This is a wonderful resource for writers of all genre.  There are places where fiction writers can sit and discuss their upcoming books, places for non-fiction writers to discuss the topics of the day, and a place where they can all hang out together.  There are links to various paying writing jobs, links to writing contests, and links to places about grants and awards.  If it’s got anything to do with writing, it can be found on this forum.

The gorgeous lady behind AWF is one of the very first writers I had the pleasure of meeting online, Michelle Devon.  She is an amazingly talented woman and has a killer sense of humor.  Michy (Michelle) refers to herself as a freelance writer, author, poet, and professional dreamer and I think that last one is something we can all relate to.

If you’ve been looking for a place to hang out with other writers who’ve been where you are, and are where you once were, this is the place to go.  Even if you’re tired of talking about writing and just want to hang out, there’s plenty of room at the Accentuate Writers Forum.

There are all kinds of writing groups on this site.  Some are meant to help the fiction writer, so to help the poet, and others are just there to help you build points.  And why would you want to do that???  Well because if you earn enough points, you can cash them in for all kinds of cool things including Paypal cash cards.  I’ve never earned that much myself, but I never really tried either.  I wasn’t there to try and make money, I used it as a way to find my personal voice and new people to hang out with.

There are 2 basic kinds of people on Gather.com.  Those that you’ll love to hang out with and talk about everything under the sun, and those that will harass you relentlessly and drive you absolutely mad.  And trust me, there are quite a few of them.  However, you don’t have to accept their friendship requests and if you accidentally run across one of the types of people, just unfriend them and you don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Gather.com is kind of like a social network for writers.  And I mean writers of all genre, all walks of life, all personalities, and everything in between.  Whatever you are in this world, or whatever you want to be.  It’s all good and it’s okay because when you join up with site, you’ll find that you’ll look forward to the times you show up to Gather.

The site is built on the WordPress platform and allows writers to join up (for free) and post their work for the rest of the site, and world, to see.  The others on the site offer constructive critiques and helpful insights into how to improve upon the story or where the author should go from there.  It is very important to note that all members must fill out an application in order to be allowed to publish on the site.

Each month, they offer a site-wide theme for the writers and one story will be chosen as that month best submission.  All stories must meet high quality standards and must be appropriate for all age groups.  Other stories will have the chance to be named Editor’s Choice.  It is important to remember to follow the site’s guidelines before submitting anything.  Like any good magazine, there are strict rules to adhere to.

There are also a host of writers’ resources and reading tools to be used by all members.  These include links to agents and publishers, how to improve writing skills, and ways to market your own writing.  They also encourage their members to follow each other on the various social media sites.  It’s a wonderful site to get involved with and to help take your writing to the next level.

Check out Fiction Writers’ Platform today and see if this isn’t the place to help you go from hoping to succeeding.

This is a very cool submission site that helps writers send the work into publishers without having to scour the Internet and beyond just to find someone who’s accepting submissions at that time.  They’ve got an entire list of magazines/e-zines, but it is up to the writer to visit the site and read the guidelines for themselves.  But working the Hey Publisher site is a breeze.  Once you’ve registered for an account (which is free), you’ll be able to visit the publishers page.  There are over 1,200 publishers in their database so you’ll need to choose which category you want and enter a keyword or two so you have a smaller list of possibilities.

The site also offers a community powered support system.  So when someone has a question, they type it in and someone in the know will come along and help answer if they can.  From what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of activity in there, but enough to know that there are people helping their fellow writers.  It’s kinda cool.

I’ve had a ball going through the publishers and favoriting some of those that I’ll be submitting to at some point.  I did send in one submission so far, but probably won’t hear anything back from them for about another month.  By which time I will have probably forgotten about submitting to them and will wonder who they are and what they want.  LOL

So hey, check them out and see if there isn’t somewhere in their vast list of publications where you can send some of your stuff.  It isn’t all fiction zines, there are some non-fiction places, some for poetry, and so on.  Pick a topic and add some keywords and you’re on your way.  Have fun and tell them I sent you if they ask. LOL

My name is Christine Senter and I’ve been a freelance writer for the past 20+ years.  I began writing as a hobby in grade school and began trying to write professionally at about age 18.
I wasn’t able to go to college as children and life got in the way, so I read everything I could find about the writing field on my own time.  I wrote articles, short stories, and poetry on an old
1950s manual typewriter.  And after several rejection letters, I did manage to get a couple poems published in small chapbooks.

In 1994, I finally joined the online revolution.  My husband got us our first computer and I spent 3 days in my room teaching myself how to work the Internet and how to build a site using HTML.  In 1995, I found a free online site that would help me with my online writing career.  The class was called “Beginning Writing” and the teacher was Shery Ma Belle Arrieta.  She taught me a lot about being a writer online, and soon gave me my own column on her personal website.  Her site was called The E-Writer’s Place and I wrote a column called The Write Sites.  I researched the Internet looking for sites that had anything to do with writing, from free classes to research sites to literary agents.

Within a couple of years, I was producing my own sites through a company called WebSeed Publishing.  It was one of the very first writing communities and I ran 2 different sites.  One was called Finding the Father.com—a site about finding God in today’s society—and the other was called PlantLore.com—a site that looked into the histories, mysteries, and mythologies of the plant kingdom.  When Webseed went under, so did my sites.

It was then I decided to take the plunge and buy my first domain.  It was a site called The Prompt Writer and was filled with writing prompts for my fellow writers.  I also put together a weekly newsletter for my readers and posted each week’s prompts onto the site.  Though I no longer maintain the newsletter, the site has been updated several times and is still filled with free writing prompts.

From 2004-2007, I worked at writing poetry and short stories.  I had a few published on various websites and made a little money along the way.  When I started writing for Associated Content, my writing career took on a life of its own.  I found out that I could make money as a writer, though I didn’t see me making enough to pay off any bills.  I had also started writing for Hubpages and a couple other sites that are no longer in existence.

In 2008, everything changed.  I was contacted by a pro-blogger by the name of Garry Conn.  Garry and I became great friends and he began paying me to write SEO styled articles for his many web blogs.  Up to that time, I had had a blog, but it was more of a play place than a way of making money.  Garry taught me how to monetize my sites and how to run a WordPress blog.  With a year’s time, I owned 3 more blogs—Special Offers Blog, Sapheyerblu Review, and Christine Senter.com.

Today, I still work to maintain my many blogs, though I don’t get it done as often as I’d like.  I do, however, make enough to keep me going by writing for several different content sites such as TextWriter.com and WordGigs.  I also work as a ghostwriter for a couple other bloggers who prefer to remain anonymous.

Outside of being a writer, I also run a couple different online shops.  I run a webstore called Classic Curios Boutique and I’m working on putting together my own Zazzle store.  However these are only as a hobby for the time being.  My real triumph is winning my own EZshoppe called Prairied Treasures, which I’m working on getting put together as I write this.  I want to have enough items made (all handmade items) to make it worth sending people over to see.  My problem is that I’m a perfectionist and I can’t see anyone wanting to buy my jumbles.

So that’s me.  I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff I’ve forgotten about.  Several sites I’ve written stuff on that I can’t remember the address of or even the name of.  I’m sure there’s a lot more out there about me, but some of it’s probably not worth seeing.  If I think of more stuff, I’ll update this page.  Until that time, this is the bio that is me.

1.) Autumn Leaves: Original Pieces in Prose and Verse
Being someone who loves poetry and has written quite a bit myself, I think this would be an awesome gift idea for someone who has a Kindle.  It would make a great birthday gift, or even an anniversary gift from a husband to a wife.  Best of all, this little e-book only costs about $1.99 and because it transfers automatically via Kindle’s WiFi capabilities, there is no S&H charges.

2.) Taste Test: Shades of Autumn
This is a book of 3 short stories by 3 different authors.  Published in 2008 and sold through Barnes & Nobles, is can be had for $2.49.  It is downloadable via WiFi and 3G networks.  Add a bit of romance into the cooler days and check out Shades of Autumn now.

3.) Aztec Autumn
And finally, I found a copy of a neat little book about a renegade Aztec warrior who decides he’s not going to give into his Spanish oppressors.  He rouses a band of like-minded warriors and sets out to bring back the glory that was the Aztec Nation.  Unlike the other two books I posted about, this one is a real, cover and pages type book found in the Amazon Warehouse.  Price is $5.49 with $3.99 S&H.  The thing is that you’ve got to get this one while it lasts, because this is a last time deal.

As the weather begins to turn cooler, we set out to find things to do indoors.  And what better to do on a cool autumn evening than curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book.  Enjoy the season.

As anyone who’s been reading for the past few weeks knows, I’m working very hard to enter a blog post here every day for the August NaBloPoMo challenge. This month’s theme was “green”, and I’ve done several blogs about that subject in one form or another. Other days, when I’m running out of day and need to get something posted, I recycle some of my old poems that I wrote years and years ago as a way of making sure something is posted. And because it’s recycled, that makes it green. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. LOL

If anyone has actually read any of my posts from this month or even before, thank you. I know my friend Gina has stopped by on occasion, and I love ya for it honey. But to all those who read but don’t leave a comment, I appreciate you too. I’d love to hear from you, but it’s not a major issue. I’ve spent years trying to turn this blog into something that was worth mentioning to others, but nothing seemed to work. I don’t care anymore. It will be what it wants to be and I’ll be happy that I have a few people here and there that stop by.

To everyone who’s ever left a real comment, thank you. To all of you who like to leave your nasty little spammy comments, thanks for giving me something to laugh about each day. I even appreciate the fact that you seem to think having your link associated with my site is such a good thing. I’ll take that as a complement.

I know I don’t have as many followers her as I do on my other blogs, nor do I have as many as a lot of other sites. But I do appreciate each and every one of you who stop by once in a while to see what’s going on. I’ll keep plugging away, you just sit back and let me do all the work.

I’ve never loved like that since then,
And I’m not sure I will again.
My broken heart is all I own,
And feels as if it’s turned to stone.
You’ve become a world away,
As my sky’s gone from blue to gray.

I miss the way you made me feel,
My soul was not yours to steal.
I wish somehow that you could see,
Just what it is you’ve done to me.
Now that you have gone away,
My blue eyes are turning gray.

He was barely visible,
with sunset at his back.
Looking like a silhouette,
Done totally in black.

Then a ray of sunlight,
glistened off his beak.
While though I felt excited,
I had no words to speak.

He circled quite awhile,
above me in the sky.
I guess I didn’t notice,
that a tear ran from my eye.

To soon the night did come,
and the eagle went on his way.
Yet I knew that I had seen,
what freedom was that day.

The scent of her fragrance
floral in all its glory
drifts through air

Playfully she begins
to ting the barren ground
with drops of color

She giggles in the breezes
the hint of warmth flirting
in the sun

The grace and charm
of innocence at its finest
approaches once more.

Christine R. Senter
© 2003