! That’s the way it’s done.” Walking around the table I grabbed up the cash and just waved it in the guy's face. “Thank you for your contribution.”

Next thing I knew someone shoved a beer into my hand. Hey, I’m not going to give up a free drink. I downed half the glass without even stopping to breathe. I was on fire that night. Raising my arms once again, like Rocky Balboa, I announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, is there anyone else who wants to give me their hard earned money?” I spun around looking at the faces around me. The wimps, no one wanted to play me.

I finished off my beer while looking around the bar; all night long there was some guy sitting in one of the corner booths. He was dressed all in black, like some Don Mafioso. He had been talking to a couple of other Dons, but now he was by himself nursing a whiskey.

I walked up to his table, he ignored me like I was a nobody. But hey, I just won 500 bucks! He must have heard the cheers. Getting tired of standing there I slammed my pool stick across the table in front of him. “Hey you!”

He didn’t even flinch. All he did was stare at the cue stick and then put his glass down. Finally, he looked up at me. His eyes were...I don't know. It was like looking into an empty grave. I probably should have just backed off, but my balls wouldn’t let me.

Giving him my best tough guy stance, I said, “I’ve been watching you. You look like a pool player. Wanna give it a go?”

Author Spotlight — Brian MacGowan

Title

Author name
Brian MacGowan

Writing Prompt #903:
It started out as a simple game. How was I supposed to know it would turn into a life or death situation?

How did the prompt inspire this piece?
I had been mentally kicking around this story for a short bit. The prompt brought it to the forefront of my thoughts. I wanted to take an everyday situation and spin it into something unexpected.

About Brian MacGowan…

  • What genre(s) do you write? I write in a variety of genres. This story, as befitting October, is horror. But I have also written mysteries, erotica, supernatural and twisted history. In twisted history, I will find and research a seemingly ordinary object, such as one of General George Washington’s swords, or a dagger from King Tutankhamun, even Thomas Jefferson's violin. I will then imbue it with a mystical property, something that will cause a conflict between good and evil.

  • Which do you prefer to write: short stories, poetry, novellas, novels, essays, nonfiction… ? I do have a supernatural novel underway, but the bulk of my work is short stories.

  • What genre(s) do you read? I read a variety of genres including sci-fi, fantasy, mystery and military


  • What made you want to become a writer? Ha! That’s like asking “What made you want to breath?” I have always been creative whether is was writing or creating artwork.


  • What is your first memory of writing? When I was a pre-teen I started a Star Trek like story. Fortunately for the world, it didn’t go very far.


  • What and /or Who inspires you to write? I get my inspirations from situations, whether real or “what if”.


  • What is your favorite book? This may seem like a cop out, but I am terminally open minded. I read a book once and move on. I do not establish favourites.


  • What do you look for in a book? I look for a well written, interesting story, with well defined characters. I prefer stories where the logic of the universe that the story resides in makes sense.

  • What turns you away from a book? Well, poor logic. I will drop a book cold if the editing and grammar is horrible. A few errors here and there are acceptable. When you start paying more attention to the errors than the story, it is time to bail.

  • Who is your favorite author(s)? I do not have favourite authors. If I find an author that I particularly enjoy then I may seek out their other works.

  • Are you a published writer? If so, what have you published? If not, are you planning to publish or is writing simply for pleasure? I would like to be published some day and actually make money, but in the meantime ai will keep writing and improving


Author Bio

Brian MacGowan grew up in the Canadian Maritimes. He is the IT/Facilities Manager for a large church in Indiana. A former Canadian Armed Forces sergeant, he graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He is currently working on a supernatural mystery novel based in a small east coast fishing town. Married for 26 years, Brian pretends that he is a responsible parent to their two daughters. 



I consider myself to be an intuitive writer (I dislike the term pantser). I have tried to plot and plan but my brain just eye-rolls my optic nerve and goes, "Ahhh, noooo." (I am starting to think that my brain is actually a smug and annoying teenage girl.) I have found that it is best not to second guess what my mind has in mind for the story, I just connect my fingers to the keyboard and let myself be amazed.

Brian McGowan

Read Brian's winning Short Story

Flash Fiction Contest Winner

FIRE IN THE HOLE




The walls are thick with it, having oozed its way down, following gravity's whim.

This isn't art, she thought. This is murder. Why can't they see me? Why can't they hear me? Hey! You! And you! Hey, I'm alive here guys.

"Truly rad. We're da best. High-five man."

The sound of slapping palms was muffled in the tiny chamber, absorbed by the thick fireproof surrounds. The teenagers laughed, and even that was muted. They didn't notice. Their labor of love was finally completed after an almost constant thirty-six hours of hot, sticky, and painstaking construction.

"Let's get out of here; you stink!" said the second.

Neither moved, both avidly staring with pride at their creation.

"We should give her a name."

"Like what? ‘Hades’? 'Coz that's what it's going to feel like in here in five minutes or so," their laughs subdued again inside the compact space.

They looked at her, their masterpiece of plaster, glue and paper, the splashed remnants of all three that decorated the wall and floors from one of their early fun fights — before creativity set in and they both got down to work with the painstaking attention of true artists. Their laughter died as they stood and admired her in all her glory.

"She looks real," one whispered, his eyes glued to her curvaceous form.

I am real. Stop messing around you guys.  Why don't my arms move?  Why can't I stand up?

"Uhuh. Let's get outta here."

They sealed the thick door, also clad with asbestos, and walked the several steps to a small viewing window, one of several spaced around the walls but this the only one without a video camera mounted in front. A small metal panel jutted out below, wiring and hoses dangling beneath, individually sheathed in a thick protective shield. On top of the panel, a selection of three toggles were marked — one boy flicked the toggle ‘CAMERAS’ to on and looked at his friend, co-creator, then slid his hand to the left to the switched marked ‘FIRE’, his right hand resting near the third switch, ‘RETARDENT’.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Hope Mom doesn't miss that stool," was the response.

His friend took that as a ‘yes’ and flicked up the toggle. A roar filled the inside of the chamber as the Thermit cone burst into an immediate fierce combustion, and after a few seconds, ignited the magnesium bomb underneath it.   Electronic thermometers climbed rapidly, 2,000 degrees centigrade, 2,500 and still climbing as a vast white light enveloped the inside of the chamber.  The boys cheered and slapped high fives, donning heavily tinted safety glasses to peer through the almost impenetrable wall of white heat. Their faces hovered close to the viewing window, just as one plaster hand completely glowing with white flame slapped onto the glass from the inside, followed by a second. Open. The. Fucking. Door. NOW!


Writer's Choice Poetry Contest Winner

Dual Diagnosis 
By Rosti 



The men met
At the corner of Cherry Street and Terry Ave.
The one with the dog
Was dapper, groomed, face washed,
Warm in his Sherpa jacket
A dog in tow on a retractable leash.

The one with the deeply lined face,
Puffy eyes, 3 day old scruff on his jaw,
Missing several teeth, others in dire need of repair,
With no coat, wrapped in a 12th Man flag,
Spoke with the strong odor of ethanol and decay
Emanating from that disheveled gob.

“That’s a fine-looking dog.
I’d love to have a dog like that,
But I’m not responsible enough
To have one.
What’s his name?”
“Felon,” the other man answered.

The man with the dog noticed a puzzled look on the questioning man’s face.
This happened ALL the time.
The man with the dog noticed it, expectantly.
Must be his pronunciation.
“Felon…like a criminal,” said the dog handling man.
That man saw the light go on in the other man’s face and eyes.

“What a COOL name!” said the snaggeltooth.
“He’s a fine animal.
You see, I’m an alcoholic,
And bipolar.”
No news flash.
“I have a dual diagnosis. May I pet him? I always ask.”

“Sure! Fel…come here and meet…ummm…”
“Gary.”
“…Gary. Come here, boy”
The drunk reached out a trembling, weathered hand,
And gently stroked the dog’s wide,smooth head.
The dog’s tail wagged as it always did when shown such affection.

“He’s a fine dog,” he murmured breathing out fumes.
“Maybe someday I can have a dog like him.”
“Well, I hope so,” said the dog’s owner.
“I wonder what you’d have to do in order for that to happen?” he asked respectfully.
“Well…stop drinking, get a job, and a place of my own.
But that’s really hard.”

“Yes, Gary, it is.
It can be done tho.”
The dog’s chaperon thought back,
Twenty five-odd years earlier,
His own drinking and cocaine use brought him to his knees.
Couch surfing after a hospitalization, faced with the same dual diagnosis.

So bewildering…the dog walker had made it through
The maze of the strong pull for release promised by substances,
The seemingly endless maze of one set of meds
After another, and another, and another.
And yet, here he was
Just doing the next best right thing after the next best right thing.

How would Gary do it?
Without even a couch to surf from?
Burned bridges strewn in his past.
Burnt out friendships and relationships.
No job, no anchoring to any semblance of reality
That the man with the dog had found, after much searching.

“Well, I’ve gotta go,” said Gary.
“You have a good day, Gary”
“Thanks!” And Gary shuffled off, body lurching from impending DT’s.
Right down the street, Straight to the convenience store
To get that “magic potion”
That would set him aright for a few more hours until he required another dose.

So bewildering.
“I guess not today, Gary,” the dog’s owner thought,
As he headed home.
Still puzzling.
“Why me?
And not him?”


© Richard A. Martin, Jr., MD, CPC, 2016

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Poetry Contest Prompts for Inspiration


Hosted by the Scribblers Chamber Facebook Group, a group for writers about writers by writers open to all genres, writers of all skill levels and styles, published and non published with a main focus on providing opportunities for new and underrepresented writers publishing opportunities, helping them reach a larger audience and build their platform. Scribblers Chamber is for fostering, not hindering, growth of creativity.

We help each other climb! 

We aim to have at least three writing contests are available at all times. All contest winners published.

Now... A little inspiration for the Poetry Contest




Have an idea for a contest? Drop us an email!

Be sure to sign up for the Scribblers Chamber newsletter (subscribe button at top of page; scroll down to see past issues)

Issues will include, but not be limited to, the following topics:

  •  Submission Calls
  •  Agent and Publisher Spotlights 
  •  Writing Competitions  
  •  Author Spotlights w/ submitted pieces
  •  Writing Prompts, Tips, and Tricks

If you have and questions, please feel free to contact the group administrators:
J Snow
Brandon Scott


WRITE LIKE IT'S CRIMINAL! 

(`*•.¸ (`*•.¸★¸.•*´)¸.•*´)¸.•*´)

  ★★ POETRY CONTEST★★




Winners will be published on website, showcased in newsletter, and he given an author Spotlight page.

📣 RULES
  1. Open genre
  2. All styles/formats welcome
  3. No line or word limit
  4. No limit to number of entries per write

📣 Prompt is Writer's Choice (pictures are for inspiration, not necessary to reference any in your writing unless your wish to do so


📌 Please feel free to join the group for more contests.  We aim to have at least 3 writing competitions going at all times. The Scribblers Chamber Writing Group is open to all:

SCRIBBLERS CHAMBER WRITING GROUP

📣 DEADLINE:
November 30th 2017, 11:59pm EST


SUBMIT VIA EMAIL:

📣 ADDRESS
Scribblerschambersubmissions@gmail.com
(please submit each entry in a separate email)

📣  SUBJECT LINE OF EMAIL
('Poetry Contest') (title)(author)

📣 BODY OF EMAIL:
Paste your entry into the body of the email, where you compose, text area
Please DO NOT send an attachment 🚫




📣 JUDGING
Though it is not a requirement, I will add this: we have some judges that prefer rhyming, lyrical, song /rap style poetry and some judges that perfer poetry which does not adhere to a strict rhyme scheme, and all our judges have a preference for poetry that is visually compelling. Try your hand with a new style... You might surprise yourself!
All entries will be given equal consideration. 'Tis but a suggestion 



Good luck!
And don't forget...
       

          ️️ Write like it's criminal!