IWSG News and Opportunities

1) The next Insecure Writers Support Group posting comes early in July. Don't forget to have your post up by July 3rd due to the USA Independence holiday.

2) The IWSG Goodreads Book Club is currently discussing Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. 

3) The next #IWSGPit is Thursday, July 19, 2018, 8:00 am - 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Over a thousand agents and publishers have been invited to tune in that day. Polish your story and your Twitter pitch and be ready!


4) Announcing the next IWSG Anthology Contest genre and dates!
     Young adult romance is the genre. The theme will be revealed on September 5, along with the judges and other details.

The previous anthologies were Parallels: Felix Was Here, Hero Lost: The Mysteries of Death and Life, and Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime. Your short story might be included in the fourth anthology!

Are you a member of the IWSG? Will you be participating in any of these opportunities?

Game Masters and MythBusters

Hey all! I'm guest posting over on the Parallels blog today. If you have a chance, please stop by and read about some of my favorite science exhibits at the Reuben H. Fleet Museum as well as their influence on or by science fiction. You can check that out here.

Don't forget to share about some of your own visits, inspirations, and favorite science related facts!

HAPPY WRITING!

Universal Connectivity

Today I'm over at the Parallels blog talking about my 2015 short story "WIN", and how so much of what I foretold may be closer to a reality than even I realized when writing it.

If you have a chance, please stop by and share your own thoughts!

IWSG: Reworking an Old Story for Publication

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs. You can also join us on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG, or on the Facebook page.

Now, IWSG hosts have changed up the format in an effort to make it more fun and interactive.Every month, they will announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Don’t forget to visit others that day to see their answers. Want to join, or learn more? Visit our - Sign-up List.

MARCH QUESTION: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

MY ANSWER: Yes, I've talked about this a few times. One of my earliest experiences was in 2010 when I pulled out a piece I wrote for an English class my freshman year of high school. You can read "Feeding the Soul" in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just for Preteens. Then, last year, my story "WIN" (originally written years ago) appeared in the IWSG anthology Parallels. I'm a big believer in never getting rid of ANYTHING you write. You never know when it will work for an editor!

Have you ever pulled out a really old story that you were able to rework for publication?

Science Fiction, Science Future

I'm over at the Parallels blog today sharing my summer fun with science in a post called Science Fiction, Science Future -  I hope you'll have a moment to stop by and say hi!

What are some of your favorite summer experiences? Do you enjoy science?

IWSG: First Writing

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs. You can also join us on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG, or on the Facebook page.

Now, IWSG hosts have changed up the format in an effort to make it more fun and interactive.Every month, they will announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Don’t forget to visit others that day to see their answers. Want to join, or learn more? Visit our - Sign-up List.

The August 3rd question is - What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

MY ANSWER: I have a lot of writing from when I was young (elementary and middle school age) that is still sitting in a drawer. However, the first piece I wrote that I intentionally wanted published was for my high school newspaper, and I have kept a scrapbook of all of my early articles for school and community publications.

Some people don't understand why I hold on to everything I've ever written. It's simple really:

If you're interested in writing, NEVER throw away anything you create. I wrote a piece for a high school assignment and left it in a drawer. Twenty years later, I had it published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just for Preteens. Several years ago, I wrote the first draft to a science fiction piece, and this year it was published in the IWSG anthology Parallels. You never know when you'll be able to successfully finish a piece, or when that writing might appeal to an editor. So, hold on to it all. Realize that much of it may never find a home, but sometimes it does - and you'll be proud to have shared a piece of yourself with others.

What was your first piece to write? Do you hold onto all of your writing?

GLOBAL WARMING in Ever-Ton

Authors often draw inspiration from real life scenarios, and sometimes from theories which have yet to be proven. It's a writers job to take that inspiration and create a believable world for the reader. One successful example can be found in Yolanda Renee's Ever-Ton, but I'll let her tell you more about that:

For my story Ever-Ton, in the Parallels: Felix Was Here IWSG Anthology, I chose Al Gore’s concern regarding global warming to base my story on. While Al Gore, may have exaggerated some of the issues during the production of his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. There is real reason for concern. Here are some of the facts:

What’s Really Happening?

1) The global average temperature has risen 1.4 degrees.

2) The last two decades were the hottest in 400 years.

3) Alaska, Western Canada, & Eastern Russia temperatures have risen twice the global average.

4) Arctic ice is disappearing and polar bears and indigenous cultures are suffering from the loss.

5) Glaciers & mountain snows are melting more rapidly – Montana’s Glacier National Park only has 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910.

6) Coral reefs, highly sensitive to changes in water temperature are dying off.

7) Extreme weather events, wildfires, heat waves, & strong storms are the result.

8) Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution increase the greenhouse gases and trap heat near the surface.

9) While natural cycles of warming and cooling on Earth are also normal, what used to occur over the span of several centuries is now happening in 100 years or less.

The result of global warming:

1) Food and water shortages.

2) Sea level rise between 7 and 23 inches.

3) Huge coastal populations affected.

4) Stronger hurricanes, droughts, and other natural disasters – growth of deserts.

5) Species face extinction.

My resource for this post was the National Geographic News.

Ever-Ton Excerpt:

In the 1970s, scientists had warned of the dangers of global warming, but nothing happened until the year 2000. President Al Gore couldn’t get the legislation passed that would curb the dangers caused by fossil fuel, but he found the funding for the New World Aeronautical Organization - NWAO. They began the search for a New Earth.

Terrifying storms, devastating droughts, and unimaginable diseases took the earth to the levels of an apocalypse that no one foresaw, not even President Gore. The building of survival units in the highest mountains became a top priority.

Now, in 2050, the world’s atmosphere had grown toxic. The city of Ever-Ton, meaning Everlasting Mountain, sat high in the Himalayas. We were the largest and last community of

survivors trying to leave earth.

I walked through the city noting the homemade flowers, along with wiry trees, lined the broken cobbled streets. Ever-Ton, the biggest dome-covered metropolis in the Himalayas, had lost its luster. Workers used to keep it clean; now they worked on building the resources for the new world. The dome, once translucent, now looked like a mud-covered window. I’d never experienced the sun’s rays, breathed air that wasn’t manufactured or tasted water from a spring. Donning sunglasses against the artificial sunlight, I hurried to NWAO headquarters.

BIO:

Yolanda Renée grew up in Pennsylvania, but an adventurous spirit took her to Alaska where she hiked the Brooks Range, traveled from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, and learned to sleep under the midnight sun.

She’s the holder of a BS in Business Administration specializing in Accounting, and an MA in Organizational Leadership. Curiosity Quills Press is the publisher of her Murder Trilogy - Murder, Madness & Love, Memories of Murder, and Murder & Obsession. She’s also self-published a book of short stories titled When Zombies Attack:Tales of Horror & Romance.

You can find Yolanda at her blog Defending the Pen, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Amazon.

Parallels Release Day and Winner

I'm so excited! Today is the release day of our science fiction anthology! Ten authors are sharing tales of an alternate earth. Isn't the cover super cool?

If you've been visiting our group blog during the "A to Z" challenge then you know each author was selecting a winner to receive a FREE copy of this amazing book. 

The winner from my drawing is Lynn Proctor! Congratulations Lynn - just let me know your preferred ebook format and I'll send that to you.

If you'd like to learn more about the other winners, the authors of the anthology, or the stories themselves, visit: http://parallelsanthology.blogspot.com/

Parallels: Felix Was Here

Anthology
Print ISBN 9781939844200
eBook ISBN 9781939844118
Science Fiction/Alternate History

Enter the realm of parallel universes!

Synopsis: What if the government tried to create the perfect utopia? Could a society linked to a supercomputer survive on its own? Do our reflections control secret lives on the other side of the mirror? Can one moment split a person’s world forever?

Exploring the fantastic, ten authors offer incredible visions and captivating tales of diverse reality. Featuring the talents of L. G. Keltner, Crystal Collier, Hart Johnson, Cherie Reich, Sandra Cox, Yolanda Renee, Melanie Schulz, Sylvia Ney, Michael Abayomi, and Tamara Narayan.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will expand your imagination and twist the tropes of science fiction. Step through the portal and enter another dimension!

Releasing May 3, 2016 from Freedom Fox Press, A division of Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C. 

Available from most retailers in both ebook ($4.99) and print ($14.95) format.