Sandra Seamans’ Corner

In my never ending quest to find new things to bring you, I ran across a site called My Little Corner which is the blog of short story writer, Sandra Seamans.  I had originally been looking for a definitive explanation of the term “mythpunk”.  Though I only found a brief mention of the word in her post, I found much more throughout her site.

Most sites I visit have their sidebars loaded with advertisements, but hers is filled with lists of various e-zines and markets.  And when I say filled, I mean to the rim.  There has to be over a hundred different sites listed in her sidebar which almost sidetracked me from getting this post done.  She’s got publications for those trying to break into the online publishing scene and publications for those who still prefer the traditional printed magazines and anthologies.  She’s even got an entire list of sites that publish flash fiction, my cup of tea.

Even with all these awesome lists, there’s more to see on this site.  I took the time to check out a few of her other posts and came across one that just jumped off the page at me.  It had to do with starting an e-zine and all the trials and tribulations that go along with it.  Having run a newsletter that didn’t have people sending in submissions was hard enough, I can’t imagine trying to run a zine that had a thousand submissions a week coming in.  I’d be totally insane!!!

Seriously, check out Sandra’s site and her huge list of zines and publications.  It’s going to take time to get through them all, but with the amount of information  on her site, it will be well worth it.

Get Ideas From Online Games

I’m always looking for places to come up with story ideas.  One of my favorite places is by playing online games.  I’m totally addicted to Hidden Object Games.  Not just the game part, but the story lines.  My problem is that I spend more time coming up with my own story lines for what’s in front of me, than actually playing the game.  And if the ending seems completely stupid to me, I’ll come up with my own.

There are hundreds of places to play online games for free, but that’s not what this post is about.  It’s not so much about playing the games as creating worlds around those games.  A great place to play free games is on Facebook.  Pick any of the popular games on the site such as Farmville or Gardens of Time (my favorite).  If you can keep from becoming totally addicted to the game itself, see what you can come up with as far as the characters and story line go.

Here’s an idea, come  up with a whole new game theme.  What type of game would it be?  Hidden Object?  Strategy or Adventure?  Think about the characters in your game.  Who are they and why are they there.  Remember that the game is going to be a visual story and not just something to be read.  Close your eyes and try to visualize everything in the scene.  The house/store, the sky, the trees, and even if there’s a fire hydrant or a light post in the picture.  This is where an eye for detail comes in very handy.

Now run out there and play some free online games.  And when someone comes along and gives you a bad time about wasting time, tell them you’re very busy.  You’re not wasting time, you’re doing research.  They won’t believe you, but they will let you get back to it.  LOL.

Have fun and happy writing.

100 Sites For Fiction Writers

No, as much as I wish that I had come up with this ingenious idea, it’s not mine.  100 Sites For Fiction Writers is the brain child of fiction author Ty Johnston.  The really cool part is that he’s only made it up to site #40, so there are still 60 slots left to go.  Mr. Johnston, if I’m lucky enough to have you actually stop by and see this post, I would consider it a huge honor to have my prompt site, The Prompt Writer, listed among your other sites.  Just saying…

As I started looking for something to post about, I happened to run across a different site altogether that had mentioned Ty’s list.  This other site really didn’t have much to say about the list other than it could be found on the author’s site.  So I followed the link and found this huge treasure trove of sites that any fiction writer of any stage of the game would find useful in their writing quests. 

The list includes everything from Agent sites, to e-zines, to Kindles.  Seriously, if there’s any way a site can be used by the fiction author, it will probably end up on this list if it isn’t already.  I would have had this post up sooner, but I got swept away checking out this already enormous list.  As I said before, he’s only up to #40 and it already takes a couple hours to really see everything listed.  I had a ball, I have to admit. 

Go check out Ty’s site.  There’s a lot more there than just this list of coolness.  He’s a pretty cool guy who writes in the fantasy, sci-fi, and horror genres and gets a kick out of the idea that he gets paid to invent stuff.  He also likes to write about beer, but that’s a totally different post.