Guten Tag, bienvenu, und welcome all you Litmockians,
I hope all is well. Seems like yesterday I was toasting the New year and here we are again. Almost. But there’s still a little time left before the XMAS bills pile up higher than the national deficit to warm the old Holiday Spirit. Nothing like Christmas cheer, except Christmas bills. Ho Ho Ho. Nothing warms the old inner child like being so deep in debt that you’ll be paying for your kids XBOX when they have grand kids. I spose being in debt has replaced the Christmas spirit, and in that case, Uncle Sam really has become Santa Clause. We now own bombs we’ll never be able to pay for! I wonder if we can pay the 14 trillion dollars off with an easy to pay installment plan. We could make monthly minimum payments for centuries.
Anywho, plenty of our Litmockians have been busy working, pecking away at the dinosaur known as the publishing industry, a dinosaur that doesn’t see the comet coming. Ask Borders. So this week I’d like to shed the light on some excellent efforts by some of our esteemed brethren (...and sistren(?)).
Our good friend, writer, thespian, filmmaker and President of El Lupo Films, Dean M. Drinkel, has a new project coming out in December on both sides of the pond, it’s called Phobophobia and is avaialble from www.darkcontinents.com
Also, it being Vets Day here in the States, our good friend Prometheus has an excellent cause he’s working on for many deserving Vets: War Vets Suffering from PTSD Need Protection. Should PTSD disabled vets be protected under the Americans with Disability Act?If yes, why does the Department of Justice (DOJ) refuse to step in against the State Of New Jersey. Nine years is a long time to refuse a PTSD vet plaintiff justice.. http://www.causes.com/causes/488457-ptsd-disabled-vets-should-be-protected-under-the-federal-americans-with-disability-act/welcome
Our old friend Mikael Covey has his ltmag, aptly named Lit Up Magazine, still working. here is his latest excellent compilation: http://litupmagazine.wordpress.com/
My literary agent, Al Longden, has these news tidbits to pass on as well:
I’m excited to announce that “Storm Country,” an anthology of short stories, prose and poetry, is now available through Mozark Press. The Missouri Writers Guild, in conjunction with their Joplin chapter, assembled “Storm Country” from works selected from writers across the Midwest. The purpose of this project is to assist the Joplin Public School system in their effort to replenish libraries destroyed by the recent tornado. I’m also excited to announce one of my stories, “It Rained” is included in the anthology. A link to purchase “Storm Country” is included below. The cost is $10.00 with proceeds going to assist the Joplin School system.
https://www.createspace.com/3707021
Also, he let me know that Untreed Reads is looking for submissions in regards to Holiday stories> Here are the details:
Untreed Reads is announcing an open call for short stories for our holiday season.
Please note the following:
1. The holidays we are interested in are Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and New Year’s. We are looking for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa stories in particular.
2. Short stories may be in any genre (except religious, erotica, children’s or anything above a PG-13 romance), but must encompass one of the holidays listed above.
3. The short stories will NOT be in an anthology, but rather published as stand-alone stories. All will receive our standard short story line covers.
4. Previously published material is fine providing electronic rights have reverted to the author.
5. Stories may not be shorter than 1500 words or longer than 5000.
6. Deadline for Thanksgiving submissions is October 31, 2011. Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah is November 15th. New Year’s is November 30th. Submissions received after these dates will not be considered.
7. For this call, we can only accept works where we can be granted worldwide English rights.
8. This is an open call, and may be reposted and resubmitted everywhere.
All submissions should be sent to Jay Hartman, Editor-in-Chief, at jhartman@untreedreads.com. Submissions should be in Times New Roman, 12pt and DOC format attachment. Submissions may NOT be submitted as either PDF or in the body of an email. Stories sent in that manner will not be considered. Please indicate the holiday in your subject line in the format: HOLIDAY: NAME OF STORY.
Once we have selected our stories for the season, all authors will be notified as to the final status of their submitted manuscript.
For any questions regarding this call, please direct them to Jay Hartman at jhartman@untreedreads.com.
Whale, that should do it for this week. Guess it’s back to crunching XMas bills. Until next time.
Don
